tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post9165946144575729611..comments2024-03-28T10:05:22.800-06:00Comments on Simulacrum: Exploring OSR Design: A Historical Look at the OSR — Part VUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-11287618381511133182024-03-27T01:22:37.869-06:002024-03-27T01:22:37.869-06:00pretty goodpretty goodAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-45129612609945064332024-02-02T10:37:42.525-07:002024-02-02T10:37:42.525-07:00Huh, I didn't know that. I'll dig into it...Huh, I didn't know that. I'll dig into it and see what I can find, now that I know what I'm looking for, and perhaps update the article. Thanks!Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-26071545529880036912024-02-02T07:41:11.164-07:002024-02-02T07:41:11.164-07:00This was a fascinating read, thank you for gatheri...This was a fascinating read, thank you for gathering so many points and recreating a timeline that's easy to follow!<br /><br />One thing I'd add though, because it brought me to the OSR, is Pathfinder's (1E) Adventure Path 'Kingmaker' that reintroduction hexcrawling for the 3.X crowd in 2010. The impact this release had was huge and seen across virtually all big RPG forums of that day. OSR-blogs discussing hexcrawling principles were being linked left and right and read by people who'd never played like that before, and I vividly remember tons of discussions about the merits of using these ideas in 'modern' 3.X exploration games, and if things like stricter oldschool resource management were maybe also worth considering. This was what brought me to the OSR, and LotFP in particular because it was all the rage back then.Antariukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00785136959461712512noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-14083709615783236662024-01-22T05:02:32.926-07:002024-01-22T05:02:32.926-07:00Probably the single best overview of the OSR pheno...Probably the single best overview of the OSR phenomenon until some enterprising sort writes an entire book about the subject. Well done!Le Duck du Lachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05088337559709675855noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-57382267928114629042023-11-03T17:08:59.229-06:002023-11-03T17:08:59.229-06:00One thing: The minimalism of the rules was also a ...One thing: The minimalism of the rules was also a necessity for playing megadungeons, which itself came up for a while as a subject in the OSR.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-84505395865144261922023-10-27T22:44:07.790-06:002023-10-27T22:44:07.790-06:00Glad you enjoyed it.Glad you enjoyed it.Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-7184011245776690862023-10-27T01:08:01.397-06:002023-10-27T01:08:01.397-06:00Keith,
Excellent history and observations. Thank...Keith, <br /><br />Excellent history and observations. Thank you for writing this series. <br /><br /> Zachhttps://turnbullgames.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-84477319101047029232023-06-28T05:53:43.304-06:002023-06-28T05:53:43.304-06:00The definition of OSR as necessarily having a basi...The definition of OSR as necessarily having a basis in TSR D&D got me wondering something... Do other old RPGs that have experienced revised editions also generate the same phenomena of old gaming experience revivals? If so what do they call themselves? And if these various movements interact with one another then should there be an overall name for them? I wonder what such a name could be...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-43903596295923369362022-10-31T14:24:18.250-06:002022-10-31T14:24:18.250-06:00Thanks! I'm posting videos on YouTube now. I...Thanks! I'm posting videos on YouTube now. It seems to be the new forum for many of us. Something kinda cool happened this week. Erik Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern did a video, then Joe Bloch the Greyhawk Grognard did one in response, then Benoist Poire did, and finally I did. For a minute there it felt like the old blog days where we were riffing off of each other. Same discussion, new medium. Erik just set up something he is calling the Taven Video Network. Basically a substack that will share out a youtube video of the week from members. A bunch of us are participating now. I think it may have the potential to resurrect some of the old vibe of the blogs, as it is a central place to get links to posts of common interest. It will be really interesting if once in a while we all pick a common topic to do a video on. check it out...it may herald a new chapter in the development of the OSR. tenkarstavern.substack.comJoethelawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00380090049725742287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-22963981745600055982022-10-31T14:12:29.669-06:002022-10-31T14:12:29.669-06:00I'm honoured. :) Glad you liked the post. Goo...I'm honoured. :) Glad you liked the post. Good luck with your upcoming 2nd ed campaign.Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-65210829032708158352022-10-31T14:02:21.992-06:002022-10-31T14:02:21.992-06:00I think you're overstating things. People lar...I think you're overstating things. People largely (largely) agreed on the use of old-school D&D rules engines as a core, and from there with things like the value of gold for XP as a unique driver of gameplay, player agency, resource management, the core D&D dungeoneering procedures, or emergent gameplay derived from random generators, plus items such as the acceptability of character death and unequal challenge, avoiding heavy-handed plotting, and so on. For absolutely every one of those you can find people who play 1st edition and yet would discard it, and yet we don't say that therefore 1st edition doesn't exist or doesn't have a general set of principles behind its game design. In terms of the OSR specifically, Finch's primer was all about an attempt to codify principles, and was very influential (and debated, but disagreement doesn't automatically equal a lack of common ground). People are debating, but they're debating with boundaries: it's not a bunch of unrelated figures yelling into the void.<br /><br />No movement is homogenous, and I take pains above to highlight the many and varied ways in which the OSR disagreed about this and that. At the same time, it's not a coincidence that there was a deliberate rejection of newer design ideas in favour of a broad (debated) package of ones from old-school D&D, or that most everyone involved is (at first) hanging out at Dragonsfoot and K&K, or that the game everyone is (at first) talking about is D&D, or that the retroclone explosion kicks off on those forums based on D&D, or that the very term OSR organically was adopted and entered wide use to describe what was happening. That the OSR was roomy and flexible is I think well demonstrated by Carcosa, the debate over which largely being about its status as an acceptable or ethical gaming product, not its status in some larger categorical sense despite its wild departure in tone from traditional old-school material and what OSR material as yet existed (not surprising, as we still have gold for XP and D&D stats and the Judges Guild hexcrawl).<br /><br />I appreciate that you felt differently about some of its elements then and now, but I don't think this changes what I'm writing about; your blog post arguing that the OSR isn't about getting back to the dungeon crawl must have been in response to a larger idea out there that it was, after all, and even then it has three replies, one of which disagrees with you, so with respect I don't think you're really speaking as to the true nature of the OSR when you state that it was merely an attempt to go "back to the roots of our hobby and see what we could do differently", which is so general a statement--doing unnamed things with unnamed games in unnamed ways--as to largely be meaningless. No one is churning out the mountains of material that did appear over such a vague statement of purpose. I agree that the OSR isn't only about the dungeon crawl, but all the same that was clearly the subject of focus, and even then, there hasn't been any rejection of say, hex crawls from the OSR because they're not dungeon crawls, so I don't even really see what basically is just a matter of emphasis as anything important.<br /><br />As for the failure of OSR as a commercial tag, I think that's clearly due to the refusal of online stores to require a concrete and saleable definition from a decentralized movement (a logical decision) and then invest the money to police it, not due to a lack of any major commonality. Even then, I'd say the vast majority of material under that tag up to 2013 or so (before things really started splintering) has obvious common roots.<br /><br />Essentially, I think you can have common principles and massive divergence side by side. Big tents do that, but are singular tents all the same.Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-71433196364522420072022-10-31T07:55:32.743-06:002022-10-31T07:55:32.743-06:00What I dislike is a attempt (and the explanation) ...What I dislike is a attempt (and the explanation) at categorization as represented by excerpt<br /><br />Classic OSR: The original wave. Has both compatibility and principles.<br />OSR-Adjacent: Some principles, some compatibility.<br />Nu-OSR: Principles, but not compatibility.<br />Commercial OSR: Compatibility, but not principles. <br /><br />Then second is the idea that principles was ever a thing that defined the OSR. From the get go there were debate, disputes, and argument over what classic D&D meant and what old school meant. There was never a set of design ethos that defined the OSR only design ethos that defined a portion of the OSR. <br /><br />I was one of those at the beginning it who marched to the tune of their own drummer. I was focused on the possibilities of sandbox campaigns and freely acknowledged while some of what I did occurred back in the day with AD&D 1e, most of what I did was developed over decades of play and using systems that were not classic D&D. <br /><br />While others were wrapped up in discovering Gygaxian Naturalism or trying to search or recreate Dave Arneson' lost Blackmoor rules, I was doing my own thing. And other were doing their own thing with the classic edition mechanics as well which included fans of gonzo fantasy, and weird horror (like Carcosa). <br /><br />There was never an era where the OSR had a concrete base even at it's beginnings. However because the community was so much smaller we ran into each other more on the blogs, social media, and the forums. We could share things then as we can now because the focus on doing this stuff with classic D&D principles. <br /><br />But we all had very strong opinions on the way to use them and there were distinct groups from the get go. To point where OSR was pretty much useless as a marketing terms from the get go unless it was used as a shorthand for being based on the mechanics of one of the classic editions of D&D like DriveThruRPG sort of does.<br /><br />These are not new opinion or observations either. I been making them pretty much since the beginning. Like these pair of 2009 post from my blog.<br /><br />The reason I made this post was in response to various posts and comment on what the OSR principle were.<br />https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/07/old-school-renaissance.html<br />Along with this. <br /><br />And this is in response to posts and comment lamenting how the OSR was changing.<br />https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/those-who-do-and-old-school-renaissance.html<br /><br /><br /><br />Robert Conleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03863009007381185340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-60592976709031558272022-10-30T21:51:18.270-06:002022-10-30T21:51:18.270-06:00Ahhhh Keith...knowing Rob as well as I do, I can h...Ahhhh Keith...knowing Rob as well as I do, I can honestly say you've just opened up pandora's box by asking Rob to clarify LOL. Joethelawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00380090049725742287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-33756039444106908692022-10-30T21:49:41.702-06:002022-10-30T21:49:41.702-06:00Fantastic article! And my old blog Wondrous Imagi...Fantastic article! And my old blog Wondrous Imaginings got a shoutout as being "pivotal"! Thanks man! Jeez, I don't think I've posted a comment on a blog since before G+. You brought me out of retirement! :) Joethelawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00380090049725742287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-80788258917123263212022-10-30T14:07:16.311-06:002022-10-30T14:07:16.311-06:00I have to admit to being confused by your comment....I have to admit to being confused by your comment. You seem to be somewhat unhappy with this post or perhaps the series as a whole, but at the same time don't really say why, other than to note it's incomplete (which by necessity it must be: over and above any get-out-of-jail-free comments like "no history can be complete", I never claimed it covered everything). But you mention BFRPG, and OSRIC, and Finch, and his Primer, and Raggi, and the centrality of classic D&D, and DCC, and the fear of Wizards taking legal action, and the importance of the reasoning behind what was done, and the fact that the OSR was never a 100% unified body, and I cover every one of those things.<br /><br />Basically I don't feel like anything you said contradicts anything I wrote, and I regretfully don't understand what you're conveying. Can you clarify?Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-82816817065395888582022-10-30T10:24:55.715-06:002022-10-30T10:24:55.715-06:00While I appreciate the work you put into your post...While I appreciate the work you put into your posts. People still don't get the implication of what happened with the OSR. It is not a movement or even a community of like minded individuals. <br /><br />It is something perhaps unique that represents what happens when there is true creative freedom with minimal legal, and logistical limitations. The fulcrum point of the OSR is when Basic Fantasy and OSRIC were released and showed how existing open content can be leveraged to produce whatever a creator wants in the form they want. <br /><br />It took a few years (2006 to 2010) for this to mature because we were all waiting for Wizards to drop the other shoe. By 2008 some of us, including myself, began to realize this wasn't going to happen and started work on our own projects. By 2010, it was clear to all but the most cautious that the OSR was here to stay.<br /><br />The result is that the story of the OSR is the story of individual creators, like myself, doing their own thing. Some of us shared similar sensibilities, but the vast majority, again including myself, marched to the tune of our own drummers.<br /><br />After 2008, the individuals that had the biggest impact were those who pioneered some specific style or way of publishing that the rest of could adapt to our project. For example Raggi is important because he showed how his weird horror style had an audience. Along with the care and work he put into the art and physical look of his books. A more negative example but still useful to the OSR was the trouble folks had in producing boxed sets.<br /><br />Matt Finch, Old School Primer got people thinking about how to deal with systems within minimal mechanics in way that produce campaigns that were every bit as fun or interesting as those made with far more detailed systems (like whatever was the latest edition of D&D at the time).<br /><br />Myself and others, showed how campaigns can be far more free-ranging with our discussion and examples of sandbox campaigns and hexcrawl formatted settings.<br /><br />But the end of the day it boiled down to folks following whatever unique mix of ideas they had. For the most part thanks to digital technology, the internet, print on demand, and other technology, we could do in the time we had for a hobby what it took a company and a stiff to do 20 years ago. <br /><br />But the creative freedom and ease of publishing and sharing doesn't mean there is not a center. A central point whose gravitational pull is enough to say that there is a OSR no matter how eccentric a creator's orbit may be. That center is the various the out of print editions of Dungeons & Dragons commonly referred to as classic D&D. <br /><br />Because of the creative freedom and ease of publishing, this results in a situation where anything that can be done with classic D&D will be done. Either it has been done already or it awaits somebody with the time and interest to pursue those projects. <br /><br />Because many believe that in addition to the system itself that classic D&D embodied certain themes, this meant that other systems could be developed that implement those themes in their own way. For example Dungeon World, Dungeon Crawl Classics, or the Dungeon Fantasy RPG. But even there if you look at what happening it is still a bunch of creators following their own whims. <br /><br />This means is an ever-shifting kaleidoscope that won't be pinned down or defined except by it use of classic D&D mechancis or themes. <br /><br />A proper history of the OSR is one that details what these individuals have done. A history that goes into the why of it all. Will have to find that answer by asking those who were involved and you will that the answers are as varied as there are stars in the heavens.<br /><br />This of course is frustrating to those who want everything about the OSR wrapped up in a nice little package. But the reality of how it worked and continues to work means this is what has to be done if one is to write an accurate history.<br /><br />Perhaps this observation from 2009 will be helpful.<br />https://batintheattic.blogspot.com/2009/08/those-who-do-and-old-school-renaissance.html<br /><br />Rob Conley<br />Bat in the Attic Games.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Robert Conleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03863009007381185340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-81597097268257916802022-08-23T13:29:22.266-06:002022-08-23T13:29:22.266-06:00I can't tell you how much I enjoyed and learne...I can't tell you how much I enjoyed and learned from this!Brenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00810945465944798916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-30585875353981770472022-06-03T22:03:14.358-06:002022-06-03T22:03:14.358-06:00Thank you for this exhaustive retrospective and fo...Thank you for this exhaustive retrospective and for a much needed background in what the principles were meant to be in the first place. I'm in particular enjoying the linked Alexandrian article about "rulings, not rules". Personally, it has always bothered me that the first two principles are "rulings, not rules" followed by "player skill, not character ability", since if the sole arbiter of what happens in the world is GM Fiat, then "player skill" is just a measure of how much like the GM are the players able to think, which I generally find to be the most frustrating way of playing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-85362800414965400672022-05-17T18:10:35.266-06:002022-05-17T18:10:35.266-06:00I don't get why the OSR community is so bashfu...I don't get why the OSR community is so bashful about flying its conservative flag. Every time the community's political leanings come up this same dance routine happens. Offense is taken at the implication the community has a political slant followed by an assurance that hard right beliefs aren't a problem. If the last ten years have taught us anything, it's that lefties like me, especially people with a flexible view on gender and sexuality, are in the minority. So why the reticence?<br /><br />You yourself admit that the design philosophy of OSR (as it exists today) has shifted away from the meticulous book keeping that was fundamental to early D&D. That the community is no longer held together by that shared set of design goals. What do you think has risen to fill that gap? Read any OSR forum, website or facebook group and it's clear their primary motivations are a rejection of "woke" ideology. For years now, OSR hasn't been subtle about its contempt for the "scolds" and "weirdos" that have been coming in to the hobby. Venger and others even directly compare us to a new Satanic Panic (never mind the number of evangelical preachers who have outright called the rise of trans people a sign of the end times).<br /><br />What is gained by ignoring what OSR is specifically rejecting? The community is what it is and choosing to ignore it... I dunno, it just feels dishonest. It doesn't matter that you can cut yourself off from the worse elements of a community when those worse elements represent the bulk of the community.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-1518256617343779362022-05-08T10:08:49.295-06:002022-05-08T10:08:49.295-06:00Thank you for this amazing series of articles. Wit...Thank you for this amazing series of articles. Without exaggeration, the quality of the scholarship seems outstanding! More importantly for me, I'm pretty confident now that I finally understand what OSR means. I have to confess I was extremely confused, when I first heard about it a few months ago (I know, late to the party, story of my life, etc). I could not, for the life of me, understand what could possibly connect games like, e.g., "Dungeon Crawl Classics" with games like "A Dragon Game". I was also really curious to understand the place of James Raggi and LotFP in all this. Thanks to your article, I think I have a clear idea now.YeGoblynQueennehttps://github.com/stassa/nests-and-insectsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-1348252547430694972022-01-18T16:15:00.003-07:002022-01-18T16:15:00.003-07:00I've been reading your draft documents for Sim...I've been reading your draft documents for Simulacrum and really enjoying your design perspectives. Thanks for the reply and keep on doing your thing.JackJackJackJackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05293889896948756658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-50688786897208433862022-01-18T13:00:23.673-07:002022-01-18T13:00:23.673-07:00I get that a lot of discussion about the merits of...I get that a lot of discussion about the merits of the OSR today is made on a comparative basis, vs 5th ed. But I wasn’t interested in starting with a “default” of 5th edition and from there feeling like one had to either justify old-school D&D or vilify newer editions. If people like 5th ed (or Rolemaster or whatever), who cares? It has nothing to do with the OSR. The OSR is just one tiny aspect of the RPG world rather than the end-all and be-all, but it does stand entirely on its own and can be discussed and understood without any reference at all to whatever the current WoTC edition happens to be doing.<br /><br />As an extension of this, in terms of D&D I just don’t care about the culture war as anything other than part of the close to this article series. While eventually there’ll be more in the way of useful commentary to be made about it from a historical perspective, for now, as you point out, the dust has yet to settle: it’s very much current events. It’s also not a discussion about games, really: it’s a larger issue that happens to manifest in game spaces (and many others). I’m aware of the claim that everything is politics and that if you aren’t taking a side then you’re still taking a side, but that to me is merely an argument used by the terminally online to justify the fact that they simply can’t shut up about politics; I see no reason to waste time on it when history and game design is what I’m actually interested in. I teach about fascism and communism for a living: I don’t need to wallow in it here as well.<br /><br />Fortunately, however, the alt-right types that you’re discussing mostly don’t matter from an OSR perspective. The alt-right is all over the place, and I don’t see why we should accept what strikes me as a memetic argument that the OSR is somehow specially plagued with them compared to other game spaces. And in any case, very few with inclinations along those lines are generating online content that anyone cares about, let alone producing much in the way of usable physical content: they’re largely just noise, rather than movers and shakers (I can think of two with those inclinations that matter, and neither makes culture aspects a fundamental part of their content). I see you’re already starting to notice this with your initial delves into Dragonsfoot, but actual dedicated old-school / OSR spaces (as opposed to random commenters) are mostly too busy talking about actual games and gameplay to rant about danger hair or whatever. Don’t get me wrong: you’ll find plenty of asnides about kids these days and so on—inevitable in spaces that slant older—and complaints about modern editions. But that’s a far cry from being tiresome obsessives who for some reason have chosen RPGs as the essential battlefield of the culture war and make nothing valuable. Long story short, you can very easily silo yourself off from these people and have a perfectly good gaming experience free of political argumentation of any stripe, without cutting yourself off from the core experience.<br /><br />In any case, thanks for the kind words. I think I’m happy to lapse back into pleasant obscurity and make posts no one cares about again, so there’s not likely to be any major historical examinations such as this for a long while rather than me trying to milk this for all it’s worth, but I hope you continue to enjoy the content here all the same.Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-1009655293208152022-01-17T13:04:02.637-07:002022-01-17T13:04:02.637-07:00I want to follow up and say I've been going th...I want to follow up and say I've been going through Dragonsfoot forum and finding it a lot less regressive or reactionary than other forums I've been on. So thanks again, now for linking me to better conversation.JackJackJackJackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05293889896948756658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-58112133729236638142022-01-17T10:52:29.352-07:002022-01-17T10:52:29.352-07:00Thank you for writing this series. I've recent...Thank you for writing this series. I've recently begun working my way through the old-school D&D rule sets and this has been a very useful history. Lots of great resources to follow up on and great threads to pull on for further reading. I had many of the same misconceptions you point out about OSR (particularly w/r/t Traveller) and this clarifies a lot for me. I'm inspired by you.<br /><br />I had a comment that I wanted to make about the political split, which I also pin to 2016. An awful lot of the comments on OSR blogs and fora that I've seen disparaging 5e do so not so much on the basis of its design and instead on the way that players want to express themselves in their characters, particularly when it comes to identity. So much of the viciousness is directed towards a perception that 5e facilitates identity politics or cultural Marxism or what have you when mechanically it's more of an extension of the themes you've pointed out (the move away from dungeoncrawling, resource design that lacks style of play directives, universal task resolution &c.). I can understand disinterest in mechanics like subclasses, but those mechanical changes are treated like the resuscitation of Stalin rather than a difference in game preference. Wanting to play a fantasy hero is associated with clinical narcissism, psychosis, and moral degeneracy, which seems pretty absurd when that desire has been a part of the fantasy roleplay hobby from the very beginning (though you're right to point out the change in emphasis).<br /><br />I don't think you can really muster the same levels of vitriol for the other side in this regard. Personally, I find a lot of the performative leftism on social media embarrassing (I agree that many people on social media come around with their Marxist hammers, whereas I believe it's important to bring your Marxist screwdriver and Marxist ratchet set along as well), and I generally see identity politics as it's performed on social media as corporate sloganeering and PR. Social media amplifies the worst voices, but those voices amount to little more than namecalling. Most people who play 5e are content to play the game that's in front of them, and even as the general state of the country is an increase in political siloing a lot of people with different politics play in that game system because it's so widely available.<br /><br />As someone who's coming to OSR really late (I played in two 1e D&D campaigns on Hangouts in 2008, got eaten by a giant snake in the Moathouse outside Hommlet and had a blast without knowing OSR was even happening), it kind of sucks to see that in order to read about OSR and see people's design I have to read through screeds against pronouns or feminazis. This is ostensibly by people who want to keep politics out of their gaming conversations.<br /><br />I'm a lurker through and through, so I'm used to taking what I want from comments online and leaving the rest. But at current rates the reactionary politics surrounding the OSR will become a part of its legacy, and I think that's to its detriment. Time will tell, of course, and I look forward to your continued insight into the game and its history. That's just a part of this story that should be told when more of the dust has settled.JackJackJackJackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05293889896948756658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7445677764566060773.post-19218701745484248182022-01-10T18:15:18.803-07:002022-01-10T18:15:18.803-07:00I certainly agree that this part could merit to be...I certainly agree that this part could merit to be broken up: it began to feel like that Tolkien "tale that grew in the telling" by the end there, and I worried I would never finish it. I wouldn't be keen on trying to highlight the G+ era though on its own in a thorough fashion, for the simple reason that G+ has been so utterly wiped away that it only survives in the form of secondary ripples, which were usually outbursts of drama that spilled into the blog and forum scenes--a naturally distortive picture. I also don't foresee much activity on my part in general for the next while, as I have a full slate of teaching this semester. In any case, thanks for the kind words.Keith Hannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340239903203020361noreply@blogger.com