D&D Mine - Taking the OSR to the next Level

JB at Blackrazor had a compelling post around the concept of D&D Mine. I'll just link it so you can get the complete thoughts, and if you are reading my little ole' blog out of the Bayou City you have probably already seen it. I think the planet Eris is great. I love it. Both are the inspirations for my own project to pull together all the rules I like, all the little quirks of the basic game that helped me fall in love with the game, and after a brief stint over at indie games - brought me back.

I realized that the simplicity of Moldvay was what my gaming style is. I still like a few changes. My other game of youth I liked but could never get a group to really get my head around was Tasilanta - there wasn't enough grounding for us for really to create 'adventures'. And that is what Roleplaying is to me, having adventures not crunching a bunch of numbers.

My D&D mine still has a lot of characterization and color even if not always original - I think Otus instead of Elmore. I am making it for me and folks I play with. Others are free to have it, but I do like to think of it like what JB posts, a sort of gaming bible for our table, back to the days when there wasn't a ka-zillon splatbooks. Quite frankly I have divested myself of well over a 1000 dollars of gaming gear. As I approach the other side of the 30's I don't have the time or space. I kept my Moldvay/Cook and few other key books that serve mostly as inspiration. They take up all of 1/2 a bookshelf. I don't plan on buying a lot stuff. I have everything I need between the blogs, my inspiration, and the pdf's like Eris that are out there.

I am a hobbyist, and don't mind if the industry doesn't stay an industry. When getting my car serviced - some random dude saw my B of B/X. He said - "wow we had so much fun with that when we are kids". I doubt if I had held whatever D&D Next is, he would have said that. The old Red Book is a cultural icon for a lot of my generation. That is who I play with.

I would encourage others to make their own D&D Mine - share your inspirations, share your ideas. I think the OSR has enough "base" now. Enough to start building and playing on. You can start to see some of these ideas coming through now in the mega dungeons, the versions of D&D mine like Flying Swordsman and Planet Eris. I think this is encouraging as a hobby. The great thing is that if we keep it as a hobby (or at least cheap) we can all still play in each other's campaigns. We will have the same grounding. I think it is still important to understand what "your game" is about. So I will be sharing my twenty questions and introduction in a future post for Flaming Canyons of the Transfigured Dawn.

Peace,