The Starting Point

Over the years I've played and enjoyed a lot of RPGs, but like most people I've sort of spent my hobby life just going along with whatever is current and supported. When AD&D gave way to 3e I was all aboard that train right up to the current situation where 5th Edition has become the primary ruleset I've used the last few years. While staying current has generally been what I've done, I have also always had a great deal of love for the earlier editions of the game and some elements of them have bled through into the specific rules I make at my table.

In the last 12-16 months I've really started to miss some very specific elements of the older versions of the game that I believe make it a much more rewarding experience. Enter the OSR. Within a short period of time looking into old rulesets and modules I stumbled across this wonderful movement in the RPG scene that has breathed an incredible amount of fresh life into the hobby for me. I've been trying to drown myself in every drop of content coming out of it since.

What this has lead to is me deciding to stop pussyfooting around with trying to sneak in a bit of old school goodness into my game from time to time, and just start shoving it down people's throats. However, rather than completely abandon the modern version of the rules that my players are used to, I've decided to take on the role of Dr. Frankenstein and try to monster mash together the best parts of the old, and the best parts of the new into an unholy abomination of a ruleset that I can call my own.

Ultimately this begins with identifying the elements present in each era that I feel are core to enjoying the pen and paper RPG experience and then trying to stitch them together in a way that doesn't feel like crap to play. My list isn't complete but I believe I've nailed down a few key elements so far that lead to great experiences and memorable moments at the table:

1. Fantasy worlds are wonderful places filled with horrifying things and sane people should just stay home. If someone chooses not to do the sane thing, they should understand the risks involved and probably prepare for it as best they can. If adventuring were easy, everyone would do it.
2. The world the player characters inhabit is real. At least from their perspective. The world and the other people in it should react to their presence, but also continue going about business even if they're not around. There should be reactions and consequences for things the players do, but they don't necessarily have to be immediate or even obvious.
3. Any person crazy enough to strap on a sword or learn to fling fire with their mind probably has reasons for doing so. Adventurers should be full of ambition and they should be free to pursue those ambitions, for good or for ill. They should be rewarded for doing so should they succeed.
4. Hacking the heads off things shouldn't be best way to handle every situation. Sentient beings and even wild beasts tend to err on on the side of not getting a sword to the guts. Supernatural beings, ancient dragons and orcs with great big bulging muscles should give rational people pause and make them consider alternative approaches. If weapons are drawn it means negotiations have broken down, not eye contact was made.

I'm probably leaving a couple things out that are obvious in my head but hard to put into words at the moment, but we'll add to the list as we go.

A man more sane than myself would probably just go online, find some suggestions and attempt to locate a ruleset that best fits his needs, there being plenty of them out there either decades or days old. But I don't consider myself particularly sane (I'd be one of the ones learning to fling fire with my mind), so I'm going down this path instead. Plus I actually like some of the ideas in modern D&D and it's what my players are used to so better the devil you know right?