OSR Cut Off Point - When Enough Is Enough - Some OSR Commentary

I got into the OSR way back when fourth edition Advance Dungeons & Dragons reared its head. The fact wasn't motivated by edition hatred or that Wizards of the Cost was coming out yet another edition. It was the fact I had finally gotten my 3.5 books all set for a campaign and my players decided to quite literally go with fourth edition. Alright I could have gotten into a tiff & quit the hobby; no instead I got creative & went back to basics. I got out my OD&D & first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books and started writing. Then I discovered the OSR and found I wasn't alone. Suddenly almost over night I got games going again.
I was back creating & running old school adventures.
Then my world changed right out from under me, my father took sick & like many families its been a roller coaster with doctors visits plus the occasional what not. Money went to the usual round robin of bills, medicine, etc. I've sold a few things here and there but all in all its alright.



But then I started noticing some insidious, the slow and steady marketing of the deluge of neo OSR titles when hits social media over and over again. I've been very careful about my purchases over the years. Will XYZ OSR or neo OSR title be of utility at my table. Many times the answer is no and I've done a review or what not on said title which is fine to get the word out but I can't spend the money on said title. Now I'm not up on the latest and greats of the OSR and I don't really care at all. But then social media has become one long running advertisement of epic proportions. I find myself getting really depressed at the length, breath, and depth of gaming material that is out there. The whole affair has become one long drawn out must consume rotational equation and it sucks!


Its not the lack of quantity but the depth of it, there is literally no way that anyone can keep up with it. Endless rotations of Kickstarters & whatnot; the hobby has always been a business but now its a money grab pure and simple. A money grab I and others can't afford to keep up with.  Sorry I'm not going to. 



The fact of the matter is that I'm going back to writing and playing my own material for a while. That means looking to dipping into the OSR titles and systems I already own and creating new material like I used to. It also means that I'm going back to working with material that I actually like and not the latest fad in supposed neo OSR design or marketing. I'm picking on certain systems and OSR material? Umm no this is motivated by a far more insidious motive. I just don't have the time to write and design material for everything.



If you want to run neo OSR material then more power to you. There is far too much material for me to get into and my time is very limited. So I'm not going to get into any of the Hacks that have been making the rounds in the gaming community. This is a personal choice and doesn't reflect any hatred or opinions one way or another.


My inner hipster gamer Ariel is upset by this.  The fact is that I've got a huge amount of books & OSR material that I'm not even at the moment using. The the systems that have given me the most utility and bang for my buck are the tried & true ones. These run from Original Dungeons & Dragons in its incarnations to Advanced Dungeons Dragons First edition when it comes to old school for retroclones this runs the gauntlet from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Goblinoid Game books, to the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea adventures and tons of OSR material in between. I've been sticking with Fantastic Heroes & Witchery for a couple of years now and its just now starting to take off. Dark Albion was my last gaming purchase and perhaps one of my recent best.
Since Eighty One now I've relied on the TSR Hobby Catalog method of campaign management, basically taking Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and using it with first edition Gamma World & Boot Hill. This was the method mentioned in the first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Guide & its one that I've used with my own worlds over the years. I see no reason to change this style of gaming. If you want a trip down memory lane then go over here.




So the bottom line really is the bottom line now, one of the prime motivators for my continued rabid OSR gaming creations is the fact that its a stress release and coping mechanism in my life. Thanks for rolling those dice but for the moment I'm broke & that's not going to change with both time and money.
Cheers and try to make your save folks!