OSR Commentary - Is The OSR Going Fringe Again?!

 

The number of bloggers who are now using Paetron to put content behind a pay wall is now staggering. The fact is that a number of major OSR publishers have been for a long while been offering fifth edition as an option is now main stream. There's a large number of former OSR writers who are doing solid content for fifth edition as a viable option. So has fifth edition D&D become the new main stream & the OSR become fringe again? The question is a viable one. What I'm I saying?! The hobby loop seems to be whipping around again. And with the rise of Fifth edition D&D. Original Dungeons & Dragons & B/X Dungeons & Dragons along with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons has been moved back to the back of the hobby's bus once again. This is fine with the majority of us DM's & players.

And yet even in Fifth edition D&D circles the majority of the players in my area fall back on the OSR titles?! Isn't that funny. Its almost as if the hold of fifth edition reminds one of the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons era. Hmmm.. Now some have speculated that my own toe dipping has meant that I'd given up on the OSR. How foolish. But with speculation comes a thought. Has the OSR been banished back to the fringes of the hobby?! Are we as the OSR seeing a return to the outer edges of gaming?! Because I'd welcome it these days. The unlidded eye of fanatics isn't something that I for one have the patience for at all.

With so many cool OSR products, retroclones, etc. is it any wonder that the mainstream as fifth would look to us as fringe. Or is this simply the case of the balance resetting itself. Only time will tell fellow games as we live in a post Covid world these days.