A blog about sewing machine repairs,but mainly my hobbies which include old school role playing games, science fiction,films, horror, and general geekery. Sit down and stay a spell.
Today Alexander Marcus has threw the By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization By Autarch LLC For OSR Rpg's Kickstarter with our way that is making it very hard to keep our pocketbooks closed. By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization is two hundred pages of full on OSR Dwarven lore! The By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization book is abosolutely loaded for the Dwarven oriented DM's & players!
By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization is the end all book of all things Dwarven for the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg! How do I know this because of the way that By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization is writen & the point of view is from a Sage of the Tower of Knowledge; "All of the lore in By This Axe is presented by a point of view character, a sage from the Tower of Knowledge of the Auran Empire named Sürcaneus. Sürcaneus is the self-proclaimed inventor of Dwarrology, the study of dwarves. All of Chapter 2 is presented in character, and any backstory or setting material in the later chapters is from his point of view, too. Using Sürcaneus as our point of view narrator offered several benefits:
Since Sürcaneus is a human writing about dwarves for a human audience, adopting his viewpoint allows us to focus on what makes dwarves different and gloss over all those areas where dwarves are just like humans.
Since Sürcaneus is a sage in the world, rather than an omniscient worldbuilder outside of it, his knowledge is incomplete. This allows us to leave some facets of the dwarves open for interpretation or customization. It also means he can be wrong. The possibility of error allows Judges to simply ignore anything they disagree with.
Since Sürcaneus’s writing exists in the world, it makes it possible for his writings to be discovered in the campaign, or given to players as in-character background information.
Since Sürcaneus is a cross between a Greek natural philosopher and a Victorian anthropologist, it allows us to bring some humor to the writing. As a sage, he’s very smart but also very parochial; he tries to be magnanimous, but often comes off as smug. And the dwarves are, in many cases, messing with him. He was fun to write, and we hope you’ll enjoy his point of view, warts and all.
While written with our own Auran Empire campaign setting in mind, the dwarven lore is applicable to any other setting that includes traditional fantasy dwarves. Here are some samples from Sürcaneus's Dwarrology. " And all of the classic Dwarven elements from popculture, fantasy literature, movies, and more has been woven into this book. And this includes the Bitter War between the Dwarves & Elves.
And this sort of a mythology & legendary status has been written into the very DNA of By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization. This is something we've seen in other ACK's kickstarters. By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization has the advantage over other ACK's books because it takes it's que's from other OSR systems being fully compatible with even BCEMI D&D & other OSR systems. By This Axe: The Cyclopedia of Dwarven Civilization represents a very interesting direction for Auran Empire campaign setting. By the end of the week my bid for this kickstarter will be in!
Publishers hate my guts & there's a good reason for this. I'm the wrong target audience for new products & project Kickstarters. Hear me out before you get out the tar & feathers here. As a vanity press hobbyist whose been writing about comic books & table gaming since '04 or so. There are way more games on our shelves that are ever going to be played. Now that being said as a dungeon master we've got a stable of players & four on going home brew campaigns. And home brew campaigns are the enemies of rpg Kickstarters. Here's why. As a dungeon master with a stable of players the last thing you are going to want to contend with is another edition or updated rule book of your favorite OSR or Old school rpg. Avoid Homebrew Campaign Kickstarter Disruption Syndrome in your games!
Instead DM's are going to go rolling through Drivethrurpg & looking for supplements for their favorite rpg system or not. Probably not because they've got two things going for them a stable of players whom they've been gaming with for years. And a bunch of shelves full of old school reliable products. Time & again I see lots of OSR games with new editions & shiny new artwork from an OSR creator & their kickstarters fail. Why?! Because the OSR market is saturated with add on & variety products for XYZ edition of Dungeons & Dragons or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition.
If you're in the middle of campaign play the last thing you want to deal with are the latest changes to your favorite house table top rpg system. And so often you as a DM have to put your foot down when players come to you with their latest shiny new edition of their favorite OSR system. Don't cross the systems in mid game play is not only good common sense but it disrupts the flow of play. And that takes the players right outta of a campaign & fast.
If an rpg system works stick with it. A new coat of paint doesn't equal playability & rpg changes often are more trouble at the table top level their worth. Stop giving into 'Gamer AD&HD' for the newest shiny product. Time & again this has not only disrupted but destoryed a campaign of mine. Listen to the voice of experience here.
Campaign play isn't built through coupoius campaign notes but actual hard won play with your players. With shelves full of rpg product its tying down the consumer & up lifting the actual play that will continue campaign for many years to come. This is why I'm never going to be the 'target audience' for an on going kickstarter.
"The world of Ascendant doesn't begin to diverge from that of our real world until 2012, and the first superheroes don't go public until the Battle of Atlanta in 2018, meaning your player characters will be among the first superhumans to ever don tights and fight crime. The setting is presented as an epistolary novel made up of leaked documents, transcripts, newspaper clippings, and emails that you can print out"
The world of 2020 Ascendant rpg is not that far removed from ours but with some very dangerous additions. The advent of super heroes & villains has led to a total imbalance in the world of Western & Eastern society. The setting of the Ascendant rpg is not simply on the razor's edge it is the razor's edge & its working its way to cut across the throat of the Earth. Ascendant takes the rabid mathmatics of D.C. Heroes & combines it with the mathematics TSR classic Marvel Super Heroes by taking it one step beyond. This game takes the material & mathematical system echos & algorithms of these classic rpg's & then brings them into focus for 2020.
What do I mean by this?! Well look at the hero example presented in the Kickstarter ;
"Up at the top you can see Aurora's Character Points, Power Limit, and Challenge Rating. CharacterPoints (CP) are used to construct characters. An average human has 200 CP. A trained soldier has 240 CP. An exceptionally impressive, formidable and renowned human in the real world has 400 CP. Every 80 CP represents an approximate doubling of the character’s competency across all capabilities. With 940 Character Points, Aurora is one of the 20 most powerful superhumans in the world. Power Limit constrains how characters can allocate their CP and is analogous to class level in a D20 RPG. Challenge Rating shows how powerful a character is relative to a trained soldier. Aurora can defeat 500 US infantry simultaneously - she's a tough woman.
Over on the right, below her image, you'll see Aurora's Primary Attributes: Might (MIG), Agility (AGI), Valor (VAL), Resolve (RES), Insight (INS), and Charisma (CHA). Each of these Primary Attributes are rated in SupermetricPoints (SP). SP are logarithmic; each additional one SP has a value equal to double the amount of the previous SP. Ordinary people have 3 SPs in each of their Primary Attributes, and the most impressive humans typically have no more than 5 SP in any Primary Attribute. With 7 SPs of Agility, Aurora is four times more agile than an Olympic athlete. With 12 SPs of Charisma, Aurora is 500 times more magnetic and alluring than any ordinary person.
To the left of the Primary Attributes are Aurora's Secondary Attributes, which rate factors like Initiative, Passive Spotting Range, Height, Income, and more. With a Flight Speed of 14 SPs, Aurora can fly at Mach 24!
Below the Variable Attributes we list Aurora's Powers. Her most important Power is Agile Light Control. Light Control is a pre-defined PowerSet that allows her to emulate many other powers. (The rules let you build your own power sets if you want, yes!) "
The word Agile in front of Light Control is a modifier that changes how the power works. In this case, it means that Aurora uses her Light Control in conjunction with her Agility rather than her Insight. Between Powers, Power Sets, and Modifiers, there are infinite possibilities available to make virtually any character you can imagine.
Below Powers we've listed Aurora's Skills. Skills can be substituted for Primary Attributes for specific purposes. For instance, Aurora has 14 SPs of Aerial Combat. If she's the target of a ranged attack while she's flying, she can substitute her Aerial Combat score for her Agility score, making her much harder to hit.
Below the Primary Attributes, you can see Aurora's Perks and Drawbacks. Perks function similarly to Feats in a D20 RPG. Some of the most important Perks are the Combat Maneuvers, which allow you to trade damage for accuracy and vice versa. Aurora's got two Combat Maneuvers as well as a host of other Perks related to her status as a celebrity member of the elite Star-Spangled Squadron.
Aurora has a number of minor Drawbacks such as her Code of Honor ("always be fabulous") as well as one very serious Drawback called a VulnerableState. A Vulnerable State models all the situations that can result in heroes becoming weaker or losing their powers. Exposed to meteorites from your homeworld? Caught out of your powered armor? Forgot to recharge your power ring? Not angry enough to turn green? All modeled with Vulnerable State. Aurora's Vulnerable State is that all of her powers are based on her egoistic desire to be a star; if she's ever reduced to 0 Determination, she gets depressed, loses her superpowers, and acquires a host of flaws.
Speaking of Determination, that's one of the game's VariableAttributes. The other one is Health, and both are listed near the top of the sheet. These are like Hit Points in a D20 Game. Unlike the other Attributes, Variable Attributes aren't rated in SP, just in raw numbers, so that when you deal and take damage it's all scaled correctly.
As for how the game itself works, it's so easy even a 200-CP ordinary human can play it! Anytime you want to make an Action, you choose your Action Value (AV) and then subtract the Difficulty Value (DV) to yield a Resolution Value (RV). You then roll 1d100 on the Challenge Action Resolution Table, or CHART, to see your Color Result. The CHART is carefully structured so that the expected values for any AV versus any RV are exactly what they ought to be, given the logarithmic nature of the Attributes. (It's pretty slick if you like math and we'll update on this in more detail later.)
Let's simulate Aurora shooting a Thermal Blast at the blindsighted assassin Helen Killer. Down at the bottom of her sheet, we've listed Aurora's Attacks. Each Attack has an Action Value and a Base Damage. If Aurora fires a Thermal Blast at Helen Killer, her AV for the Attack is 14 SPs and her Base Damage is 256. Her DV for the Attack is Helen's Combat Sense, which happens to be 13 SPs. That gives Aurora an RV of 14 - 13 = +1 on the CHART. Let's say her player rolls a 32. Scanning across the "1" row of the RV (Attack) column, we see that 32 falls into the Yellow range, so Aurora has scored a Yellow result on her Attack.
When you score a Green result when making an Attack, you deal Base Damage, while Yellow, Orange, and Red results increase damage by a factor of 2, 4, or 8. Since Aurora scored a Yellow result she deals 512 points of Damage to Helen Killer. Helen now gets to apply Protection like Forcefield or Invulnerability, then RollWiththeAttack to reduce Damage in exchange for taking on various Conditions like "Dazed" or "Staggered"." So basically what the Ascendant Rpg is doing is bringing the solid adventure background of Bronze Age & Silver Age comics through the extreme lens of today's headlines but warped by the production values of Pulp & solid comic book ideals. Do I think its good?! Yes I do because it takes Ascendant into a level of comic book super heroics that I think that has been missing from the rpg market place for awhile now! Would I actually play this & support it? Yes! Wanna read more on this exciting development in super hero rpging? Go right over to the link below SUPPORT THE KICKSTARTER HERE!
Kickstarter is filled with all kinds of projects possibly worth your attention but two that have caught my eye. The first is a solid DCC Cthulhu Mythos/Horror Western mash up called Dark Trails.
This book has been making waves across the DCC/OSR community & I don't see it going away anytime soon.
"The largest challenge for my new life on the frontier was building shelter and pulling food from the ground I plowed before winter settled in.
That was before the shadows came to life that fateful night and claimed the lives of those I loved. I’d heard a rumor of things born of darkness skulking around and the idiots hellbent on ushering more of them into the world, but like most folks eager to carve out a new life braving the western frontier, I chalked it up to tall-tales fueled by whiskey and superstition.
My last sight before being overwhelmed and feeling those needle-sharp teeth pierce my jugular, was watching my youngest take her last terrified breath, as something dragged that kindly woman (whose love kept me on the path of good intentions for so long) kicking and screaming into the shadows. That was when the soft whisper of Death called to me, wrapping my soul in its dark embrace, preparing me for a different journey.
A distant light set against a starless night pulled at my weightless soul. A lifetime of memories flashed before me as I sped towards the afterlife. The power in those memories slowed my final journey. Unfinished business pulled at my stubborn soul and proved stronger than the promise of that peaceful light. I returned to my broken, bloody body and willed it back into a mockery of life.
Almost a year has passed now, and the bittersweet memories of my family fuel a never-ending thirst for vengeance. I returned that night with the strength of the grave coursing through my rotting veins, no longer living, nor dead. Since the night it took my family, I’ve picked up a posse of folks equally kissed by the supernatural and equally determined to take the fight to the sinister agents of the night.
-from the journal of Samuel Mundy" "The Dark Trails RPG is a game which pays homage to the popular weird West genre. It can be used as a standalone game or as the perfect complement to a growing line of products that all utilize the rules found in the Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG. As a player, you’ll find a wealth of material that allows you to assume the role of one of 11 unique classes, with descriptive names like: the Calavera, the Bedlamite, and the Sin-Eater. As a Judge, you’ll find over 400 pages of material giving you a wealth of resources for designing and running fantastic adventures set against the haunted landscapes of an unforgiving weird West. " So this sounds really ace & we need a new Western horror game & this sounds like it has all of the parts & moving pieces of a classic in the making. You can support The Dark Trails Kickstarter here.
So yeah, the pretty much had me at fully compatible with Dungeon Crawl Classics & I can actually see using Dark Trails with Jason Sholtis Operation Unfathomable to create a Weird West horror come mega dungeon.
I've been watching this project for some months now in the AA! Facebook group but have kept my distance because of running the Amazing Adventure classic edition campaign that's on going. But I've had any number of people whispering good things in my ear about this project & kickstarter. Take a look for yourself & if your so inclined then by all means support it right over here. There's some great campaign potential here with this Amazing Adventures newest edition. Let's see how far we see these kickstarters go!
Sometimes you've got to back off of something to really appreciate it such is the case of recently with Bloat Games SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City -Villain's Guide PDF. This book clocks in at three hundred pages of OSR super villain goodness so in other words this is the Dungeon Master's Guide for the SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City Rpg. This is the DM tool kit book for the SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City Rpg. And it does a solid job of providing the dungeon master everything they need to build up their own unstable society on the edge of collapse. This book gives you all of the tools to torture your player's super heroes in a customized setting.
The DM is given a selection of villain-based Adventure Seeds that they can blossom into full adventures, easy random NPC and Villain Generation Tables, along with the Mutant Island Adventure/optional setting. The SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Villain’s Guide is designed to mimic the X-men, Spider-man and TMNT cartoons of the 1990's & in that sense it succeeds because it takes the D20 Modern roots of its OGL to its barest of bones. Then it works all of its tools around the entire book to give you as the DM an actual usable set of tools to construct the campaign that you want. The SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Villain’s Guide is the perfect compliment book for the SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City Rpg. TheSURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Villain’s Guide supports & expands the dungeon master's options at the table top level for constructing a super hero campaign setting that they want & it does it well.
has some very need parts & pieces that hook right up with the Villain's Guide Mutant Island setting allowing the DM to connect the two game systems & settings with an extraterrestrial twist.
Could the Greys or whatever aliens your using be turning the heroes back yard city into a test bed for their latest experiments?! Is there more behind the recent kid disappearances in the hero's home town or city? Could those super powered children that have been wrecking havoc be the product of aliens using your city or Earth as weapons testing facility? The SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Villain’s Guide has all of the tools at hand to make this happen & think is well worth the price of admission & its the perfect compliment to the SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City Rpg.I really think that Bloat Games has a winner on their hands & that the SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Villain’s Guide is worth your time & money.
I've been scanning through it like a demon & it looks like alot of fun. I'm familiar with many of the Swords & Wizardry style concepts here. Many of the classes I've seen before in D20 Modern OGL but here give a far more cohesive whole over the system. This is a complete OSR style super hero gaming system end of story. You don't need anything else to play this with.
There is a lot of crunch here allowing a player to go for Humans, Mutant Animals, Borg Conversion and Power Armor, Magic, Mutant Abilities, Psionics, Speedsters and Super Soldier Drugs. There are rules for , Background/Origins, Weapons, Equipment, Gadgets, Vehicle Upgrades, Vehicle Combat, Ranged & Melee Combat, Morale, Skills, Usage Die & more immersive play style. But this is all done from an OSR platform & outta of the box play.This book clocks in at 292 pages of actual playable content & that's where things break into context. This book is done very well & the lay out is easy on these old eyes. The column count is done professionally & so its easy to read. Characters straight out of the gate are going to kick ass. But the first thing I've thought of is SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Core Rules & Villain's Guide going to be cross compatible with the In Dark Places & Demogorgons rpg?! Why? Because kids are some of the most underutilized resources in super hero rpgs. That's right I know that they get constantly used in comicbooks & possibly the new Shazam film. But the truth is that In Dark Places & Demogorons is the perfect opportunity to introduce kid heroes & a possible origin point for new supers.
This is where SURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City - Core Rules shine because they give the DM the tools to make their campaigns happen. Because of the PC customization option given by the system there's all kinds of options on the table top level for adventure gaming. There are some solid options that the system provides & street level adventuring is what this game excels at. Do I think thatSURVIVE THIS!! Vigilante City, succeeds as a street-level, & gritty superhero game set in the near future? In a word oh yes! I'll be covering even more of this system & diving deep into the
It also means that adapting classic modules such as 'Famine in Fargo' & 'Legion of Gold' are once again on the table. And it also means that the classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition Monster Manual & Fiend Folio are perfectly suited to introduce the horrors of AD&D to your version of Gamma Terra.
The quest for adventures often leads adventurers on unexpected paths of glory & peril. But how does a motley bunch of outlaws confront the forces of horror & weirdness on the path of an existing campaign?! These dark forces often seem to wrench the adventurers from the expect path of their own lives redefining their very existences?! Today we're going to dissect & rip apart the very foundations of the adventurer's cause.
So I was contacted by the Dark Naga folks last night about their kickstarter on the collected print run of The Haunting of Hastur series of adventures. The goal of the kickstarter is very simple;"This Kickstarter project has just one reward, all five modules in the
old school print format: wrap around, detached covers, maps on the inner
cover, saddle stitched (stapled) booklet. Simple. No stretch goals,
just a low target small print run to give the backers who have wanted
this version in this print format to have their wish granted. " Special note up front on this run of OSR adventure modules; "This might not be the project for you. This one will run the month of
August. I am working on colorizing all of the art for a full color,
hardback compilation version for 5e and OSR (separate books). I'm
announcing both so that OSR fans don't feel like they are being toyed
with. One of my concerns is having a backer who would prefer the
hardback decide to back this project because they had no idea the other
one was in the works and regret their decision. That's not cool. It's
not how I would want to be treated. Thus, I working to make sure that
backers know their options, so they can make better-informed decisions." So I started thinking about how would I actually connect the whole campaign into a B/X Expert campaign set up?! Let's take a look at DNH1 The Temple of Forgotten Evil By Fat Goblin Games from a classic B/X D&D vantage point. Let's take a look at the adventure pitch; "The small town of Boldon, and its surrounding villages are afraid.
Dozens of people are missing, some speculate lost to some nefarious
purpose. A broken drunkard tells fantastic tales of an evil temple and
the horrible things within. The rare few who know the legends and
history of the region are beginning to think the dark times have
returned; not seen since the fall of the first age of man. People are
beginning to feel the icy fingers of fear closing in. The party becomes
aware of these events and is inspired to investigate. This leads them to
a broken man who tells them a story of a lost temple. Has it been
rediscovered by men seduced by its forgotten evil? The drunkard’s tale
leads to others who might help the party discover more before they face The Lost Temple of Forgotten Evil."
So dropping " the small town of Boldon, & its surrounding villages" might seem to be enough of an engagement for the adventurers. Well yes & no. These dark times could be with a bit of set up on the dungeon master's part become far more critical to campaign. The fact is with a bit of foreshadowing on the DM's part this part of the adventure could be a campaign pivot point. I'm not talking about writing the script here for the next 'Great Campaign Epic'. Some notes & perhaps running B2 Keep on The Borderland will give the player's PC's the right levels & take them from no bodies & turn them into someone of note. You don't need B2 Keep on The Borderlands to run this adventure but for me as a DM this takes the module & sets it up for a campaign pivot point. A far more interesting idea is to connect the chaos cultists of B2 & the factions of The Lost City (B4) by Tom Moldvay with the events of DNH1 The Temple of Forgotten Evil By Fat Goblin Games .
This puts the entire campaign setting into an operatic level of danger & ties it with the further world spanning events of the Hastur series;
DNH1 - The Lost Temple of Forgotten Evil - KS - DTRPG DNH2 - The Buried Zikurat - KS - DTRPG DNH3 - The City of Talos - KS - DTRPG DNH4 - Confronting Hastur - KS - DTRPG
DNH5 - Carcosa - KS - (Not yet available on DTRPG)
The tie in here is the extensive ruins & lost city elements of The Lost City (B4) by Tom Moldvay where even if the PC's win there is still the possibilities of Hastur resurrecting his influence on the world again. Dark Naga's Hastur is/isn't your usual take on the Lovecraftian god Hastur. Given the various takes on the ancient Lovecraft creation I'd say that all of them are correct.
Zargon & his faction of deities are simply one more in the long string of forbidden demonic deities that inhabit the city. But its placement within a campaign world such as Mystara is problematic or is it?! Mystara Module and Placement by Andrew Theisen on the Vaults of Panduis goes a long way towards taking classic modules & grounding them on the classic setting of Mystara.
Only the Expert Dungeons & Dragons rules are going to give the PC's the levels necessary to take on the challenge of Hastur. I don't say this lightly. Because when you have Lovecraftian gods influencing & menacing parties they need to be of suitable levels to take on the challenge of these occult horrors. Dungeons & Dragons Expert rules edited by Dave Cook and Stephen R. Marsh, supporting character levels 4 through 14 is the route to go for PC's. Mentzer's collected best in the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991) is a whole other option to bring to the table by expanding the campaign setting with lots more bells & whistles for PC's then might actually be necessary to run the Haunting of Hastur series. But this is a viable & valuable updated Dungeons & Dragons system But are 'Dark Naga's Haunting of Hastur' modules old school enough system wise to bring to the table?! Kevin Watson of Fat Goblin/Dark Naga fame got asked this very question on the kickstarter; "Q: When you say OSR do you mean 1E, 2E, AD&D, Basic, or something else? A: I use the OSR Compatible standard and Logo. It is generic to all
the TSR editions and retro-clones. Here is their standard’s blurb:
"This module is OSR Compatible and can be used with any old school
RPG or modern clone. It was designed with the classic version of the
game in mind but with
minimal changes can be used with original or advanced rules or their clones. Encounters are listed in the following format:
Orcs (4) – AC 6 (13), HD 1, #AT 1, D 1d6
Armor Class is given both descending and ascending values, with
ascending values in parentheses. An unarmored character is AC 9 (10) and
chainmail gives AC 5 (14).
All encountered creatures use the same saving throws as a fighter of the same level as their hit dice."" So this is really a simple & easy to deal with exercise in old school gaming & dungeon mastering really. All of these adventures flow & ebb together really more dependent upon your group of players.
Ten Reasons Why Old School & OSR Products Work Well Together
You all ready own all of the books & B/X Dungeons & Dragons is flexible enough to do this. I seemingly have to remind dungeon masters & players about this all of the time.
Easy of learning sure there are the 'Hacks' & retroclones on the market but the originals have been back for a long time now & they are dead easy to learn.
Old School campaigns are easy to set up with the right players to make the mix. They will do all of the heavy lifting creating the campaign setting for you as the DM. Simply listen and deal with them as your players & friends.
Social interaction is key here & these products create cooperation across the board. Old School & OSR products create long lasting friendships.
The OSR systems integrate easily & with a bit of work seamlessly into the background of a campaign world.
The sheer variety of products in & on the OSR market place can keep an old school campaign going for years to come.
Old School products have a lot to offer to the right buyer & players. Dungeon masters have cut their teeth on the old school for a reason.
Gears & whistles within old school system get new players excited & old players nostalgic.
Death is always watching & will take the player's PC when the dice turn cold. PC death seems like a bad thing but it forces players to think their way out of situations for their PC's.
Old School adventures are merely frameworks for the dungeon master & his or her players to hang their own campaign settings. This is one of the strengths of the old school & the OSR.
