You make fast calls from the fiction, count every torch and keep the world dangerous. You warn when monsters are coming, then it's up to the players. Your notes have no storyline: survivors make one.
Classic gameplay is rebuilt by the OSR with current player-facing design: player skill vs. the game, common-sense rulings, and failure as information paid for in procedure.
What you do well
- Players make real choices on a level-blind map, where scouting and running away are good choices.
- Fast, fair rulings come from the fiction, dice rolled in the open.
- The world keeps moving when the players aren't looking.
Where your style trips
Unsignaled dangers, and lore that never evolves into events. Invisible traps feel like the referee wanted the character dead.
The fix: Every lethal threat needs a visible warning before it hits, and all lore has to play out at the table.
Things to practice
- Show players the procedures at work: a torch burning in real time, encounter dice rolled openly.
- Use an open table for strangers so you can break your home group's habits.
- Give each player your referee principles on one sheet during session zero.
Who you'll click with
Players who lean Tactician, Casual Gamer tend to love your table. Power Gamer, Storyteller players may need some conversation first. Most players span several of Robin D. Laws's player types.
How to prep
Set up situations: a map, factions with wants, rumor and encounter tables. Do one page of prep a week, then the dungeon-turn or hex procedure drives play.
Pitch your table with these
- On screen
- Mad Max: Fury Road, The 13th Warrior, The Revenant, Alien
- Actual play
- OSR sandbox streaming: open table format, rigid time and torch tracking, player skill deciding outcomes over stats.
- Games
- Old-School Essentials, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Worlds Without Number, Mothership
A culture of play describes a table, so one 5e group could sit in two cultures on two Tuesdays. From John Bell's "Six Cultures of Play".
Terms on this page: OSR, Session zero