The podcast about the founding of TSR and the origins of the game When We Were Wizards is a fascinating listen.
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Cantrips are really the way to keep Magic-Users competitive. Otherwise you end up with them casting their one spell when they’re 1st level and ineffectually chucking daggers after!
When we played in the 80s most had two characters because you really needed a fighter to have fun in combat until your mage got decent enough.
Absolutely get you about the many races in 5e. I was never much into not being human anyway. But it’s fine. I just don’t tend to think about those races looking much like how they look, I suppose.
Oh cheers, will try to check it out!
Oh yeah, I can see WHY they’ve done it. It’s all about that balance.
But having them just zapping things with lightning or whatever from morning until night feels grotesque to me.
Mind you, I don’t have magic users in my game so that’s that problem solved.
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Maybe if I allowed them to play Magic Users with Cantrips we’d play more frequently! 
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You said ‘all fighters’ - is that because the system you’re doing only has the four basic classes? No Thieves allowed either?
No, OSE has all the classes that B/X or 1E would have had.
I just don’t want to offer anything other than ordinary person who can swing a stick. Anything else doesn’t fit my setting.
The characters are valley folk who had a quest to honour a dead kinsman and basically never went home.
Fighters seemed the most appropriate. There are no adventurers in the conventional sense in my world. Most people who aren’t at home doing a job are outlaws and ne’er do wells.
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Oh right, I see, it’s BECMI as they call it, not 1e based, get you.
I did run a bit of the Red Box stuff for my nephew but I’ll be honest that even I found the slow advancement tough. Clerics don’t even get a spell at first level!
Yeah if you were comparing to Basic D&D then 5e would definitely seem a bit nuts. It’s closer to 1e AD&D I was meaning (in my head).
I’m doing the XP for gold thing, as of old. So they’re not doing that badly in terms of advancement. They should get to third next session. If they play their cards right.
I say gold but I’m running a silver standard. I think gold should be seldom seen and should turn heads when it comes to light.
1sp is an unskilled worker’s daily wage. 24 copper to a silver piece.
And 72 silver to a gold coin. So over three months salary for the average commoner.
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When I played 5E the last thing I’d played (fantasy wise) was 1E. So that was my comparison.
I liked how much easier it all was to understand but not the feel of it. I found the art a bit off-putting, it feels very high fantasy. It also felt overly balanced and made me feel a bit like a Daily Mail reader complaining about how you get a medal for turning up these days.
I only discovered the OSR from podcasts and Reddit. I had no idea there was a hard core of people hankering after an old-school style of play (whether actually authentic or kind of imagined) but when I discovered it I recognised that it appealed more.
From what I can see OSE is just Basic & Expert presented much better (which in many ways 2e was to 1e) so you’re doing the real deal, as I understand anyway. Authentic to the Basic game.
I think it’s effectively B/X with elements of AD&D 1E folded in, like character classes and races.
But like I said I’m really picking and choosing from it.
Like a renegade!
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Races and character classes are part of basic D&D too, it’s just that a race is a class in that game. But yes, I only read about the first one initially:
Update on my cyborg soulknife rogue, he’s picked up an enchanted notebook that’s welded itself to his skin through his breast pocket. Now there’s ivy and twigs growing around it, pocking out of his shirt buttons and sleeves. The book’s even glowing through his clothes. So there’s that.
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Have you tried a remove (edited because of my phone’s keyboard) curse or are you not that level yet? Sounds fun that’s for sure. Was it chance you grabbed it or was it very much meant for you vs a fully organic party member?
Definitely for me, I think it’s influence is meant to keep me on the straight and narrow. It even grants me a misty step use. I’m enjoying the machine/fey merging theme, quite Pinocchio.
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