After deciding I wanted to go <abbr title="Old School Revival">OSR</abbr> I was left with a few tempting options. As you probably know there are more than a few <a href="https://retroroleplaying.com/retro-clones/">retro-clones</a> and <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?filters=45582_2140_0_0_0">OSR style</a> games and then there are just old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSR,_Inc.#Role-playing_games">TSR games</a>. Others have said it before and I tend to agree, <abbr title="Old School Revival">OSR</abbr> style games try to capture what gaming was like in the 70s and 80s but those games are still available to play.
Let us suppose for a moment that I'm running two <abbr title="Non-Player Character">NPC</abbr> in a given <abbr title="Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons">5E</abbr> game. One is lying and the other being honest. The players suspect both of lying so they decide to roll an Insight check which could either be rolled in the open by the players or rolled in secret by the <abbr title="Dungeon Master">DM</abbr>. Two characters are making this Insight check where one is naturally trusting and the other naturally suspicious. The matrix of results for such a roll would like like this:
Back in January I replied to a Reddit post asking about Point Buy vs. Rolling 3d6 for determining ability scores. For the sake of brevity I kept my reply short and targeted toward how dice can model rarity since it had not been covered elsewhere in the post. But now the subject of rolling to create characters is on my mind and I'd like to explore it more in depth here.
I'm not much of a Poker player but I've played enough to observe that five-card draw is a terrible game. Now I know that statement will be enough to get a fair few people angry with me but you can test this theory on your own. Go play some five-card draw only remove betting. Then observe how much you enjoy that game.
I've been reflecting a lot about what I'd like to do next in gaming. As much as I wish it were otherwise I still struggle a bit with playing <abbr title="Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons">5E</abbr> vs going <abbr title="Old School Revival">OSR</abbr>. In part I still really want to like <abbr title="Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons">5E</abbr> despite finding it entirely tedious to run. But more than that I'm afraid I'm being influenced by the specter of nostalgia. I'm afraid I'll run an <abbr title="Advanced Dungeons and Dragons">AD&D</abbr> game, that it will not live up to my memory and in the end I'll be as discouraged with that as I am with <abbr title="Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons">5E</abbr>.