Do you really understand OSR and Knave 2e? | Interview highlights with Ben Milton of Questing Beast

[@DaveThaumavore]

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[@QuestingBeast]

Thanks for the interview, Dave! I had a lot of fun.

[@DaveThaumavore]

Me too! Thanks, Ben.

[@paavohirn3728]

Good luck with the final stretch of the KS! Gonna read that interview now!

[@AnarchicArachnid]

1:10 "FICS" Fantasy Immersive Challenge Simulator

[@AnarchicArachnid]

And for scifi/scifantasy based settings "SciFIC"

[@johnsteve2377]

I'm not the first to say it, but one of the big differences between OSR and today's D&D game is the feeling of danger. Characters we played back in the 80's never felt over powered...every room could be the one that forces you to roll up a new character. Back in the bad old days, undead took actual levels away! It's prevalent in the artwork as well. The characters on today's covers look like super-heroes or demi-gods. A lot of the old art showed characters in the act of being surprised and showing terror all around them...and looking for a way out!

[@williamdavis7274]

My 2 fav channels! Love to see you guys together!

[@gregh5665]

Prof DM at DungeonCraft picked up on your valuable interview with Dave Milton and has provided some additional excellent insight into OSR. His video sent me here. Kudos to you (and him) for bringing forward Dave's insight into old-school play. Many modern game designers (and players) would benefit from this kind of insoght, even if it's not their preference. It would certainly provide more practical context to the popular "sandbox" vs "railroad" discussions.

[@jobak5021]

This was a super insightful quick dive! Love both you guys’ channels!

[@BobtheOdd]

I'm confident Ben will deliver a quality game, I backed it the first day it went up.

[@crapphone7744]

The original was pretty cool, so I think you're probably right about this new edition

[@Cynidecia]

1:22 Well storytelling is a *Big* part of the OSR, Its just that the players are doing it emergently, not the DM.

[@paavohirn3728]

Wow! The interview is solid gold! I've been following both of you for a good while now and I'm a big fan. The intersection of your approaches and preferences in games brings up fascinating points. I appreciate it that it was so conversational so both your viewpoints had room even though Ben was of course in the spotlight.

[@samchafin4623]

OH! 🤯Dave! Thank you for the big insight into the OSR! I knew I kinda liked it, but was missing something, and now I get it! Not really for me, but a lot of great creativity in the space, so that's cool. I owe you big for the education!

[@kyleharder3654]

Great video, will definitely check out the interview

[@dm4life579]

Great video! Thanks for the interview. I am also personally not a huge fan of OSR, but like you mentioned, a good and well designed product should be praised. Thanks to all the creators who make amazing and well thought out games.

[@a.block.of.tofu.]

I only recently have found out about OSR, and frankly I still don't get it after reading a bunch about it and reading some games. I will definitely check out the interview!

[@sumdude4281]

It's dungeon horror. It Friday the 13th. The monster is out there to kill you. The dopamine is the fear, like sky diving for example, and surviving to tell the tale.

[@quickanddirtyroleplaying]

That was an incredibly insightful newsletter. Ben knows his shit and I wish Knave was available back when I got introduced to the hobby instead of AD&D 2e.

[@ethercept]

Great video! Thanks! Snuck in the KS with minutes to go! Cheers

[@kalleendo7577]

Awesome!

[@parttimed.m.1111]

The only kickstarter I've ever backed

[@sumdude4281]

OSR is about the challenge. It's dungeon horror. It Friday the 13th. The monster is out there to kill you. The dopamine is the fear, like sky diving for example, and surviving to tell the tale.

[@Xplora213]

My belated uncle was playing in Canada during the mid 70s and it is truly obvious that the game was about the human player overcoming the challenge. It didn’t matter if Grog or Merlin was your avatar for success. The narrative was incidental. Now, it definitely appears that D&D is a storyline game that spends way too much time obsessing over mechanics and combat for a storyline game…. And if your character dies, then you lose the ability to truly win that campaign because you can’t play the fourth son of the duke twice. The genre transitioned into video games perfectly because it was all about the player still. But now, the hobby just doesn’t have the balls to say no to players and power gaming and you end up seeing the childish stuff about players planning to multi class in a few months time. Not much danger from combat or traps, true? That’s the appeal. It’s a game about the player, not a fantasy Love story and I’m not even kidding.

[@jasonnewell7036]

I'm a big fan of a lot of the philosophies of OSR games (not necessarily all as I am a big proponent of immersive stories), especially when it comes to simplifying systems and facilitating the smoothness of play. I don't like how a lot of them still cling to problematic or tired D&D systems, though. Especially ones that seem to be trying to preserve older rules even if those rules are overly intricate or actively get in the way of play. For OSR titles, I'm a big fan of Troika! and Electric Bastionland, as well as Worlds Without Number, if I was leaning towards a D&D-like. But there are two things that will turn me off an OSR game: XP is gold gained, and 0-level character funnels. Either of those, and I'm out.

[@revylokesh1783]

What's wrong with "XP for gold" ?

[@tine1012]

Sounds like you might be interested in NSR games like Into the odd, Cairn or like you mentioned troika. NSR is just a group of loosely associated games that are not as attached to the DND history as OSR is.

[@aled857]

You gotta cut this out shit dude, my wallet cant take it man, you and ben are 70% of the reason why i have a small collection of ttrpg books at thia point, my girlfriend isn't going to appreciate another book coming in the mail this soon, ...well im off to the the Kickstarter page

[@Drudenfusz]

I hate mailing lists, and I follow none, so I won't do that for my own system... but if I get my system one day done, then I hope to remember giving you an interview to be successful!

[@Phleanix]

Yeah, I have to agree. I'm still removing myself from old Mailing Lists that still crop up from the 90s. I'd rather have one place to go to - a la a Website/Blog per creator- and have a specific, separate Twitter/IG account to follow the creators I have an interest in. I think Mailing Lists are messy and I understand why they fell out of favour.

[@bholl6546]

How do I out this gently? Your first main point is completely wrong. Just had the best time last night in my OSE game. Almost entirely composed of role play.

[@spacerx]

Knave 2e is pretty cool... but I'm not entirely sure that it's old school. It is... and it isn't. That's not a good or a bad thing, but it feels much more indie Nu-SR or NSR. A spin off of the OSR, but sufficiently spun off that it's not really OSR anymore.

[@DaveThaumavore]

So exhausting.

[@richardextall2002]

OSR is easy. There ain't enough rules to make it difficult.