thread: 2011-07-06 : I <3 the OSR...
On 2011-07-11, Bwian wrote:
@David
'...any good OSR GM toolkits?'
My first reactions - who knows whether they make any sense - are:
1) The early 'whole games' e.g. Moldvay Basic, Dragon Warriors contain GM toolkits, in the sense of collections of procedures GMs can use, and how to put them together, and examples of play (as do their clones/ reprints, as a result). Those books don't contain everything a GM might use or need, but they do contain quite a lot - enough to play a game of sorts, if you can work out how to put the bits together.
2) There is a definite theme within the OSR that stresses case-by-case judgement (a la Delve in some ways?), rather than systematising the GM process.
You can find a million 'tools' out there: how to draw a map, how to stock a dungeon, how to write an encounter key, how to tell in-character from out-of-character knowledge, how to keep the player involved when a PC dies mid-session.
But there is a distinct tendency to resist the idea of prescribing a single way of putting all of these bits together. There is an idea that each campaign/ session is an idiosyncratic construct.
So you can almost view the OSR itself as a 'toolkit', in the sense of a collection of discrete 'tools' to choose from and apply as your situation demands. But there are not a whole lot 'toolkits' in the sense of clearly laid out, beginning to end GM 'operating manuals'.
This is/was part of the fascination of StWT for me, because it IS pretty complete. Provided the GM already knows the basics of tabletop roleplay, you can definitely play the whole game by following the procedure/ sequence given.
If you look closely you can also see a complete overall procedure (for a different, smaller game) in Moldvay Basic - but the player-centred presentation tends to obscure the GM's role/functions.
Liked your cartoons and examples btw. I was surprised by how much the cartoon, with its thought bubbles etc. helped to explain things. Well done.
