I tend to find that in most situations you might use an ability check there's a better option available. If you give me an example of where you would use an ability check I'll gladly tell you what I'd do instead
@@llblumire Interesting, for example in these types of situations : CHA check for negotiation, or to intimidate WIS check to see if they hear informations, detect footsteps etc... STR check to determine if the character is lifting a stone... DEX check to see if the character makes a successful jump.. I tell myself that sometimes it is useful to conclude a situation, but I'm very interested in your point of view !
@@geremiagayaud4665 charisma checks are reaction rolls Wisdom is listen (at doors, hear noises) Strength either force (open stuck door) or usually I'd just determine the total strength needed to lift it: rarely in real life can you maybe lift something Dexterity would depend on context, but if the result of the jump falling is death then save versus death, if it's not and the jump is suitably makeable then I'd likely just let them pass
@@llblumire Thank you for you answer, It's really interesting! It makes me rethink the way I deal with some situations, which is a good thing! I hadn't thought of approaching it that way I still have some 5e habits.. I need to play more OSE!
@@geremiagayaud4665 yeah, I tend to see ability checks used initially by 5e converts then less and less as they realise the existing systems already handle a lot of what they want
So glad I decided to watch your video. I'm not a big fan of D&D in general, not being a fan of classes and levels, and preferring skill based, like Cyberpunk, Traveller, or RuneQuest. I've watched several videos on OSE specifically due to its reputation as THE OSR system because I've consistently heard 1st ed (AD&D and BECMI) as a rules light etc but you are the only person to make the case in a way that feels genuine. What I mean is that the lack of a core resolution mechanic always seemed super clunky to me, but you made me see the narrative beauty there, and now I see the simplicity I couldn't before. Fantastic.
I think this is the first time I see OSE presented this way, as a game revolving around procedurally resolving party actions. This is quite a revelation and I find it much more appealing than the usual OSR read of "yeah, let's just play something really light and kinda wonky".
And I kinda like a lot of OSR stuff, but this presents a pretty drastically different take than anything I've seen in the field. And to put things in perspective: I've owned OSE (in PDF form) for a while, flipped through it a bit, but didn't find it appealing. I also actually played BECMI as an adolescent. We most definitely did NOT play the way you suggest... :)
this is the exact video that i was looking for. you did an great job telling me exactly what's in the book. thank you for taking the time to make this video!
This is a really helpful video. I've already played OSE and enjoyed it. But hearing you explain all the rules, how they work, why they work, what they accomplish, really shows them to me in a new light. Looking even more forward to the next time I get to run it!
Awesome review! Thank you. I bought the Rules tome, but wish I had gotten the box set. I'm going to read through the rules again and watch your video again to make sure I get it 100%. I think a video with an example round of combat would be cool.
I just bought Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy books yesterday... I am VERY impressed with this system and presentation. Looking forward to my print copies, but at least I have the PDFs for now until the books arrive. :-)
I got my magenta boxed set for Christmas in 1981. Been playing a variety of games, especially versions of D&D, ever since. But I always come back to my beloved B/X, or nowadays, OSE. Can't wait to get my advanced tomes early next year as that will essentially present the game we played in the early 80s, which was B/X with some AD&D stuff bolted on. I love the way OSE tweaks the AD&D material to streamline it for simplified play. And yes, the organization is amazing, especially if you're writing your own stuff. Very easy to find stuff.
I really like that layout, especially the inside covers acting as a core reference. I started with BX edition and this looks like a fantastic recreation.
Really enjoyed your run through of the system. I was never a fan of OSR... until I came across videos on OSE. I am deff. Looking to get these books. Thanks again. ~Fritz
Oh hey! You have great charisma and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you talk about OSE. Please keep doing videos for RPG content! You've got another subscriber!
Nice insight that requiring the old races (for lack of a better term) to use their race for their class is a good way to have a more real feeling human dominated world. Generalizing you could say that the old races are set in their ways, so they have very tightly defined professions, with tightly defined skills or spells that do not change. Humans and any other young races can be any profession they can master and learn almost any skill or spell.
Great video. I am already an OSE fan but I found your video packed with right to the point informations. I would be interested in your views of the "Running the adventure" section! Keep up the good work!
When I get the advanced fantasy books in, I'll be doing more in depth overviews of the other books (as this one focused on core rules largely) to review the classes, spells, treasures, and monsters! I plan on doing my own "running the game" series where I'll probably start by going over that section in the books, and then elaborating on it with my own thoughts and video summaries of my blog posts.
I read you blog a while ago (it's bookmarked and rss-ed), but I did not know that you had a TH-cam channel, too! Great stuff, I really like how you present things. If you want to do some more videos, I'll be happy. Thanks!
Old vid, but just wished to grant you kudos for how well-presented this vid is! Born in 1974, been playing since fall of 1986. B/X is one of my faves, so of course OSE is a big deal for me. Having said that, I’d personally default to B/X only because I know exactly where everything is. Heheh I also slightly prefer the OD&D clone WhiteBox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game for years now. Also, as a rules-lite guy also love using RISUS and, despite being a thick Yank, I’ve recently discovered how much fun my Brit brothers had with FF! So I discovered the FF intro rpg….AFF (original and new are great)….but…. Finding a small, short, simple, fun game that ‘clones’ the original FF game….Spellzard!… so I’ve fallen in total love with it as well! Cheers, man! Again…great vid! Super full! Great job! Thanks for it.
Brilliant look at a brilliant game. I'll be running OSE Advanced edition for my usual 5e group next week, using Death Frost Doom as the first adventure.
Well done. I really wanted to buy this book set but they sold out. Looking forward to 2021 with a new print run. Until then. Going to try it out on Foundry VTT.
Great video! I've shared it a couple times, this and your "ose is perfect" video do a lot of good work explaining what the heck is going on! I'd love to be a player in one of your games so I can see how a veteran runs it.
Hey, really nice video. I wanted to get my hands on this rule set for some time and since advanced ruleset is coming out sometime this year I'm going to buy it. Thanks for detailed overview
Gosh, I wish I could get this durn box just cuz it's so pretty; but I'm thinking of holding back until the AD&D update books coming soon... thoughts? I'm kinda new to this whole thing, started with 3rd and now I'm falling back in love with OG stuff through Black Pudding and zines.
I'd recommend picking up the advanced fantasy players and referees tomes as an all in one product if you're not able to get a copy of the 9 modular books and box
Alright, to head some comments off at the pass! Like all my content, this was recorded on stream at twitch.tv/llblumire I recently reset my computer (reinstalled WIndows), and misconfigured my webcam setup so there is a horrible jagged border around it. Nothing I can do about it now, future videos will have a much softer webcam feed. In addition to that, my audio was also slighlty misconfigured. I've done my best to tone it down, but you might still hear some popping noises. Again these should be gone by the next video!
The only problem I see with this is how expensive it is, 35 euros ($42) on sale or 60 euros ($71) regular. When I can get Basic Fantasy for $5 or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia reprinted for $26 it's hard to justify paying for that, even if BFRPG strays a little further from 80s D&D than I'd like and the RC has a lot of advanced rules from later BECMI sets I might not want to use or to throw at a beginner. If the cost was in that range I'd much more like to use it.
It goes on sale fairly often, and the basic rules are free and enough to run the first few levels of a game. Really the cost is to offset what is physically a higher quality product, with fantastic binding and beautiful page layouts
I know this is a comment but it bears repeating that the cheaper stuff you mentioned are good rules sets but ….but… the hardcover(s) of OSE are not POD…. They are very high quality. They are very much worth it.
I wish I had watched this before I had started to "ease" into OSR with my players using 'O5R'....I enjoyed Five Torches Deep, but it seemed to please neither 5e people or old school people. I wish I had started with OSE as it was intended, and I look forward to running my first OSE game next week.
This was AWESOME. Have you considered doing this for other games? Specially other OSR games. Like Adventurer conqueror king system or lamentations of the flame princess
There are some things in the works, everything is just a little slow right now as the cost of living crisis hits the UK and I have less energy to devote to youtube
You said you’re not a big fan of attribute rolls. In old-school D&D games and their clones I’m not either but they have their place. Recognizing (thru play or, indeed ability checks), the difference between the beefy fighter, the intelligent fighter, the charismatic fighter, matters. It’s also why, despite all of us knowing any character may die at any time, I still encourage players to scratch down a few words or a couple of sentences of the character’s background, as such may be useful and fun in play….the “country boy” fighter is going to be very different than the “raised by his father in the city who was a sergeant-at-arms”. The Four Musketeers are a great example. Also….no need for extraneous classes when a fighter has a background of being a hunter and/or forester, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. I think ability checks can indeed come into their own sometimes in old-school D&D due to this/these. 🙂
@@llblumire I realize this now, I was listening to videos on the rules break down. Thinking this is great but I don’t want to give up on b/x! lol - I have ended up buying the OSE box set. I have the original D&D books, but they are like antiques at this point and OSE makes it so much easier to find all the info I need. It’s funny that was the only thing I did not like about D&D. I have lots of books and the info is all over the damn place. ‘wait let me find cleric stuff..’ It’s hard enough for me by myself let alone run a game like that. I got a whole bag of books for tiny details…
The necrotic gnome discord server discord.gg/sbwKnKp is wonderful, and for broader OSR there's an OSR discord server discord.gg/tsewr5DCHU formerly owned by the author of electric bastionland that is good for wider discussions. Disclaimer: I moderate both
I like OSE, but honestly I think Lamentations of the Flame Princess is much better overall, especially for newer players. It's much more streamlined, simpler, and plays very very well. If you have never played it take a look at it! But OSE is great as well!
For me, lamentations does too much work on trying to be edgy (for lack of a better word) and not enough work on presenting it's content. It's still a well designed game, but the presentation of procedures is much clearer and more streamlined in OSE for a new player to follow through step by step.
@@llblumire I think that's a reasnoble criticism. For it's time it WAS quite well presented, but it's more that OSE just knocks it out of the park in terms of presentation. I do like LotFP though as it's so uncomplicated. But yeah mutiple systems is fun!
My game store has the Rules Tome with your cover on it but it’s my understanding there is a new cover (maybe new edition) on the current Rules Tome. Do you know if there is a difference between the book you have & the Rules Tomes with their new covers?
Sorry but I prefer a lot of fighting encounters as most players enjoy that mechanic. If this is to be used as basic was meant to be run, then combat is a primary aspect of the game.
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Really great review ! At 23:51 you said you don't use Ability checks, I'm curious, can you explain why ? Thanks :)
I tend to find that in most situations you might use an ability check there's a better option available. If you give me an example of where you would use an ability check I'll gladly tell you what I'd do instead
@@llblumire Interesting, for example in these types of situations : CHA check for negotiation, or to intimidate
WIS check to see if they hear informations, detect footsteps etc...
STR check to determine if the character is lifting a stone...
DEX check to see if the character makes a successful jump..
I tell myself that sometimes it is useful to conclude a situation,
but I'm very interested in your point of view !
@@geremiagayaud4665
charisma checks are reaction rolls
Wisdom is listen (at doors, hear noises)
Strength either force (open stuck door) or usually I'd just determine the total strength needed to lift it: rarely in real life can you maybe lift something
Dexterity would depend on context, but if the result of the jump falling is death then save versus death, if it's not and the jump is suitably makeable then I'd likely just let them pass
@@llblumire Thank you for you answer, It's really interesting! It makes me rethink the way I deal with some situations, which is a good thing! I hadn't thought of approaching it that way
I still have some 5e habits.. I need to play more OSE!
@@geremiagayaud4665 yeah, I tend to see ability checks used initially by 5e converts then less and less as they realise the existing systems already handle a lot of what they want
Excellent review. You've convinced me to buy it as my first RPG in 30 years!
I gotta say, I started the video and was instantly impressed with how clearly you spoke and the audio quality. Excited to see more.
This is sincerely one of, if not THE, best video overview of OSE. Well done!
So glad I decided to watch your video. I'm not a big fan of D&D in general, not being a fan of classes and levels, and preferring skill based, like Cyberpunk, Traveller, or RuneQuest. I've watched several videos on OSE specifically due to its reputation as THE OSR system because I've consistently heard 1st ed (AD&D and BECMI) as a rules light etc but you are the only person to make the case in a way that feels genuine. What I mean is that the lack of a core resolution mechanic always seemed super clunky to me, but you made me see the narrative beauty there, and now I see the simplicity I couldn't before. Fantastic.
I think this is the first time I see OSE presented this way, as a game revolving around procedurally resolving party actions. This is quite a revelation and I find it much more appealing than the usual OSR read of "yeah, let's just play something really light and kinda wonky".
And I kinda like a lot of OSR stuff, but this presents a pretty drastically different take than anything I've seen in the field. And to put things in perspective: I've owned OSE (in PDF form) for a while, flipped through it a bit, but didn't find it appealing. I also actually played BECMI as an adolescent. We most definitely did NOT play the way you suggest... :)
I feel like the OSR is missing a game that focuses on these game loops (dungeon, wilderness, encounter, combat and so on) and codifies them better.
4:33 in the video. I'm not appreciating why this was relevatory to you as it seems fundamental to all RPGs.
A very interesting and comprehensive breakdown of the Core Rules for OSE - great stuff :)
This is my first time seeing your content and I think you speak very clearly and your thoughts seem well organized. Thank you for this deep dive.
this is the exact video that i was looking for. you did an great job telling me exactly what's in the book. thank you for taking the time to make this video!
This is a really helpful video. I've already played OSE and enjoyed it. But hearing you explain all the rules, how they work, why they work, what they accomplish, really shows them to me in a new light. Looking even more forward to the next time I get to run it!
Awesome review! Thank you. I bought the Rules tome, but wish I had gotten the box set. I'm going to read through the rules again and watch your video again to make sure I get it 100%. I think a video with an example round of combat would be cool.
I just bought Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy books yesterday... I am VERY impressed with this system and presentation. Looking forward to my print copies, but at least I have the PDFs for now until the books arrive. :-)
Huge fan of OSE. I know these books very well and it was still a pleasure to hear your thoughts on such a great product
I got my magenta boxed set for Christmas in 1981. Been playing a variety of games, especially versions of D&D, ever since. But I always come back to my beloved B/X, or nowadays, OSE. Can't wait to get my advanced tomes early next year as that will essentially present the game we played in the early 80s, which was B/X with some AD&D stuff bolted on. I love the way OSE tweaks the AD&D material to streamline it for simplified play. And yes, the organization is amazing, especially if you're writing your own stuff. Very easy to find stuff.
I really like that layout, especially the inside covers acting as a core reference. I started with BX edition and this looks like a fantastic recreation.
Great video! I was a kickstarter backer and I love the book but watching the video has "re-sold" me on it. Thanks!
Really enjoyed your run through of the system. I was never a fan of OSR... until I came across videos on OSE. I am deff. Looking to get these books. Thanks again.
~Fritz
This is a great review, you’re very good at keeping a steady pace as you talk through the game aspects. Great job and keep the vids coming!
Oh hey! You have great charisma and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you talk about OSE. Please keep doing videos for RPG content! You've got another subscriber!
Fantastic overview and review.
I like the format of the books (and that its split into a few books). Came here from the OSR reddit where you recommended I check it out :)
Nice insight that requiring the old races (for lack of a better term) to use their race for their class is a good way to have a more real feeling human dominated world. Generalizing you could say that the old races are set in their ways, so they have very tightly defined professions, with tightly defined skills or spells that do not change. Humans and any other young races can be any profession they can master and learn almost any skill or spell.
Great video. I am already an OSE fan but I found your video packed with right to the point informations. I would be interested in your views of the "Running the adventure" section! Keep up the good work!
When I get the advanced fantasy books in, I'll be doing more in depth overviews of the other books (as this one focused on core rules largely) to review the classes, spells, treasures, and monsters! I plan on doing my own "running the game" series where I'll probably start by going over that section in the books, and then elaborating on it with my own thoughts and video summaries of my blog posts.
I read you blog a while ago (it's bookmarked and rss-ed), but I did not know that you had a TH-cam channel, too! Great stuff, I really like how you present things. If you want to do some more videos, I'll be happy. Thanks!
Old vid, but just wished to grant you kudos for how well-presented this vid is!
Born in 1974, been playing since fall of 1986.
B/X is one of my faves, so of course OSE is a big deal for me.
Having said that, I’d personally default to B/X only because I know exactly where everything is. Heheh
I also slightly prefer the OD&D clone WhiteBox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game for years now.
Also, as a rules-lite guy also love using RISUS and, despite being a thick Yank, I’ve recently discovered how much fun my Brit brothers had with FF!
So I discovered the FF intro rpg….AFF (original and new are great)….but…. Finding a small, short, simple, fun game that ‘clones’ the original FF game….Spellzard!… so I’ve fallen in total love with it as well!
Cheers, man!
Again…great vid! Super full! Great job! Thanks for it.
Brilliant look at a brilliant game. I'll be running OSE Advanced edition for my usual 5e group next week, using Death Frost Doom as the first adventure.
great videos, would be awesome if you made a playlist of all your OSE stuff
Fantastic video!!! Thanks so much for doing this!
Well done. I really wanted to buy this book set but they sold out. Looking forward to 2021 with a new print run. Until then. Going to try it out on Foundry VTT.
The rules tome is all the books in one, and available. Why not both? :D
@@shaner90 I just purchased the big rules tome. The all in one rule book. Its really nice. Still have to read it soon.
You got a subscriber! This interests me greatly.
Great video! I've shared it a couple times, this and your "ose is perfect" video do a lot of good work explaining what the heck is going on! I'd love to be a player in one of your games so I can see how a veteran runs it.
Thanks, good, clear explanations. Made me think about some rules I'm usually skipping (languages and alignement...)
Hey, really nice video. I wanted to get my hands on this rule set for some time and since advanced ruleset is coming out sometime this year I'm going to buy it. Thanks for detailed overview
Enjoyed the video, think i am going to pick this up
You deserve so many more likes and subscriptions!
Gosh, I wish I could get this durn box just cuz it's so pretty; but I'm thinking of holding back until the AD&D update books coming soon... thoughts? I'm kinda new to this whole thing, started with 3rd and now I'm falling back in love with OG stuff through Black Pudding and zines.
I'd recommend picking up the advanced fantasy players and referees tomes as an all in one product if you're not able to get a copy of the 9 modular books and box
This review made me enjoy something I already owned even more 😀
Alright, to head some comments off at the pass!
Like all my content, this was recorded on stream at twitch.tv/llblumire
I recently reset my computer (reinstalled WIndows), and misconfigured my webcam setup so there is a horrible jagged border around it. Nothing I can do about it now, future videos will have a much softer webcam feed.
In addition to that, my audio was also slighlty misconfigured. I've done my best to tone it down, but you might still hear some popping noises. Again these should be gone by the next video!
“Emergent Gameplay”: shit happens then we try to explain it.
The only problem I see with this is how expensive it is, 35 euros ($42) on sale or 60 euros ($71) regular. When I can get Basic Fantasy for $5 or the D&D Rules Cyclopedia reprinted for $26 it's hard to justify paying for that, even if BFRPG strays a little further from 80s D&D than I'd like and the RC has a lot of advanced rules from later BECMI sets I might not want to use or to throw at a beginner. If the cost was in that range I'd much more like to use it.
It goes on sale fairly often, and the basic rules are free and enough to run the first few levels of a game. Really the cost is to offset what is physically a higher quality product, with fantastic binding and beautiful page layouts
I know this is a comment but it bears repeating that the cheaper stuff you mentioned are good rules sets but ….but… the hardcover(s) of OSE are not POD…. They are very high quality. They are very much worth it.
I wish I had watched this before I had started to "ease" into OSR with my players using 'O5R'....I enjoyed Five Torches Deep, but it seemed to please neither 5e people or old school people. I wish I had started with OSE as it was intended, and I look forward to running my first OSE game next week.
This was AWESOME.
Have you considered doing this for other games? Specially other OSR games. Like Adventurer conqueror king system or lamentations of the flame princess
There are some things in the works, everything is just a little slow right now as the cost of living crisis hits the UK and I have less energy to devote to youtube
great review, thank you
You said you’re not a big fan of attribute rolls. In old-school D&D games and their clones I’m not either but they have their place.
Recognizing (thru play or, indeed ability checks), the difference between the beefy fighter, the intelligent fighter, the charismatic fighter, matters.
It’s also why, despite all of us knowing any character may die at any time, I still encourage players to scratch down a few words or a couple of sentences of the character’s background, as such may be useful and fun in play….the “country boy” fighter is going to be very different than the “raised by his father in the city who was a sergeant-at-arms”.
The Four Musketeers are a great example.
Also….no need for extraneous classes when a fighter has a background of being a hunter and/or forester, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.
I think ability checks can indeed come into their own sometimes in old-school D&D due to this/these. 🙂
Isnt OSE the same thing as B/X? Seems almost the same.
Yes, OSE is designed to be a faithful recreation of the B/X ruleset
@@llblumire I realize this now, I was listening to videos on the rules break down. Thinking this is great but I don’t want to give up on b/x! lol - I have ended up buying the OSE box set. I have the original D&D books, but they are like antiques at this point and OSE makes it so much easier to find all the info I need. It’s funny that was the only thing I did not like about D&D. I have lots of books and the info is all over the damn place. ‘wait let me find cleric stuff..’ It’s hard enough for me by myself let alone run a game like that. I got a whole bag of books for tiny details…
Great vid! Thanks!
Nice review!
Which communities are you participating in when you mention the good places online for oldschool esesentials?
The necrotic gnome discord server discord.gg/sbwKnKp is wonderful, and for broader OSR there's an OSR discord server discord.gg/tsewr5DCHU formerly owned by the author of electric bastionland that is good for wider discussions. Disclaimer: I moderate both
I like OSE, but honestly I think Lamentations of the Flame Princess is much better overall, especially for newer players.
It's much more streamlined, simpler, and plays very very well.
If you have never played it take a look at it!
But OSE is great as well!
For me, lamentations does too much work on trying to be edgy (for lack of a better word) and not enough work on presenting it's content. It's still a well designed game, but the presentation of procedures is much clearer and more streamlined in OSE for a new player to follow through step by step.
@@llblumire I think that's a reasnoble criticism.
For it's time it WAS quite well presented, but it's more that OSE just knocks it out of the park in terms of presentation.
I do like LotFP though as it's so uncomplicated.
But yeah mutiple systems is fun!
@@misomiso8228 I agree completely in terms of its time of writing. It's hard to compete with the best presented RPG book in terms of presentation 😄
You can have good design - or you can have Mork Borg.
33:00
My game store has the Rules Tome with your cover on it but it’s my understanding there is a new cover (maybe new edition) on the current Rules Tome.
Do you know if there is a difference between the book you have & the Rules Tomes with their new covers?
The OSE Rules Tome second printing has a wizard on the cover: same content
Ose rocks!
Sorry but I prefer a lot of fighting encounters as most players enjoy that mechanic. If this is to be used as basic was meant to be run, then combat is a primary aspect of the game.