OLD SCHOOL SURVIVAL GUIDES - DON’T LEAVE THE TAVERN WITHOUT’EM

Although it is hard for me to imagine more people have played something other than Old School style RPGs for years now I am reminded sometimes of what that past was like.

Like this excellent series by Dangerous Brian.

(from the blog)

Old School Survival Guides

The Old School Survival Guides are a popular period of posts posted over the last few months of 2010 and the first six months of 2011. Well received by the blogger community, they should be helpful both for new players and for veterans looking to brush up on rusty skills.

Starting with OLD SCHOOL SURVIVAL TIPS FOR NEW PLAYERS and continuing through one for the 1st level party and then survival guides for Magic Users, Fighters, Thieves and Clerics he reminds us of what Saturday evenings used to be all about.

I spoke with DB via email recently as he put the finishing touches on the Clerics guide and he had this to say about his inspiration:

About a year ago, I began an old school campaign for my wife and a few of my newer gaming buddies. Caroline had been gaming for about four years by then, but she'd only ever played D&D 3.5 and Dragon Age (except for a brief stint with Star Wars saga edition).

The other players had only just been introduced to gaming through the Dragon Age RPG. When Caroline had first asked me to run a a game for her friends, they'd wanted to try D&D but I wasn't too keen on running them through 4th ed. From talking to them about PC games they liked I'd gathered they preferred story and plot over grinding. I thought 4th ed D&D might put them off, but I wasn't sure if they'd enjoy old school. After a few months or running Dragon Age, I burned out and offered to run an old school game instead.

They jumped at the chance.

Bless them, but they were awful.

I'd expected them to encounter problems from the start - they'd grown up playing computer games that allow saves as often as you like with and with characters who just stood up again after the fighting ended. None of them had ever been eaten by a grue. I'd armed then with the excellent Old School Primer (by Matthew Finch) and a short list of Old School Survival Hints, but it wasn't enough. They were loving the game, and embracing the PC's initial role as barely competent wannabees, but I was starting to feel that they were becoming dis-heartened by the poor choices they were making.

After a very near TPK on (all all things) Christmas day I decided that, in the absence of a veteran player to offer guidance and leadership, they needed a little more advice from the DM.

I went back to basics and wrote the first three Old School Survival Guides in January 2011. The thief's guide followed in March and, after some prompting, I finally completed the series with the cleric's guide in mid-November.

For a several months the Survival Guides were the most popular articles on my blog -that's not saying much as my traffic has never been particularly high - but they seemed to be fairly well regarded by hoary old vets and fresh new gamers alike. I hope you find them just as useful and, hopefully, at least a wee bit entertaining as well.

Happy gaming!

(from the post that started it all-OLD SCHOOL SURVIVAL TIPS FOR NEW GAMERS)

Running away is never a bad option.

Listen to rumors, but don't believe everything you hear.

There's no such thing as too much water, too many rations, too much rope or too many spare ten foot poles.

Amen brother.

Find them all gathered here:

http://dangerousbrian.blogspot.com/p/old-school-survival-guides.html