5th ed. and OSR

INTRODUCTION

There are always discussion, literally everywhere, on whether 5th can (or is) OSR or not. My personal definition of OSR is that it needs both compatibility and tonal fidelity to early TSR D&D to be OSR. Therefore, the answer is short and clear: 5th cannot be OSR.

Can you run an OSR-influenced game? Sure. You could with WFRPG, Runequest, etc. But D&D has, of course, its own appeal. Having run such a game in the past, and seen quite a few take on it, here are my recommendation.

PLAY PARADIGM (OSR-ish 5th)

  • Make use of hirelings, morale and reaction
  • Make appropriate use of wilderness exploration, dungeon exploration and encumbrance
  • Disregard completely balance of encounters and CR
  • Center the gameplay on (in order):
    • Exploration: have rules and procedure for wilderness and dungeon and follow them
    • Resource Management: track torches, time, HP, fatigue, etc. 
    • Combat: it must be deadly on both sides and quick
    • Social interaction: it must support the player agency, not be a forced requirement
  • Tonal fidelity
    • Player agency (let player decide what is the adventure, you just decide what is the world and how it reacts to them)
    • Player skill (stop rolling for everything)
    • Embrance randomness and fairness (roll in the open if need be, don't fudge anything, be an impartial judge)

RULES
For rules, I'll make two suggestion. One is just conceptual (you "should" use this) and is simpler in scope. The other is more complete and will point directly to which rules should/could be integrated.

Conceptual

  • You NEED rules and procedures for:
    • Hirelings (pick any edition)
    • Morale (pick any edition)
    • Reaction (pick any edition)
    • Wilderness Exploration
    • Dungeon Exploration (pick any edition)
    • GP for XP
  • You should look at:
    • Restrict power level (no feats, less cantrip-related class, cap levels)
    • Restrict options (both race and class)
    • Make things more difficult on the player so that thinking ahead is required (reduce healing, reduce rests, disregard CR)
If you follow the paradigm and the conceptual suggestions I just put, you could end up with something like this:

Rule Set

  • Optional rules from the book:
    • Rest: Gritty Realism (DMG p. 267)
      • Long rest = 1 week
      • Short rest = 8 h
      • Make use of downtime activities (DMG p. 127) during the Long Rest
    • For combat:
      • Flanking (DMG p. 251) 
      • Side Initiative (DMG p. 270)
    • Making use of the different rules that affect adventuring (such as chase, wilderness complications, etc.)
    • Healing: Healer's Kit Dependency (DMG p. 266) and Slow Natural Healing (DMG p. 267)
    • Loyalty (DMG p. 93) applied to Hirelings
    • Skill variants (DMG p. 263): there are no skill proficiency, rather, it's per classes:
      • Fighter and Barbarian (Strength, Dexterity or Wisdom)
      • Rogue (Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma)
    • Morale (DMG p. 275)
  • Modification to existing rules
    • Classes restrictions:
      • Fighter (no Battle Master)
      • Rogue
      • Barbarian
    • Backgrounds:
      • No backgrounds.
    • People choose one for the RP and gain an extra 10 GP each
    • Manoeuvres:
      • All classes can use manoeuvres
      • PCs can try to: disarm (Dexterity), shove (Strength), climb unto (Dexterity), shield bash (Strength)
      • To do so, the PC uses his action to roll an attack roll at disadvantage. If they were at disadvantage, they cannot perform it. 
      • Then the target will make an appropriate saving throw. If failed, the action is a pass. 
      • Fighter can perform a manoeuvre AND attack with the same action.
    • Grappling:
      • Roll all HD against all HD of target. 
      • If defender has a higher result, he can pin or throw the attacker
      • If the attacker has a higher result, he can pin or throw the defender
    • Alternative (modified by me) Cleaving Rule (DMG p. 272):
      • When fighting in melee against low CR creatures (up to the DM) and the target is killed with one hit by a PC, all exceeding damage can kill the same amount of creature of the same type. 
    • Subclasses:
      • All subclasses that have spellcasting in the authorized class automatically gain the "Ritual Caster" feat
      • All subclasses that have no spellcasting int he authroized class automatically can choose betwen the following feats at level 3 and 6:
      • Charger 
      • Crossbow Expert
      • Defensive Duelist
      • Dual Wilder
      • Grappler
      • Great Weapon Master
      • Mage Slayer
      • Polearm Master
      • Mounted Combattant
      • Sharpshooter
      • Sentinel
      • Shield Master
    • Races restrictions:
      • Human
      • Dwarf
      • Elves
      • Hobbits
    • Level restrictions:
      • Max lvl 6
      • GP for XP
      • XP is gained through training during long rests (5 GP in training is 1 XP)
      • XP is gained through carousing (3 GP in carousing is 1 XP)
  • Other restrictions:
    • PCs cannot have darkvision
    • No feat through level up
    • No inspiration
    • Death:
      • If a PC fall to 0 HP (or below) and is not instantly killed, he automatically gain a Fatigue level
      • Failed Death Saving Throw are only discarded through Long Rest or higher healings (such as Restoration)
    • Perception:
      • Ditch it
  • New rules/suggestions:
    • Reaction
    • Dungeon procedure:
      • Exploration turn and random encounters
      • Finding traps and secrets (telling = no time, rolling = one exploration turn, automatic random encounter roll)
    • Wilderness procedure
      • Hexcrawl
    • Encumbrance: use whatever rules, those are just a suggestion
      • You can carry up to 20 - your base armour AC (without magic modifier) + Con bonus in items
      • If you have more than that, you are encumbered (half movement, no reaction)

Comments

  1. Having gone through the 5e SRD a few times to try and squeeze out a game I would I like to run, I have two suggestions that pay homage to the source material and still remain in the Old-School wheelhouse. One: Paladins have no cantrips and don't get spells until second level. Spell casting for that class is very much still part of the resource management aspect of the game and pays homage to the original cleric class which didn't get spells at first level. Two: Don't dismiss Backgrounds so easily. They are possibly the best addition to the game from 5e. They are a quick and dirty way to explain the uniqueness of a particular character without a lot of table time. In addition, they do a better job of allowing players to emulate Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser than any other edition of the game. Non-thief/rogue characters can pick up the necessary thief skills through Backgrounds. This, then, allows a version of the game that completely eliminates the Thief/Rogue class which takes things all the way back to 1974 when only three classes were available.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the input Father! Yes for Paladin, I would follow your suggestion.

      For Background, I semi-agree with you. As it is presented, I don't agree as my experience with them, especially with new players, is that it lengthen dramatically character creation and not everyone knows what to do with it. Also, because of the alternate rule of using Ability Score instead of Skills (from the DMG), the mechanical benefit of Background is lost. That being said: if you take background as you did in your Ba5ic, then yes it's actually an awesome tool. But my goal here was to present a version of 5th that didn't need any actual "rewrite" on the part of the Referee. You can come with your same understanding of classes, proficiency, dice roll, etc. all without any change. My goal was to present it with the exact same core rulebook. If I were to use the d20-5th, like you did, then yes your version is very good and I approve that using background like this is the best. It reminds me of Dark Souls classes, which are more "Background" then actual classes. In my next campaign that will use fully my LBB/Chainmail rules, I am thinking of running a background-based system with only Fighting-Man as it is the prime adventurer model. You can then multi/dual class later on into Magic-User or Cleric as per in-game availability.

      Actually this leads to a point I will have to pass by to you for ideas since you will probably be able to give an input: that future campaign (when my Arthurian one is done) will be centered on Covenants. I'm taking two main inspiration: the Old Testament and Dark Souls. Basically players will be able to enter Covenants with Demiurgic beings (who, behind the scene, will be in communion with the True God). Those Covenants will be the thing "unlocking" special powers. You can go the "free" path, like Conan, and stay away from divine and magical things. Or you can embrace it fully and because a servant of those beings. I don't want to get too much into details since I'm getting way out of subject here.

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    2. On Backgrounds...yeah, I don't much care for all the extra fluff that the core rules bring to the mechanic. I just ignore that stuff unless a player insists.

      As for the Covenant idea...it reminds me of my own use of the Saints in a NT setting when I have to put up with Domains. A suggestion: there are several Archangels not named Gabriel and Michael that might prove inspirational...

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