Rose Colored Glasses OSR and 5E Musings

Well, finally got to run a game of Labyrinth Lord with a group of old gamers and some of their kids and cousins. 

I guess I look back at Old School gaming with rose colored glasses as the character creation compared to 5E was 

a drudgery.

Without some kind of very nice preset character creation help built in like 5E has, the game can really be taxing on 

your patience. Once everyone had their characters made we finally started to play.

Now mind you we were already a few hours late getting started. After playing the extremely smooth unified 

mechanics of 5E (and my Back to the Dungeon RPG), I quickly realized that much of the old school systems are quite

clunky in comparison. We just had gotten used to how they work and wrapping our head around another system 

can be hard. 

Having used both 5E is pretty much an old school game (because of the design advice from RPG pundit) mixed with 

some new school unified  mechanics which just simply flows better. It's not totally lethal like B/X games but it can be 

once you have ran out of dice for a short rest AND if you have used the exhaustion mechanics. After that, it becomes 

quite hard on the players once those buffers are gone.

The unified mechanic is pretty much Superior to any and all of the old school methods of task resolution. Why? 

Because system matters if it gets out of the way of the game! Roll a D20 instead of just pulling out the various dice 

for checking on sometimes the same thing. Some abilities use a D6 while as a thief they use a % so after coming 

from the B/X, 2E background from my early days of gaming, it seems 5E mechanics are a sweet spot. Very simply 

it just is way smoother than the old stuff.

I am pretty sure that I will be shelving pretty much all my old school games and for my fantasy fix will just be playing 

 https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/368009/FUTURE-STREETS-212X

SO WHAT THE F@#% IS FUTURE STREETS 212X AND WHAT THE

F&^$% IS CYBERPUNK?

FUTURE STREETS 212X is a cyberpunk free form table top

role playing game. A player doesn't need to know the

rules, just come up with a character with a few dice

rolls and a story with the Game Master. It only has the

barest of rules and all you need is a D20 to play.

Cyberpunk is an old term of a prediction of a future of

high technology and big cities that went to shit.

Outside the cites there is nothing but darkness and

evil lawless people (or so they say). 

Despite being far

more advanced than we could ever have dreamed of,

mankind has decided to take the worst possible path

towards their own destruction. 

Corporations rule the

world that they want to and all the rest can go to

hell. People are just an employee number or they are

WORTHLESS. 

Remnants of the government try and feign

power but they don't have the money to have any effect

on the world like the corporations do.

So as a person living in this world you must do what

you can do to survive. Almost everyone is out for

themselves and will back stab you in a second. 

You have

to either be satisfied living in a slum as a victim or

go out like a predator and make your way up the ladder

with the skills you have.

FKR: Free Kreigsspiel: VHS Punk '89 (CORRECTED)

Here is my first big trip inot the FKR land of blog posting. I hope to do it more frequently as the Blogosphere has come back alive once again...

Many of these Ideas came to me and from the FKR DIscord site which is what I call Primordial ROle Playing from back in the day before the rules were written, people made it up! 

https://discord.gg/CrD4P7fvXp

VHS Punk '89

The Setting is Any Big City back in an alternate '89 where shit was violent. Street gangs and organized crime. Sex violence and drugs! The Boss rolls up some bad guys and the Gang rolls up some characters.

The Gang will be criminal sorts of no real value to the world! It's all about getting ahead, betrayal at every turn. People are just getting that way. Need money? Go rob someone. Drug dealers and organized crime always have money but they can shoot back. Banks and casinos are next. Rich people can be held for ransom.

Lots of fucked up evil shit and lots of cussing while playing this game is expected!

Back in '89 technology was almost getting futuristic but computers and cell phones were expensive. The internet, if available was dial up. It was very evident that shit was changing! CDs were starting to show up but cassettes and VCR tapes were the now!

One thing was the music. Go back and make yourself a soundtrack for your game!  Styles were wild and in '89 there were so many throwback styles. The hair was especially great!

Hits 3D6 for an average adult. Less dice for weaker people, more for big lunks.

2D6 v 2D6 winner does damage rolled.


Advantage roll Three dice and pick the best Two.

Disadvantage roll Three dice and pick the worst Two.

Heavy weapons, autofire and Shotguns can add the Extra Dice of damage.
Blast have an area where everyone takes damage.
Autofire Damage can be split between targets and every 6 allows an additional dice to be rolled IF the first roll was a winning roll.

Example: Teds 10HP rolls a 11 with a 5 and a 6 and the pig 11HP rolls a 3. That's 11 damage and then Teds roll another dice for a 5 because he is using a Shotgun for 16 total damage blowing the fucking pig away. Die mother fucker!

Explosives double the damage.

Fighting just knocks out a person at 0 Hits. At Half your hits, your bloodied and look real bad. Heal back 1D6 Fighting damage after an hour of resting, fucking and drinking.

Deadly damage is healed at 1D6 point a week. Skilled Medical treatment can double that.

At Half Hits you are Bloodied and have disadvantage.

At Zero Hits you are unconscious  die in as many minutes as your Negative Hits. Example: Johnny got 10 hits. He takes 13 damage so he is dead in 7 minutes.
First aid requires a roll vs damage. If you don't have the right stuff, it's a Disadvantage!  If successful one can heal 1d6 right away and if you get above 1 hot point you are stabilized.

Armor stops damage.
Light 2
Medium 4
Heavy 6

Cover Stops Damage but it works as a layer of Hit Points
Light 4
Medium 8
Heavy 12


VHS Punk 89 Character Creation

1. Roll Age
2. Roll Hits
3. Roll Clothing and Style
4. Roll what do you do as many times as it says.
5. Ask the referee what Equipment, Money and Stuff you own.
6. Make up a name or handle.




Age
1 Teen - Just a stupid kid! A young punk in his teens to his 20s! Only 2D6 for hits.
2-3 An up and coming 30 year old.
4-5 A middle age 40 year old. Roll an additional What you do?
6 Old dog in his 50s plus. Only 2D6 for hits but roll two additional What you do?

Clothing and Style
11 Metalhead
12 Punk
13 Yuppie
14 Seventies
15 Sixties
16 Fifties
21 Eighties
22 Nineties
23 Studders
24 Zoot Suit Throws a coin
25 Shaman Look
26 Biker Leathers
31 Business Suits
32 Ridiculous Suits
34 Feminine/Masculine Clothing
35 Military
36 Goth
41 Emo/Scene
42 Wrestler Outfit
43 Clownish
44 Victorian
45 Medieval
46 Athletic
51 Cowboy
52 White Trash
53 Gangsta
54 Construction
55 Native
56 Preacher
61 Neon Bright
62 Weirdo
63 Jungle
64 Leather and Spikes
65 Futuristic
66 Nudist





What do you do?
11 Gambler
12 Gunslinger
13 Sniper
14 Connected
15 Demolitions
16 Pharmacist
21 Street Fighter
22 Professor
23 Techie
24 Doctor
25 Linguistic
26 Knife Thrower
31 Drug Resistant
32 Disco Fighting
33 Holy Man
34 Mesmer
35 Hotness
36 Chemist
41 Gadgeteer
42 Brain
43 Karate Master
44 Ninja
45 Samurai
46 Kung Fu Master
51 Axe Man
52 Driver
53 Skater
54 Roller Blades
55 Street biker
56 Punk
61 Gangbanger
62 Hacker
63 Security Expert
64 Intelligence
65 Strongman
66 Shadow

Equipment, Money and Stuff
As the Referee to tell you what you have. You probably will be in a desperate situation and won't have much. Always track Ammo and Cash.




Cars have 6D6 (20) Hits. Go up or down for other vehicles and make up the rest.

Doing anything else is roll a 2D6 and 6+ if you are good at something and 9+ if you suck at it. 

Additional Rules: Make up anything else you need.

The Gathering of Heroes

 The Gathering of Heroes

Imagine if you could get the old adventuring party back together? The one from back in the day for a grand weekend of gaming. Many will have lost their characters from years ago so we just digress and all remake level 10 (or whatever level you stopped at back in the day) versions of our favorite characters or ideal characters from who they are now! Hell if many of you became successful, you could rent out a cabin in the wilderness to do this. Perhaps you could make this a yearly event? The adventure wouldn't just be a normal Adventure but time of great peril! These characters would have to come out of retirement in order to save the day. If you could do this in a cabin in the wilderness you could actually have a marathon session like you did back in school! Can you imagine the level fun you could have what you know now in the game in the style of back then? Imagine doing this with the 5th Edition rules as easy and smooth as they play? If you can make that happen with the old Gaming group and get together at least once a year so you don't forget who you are then do so.

I have tried it on and off for the last 20 years at least 5 to 10 times. I'd either get no response or very vague answers.

So should I try to do it again?

P.S. At this point in time I wrote this blog post a month or two ago, and pretty much I don't really feel like trying it again but if you make it happen, let me know. See it almost happened again. We had a place to play and the universe itself in the form of a hurricane ruined that potential place to play.