OSRIC 3e: An Informal Review

The vocabularies of certain Indo-European languages encode a memory of a social taboo against speaking the name of the bear. Germanic languages famously (although not quite accurately) are thought to refer to the bear as “the brown one”. Slavic languages seem to use a term derived from the phrase “honey-eater”. Baltic languages call them “hairy ones”. D&D retroclones operate on a similar principle. They avoided speaking the name of the devil (that is, whichever particular D&D edition is being emulated) for license reasons, but signal euphemistically to the reader which edition is being lifted. Old School Essentials in one printing refers to itself as being “styled after the beloved games of the 1970s and 1980s” but it’s very specifically a retroclone of the 1981 D&D Basic/Expert rules. My own Fantastic Medieval Campaigns is “a new version of the ruleset for fantasy wargaming campaigns, first published in 1974”—but “the” ruleset in question is the original 1974 D&D. The first retroclone OSRIC referred to itself as “First Edition Fantasy Gaming”, which means something like, “You can use this to play like Advanced D&D, but it’s not actually AD&D; we promise!”

About 20 years have passed since OSRIC was first published, and its third edition has landed and after years of various retroclones hitting the market and testing the waters of possibility, it confidently copies AD&D more accurately than before. Not only that, but of every retroclone I know, OSRIC 3e is the first to break with the taboo it originated: to speak the name of the devil. “Originally written in 2005–2006 as a retro-clone of the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, OSRIC is now in its third version, newly revised for clarity and accuracy.” We love our post-OGL publishing world!

I may not care much for the old D&D rulebooks per se (anything past the original is very preoccupied with ‘being’ D&D, whereas the 1974 pamphlets had no clue how they were going to be used or what they would eventually become—that is very interesting to me!), or the OSR play-culture which emerged around particular readings of those old books, but I’ve always admired the material culture of the early-to-mid OSR. If “OSR” didn’t stand for “Old-School Rhatever” but rather for “Open-Source Roleplaying”, I’d be more amenable to identifying with it while being so adjacent to the space. OSRIC holds a special place in my heart because the mission statement of the original author, Matthew Finch (known also for Swords & Wizardry and the Old-School Primer), was to publish a legally distinct version of AD&D so people could continue to publish materials for that game without potentially attracting the copyright holder’s ire. Since that’s become less of a concern, it feels fitting that OSRIC should also be the first (AFAIK) to liberate itself from that convention.

I’m probably not going to play OSRIC or AD&D, or at least not run it. I know that can piss people off but—look—as far as rules and procedures go, it’s the same game that’s existed since 1980-ish. D&D retroclones in my mind should be graded not for playability, but for style and presentation. The first two editions of OSRIC were really rules references which outlined the nitty gritty of which numbers went where. The third edition of OSRIC is more concerned with actually teaching the reader how to play or run this ancient game, and its willingness to speak the name of the devil translates into being a commentary on how to handle AD&D in modern contexts of play, whether with regards to miniature figures (now having pretty standard scales) or to virtual tabletops. Its didactic approach vastly improves on the original editions’ pure functionality, as well as on Gygax’s pedantic asshole voice—not to mention how AD&D as a system changed between the publications of the monster book, the player book, and the runner book. It’s not trying to capture a lost moment, nor does it insist on its own significance (those being, I think, the two general orientations of OSR materials: are you a fascist or a hippie? …or a grifter?). OSRIC 3e aims to reintroduce an old game for a new cultural context of play. I just adore it for that.

I’ve told others I hate when someone writes a review of a work with hoity toity language, only to glaze it the whole time (because the hoity toity language serves to justify why the thing is good). So I hope this comes across less hoity toity and more like honest glazing. Stuart Marshall and Matt Finch did a great job on this edition, and I hope it expands what we perceive to be possible when writing or publishing in this space (OSR and otherwise).  And look at those cover illustrations by John Sumrow. Much less grimy than typical fare. Very colorful and pretty. Ugh! Incredible production all around. Great work. Love it. Go check it out! In a fashion true to the early material culture, both books have free PDFs (Player’s Guide and Gamemaster’s Guide), so it doesn’t cost you anything. Though I ordered physical copies. Did you know those come in landscape? Visionary shit. I'll shut up now. Maybe I will make someone run it for me.