The OSR scene has been growing steady for years, and for good reason. Old school renaissance games carry a lot of wisdom that modern designers tend to forget.
I respect what the movement stands for, even though I don’t sit at those tables myself. Here’s what they get right and why I still went my own direction.
Here’s an adventure that utilizes some of the best elements of OSR games:
Player Skill Over Character Skill
When the game throws a challenge at the table, it should test the people playing, not their character sheets. OSR understands this. You don’t roll to find the trap, you describe how you check the floor with your ten foot pole. Modern games lean too hard on optimization, where success comes from how well you stacked your feats and multiclasses. Some optimization is fun, sure, but it shouldn’t carry the whole game. Player creativity should always come first. It is, after all, a game and not a character building challenge.
Character Roles Matter
Nobody should be great at everything. That’s logic used in video games. In a cooperative tabletop game, the fun comes from being part of a cohesive group, like a sports team where every position has a job. When you depend on your allies for certain tasks, you bond with them. You also give every player their moment to shine. We had a campaign in one of my groups where the party worked very well together, and it’s the most I’ve seen players bond in a campaign.
Gio’s character was a caster who provided support in a way that always let Eric’s character hit harder and take less damage while Nick’s character took all the hits for the group. Meanwhile Matt would uncover the enemy’s weaknesses and that allowed the party to really maximize everything they did. OSR honors this design philosophy, while a lot of modern games often try to make every class feel competent at every pillar.
Consequences and Defeat
OSR combat is unforgiving, and balance takes a back seat. Players have to think their way through fights, sometimes retreating, sometimes losing characters to a bad roll. I believe stakes make the game exciting. Victories feel earned when defeat is on the table. If the PCs are expected to win every encounter, the game gets stale fast. Combat as war, the way it should be.
Rulings Not Rules
Most OSR games stay rules light, which keeps the action moving. Less time flipping pages, more time playing. There’s a drawback when referees are inconsistent in their calls, but that’s a table problem, not a flaw in the philosophy itself. A good referee with a light system creates more memorable sessions than a bad one buried in a 400 page core book.
Weird Fantasy
OSR tends to skip the Tolkien tropes that everyone else recycles. You get surreal landscapes, body horror, science fantasy elements, and a stronger horror current running through the adventures. Heroics take a back seat to dread and the unknown. That kind of strangeness feels alive in a way that elves and dwarves saving the kingdom never quite captures for me.
So Why Don’t I Play It Very Often?
A lot of OSR games still run on outdated, clunky mechanics that show their age. Shadowdark is one of the the few standout exceptions, blending modern design sensibilities with old school feel. Most of the others ask you to wrestle with systems that the wider hobby has abandoned for good reasons.
The deadliness also pushes too far in some titles. Mörk Borg and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay take it to the point of parody, where everyone laughs as another character dies in a ridiculous way. Heck, in Traveller your character can die during character creation! That works fine for a one shot, but it kills the kind of long term play I want. I prefer games where you grow attached to a character, develop them over time, and let their injuries shape who they become. Scars should mean something. When I know a character will die from a single roll, I stop investing in who they are.
My Solution
That’s why I’m building my own game.
Left for the Vultures
Left for the Vultures takes a player skill first approach with new school mechanics underneath. It stays rules light, leans hard into emergent storytelling, and lets characters develop through scars and mental decay instead of dying every other session. You get the brutal stakes without the disposable cast.
Join the Playtest ›