Old-School Essentials
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41
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Search complete. 41 mentions across 14 episodes found for "Old-School Essentials".
Oct 24, 2026
GazHOST
We might sort of jump backwards and forwards in time with this one.
GazHOST
But a recent sort of like phenomenon, shall we call it? Old school essentials that came out.
GazHOST
Oh, I see.
GazHOST
That is essentially the Mold Bay edition of D&D.
AdeHOST
We always play that.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
I also make use of Old School Essentials.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
Old School Essentials.
AdeHOST
The fantasy, classic fantasy one by necrotic gnome Gavin Norman.
AdeHOST
It's got a really good monster table.
AdeHOST
Now I'm putting on the new lot.
AdeHOST
I rolled some up.
AdeHOST
I'm using Old School Essentials, the free generators on their web page.
Pink PhantomHOST
You have Swords and Wizardry.
Pink PhantomHOST
But the one that seems to me to show up the most often that fits into that category is... is Old School Essentials, OSE, as you often see it, which was originally based on the basic expert line of rules, just being more of a clarification and restatement of those rules, and then later on added rules from AD&D for the OSE advanced fantasy version.
Pink PhantomHOST
that included a bunch of rules from AD&D to include those in the OSC.
Pink PhantomHOST
And then on the side of more trying to emulate a play style, you have Shadow Dark, which, you know, I've often, whenever I've seen it talked about, is talked about as the intention was to create a rule set that would encourage old style play from people who were more familiar with a 5e mindset, the 5e version of the game.
EduardoGUEST
well, I mean, for League players, I only run D&D because League is D&D, but otherwise, I also play Utrecht, the RPG night Utrecht, and there I have run, well, I have run the John Wick RPG and
EduardoGUEST
some other stuff, but I have run Old School Essentials.
EduardoGUEST
Those are those for now.
EduardoGUEST
That's it for now.
Chase Taylor CarterHOST
Yeah.
Chase Taylor CarterHOST
Eric, I see that you've been playing Old School Essentials, which we can talk about.
Chase Taylor CarterHOST
But there's a couple other non-RPGs on this list as well that I'm curious to talk to you about.
Eryk SawickiGUEST
Let's start with OSC, though.
Eryk SawickiGUEST
I mean, I'm a big OSR head, to be honest.
Eryk SawickiGUEST
I like a good dungeon crawl.
Eryk SawickiGUEST
And Old School Essentials is probably one of my top five games.
Eryk SawickiGUEST
So whenever I get to whip it out, I'm always chomping at the bit.
Joe O'BrienHOST
This, uh, setting has its own entire rule system.
Joe O'BrienHOST
It's Old School Essentials, is the rule system that works with this game.
Joe O'BrienHOST
And so if you wanna get this book, you'll get, you know, Old School Essentials.
Joe O'BrienHOST
It has a whole game in it, so you can play this as its own game, of course, but it can also be played with other game systems if that's what you wanna do, because Old School Essentials really kind of crosses over well with D20 systems, OSR kind of systems.
Skid MaherHOST
And Shadowdark, I think.
Sydney AmanuelHOST
Yeah.
Red RoosterHOST
If I have to think about all the different versions of Basic that are out there, if I had to pick one, I would absolutely go with Moldvay Basic because I think this one really nails it.
Red RoosterHOST
And it's no wonder to me that games like Old School Essentials, uh, and whatnot are based around Moldvay Basic.
Red RoosterHOST
So you'll find that in this.
Red RoosterHOST
While the beautiful, beautiful artwork on Moldvay Basic, this is a gorgeous system all together.
BenderPANELIST
I, I studied that book to make my character like I was studying for an exam, you know what I mean? It was, it was fantastic.
BenderPANELIST
But how I feel now, um, I've recently learned, uh, by playing Old School Essentials, is that a game doesn't have to be complex to be fun.
JescoPANELIST
Mm-hmm.
BenderPANELIST
Or as complex.
17 MINS LATER
JamieHOST
And you were talking about the, the tactics of combat.
JamieHOST
You were talking about how, you know, the positioning, the different abilities, the adding the effects to them, and you were talking about, uh, dead- how deadly the combats are.
JamieHOST
And that was something, as a matter of fact, just today I was watching a video, uh, that was talking about the deadliness of combat and how it's very different from a Dungeons & Dragons rule set and an old school rev- or a old school renaissance-type game, like Old School Essentials, or Shadowdark, or some of those.
JamieHOST
The big difference is, is Dungeons & Dragons is very much, Jesco, what we love.
BenderHOST
You know what I mean? It was, it was fantastic.
BenderHOST
But how I feel now, um, I've recently learned, uh, by playing Old School Essentials, is that a game doesn't have to be complex to be fun.
JescoHOST
Mm-hmm.
BenderHOST
Or as complex.
17 MINS LATER
JamieHOST
And you were talking about the, the tactics of combat.
JamieHOST
You were talking about how, you know, the positioning, the different abilities, the adding the effects to them, and you were talking about, uh, dead- how deadly the combats are, and that was something...
JamieHOST
As a matter of fact, just today, I was watching a video, uh, that was talking about the deadliness of combat and how it's very different from a Dungeons & Dragons rule set and an old school rev- or a old school renaissance-type game, like Old School Essentials or Shadowdark or some of those.
JamieHOST
The big difference is, is Dungeons & Dragons is very much, Jesco, what we love.
speaker_4PANELIST
Now granted, your mileage may vary on it, but in like...
speaker_4PANELIST
I've seen a, a group, uh, 3d6 Down The Line, in their Ardenville campaign running Old School Essentials, where they, in a way they do that, but it's the party has their initiative and the enemies have their initiative.
speaker_4PANELIST
So it's like it's-
LaneHOST
Mm-hmm
4 more episodes mention Old-School Essentials.
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