OSR Guide for the Perplexed - Introduction

I have been posting about my games in my personal social media account. Well, not consistently. But I wanted to post it in a better format other than what the platform had to offer. So, I decided to make a channel to spout out my rpg system ramblings and burp out my great and not-so-great experiences under different tables.

I was not entirely sure about what my first post will be about, so I will just kick start things by answering a running questionnaire for OSR enthusiasts. I call myself an OSR enthusiast, because I haven’t really gotten down and ran actual old school D&D (OD&D, B/X, etc) but am leaning to the old school spirit of gaming. 

I am over a month late when this got a bit of hype when posted on reddit, but I'd just like to make my own version as my first post here. 

1. One article or blog entry that exemplifies the best of the Old School Renaissance for me:
   This great sneak peek from Chris McDowall’s upcoming new book, Electric Bastionland.
   http://www.bastionland.com/2018/08/a-players-handbook.html
2. My favorite piece of OSR wisdom/advice/snark: 
   If there are no risks, you don’t have to roll. If you do have to roll, it will have impact and consequences.
   I’m looking at you, people who rolls for every action they make just to see if they can get a 20 on their d20s and pretend they did something epic, without considering the situation of the gaming group and the GM.
3. Best OSR module/supplement: 
   I haven’t really played or read a lot of modules as I almost always run homebrew, so I wouldn’t know the best one. I would recommend people in giving Tomb of the Serpent Kings a run or even just a read. It’s a great OSR dungeon introduction.
   If we consider one-page dungeons, the Sky Blind Spire, in my opinion, has old school spirit and my current favorite. 
4. My favorite house rule (by someone else):
   If you don’t know or have the material components of the spell, the casting fizzles. A harsh rule on playing classic D&D, but it does make your players more aware about the intricacies of spells beyond waving their wands or spouting a magic word.
   For more general gaming session rules, “feed the GM” is one of the best.
5. How I found out about the OSR: 
   I first got exposed to OSR games back in 2015~2016, where I joined a Yoon-Suin game under LotFP rules. I didn’t think much of the system and style at first, but I did get hooked with my clergyman that turned “high priest” of his cult.
   As a GM, however, I only got recently invested in the OSR play style. It stemmed from my search for rules-light games back in early 2017, where I was attempting to create my own tri-stat system. I never finished that game, and instead ended up finding and running Maze Rats and Into the Odd, which have become one of my favored rpg tool kit and system, respectively.
6. My favorite OSR online resource/toy:
   It would be all in http://www.bastionland.com/ for me. I am recent convert of the OSR ideas, and I have yet to read thoroughly other prominent OSR bloggers, but Chris’ way is still my go-to style.
7. Best place to talk to other OSR gamers:
   Google+ OSR community is still alive, but I have been frequently visiting the OSR discord channel. 
8. Other places I might be found hanging out talking games:
   I sometimes blab about my games in twitter and facebook. But moving forward all my ramblings will go to this blog (hopefully).
9. My awesome, pithy OSR take nobody appreciates enough:
   The class does not define the player nor the character. Just because you’re a wizard does not mean you have to be the bookworm stereotype. Never assume another character’s capabilities because of his archetype.
10. My favorite non-OSR RPG:
    Blades in the Dark. Its expanded resolution system of considering position and effectiveness is a neat and concrete idea of properly quantifying consequences of an action.
11. Why I like OSR stuff: 
    The GMing style engages players directly rather the characters they’re playing as. I think it’s one of the best way to immerse players into role playing vs roll playing.
    OSR games are all about focusing less about on what cool feature or ability you have in your character sheet and more on solving the predicament you are in the game. There are games that gives you a lot of tools and abilities that are too focused, that players are more interested in trying them out just to see them work rather than using those features as tools to complete or escalate the situation they are in.
12. Two other cool OSR things you should know about that I haven’t named yet: 
    There is a spell called Catherine. A simple idea that can escalate, depending on how you and the group treats the scenario.   
    And I think OSR is getting a bad rep for being “lethal” but in fact it merely punishes poor decision-making. But this "high lethality" can be a symptom of a bad dynamic by either the players or the GM.
    
13. If I could read but one other RPG blog but my own it would be:
    I won’t recommend reading only one blog. Each GM/Referee have their own takes on handling situations and creating tables and kits that could help your game. Explore! Read as many hacks and try as many styles as you can!
14. A game thing I made that I like quite a lot is:
    The rumor system from Fourthcore adventure modules is something I hacked into my one-shot games. I find it a clever way of giving information about the whole adventure, without giving away the whole story. Put bits and pieces of what they will encounter in the adventure as reliable or unreliable rumors, and hint a bigger plot when they see patterns that does not add up until later. 
15. I'm currently running/playing:
    Playing:
    * D&D 5E AL Eberron. I’m playing Gundaakr, a goblin fighter who is a Seeker of Divinity Within. Current gimmick: move to enemy > Help action > Disengage bonus action > move away if possible
    * Blades in the Dark: One More Notch under Pam Punzalan of Play Without Apology. Playing a Rakshasa from Iruvia, possessed by a saint from Grishaverse.
    * Out of the Abyss using D&D 5E and Veins of the Earth hexcrawl rules, ran by BJ Recio of Nosfecatu Publishing. We were escaped drow slaves trying to crawl our way back to the surface world. We already encountered THE Demogorgon on our 2^nd session, and it was hilariously scary.
    * I have 3 more games which I am under, but they haven't taken of for a few months now due to conflicting player and GM schedules.
    Running:
    * Sharp Sword & Sinister Spells, Filipino-inspired homebrew. A ragtag team who were doing magic ingredients-fetching job that somehow got them involved in a political war between humans and tikbalangs (horse-headed Filipino folk monsters).
16. I don't care whether you use ascending or descending AC because:
    I no longer care about it. Dungeon World, PbtA games, and Into the Odd made me think of combat beyond AC.
    
17. The OSRest picture I could post on short notice:This one is not really part of the original questions but from Ben Milton of Questing Beast's version of the questionnaire. And this image is from that same blog post.