Leyline Press Blog

A Comparative Exploration of OSR RPG Systems - Quarrel & Fable

Posted by Panayiotis Lines on December 21, 2021

In this series of blogs we're exploring the various OSR RPG systems in the community and how they compare to one another and the original D&D rules. This week we're looking at Quarrel & Fable by Sean F Smith. (@seanFsmith) Quarrel & Fable by Sean F Smith is a Maze Rats hack intended to capture the feel of the Fighting Fantasy and choose your own adventure books much in the same way that Troika does. It’s lightweight at a mere dozen pages or so and uses a similar core 2d6 system to Maze Rats where you’re attempting to score 9 or higher on 2d6....

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A comparative exploration of OSR RPG Systems - Maze Rats

Posted by Panayiotis Lines on December 15, 2021

Maze Rats by Ben Milton (Questing Beast) is a fantasy adventure roleplaying game and hack of Into the Odd. It pitches itself in many ways as a versatile toolkit as much as it is a system in its own right. The rule book is a slim 12 pages and many of those are lists of random tables, with arguably around half being devoted to the actual core rules of the game.

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A Comparative Exploration of OSR RPG Systems - Into the Odd

Posted by Panayiotis Lines on November 25, 2021

Into the Odd by Chris McDowall is about the exploration of a bizarre, wondrous and horrific world that is too large to map. Characters take on the role of an explorer within that world out in search of riches, knowledge and power. The setting itself is split into the safety of the Bastion where folk live and work and ‘The Underground’ an ‘odd world’ comprised of twisting tunnels, ancient caverns and strange beings beyond the imagination.

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A comparative exploration of OSR RPG Systems - White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game

Posted by Panayiotis Lines on November 17, 2021

White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game by Seattle Hill Games is a retroclone of Original D&D. The name implies this, harkening back to the original 'White Box' that the OD&D rules came in. White Box is further based on Swords and Wizardry another retroclone of Original D&D. It comes in one volume that runs about 143 pages and as with many retroclones contains everything you need to run and play a game including character creation, equipment lists, monsters, magic, treasures and procedures for combat, dungeon and wilderness exploration.

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A comparative exploration of OSR RPG Systems - The Mecha Hack

Posted by Panayiotis Lines on November 9, 2021

The Mecha Hack by Absolute Tabletop is a roleplaying game of titanic warmachines with The Black Hack.

As a system it demonstrates how you can take the core chassis (excuse the pun) of an OSR game ostensibly made for fantasy and port it to a wildly different genre with excellent results. In much the same way as Mothership did for Sci-Fi Horror.

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