Basic OSR Principles
On December 29th, 2024 daseinphil asked on bluesky:
"This might be an overly broad question, but: does anyone have specific advice on encouraging #osr style play in a group used to 5e #dnd? I’m thinking specifically of how to encourage creative problem solving, and thinking beyond spells and abilities as buttons to press."
I did my best to blunder through some answers, and a few folks have asked that I collect all of my replies here for posterity.
- Try to help them remember they don't need to roll for EVERYTHING. Instead, they should ask questions, and you should be honest with them with your answers.
- Forget perception checks (most of the time). Just tell them what their character can perceive.
- Create challenges that don't have an obvious outcome; instead encourage them come up with their own solutions.
- The world goes on whether the PCs are in it or not. Make it feel real: if they ignore the smoke on the horizon, it should reveal a destroyed village later on!
- Create dungeons with factions, inhabitants, and total weirdos that want to live there. The PCs are NOT INVITED.
- Create interesting choices as often as you can. This means that doors DO NOT ALL GO TO THE SAME PLACE.
- Be consistent but collaborative about your rulings. If you're not sure about the answer to something, roll a die of fate, or just talk it out with your players.
- Death should be on the table, even for high-level PCs. Violence is fun but is also NOT THE GOAL.
- Know when to ignore mechanics and just do what makes sense in the fiction. If a PC gets a boulder dropped on their head, armor doesn't really come into the picture: They're just dead.
- Treasure should be a pain in the ass to transport, and make the PCs a target. This is doubly true for magic.
- PCs should try to stack the odds in their favor; they should play to win. Ignore CRs and "balance" - combat is war, not sport.
- Reward creative thinking and problem solving. If a player makes a good enough argument, they shouldn't need to roll any dice; they just succeed.
- Randomness is a beautiful thing. Roll on tables, make reaction rolls (especially for monsters) and let yourself be surprised by where things go!
- Develop situations, not plots. Loose ideas are fine, but do not write a story! That's up to the players to create alongside you.
- Telegraph danger; let the players know what the consequences of their action/inaction might be. If you've done things right, they'll laugh at their character's death, because they understood how they got there.
- NPCs and monsters should talk to one another. Especially during combat.