[Interest Check] OSR One-Shot

So because the game bees rattling in my head won't shut up about the idea, I'm gonna put it forth and see who might be interested.

The Idea
The players will make max level characters who have gone through many triumphs and defeats, joys and sorrows. They have hung up their adventuring gear for a time before reviewing a mysterious message for them to meet at the tavern in which they all met. The message in question is signed "The D.M."
Upon arriving, they find the tavern is largely the same, having barely changed since they left, though oddities are around. Further inspection leads them to find an entrance to the lair of the Dungeon Master who bids them a final challenge. To answer their deepest questions and perhaps give them ever-lasting cosmic power.

The Jist
To summarize, the players will take on a high level dungeoncrawl against a meta adversary.
I'm still pondering the system to use, whether or not to use Old School Essentials, For Gold & Glory, or something else.
OSE is nice because it's basically the updated rules for O/AD&D. FG&G because it's basically 2e and free. But I'm also open to other system ideas, so long as they have an SRD or are cheap enough, such as Basic Fantasy.

I don't plan on starting the game until some time in January. I'll definitely start it up if I get roughly four(4) people interested.

I'd prefer OSRIC to OSE/G&G, but I'm interested either way.

I've only heard of it, so I'll have to give it a read.

OSRIC is free and is essentially 1E with the serial numbers filed off.

Yeah, I got that from my cursory glance last night. It is certainly a possibility, but I'll leave it as an available option to see if anyone might want it as well.
Thanks for bringing it up :)

I'd be interested. I have all of the games mentioned in the initial pitch, and would be happy with playing any of them.

That be two interested parties - two more to go

Since there seems to be nothing else going on that interests me and I've played OSRIC I'd be interested. I'll just review the rules quickly and see what kind of character I can put together.

I'm thinking Ranger and since you mentioned max level, the Ranger seems to have numbers up to level 24. If we go that route, every class seems to have a different limit and every race seems to have its own level limit. With that I suspect every character will be Human with no racial limit to class. Let us know if you need to rethink that max level limit.

I hadn't thought of Osric, since I've never looked over the rules prior to posting. Since it has that higher cap with various classes and races, I'd prefer to keep things around a closer gap. Osric is still in the running, but I'll have to think about it.
I will say, it does make me prefer OSE due to level caps being closer to one another. Been busy with the holidays though, so we'll see

I know nothing about OSE, not even what it stands for. If I can grab a free pdf of it and it's not too dissimilar to OSRIC or other DnD products, I could probably learn it and use it, but if it's something completely different, I wouldn't be interested in learning something new. I am an old dog ya know.

OSE is Old School Essentials. You can get the PDF for $10 here. Note that these are all the rules that a player needs. For the full ruleset, it's $20 and you can find it here. new classes and races can be found in this work.

For Gold and Glory, by the way, is basically AD&D 2E.

Aye, and that one is at least free.

As far as rules go, Old School Essentials is essentially the same as far as basic rules go when compared to OSRIC. Though class requirements are much lower and allow for players to play classes that would otherwise require much higher rolls.
It's kinda a matter of preference on that ground.

Just to be pedantic, OSE is specifically rooted in 1980s B/X, Basic/Expert. So quite a bit simpler than either version of AD&D. It's also far and away the best written and laid out rules reference for any version of D&D, according to a -lot- of OSR fans. I wish Gavin Norman would take on some other rulesets and give them the same treatment...

Just for clarification since I've not seen the phase "far and away" used like that, is the meaning good or bad?

Also, if anyone is in need, I wouldn't be adverse to try and share the rules for it.

Far and away meaning something is the best at something by a good measure. Probably some colloquialism that's stuck with me since my youth. I'm full of such nonsense. To be clear here I'm not saying the best game / version of D&D, just the clearest and best set of reference materials.

Ah, yes! I was thinking that's what you meant, but I always tend to see things in odd ways.
I can wholeheartedly agree to it. When I played Ad&d 1e some few months ago, it was fun, but reading the book was a bit confusing. Especially when trying to find small bits of rules that really aren't there or easy to find. OSE's writing was fairly easy to comprehend.

Yup. That's its real claim to fame, and it's emerging from the OSR as very much a leader in the field because of it.

Interesting. I may have to check it out. I get my monthly allowance* for Drive-Thru RPG at the beginning of January. I can pick up the full ruleset and the added advanced material.

*My wife permits me $30/month for Drive-Thru RPG because if I were given free reign, I would own literally millions of PDFs that I will probably never use and we'd be broke. My collection of PDFs already numbers in the thousands.

Yeeeah... I have no one to hold me to it, but the crippling fear of never using bought material tends to keep me from going overboard ^^~

But yeah, the advanced rules are all you need. It includes all the basic stuff with everything that was released as a supplement. So it makes for a great combo package for roughly $15

Damn, I'd love to have an allowance like that lol.

I feel you!

Let me check something...

Yeah, 9400+ files and 45GB of RPG content. Oof. And I know there are people out there with substantially more.

Anyway, Necrotic Gnome offers the base OSE rules for free right here!

I don't need anyone to permit me anything. I've got so me many other things to spend my money on and so little of it to go around that I just try not to spend it on gaming. Once or twice a year I may spend as much as $20 on something but I've already spent that this season. For instance what I pay for internet and television comes to $260 a month, telephone comes to $130, auto insurance is $210, gas and electric is $270 in the spring and fall. And house payment comes to more than all of that combined and doubled. I just came from the grocery store and spent nearly $200 there after spending $272 last week when I had a houseful of family. You see how it goes. Were it not for the 401k plan my wife invested heavily in while she was working we would be flat broke. Anyway, I will finish my Ranger using whatever rules I currently have access to and submit where ever you say I should and I see if it works.

I think folks are talking more about "budgeting" than actually "please may I" permission, but hey. Rationing the funds you have is a great idea. Thankfully, the RPG hobby is hugely affordable, and these days there are just tons of games available for free or very cheap.

Yes, I do mean budgeting. My wife is quite understanding and would have no issue with me spending more if I asked, but I voluntarily keep it to $30. We don't keep secrets from one another, and the bankbook is shared between us. She manages the money, but we both have free access to it.

Bumping to keep engagement up.

I wouldn't mind giving this a try. How many players do you want in the game? Is the system going to be OSE?

I think at this point, it would be best to use OSE as the system. I was looking for about four as a minimum.
As far as it stands, I know two are one board, but I need to double check to see if one actually is and if the other wouldn't mind using the system.

I've never played a high-level crawl in BECMI/DnD so I'm quite intrigued by this opportunity. If you're still looking for players, you can count me in.

Most definitely. I've not either, but the idea just seemed so tantalizing.

I'm still here, and I'm still interested. I own OSE and am ready to go when the game launches.

Okay, as a bit of a tally for interested people, I have: WhtKnt, Aldrusian, Phil_Ozzy_Fer and matmaisan.
Harrigan and nezzeraj have posted in the thread, but I'm unsure as to if they are actually interested parties, since they've just replied to things said in the thread.

I'll try to get a game up soon, possibly tonight even. With four players, we can certainly start with the prep work, but that does not mean the game will be closed to others interested in playing.

Keep an eye on your inboxes!

Gonna pass -- OSE isn't my game and my PbP cup already overfloweth. Have fun though!

I finally found an old copy of the OSE rules that I had forgotten about. Unfortunately, they are the original rules and I assume that the game will be using the advanced rules. The original rules do not include a Ranger, only the 4 basic classes. Since I haven't heard anything against a Ranger I have to assume that the advanced rules allow for them. I just don't have the details. But I'm still interested in playing.