Some tips for beginning 'Old School Renaissance' referees

If you are interested, but still new to Old School Renaissance (OSR) style games, these tips might help you make your first campaign a success! Everything you read here is based upon my own experience as a beginning referee running OSR systems. Currently there are 8 tips, but I might add more in the future.

What is Old School Renaissance exactly?

When I use the term 'OSR', I mean the first editions of Dungeons & Dragons that were published in the late 70's and early 80's, or games that are clones or very reminiscent of this era of D&D. Examples of these clones are Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC or, the one which I use, Old School Essentials (Read more about it here). These games are quite different from most modern tabletop RPG's and I will probably make a post about what I think are the 'pillars' of the OSR sometime in the future. For now, I reckon that if you are reading this, you already have some idea of what this style of play entails. 

1 OSR games are perfect for people who are unfamiliar with tabletop RPG's

Because the OSR style games are inspired by games written in the late 70's and early 80's, people might think that it mostly appeals to very serious tabletop veterans, and that OSR is probably not very suited for beginners. But this is not true at all! On the contrary: the limited options in character creation are far better suited for people who just want to give D&D a try and don't want to be confronted with dozens of choices that they don't understand yet. Most of the technical stuff can be handled by the referee, so after a quick character generation (or even faster, choosing a premade character!) new players can immediately start playing by just naturally telling the referee what they'd like to do. As someone who works in education, I have introduced Basic/Expert D&D to kids who were completely new to the concept of tabletop RPG's and we could start playing within 10 minutes. 

2 Before starting the campaign, remind your players of the high mortality of OSR style games

Of course it's nice when players spend time on fleshing out their characters by writing a backstory. But, to avoid dismay, players need to understand early on that character death is part of the game and is absolutely going to happen. This is especially important to point out to players who are coming from more modern systems and/or fans of popular D&D web series. 

Be prepared to deal out death!

3 Designate players as callers, mappers and timekeepers

A caller discusses with the other players what they want to do next and informs the referee about it. This can make a game a lot less overwhelming for the referee. The referee can also inspect his notes or the module he's using while the players are discussing their actions with the caller. 

A mapper draws a map of the region or dungeon the players are traveling in. A timekeeper can tell the referee when to roll for random encounters, when a new torch should be lit and when the party has to rest for a turn. These roles also emphasize that playing an OSR game is more than just controlling a character. If a level 1 Magic-User feels like they can't do much after using their one and only spell, make them the mapper. This should instantly make them more invested in the game! 

4 Get used to killing players by rolling combat rolls open

When you roll for enemy attacks behind your referee screen, fudging the dice can be very hard to resist. One problem with fudging dice is that every combat result will soon start to feel like a decision you have to make. When players receive lethal damage, you might feel bad about it. Rolling your combat dice for everyone to see will take the decision out of your hands. For the unlucky player it also feels more fair to watch the roll happen, instead of just hearing the result from the referee. I roll all combat, including initiative (and also random encounter checks!) in a dice tower for all players to see, which has led to some very tense moments!

5 Interpret Armor Class as an abstraction of more than just armor

Armor Class can serve as an abstraction of, you guessed it, armor. But it can also be an abstraction of blocking, evasion, finding weak spots, a series of parries and ripostes or all of these things at the same time. In OSR style games, AC already factors in most combat specifics. This makes the system quite elegant in my opinion, and I would advice against adding more granularity to it. When a players hits or misses an attack, a cool and flashy description can always be added afterwards. 

Armor class, more than just a number!

6 Interpret Surprise as an abstraction of more than just surprise

Similar to AC, Surprise can be an abstraction of more than just being surprised. You should imagine the player characters to be sneaking at all times while moving through a dungeon. The success of their sneaking is determined by the Surprise roll. So, if players want to sneak up to a monster, you can just roll for Surprise. If you think the players have a pretty good chance of succeeding because of darkness or background noise, the chance of surprise might be 3-in-6 or even 4-in-6, instead of 2-in-6. 

7 Be consequent in your rulings, but keep asking yourself if a ruling could become tedious

OSR games don't have a lot of rules, so you will most likely have to make up a lot of rulings during play. It should be clear to your players what the rules of your world are, so they can base their own decisions upon those rules and the results are somewhat predictable. But if you made a ruling that, in hindsight, doesn't make the game more fun, it might be best to let the players know you've changed your mind. For example: you've ruled that when players use oil to set fire to an enemy, the enemy will burn indefinitely and die. This might be a fun way to make combat more interesting at first. But what if players start chucking oil at every single thing they fight, making other combat options seem unnecessary? It might still be a fun time, but the point is: some of your rulings will have consequences for the balance of the game, so make them with care!

8 House Rule Thief skills

This is, I guess, optional (Just like everything above, to be sure). But I'm tempted to call it a requirement! Thief skills are just not very fun the way they are in old school D&D. I highly recommend using the D6 thief skills found in the first issue of Carrion Crawler. In this system, thieves will be able to choose at least one skill that they are good at from the get go. 

Let thieves be good at something!

That's it for now! If you are interested in my views on any problem you've encountered while playing or reading OSR rules, please don't hesitate to ask. Also, if you'd like to share your own tips, you are more than welcome to leave a comment as well.