The British Old School Revival (B-OSR)

[McDeath]

My own B-OSR journey started with the Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which I read aged 11 after playing D&D for a year or so. It was a complete eye opener – a simple yet hugely immersive experience, elevated by Russ Nicholson art that inspired and terrified. From then on, I became an avid Fighting Fantasy collector, with the Sorcery series being a particular highlight. Magazines followed – Warlock, Proteus, as well as other gamebook series including Lone Wolf, Way of the Tiger and Grailquest.

Around that time, I also picked up Imagine Magazine. Mature and literate, it treated my supposed kids’ hobby as a worthwhile adult pursuit that could be analysed and expressed in new ways. I devoured Pelinore setting material along with historical and literary themed articles. In addition to some outstanding content, it switched me on to TSR UK’s output, including the well-regarded U and UK module series and standalones like B10: Night’s Dark Terror, which remains one of my favourite published adventures.

Parallel to this was my growing infatuation with Games Workshop and their anarchic, post-punk attitude. Citadel miniatures were producing figures that, whilst certainly fantastical, felt grounded in the mud, blood and grit I increasingly associated with British aesthetics of lived-in worlds and dodgy protagonists. Warhammer Battle provided rules for flinging these ne’er-do-wells at each other en masse, with awesome scenario packs like Bloodbath at Orc’s Drift. Terror of the Lichemaster and the stellar McDeath. The early Citadel Compendiums, with their illustrated depiction of models, read like a combination of style guide and monster manual for the discerning British gamer. The revelation was, of course, WFRP, which felt like the culmination of everything that went before. The best gaming experiences of my life sprang from that iconic tome.

I’m banging on a bit now, but there’s so much more I could talk about. Dragon Warriors, Maelstrom, the subversive inspiration that was early White Dwarf. All this informed my development as a gamer, and maybe even as a person. Like all old gits looking backward, I get misty eyed. It felt like a great time to be in the hobby.

It’s also heartening to see that the spirit of that time is alive and well and finding expression in games like Warlock, Warpstar, Crypts & Things, etc, all of which wear their B-OSR inspirations on their sleeve. Elsewhere, Advanced Fighting Fantasy continues the tradition of Titan and associated books, whilst WFRP has a relatively new edition that has re-issued the Enemy Within as a complete and revised campaign. Times have changed enormously since I first picked up WoFM, but this particular branch of the hobby is still bearing fruit, and for that I am glad.

 

[McDeath]

What do people think? Does he match up with your experience of British RPGs? Is there enough notable differences with the old school American RPGs to treat the two scenes as related but different? Did anyone get though the Maze of Zagor without cheating?

From my perspective, the B-OSR was a particular expression of ideas and aesthetics, as informed by British art, cinema, music, politics and literature as by USA gaming influences, which had it's own set of inspirations to draw from. It initially shared a lot of comminality with the earliest D&D stuff, but the transatlantic divergence was, I think, deliberate and mutual. As TSR gradually shed itself of early artistic luminaries like Otus, Trampier, Willingham et al in favour of the high fantasy stylings of Elmore and Easley, it appeared to focus more on high stakes, quest-based, good vs. evil conflicts, that, whilst present in the UK scene, were never as predominant. British content elided more into the mud, blood and filth best represented by artists like Ackland, Blanche, McKenna and Nicholson. Horror, satire, genre subversion and humour were common, with protagonists having at least an equal expectation of hilariously failing as anything else. The Enemy Within vs Dragonlance. Which isn’t to say there was anything wrong with the direction TSR were taking D&D, just that the differences became more pronounced.

 

[Warthur]

So in my view you can get a good sense of the British Old School if you take a look at this shot.



These are the RPGs that Games Workshop released in hardcover from 1986-1987, the apogee of their phase as a company which focused on RPGs. (After this, they would stop reprinting other people's games, and then a few years later stop caring about RPGs at all.)

There's more US RPGs here than British ones, of course - the English-language market was still very US-dominated. But the choice of which US ones to bring over is significant - like McDeath said, horror, satire, blood, and filth appear a lot. RuneQuest is a bit of an odd one out - but the game's emphasis on community and mythology and the sense of being part of a world that is bigger than you also is important.

For that matter, if you put these five books in a blender, what comes out the end is basically Warhammer 40,000 at its most satirical.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

So in my view you can get a good sense of the British Old School if you take a look at this shot.

View attachment 38825

These are the RPGs that Games Workshop released in hardcover from 1986-1987, the apogee of their phase as a company which focused on RPGs. (After this, they would stop reprinting other people's games, and then a few years later stop caring about RPGs at all.)

There's more US RPGs here than British ones, of course - the English-language market was still very US-dominated. But the choice of which US ones to bring over is significant - like McDeath said, horror, satire, blood, and filth appear a lot. RuneQuest is a bit of an odd one out - but the game's emphasis on community and mythology and the sense of being part of a world that is bigger than you also is important.

For that matter, if you put these five books in a blender, what comes out the end is basically Warhammer 40,000 at its most satirical.

I'd add Golden Heroes and Judge Dredd to that I think. Although much like Runequest, Golden Heroes is a bit of an odd one out because of its Silver Age optimism.

 

[Sosthenes]

So in my view you can get a good sense of the British Old School if you take a look at this shot.

I was expecting a screen shot of either Blackadder II or Margaret Thatcher.

 

[Voros]

Another great Grognard Files podcast on Fighting Fantasy.

Google Podcasts

With Google Podcasts, you can find and listen to the world's podcasts for free.

podcasts.google.com

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

I was expecting a screen shot of either Blackadder II or Margaret Thatcher.

An early Games Workshop staff meeting:

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

Another great Grognard Files podcast on Fighting Fantasy.

Google Podcasts

With Google Podcasts, you can find and listen to the world's podcasts for free.

podcasts.google.com

I'll also say that if you like your gamebooks to have a classic feel (but be new), Jonathan Green's various literary classic reworks are top of their game.

 

[Warthur]

I'd add Golden Heroes and Judge Dredd to that I think. Although much like Runequest, Golden Heroes is a bit of an odd one out because of its Silver Age optimism.

Neither of which were hardbacks (though the Dredd companion was in hardback) but yes, they're from roughly the same period of Games Workshop.

That said, whilst the tone and underlying satire of Judge Dredd fits the B-OSR style just great, I wouldn't put the RPG itself on the same level of influence. It was popular in its time, it tried out some system ideas later used in WFRP, don't get me wrong - but it doesn't quite have the enduring popularity in the UK that the five games in my shot have. (Nor does Golden Heroes).

Don't get me wrong, there are still people who remember it, there are still people who play it, but the level of recognition and the extent of the ongoing fandom for the RPG specifically (rather than the franchise more broadly) is not on the level of the other games. Paranoia got its revival via Mongoose, many third party Call of Cthulhu supplements have hailed from the UK (including the entire Cthulhu Britannica line), the UK fandom was at the heart of keeping RuneQuest going through fanzine efforts and similar in the 1990s (and indeed the current management at Chaosium have some roots there), and so on.

Stormbringer's star has faded a little, which is slightly surprising given that Moorcock was a huge deal in terms of British fantasy writing, but I think you could take any of the other four games in my shot to a British RPG club and have a pretty decent shot of getting a game going, and that's been consistently true from that original mid-1980s phase I talked about to the present day. Judge Dredd I think people would get moderately excited about, but they may prefer other systems that have tackled the setting. Golden Heroes will tend to get a "wuh?" response.

Other games I could have included: Fighting Fantasy is obviously a big deal. Classic Traveller was brought over by Games Workshop too, and it also has a very well-established British fandom (anyone remember the old BITS - British Isles Traveller Support - supplements from the 1990s/2000s?).

 

[zanshin]

So in my view you can get a good sense of the British Old School if you take a look at this shot.

View attachment 38825

These are the RPGs that Games Workshop released in hardcover from 1986-1987, the apogee of their phase as a company which focused on RPGs. (After this, they would stop reprinting other people's games, and then a few years later stop caring about RPGs at all.)

There's more US RPGs here than British ones, of course - the English-language market was still very US-dominated. But the choice of which US ones to bring over is significant - like McDeath said, horror, satire, blood, and filth appear a lot. RuneQuest is a bit of an odd one out - but the game's emphasis on community and mythology and the sense of being part of a world that is bigger than you also is important.

For that matter, if you put these five books in a blender, what comes out the end is basically Warhammer 40,000 at its most satirical.

Just to note there is a lot of grim chaos horror in Runequest - Cults of Terror still stands out as offering some pretty horrific versions of bad guys. I used Warhammers Chaos supplements to generate extra features for Runequest monsters. That fit right in with UK grimdark sensibility.

 

[Warthur]

Just to note there is a lot of grim chaos horror in Runequest - Cults of Terror still stands out as offering some pretty horrific versions of bad guys. I used Warhammers Chaos supplements to generate extra features for Runequest monsters. That fit right in with UK grimdark sensibility.

You are of course right - and Broo are pretty horrible and are rather blatantly the source of Warhammer beastmen (presumably because Citadel already had the moulds when GW decided they were done with Runequest...). I would say that Runequest does have more bright moments of glorious heroism to counterbalance all that horror in a way which is less true for most of the other five games I showed.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

You are of course right - and Broo are pretty horrible and are rather blatantly the source of Warhammer beastmen (presumably because Citadel already had the moulds when GW decided they were done with Runequest...). I would say that Runequest does have more bright moments of glorious heroism to counterbalance all that horror in a way which is less true for most of the other five games I showed.

Although I think it was the case with 1e WFRP. Sure, the Old World was an unpleasant place, but I don't think you really get the "everything is doomed" vibe until 2e and the Storm of Chaos.

 

[Warthur]

Although I think it was the case with 1e WFRP. Sure, the Old World was an unpleasant place, but I don't think you really get the "everything is doomed" vibe until 2e and the Storm of Chaos.

I would say grand, grandiose "everything is doomed" is basically the supervillain equivalent of bright, hope-filled superhero moments, both of which aren't so much what the B-OSR is about. The B-OSR approach isn't "everything is doomed", it's "everything is screwed", which is a bit different. Maybe you save the Empire from Chaos, maybe you don't, but what you are saving is not so much a good or laudable thing so much as it's a preferable-to-extinction thing.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

One notable thing about early GW looking back is that while they may only have directly printed a few RPGs (both in house designs and through licensing), of the games they were involved with every single one of them is good. Not a single clunker. That shows a real instinct for the market.

Boardgames not quite so much, although there's not that many actual clunkers. Just stuff that's average.

 

[Warthur]

Absolutely. Golden Heroes and the GW edition of Judge Dredd might not be well-known hits on the level of the other RPGs they produced themselves, but they are far from bad games, just lost in the shuffle a little.

As far as the licenced printings go, GW were sensible enough to be discerning. They couldn't licence everything and didn't want to, so they picked those games which seemed worth the effort and expense of doing their own version rather than just importing. (They probably had the advantage of being able to tell from a surge of requests for import copies what games were exciting the early adopters.)

 

[Voros]

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

Just found these from about five years ago. A panel from Jamie Thompson, Dave Morris & Paul Mason.

A lot about the early days of Games Workshop. The first part mostly focuses on RPGs, the second part on gamebooks.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

This might interest some (it's by Jonathan Green who's done a lot of gamebooks).

RPG set in the world of Beowulf - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/436256/HEOROT--Roleplaying-in-the-World-of-Beowulf-Beastslaye

 

[arjunstc]

This might interest some (it's by Jonathan Green who's done a lot of gamebooks).

RPG set in the world of Beowulf - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/436256/HEOROT--Roleplaying-in-the-World-of-Beowulf-Beastslaye

Wow I was disappointed by the fact thelat the cover wasn't Jon Hodgson, but then I saw the name Russ Nicholson.

 

[SJB]

I’m circling Heorot like a war-starved raven. I’d certainly be interested in any comparison with Hodgson and Jacob Rodgers ’s rather excellent Beowulf. While on the Saxon track does anyone know what happened to Lee Reynoldson’s new version of Rædwald?

 

[Ynas Midgard]

This might interest some (it's by Jonathan Green who's done a lot of gamebooks).

RPG set in the world of Beowulf - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/436256/HEOROT--Roleplaying-in-the-World-of-Beowulf-Beastslaye

Do we know anything about the system? The preview is just the cover, and the video only says it's "rules light".

While on the Saxon track does anyone know what happened to Lee Reynoldson’s new version of Rædwald?

It's called Wulfwald now. PDFs are available for backers of the Kickstarter campaign up to Book 4 (out of five), although they are still missing stuff (ToC, index, some illustrations, and the like).

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

Do we know anything about the system? The preview is just the cover, and the video only says it's "rules light".

It's called Wulfwald now. PDFs are available for backers of the Kickstarter campaign up to Book 4 (out of five), although they are still missing stuff (ToC, index, some illustrations, and the like).

I don't. I own his Christmas RPG and I'd describe the ruleset there as solid enough but unexciting. (It's very good but it's largely the setting that makes it).

 

[SJB]

Do we know anything about the system? The preview is just the cover, and the video only says it's "rules light".

It's called Wulfwald now. PDFs are available for backers of the Kickstarter campaign up to Book 4 (out of five), although they are still missing stuff (ToC, index, some illustrations, and the like).

Are you impressed thus far?

 

[Weru]

Are you impressed thus far?

I have posted about Wulfwald here a couple of times, but there is always the "What is Wulfwald" bloo post if anyone wants some details . . .

What is Wulfwald?

Wulfwald is an alternate rule-set and setting for OSR and DIY D&D players of retro-clones or older editions of D&D. The World of Wulfwald is...

wulfwaldrpg.blogspot.com

Great thread by the way. Golden Heroes is one my all time favourite RPGs, though it is the only Supers game I've ever run.

 

[Gringnr]

I love Golden Heroes. The authors were huge fans of '80s comics from America. And it shows. GH has a lot of genre enulating elements that perfectly capture that nostalgic feeling of reading comics as a kid. I haven't found any game that quite does the same thing for me.

 

[Silverlion]

I love Golden Heroes. The authors were huge fans of '80s comics from America. And it shows. GH has a lot of genre enulating elements that perfectly capture that nostalgic feeling of reading comics as a kid. I haven't found any game that quite does the same thing for me.

I love it too, not my top supers game but a worthy one. Wish I could play!

 

[SJB]

I have posted about Wulfwald here a couple of times, but there is always the "What is Wulfwald" bloo post if anyone wants some details . . .

What is Wulfwald?

Wulfwald is an alternate rule-set and setting for OSR and DIY D&D players of retro-clones or older editions of D&D. The World of Wulfwald is...

wulfwaldrpg.blogspot.com

Great thread by the way. Golden Heroes is one my all time favourite RPGs, though it is the only Supers game I've ever run.

Thanks. I didn’t realise that the designer was a Pubber. I thought Rædwald was great and look forward to the new version.

 

[Mankcam]

I'm gonna keep my eye on Wulfwald, it looks like it has alot of potential as a Celtic/Saxon influenced fantasy setting, and I absolutely love this map as well

 

[Weru]

Thanks. I didn’t realise that the designer was a Pubber. I thought Rædwald was great and look forward to the new version.

Cheers. Glad you're into it. Always appreciate it when folk dig Radwald/Wulfwald.

I am a Pubber, but as with most forums, and socials, I mostly lurk and read, and rarely post.

 

[Weru]

I'm gonna keep my eye on Wulfwald, it looks like it has alot of potential as a Celtic/Saxon influenced fantasy setting, and I absolutely love this map as well
View attachment 60783

Paolo did great to get Russ Nicholson on mapping duty. I don't wanna get all 'sales guy' on this thread, but it might not be available, except in PDF, once the KS has fulfilled. If you really need books, box, and map, the best way, now that the KS has finished, is via the Lost Pages preorder.

 

[AsenRG]

I don't wanna get all 'sales guy' on this thread,

IME, we're all fine with sales pitches, as long as you don't bring a zweihander!

 

[Tulpa Girl]

This thread might be the best place to ask - does anyone here have any familiarity with the various solo DW adventures that Red Ruin Publishing has up on DriveThruRPG? Are they any good?

(yes I know they're free, but I'm curious if anyone else has played through them before I invest my time in them)

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

This thread might be the best place to ask - does anyone here have any familiarity with the various solo DW adventures that Red Ruin Publishing has up on DriveThruRPG? Are they any good?

(yes I know they're free, but I'm curious if anyone else has played through them before I invest my time in them)

They're fun enough as a diversion, but you don't get the same kind of depth you get from the modern commercial gamebook crowd.

 

[A Fiery Flying Roll]

The blog is no longer up so I'm reproducing it in full here. Uncaring Cosmos - If that's not ok let me know and I'll remove it!

I’ve been running a weekly OSR D&D game for three years now. It’s morphed into a sandbox-y science fantasy thing with dinosaurs (as you do), with five regular players. We’re wrapping up the current campaign (and one of my players is off to Scotland), so I’ve already started planning the next game. I’ll try to publish a record of the new campaign here (yeah, right!).

I’m thinking I want to run something from the British old-school next. I’ll probably use Dragon Warriors as the basic system (because it’s so close to B/X, meaning I can port in OSR content relatively easily), hacking in bits of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 1e, Maelstrom, and even the old 1979 game Heroes.

So, what exactly IS the British old-school? A few attempts have been made at a definition down the years, including by the Fighting Fantasist, Trollish Delver, and some bloke on Reddit. The Grognard Files podcast gives an excellent sense of what it was like gaming in Thatcher’s Britain.

I’m going to call it the British Old-School Revival, or “B-OSR”. I think the B-OSR is adjacent to, but distinct from, the American Old-School Revival (A-OSR). And, if you haven’t guessed, my tongue is firmly in cheek when I talk about “A-OSR” and “B-OSR” (I realise old-school tabletop gaming is already a niche within a niche within a niche).

Nevertheless, there is something to the idea of a B-OSR. I think the most important influences on it would be:

– Early White Dwarf magazine (issues 1-100)
– Games Workshop (and Citadel Miniatures)
– Fighting Fantasy gamebooks (and, to a lesser extent, Lone Wolf)
– British comics (principally 2000 A.D., but also older fare such as Action)
– British fantasy art (e.g. Russ Nicholson, John Blanche, Iain McCaig, etc.)
– British comedy (e.g. Monty Python, Blackadder, The Young Ones, etc.)
– J.R.R. Tolkien (of course)
– Michael Moorcock (e.g. Elric, Hawkmoon, Corum, etc.)
– British heavy metal (Iron Maiden being very influential, though I much prefer the doom-y sound of early Sabbath)

There would certainly be other influences, including the books of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, British horror films (e.g. Hammer Horror, The Wicker Man, etc.), and British television (e.g. Dr Who, Blake’s 7, etc.).

The principle principal [Whoops. Well spotted, SJB! – Ed.] games involved in the B-OSR would be the ones I’ve already listed above:

– Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play (1986)
– Dragon Warriors (1985)
– Advanced Fighting Fantasy (1989)
– Maelstrom (1984)
– Heroes (1979)

All of these games have new editions currently in print, or are available legally online. Of these, I feel Dragon Warriors fits the idea of a B-OSR best, not least because the PDF is available as Pay What You Want. Plus, as I said, it’s clearly influenced by B/X D&D, meaning it should play nicely with all the great OSR content out there.

In terms of what makes the B-OSR distinct from the A-OSR (and bear in mind I’m generalising here), I think it’s a couple of things:

– Historicity / Urbanism. The A-OSR has Hommlet and the Keep on the Borderlands. The B-OSR has Middenheim and Port Blacksand. Put crudely, the American OSR is a free market frontier fantasy (i.e. the Wild West with elves), whereas the B-OSR is coloured by the historical European urban experience. All of the B-OSR games above include details about things like crime and punishment, legal matters, guilds, taxes, bureaucracy, etc., whereas a game like B/X D&D is more likely to include rules on wilderness survival, hunting, foraging, etc. Of course, the A-OSR does include urban adventures (e.g. “City-State of the Invincible Overlord”), but they tend to be weirder and more fantastical, and less grounded in historical reality. Exceptions exist, and this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

– Class. All the suggested B-OSR games listed above include some kind of social class mechanic. British old-school games tend to be embedded in the historical feudal system, with more rigid class structures, more obvious inequality, and less social mobility.

– Grimdark. Blood, guts, disease, corruption, insanity, mud, shit, and piss. Critical wounds, mutilations, and fumble tables. Of course, B-OSR games don’t have to be played like this (and plenty of A-OSR games include such elements), but British fantasy gaming tends towards a darker, grittier feel.

– Comedy / Satire. Critics might rather call it “cynicism”, but there is a goodly-sized dollop of black humour in many early British tabletop RPGs. Bad puns abound, and Pythonesque grotesqueries lie round every corner. Moreover, the humour is often satirical in nature; the rich and powerful are invariably buffoonish or venal, the church is craven and corrupt, and the establishment exists to keep the working man (or woman) down.

 

[Acmegamer]

A Fiery Flying Roll Love it. That's how you do it. As an aside, I read this section to my wife...

"I'm thinking I want to run something from the British old-school next. I'll probably use Dragon Warriors as the basic system (because it's so close to B/X, meaning I can port in OSR content relatively easily), hacking in bits of Advanced Fighting Fantasy, Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 1e, Maelstrom, and even the old 1979 game Heroes"

Why? Because I find it fascinating how often on a Discord channel, Reddit or at a game shop I'll read/hear comments about how people don't understand how to do this. Or that it's hard, or that you can't do that. First, if you've been running that system for a bit, you should have a decent amount of mastery of it. So that when you want to make use of material from similar systems it shouldn't be difficult, and yet folks act like it is.

Then there are those who freak out if you do it... "you can't do that, it's not official, it's not in the rules!". There's this weird, rigid, "i'm going to freak out" mindset often with gamer these days I'll note, it's more common than I like. I'd only imagine how much they'd freak out to learn how often in the old days I'd be transferring over a material from a skill based system to a level base system or visa versa.

Anyhow, sorry, was a bit of minor tangent because your comments above really struck a chord with me based on things I've been observing the past few years. I wonder if a part of this issue is due to how popular Pathfinder Society and Adventurer's League made organized gaming? ::Shrugs::