To Begin With

I have in the last few months become a retro RPG fan. Specifically Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games. I like many retro fans started playing with the Moldvay edition. I snubbed it for many years as I entered my late teens and played "Advanced D&D". No more kid stuff for me.

I moved through every stage of the game up to and including 3.5. It did take me a long time to convert from each edition to the next. I have never been trendy with any thing I do.

But I am digressing I really wanted to start off by recording what turned me into a grognard.

A few months back I decided that I wanted to put my players through T1-4. As I started converting it became very apparent that I was going to have 20th level characters before they were through or close. So much for following up with the A series and moving to the Gs. The conversion was incredibly tedious. I did get through the moathouse when I decided to see if anyone had tried this before... and maybe steal what they had done.

That led me to the conclusion that I really needed a light version of 3 to get everything I wanted out of the adventure. Which in turn led me to discovering Basic Fantasy. Quite and awesome little game. I am running the ToEE with it right now. Race and Class broken out. BAB combat system. I could easily make my group swallow this game. They had the same mentality I started with.

Further investigation and reading led me eventually to Labyrinth Lord. After playing both BFRPG and LL for quite a while now I have been converted entirely back to Old School methodology.

As I get older the appeal of the simple rule system really hits home for me. It is not just a step back to my childhood it is a step forward to a set of rules that I have time to develop for and play with minimal preparation. Gone are hours of tweaking the feats on my newest villain. I don't miss the cool powers and talents. Now my imagination sets the limits of what can be done not a set of expensive and expansive rule books that are often not balanced for play.

Thanks to all the founders of the OSR. May it march forever on!