The Case for OSR: Part 1

 

Back when a beholder was a force to be reckoned with, and not just a damage sink for your party of demigods

- art by Todd Lockwood -

    I'll be clear right from the start, this post is directed at players of 5th Edition D&D. If you're like me, you may have wondered to yourself at some point, "What was this game like in the beginning? If this is the fifth iteration of Dungeons & Dragons, why don't I ever hear much about the previous four?" Perhaps you have dabbled in more recent editions preceding 5E, like 4E, 3.5, or Pathfinder (which is a hack of 3.5, but we'll circle back to that). Maybe you've come to the conclusion that D&D, much like a videogame franchise, has generally improved over time and going back to previous editions, while fun, would be counterproductive, like playing The Elder Scrolls: Arena when you could be playing Skyrim. In some ways you would be right. However, the progression of D&D isn't quite as linear as you might believe, and if you think 5E is the culmination of 30-40 years of fantasy roleplaying, you don't know what you're missing.

    I began my journey in the glorious 4th Edition. This was within the last decade, mind you, while I was going to college, well beyond the golden years of my adolescence. I was party to a lot of nerdy pastimes throughout my childhood: Star Wars, comic books, fantasy literature, the works. I had heard of Dungeons & Dragons, but never from anyone who had actually played. My teenaged self decided that playing D&D was a line that I must never cross, or I would be at risk of becoming a social pariah to my friends and family.

    Fast forward to the aforementioned college years. I was living in a house with five other nerds that had become like brothers to me. They had a weekly D&D 4E game that I had been invited to more than once. I always politely declined, stating that it didn't seem like the thing for me. Eventually they wore me down, and thus began my tutelage under one of the best DMs I have the pleasure of continuing to play with.

4th Edition is what you get when you cross Final Fantasy Tactics and Diablo II

- art by Wayne Reynolds -

    If you've never tried it, 4E is a beast. The character sheet itself contains so many ability scores, saves, and skills it looks like a stat sheet from any given RPG videogame. In fact, 4E plays like a videogame, which made it the perfect intro to D&D for someone like me. Every character class is extremely customizable with abilities and equipment, and the PHB is rife with options to help you strengthen your character's build. I had the time of my life playing a dual-wielding gnome rogue assassin, specializing in invading my enemies' space and clambering all over them while stabby-stabbing and praising Lolth. Combat consumed 75% of our time at the table, and when there was roleplaying, the outcome was largely determined by the plethora of skill checks at our disposal. As our campaign ended with the death of Orcus, I wondered what was next.

    The answer came in the form of 5E; this time the role of DM fell to another friend in our group. 5E streamlined a lot of what slowed down play in 4th Edition, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed when it came to character customization. Sure, you could choose which subclass/path your character took when you first rolled them up, but once you did, the feats you would earn throughout the game were already laid out before you. No options. No swapping, unless you had a very generous DM, or wanted to take a standalone feat at the cost of one of your occasional ability score improvements. Despite lacking what I loved about 4E, I stayed on in my friends' 5E game and eventually started DMing my own when he got burnt out. In fact, my 5E campaign is in its final phases as I'm writing this. The simplicity of 5th Edition has two great advantages that make it enjoyable:

   1. It is extremely accessible to new players, even those who have never touched a TTRPG before

   2. It is generic enough to apply to any setting, opening up endless avenues for homebrew DMs

  That being said, the major key of change for the jump from 4E to 5E is less freedom for the PCs. "But wait!" you say to me, "You can literally do anything in D&D! That's the whole point!" I agree, that is the whole point of D&D. But a quick study of the timeline of editions will show that as time has gone on, a very specific culprit has robbed players of more and more agency with each edition. No, not Wizards of the Coast (though they haven't done you any favors). The fault lies with skill checks.

The progression of skill checks through 3E, 4E, and 5E

    My philosophy about skill checks could fill several pages, and so I'll dive into that at a later time. It suffices to say that skill checks reduce creative solutions by players to a simple math problem, regardless of how good the proposed solution is. Let's say for example that Cugel, a thief, seeks to enter an exclusive establishment. He has kidnapped a wealthy patron of said establishment and, through interrogation, secured the information and documentation necessary to enter the establishment posing as a valued associate of the patron. When he arrives at the door and presents this false information, the DM demands a dice roll for the Bluff/Deception skill (depending on the edition). The DM may even see fit to grant a bonus to the roll, or advantage in 5E, given Cugel's meticulous preparation for the deception. But why? Why leave it up to chance when this player has obviously put so much thought into a foolproof solution to the problem? If the DM sees fit to boost the player's chance of success through a modifier or additional die, why not just allow them to succeed?

    Now consider this. The DM grants Cugel a +4 to his roll (or advantage). Cugel is trained in Bluff/Deception. The odds seem in his favor. He rolls the d20. A natural 2 comes up. Even with bonuses from circumstances and his class specialization, Cugel has failed. All that preparation was for nothing. The next time Cugel is presented with such a problem, he will most likely feel discouraged from detailing a creative solution to the DM and say something along the lines of "I roll to Bluff." Boring, but statistically sound. I don't blame the player, it's disheartening when a creative solution yields no better results than lazy play. I don't blame the DM either, what should he do, fudge the die roll? Move the goalposts for success? The DM should really just allow the player to succeed, but the rules in question call for a roll in such a situation, so he's just doing what he's been conditioned to do.

    I'm not saying that the chance for failure should be nonexistent. When random chance is a factor, a die roll is always appropriate. But when character prowess comes into play and the player goes to the trouble of leaving no room for error, that is the kind of roleplaying that should be consistently rewarded. But remove skill checks from 3E-5E, and what does that leave you? All editions start to look the same in terms of gameplay. Because at the core of D&D, roleplaying should be the focus. Which is what the OSR is all about.