What we’re about
Welcome to the South Jersey OSR and Old School Gaming Meetup!
What's this group about?
Founded circa 2022 and now on its second owner, the purpose of this group is to foster the play and appreciation of old school and OSR tabletop roleplaying games. While the group's focus was initially South Jersey (particularly the Collingswood area), its scope has expanded and anyone within the general Philly area is welcome! Likewise, while the group is mainly oriented towards in person play and social meetups, folks who primairly game online through VTTs (Virtual Table Tops), play by post/email, or other methods are also welcome.
No prior experience with these games is needed to be a member of the group, so whether you have been rolling dice since the 70s or you just stumbled across the hobby last week it's all good. Likewise, this is an inclusive group - no matter who you are or how you identify, you have a place at the table. Standard rules of the road apply - be kind, be courteous, and no bullying or other bad behavior will be tolerated; the group owner and event organizers reserve the right to remove anyone who in their judgement violates these informal rules.
Ok, so what's "old school gaming" and "the OSR"?
Check the internet and you will find dozens of interpretations (and no small number of, ahem, "lively discussions"). For the purposes of this group, an "old school game" is one released in or prior to 1990; this includes AD&D 2e and older editions of Dungeons and Dragons, but also older editions of Traveller, Runequest, Champions, and Call of Cthulhu; as well as games like Gamma World, Star Frontiers, Top Secret, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Villains & Vigilantes, and other games of the era.
The OSR is a broader subject. The shortest version is "games published since circa 2000 that clone, use mechanics from, or are inspired by old school games (primarily but not exclusively D&D)". Various called the Old School Revival, Old School Renaissance, or other things the OSR was a reaction in the early 2000s to game designs and play styles that had become prevalent - primarily D&D 3e (the first wholesale redesign of the game since the 70s), but also narrative and other games that were perceived to have departed from older systems and play styles that still had value. That's not to say old school or OSR games are The One True Way to game (they are not, though some might argue it); but they are fun and have a lot of charm. OSR games tend to feature play styles which favor player agency and GM rulings as opposed to extremely comprehensive rules; sandbox play; and a rules light approach.
In its early years - the 2000s - the OSR was something of an upstart movement. With the release and mass popularity of D&D 3e in 2000 (the first edition not easily compatible with previous ones) and the deaths of D&D co-designers Gary Gygax (2008) and Dave Arneson (2009), gamers who started playing in the 70s and 80s looked back to the early years of the hobby; at the same time, the OGL gave designers a tool kit to replicate older editions of D&D. High speed internet, the blog era of circa 2005-2015, and online file sharing meant fans of older editions and play styles could find one another and share ideas, and several small conventions arose. Social media and online play created further options for people to discover OSR systems and approaches, as well as to find options for playing these games.
What are some examples of OSR games?
There are a wide variety of OSR systems, mostly created by small press publishers and individual designers. OSR systems include "retro clones" which replicate older D&D rules sets (for example Swords & Wizardry which replicates original D&D; OSRIC which replicates AD&D 1e; and Labyrinth Lord which replicates Basic/Expert D&D of the early 1980s). They also include systems that start from older editions of D&D but branch out - popular current examples include OSE / Old School Essentials and Shadowdark. There are also systems that start with older editions of D&D (or another OSR rules set) and go off in new directions - these are systems like DCC (Dungeon Crawl Classics), Mork Borg, White Star, Mark Hunt's BX version of Gangbusters, and many more.
Ok, so back to this group? What's it here for?
This Meetup will serve as a venue for fans (old and new) of old school and OSR gaming to find DMs, find players, and get together to talk gaming. Most Meetups will be in the South Jersey area, but Philly / Delco / KOP and the western suburbs / Lower Bucks are not entirely out of scope. Likewise, online games run by folks in this area are also encouraged (especially since not everyone can make a physical game due to work, family or other factors). Lastly, besides one shots and campaigns, we'll hopefully host some things at area gaming conventions which highly old school/OSR play (PAGE out in KOP; MEPACON in Allentown; and others). We're always looking for event organizers, GMs, and ideas for Meetups so if you have ideas contact Andy, the group organizer!
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Do you want to learn more? Here are some handy links:
- Wikipedia entry for the OSR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_School_Renaissance
- (blog) Historical look at the OSR: http://osrsimulacrum.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-historical-look-at-osr-part-i.html
- (blog) Defining the OSR (one take): https://www.tenkarstavern.com/2017/04/defining-osr-by-identifying-what-it-is.html
- (article) What OSR play and games are (another take): https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/feature/what-is-osr-old-school-rpg-classic-dnd
- the "Old School Primer" on what makes OSR/old school gaming distinctive: https://dn721800.ca.archive.org/0/items/old-school-primer/Old%20School%20Primer.pdf
- (blog) OSR play styles: https://blog.worldanvil.com/dm-tips-advice/osr-rpg-guide-to-old-school-renaissance/
- (blog) Twenty OSR systems reviewed: https://unsoundmethodsblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/12/twenty-osr-systems-reviewed/
- (one convention's take) Old school vs OSR vs NSR games: https://www.ucon-gaming.org/2023/08/u-cons-osr-nsr-track/
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Shadowdark RPG Level 1 One Shot - "Against the Cult of the Crimson Hand"Link visible for attendees
The town of Ragadorn has been raided by cultists of the Crimson Hand, capturing several villagers for some nefarious purpose in service of their dark god. In a race against time, your party has been enlisted to rescue the villagers and thwart the plans of the cult and its dangerous and charismatic leader.
This is an introductory adventure. New (and returning) players welcome!
About Shadowdark RPG:
Created by Kelsey Dionne and published in 2023 after raising $1.4 million on Kickstarter, Shadowdark is an old-school fantasy adventure game redesigned with 50 years of innovation. It won the Three Castles Award for best role-playing game design and the gold ENNIEs for Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules & Best Layout and Design!Shadowdark RPG is fast, familiar, intuitive, and deadly. It’s built for old-school dungeon crawls and experience points (XP) are awarded for finding treasure, not killing monsters - and combat can be lethal, so it's often best avoided through stealth & strategy. There's the familiar 4 core classes (priest, fighter, thief, and wizard) as well as some classes that are unique to the setting. Players generate character statistics and class abilities through randomized dice rolls. Gameplay focuses on risk evaluation, resource management, and problem-solving. Shadowdark uses a 20-sided die for action resolution. One of its unique features is that real time comes into play - a torch only holds back the looming darkness for one hour of actual game time!
Setting: Ragadorn (border town in the Western Reaches)
Campaign Name: "Against the Cult of the Crimson Hand"
Session Number: 1
How to Join: (1) Click on the Discord link on the scheduled date/time - we'll just use it for audio; (2) We will be using a virtual tabletop (Owlbear Rodeo 2.0) to play; click on the following link and the GM will grant you access to the tabletop (no account or downloads needed): https://www.owlbear.rodeo/room/Y1B4aH-qpfoX/AgainsttheCultoftheCrimsonHand
What You'll Need:
- Your imagination & your creative problem-solving abilities
- A downloaded copy of the The Shadowdark RPG's "Player Quickstart Guide". https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/collections/shadowdark-core-rules/products/shadowdark-rpg-quickstart-set-pdf.
- Design a level 1 character or select a pre-generated level 1 character sheet — for more info see Mark's #character-sheets channel on Discord
- For audio & mic to talk, connect to Mark's Discord channel
Useful But Not Necessary:
- I strongly recommend that someone have graph paper so that you can map your progress in the dungeon -- the tabletop will only show your immediate surroundings...
- You may want to check out this article with handy tips on "How To Survive An Old-School Dungeon" - https://www.cbr.com/dd-old-school-dungeon-survival-guide/tffr
- Intro to OSR Games & Shadowdark - "Session Zero" for New PlayersLink visible for attendees
Are you new to Role-Playing Games - or at least new to OSR Games?
Do you want to understand the core principles of OSR Games and how they differ from other popular RPGs like D&D 5th Edition, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire: The Requiem, Apocalypse World, etc.?
Wondering how different "play styles" appeal to different people, and how this can cause friction at the table?
Want to learn the basic rules of Shadowdark, one of the most popular OSR games on the market?
Do you need some help making a new Shadowdark character?
Wondering how to interact with your fellow players and what sorts of behaviors are considered impolite or off-limits?
If you answered "yes" to any of the questions above, this meetup is for you!
For those who didn't know, a "Session Zero" is a non-playing session where we go over some ground rules, explain how a specific RPG is played, and create some starting characters.
How to Join: Click on the Zoom link on the scheduled date/time
PREPARATION: Before the session, please check out the Shadowdarklings character-generator page which we'll use during our session to create new characters for Shadowdark: https://shadowdarklings.net/create
What You'll Need:
- A printed character sheet - it can be directly downloaded from https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/blogs/shadowdark-blog/shadowdark-rpg-character-sheet.
- Set of standard RPG dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) or online dice simulator - https://tacticaltokens.com/dice-roller/
- Zoom app (free for users) - https://zoom.us/download
Useful but Not Necessary:
1. A downloaded copy of the The Shadowdark RPG's "Player Quickstart Guide". https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/collections/shadowdark-core-rules/products/shadowdark-rpg-quickstart-set-pdf. - Intro to Shadowdark - Adventures in RagadornLink visible for attendees
OSR System: Shadowdark RPG
Created by Kelsey Dionne and published in 2023 after raising $1.4 million on Kickstarter, Shadowdark is an old-school fantasy adventure game redesigned with 50 years of innovation. It won the Three Castles Award for best role-playing game design and the gold ENNIEs for Product of the Year, Best Game, Best Rules & Best Layout and Design!
Shadowdark RPG is fast, familiar, intuitive, and deadly. It’s primarily built for old-school dungeon crawls and experience points (XP) are awarded for finding treasure, not killing monsters. Combat can be lethal, especially at lower levels, so it's often best avoided through stealth & strategy. There's the familiar D&D classes (fighter, priest, thief, wizard, bard, ranger) as well as some new classes unique to the setting. Players generate character statistics and class abilities through randomized dice rolls. Gameplay focuses on risk evaluation, resource management, and problem-solving. Shadowdark uses a 20-sided die for action resolution. One of its unique features is that real time comes into play - a torch only holds back the looming darkness for one hour of actual game time!
Setting: Ragadorn is a rough border town in the arid, hilly scrubland on the border between the Kyzian Steppe to the north and the Djurum Desert to the south. The town is known for its mithril mines and cattle pastures, and its lawless frontier atmosphere attracts a mix of mercenaries, outcasts, and fugitives from more civilized realms. The town is currently divided into two factions that coexist in uneasy tension, with the dwarves & elves controlling the artisan & market districts inside the wooden palisade, while the half-orcs & goblins occupy the low district & slums outside the walls. Humans are the majority and along with the half-elves can be aligned with either side and often act as go-betweens who mediate disputes & broker deals, or they serve as spies & turncoats whose allegiance is for sale to the highest bidder.
Playstyle: This is an improvised one-shot adventure set in or around the town of Ragadorn where characters can earn some quick coin by bounty hunting, pit fighting, cattle herding, rustling, mining, claim jumping, guarding or robbing caravans, and/or various "fetch quests" that involve retrieving an important item for a wealthy patron by any means necessary. Ragadorn is also ideal for "carousing" between adventures and turning spare cash into XP, although risk-averse folks are better off sticking to the taverns in the nicer parts of town.
Rather than using a virtual tabletop to track the characters' movement each round, we'll use the "theater of the mind" method where players imagine their positions based on the GM's description of the scene. This is a great way for players to earn some money & gain some experience in between pre-packaged adventures set in the ruins and wilderness areas surrounding the town of Ragadorn.
NOTE: To make this a "sandbox" where players can go wherever they want rather than following a less flexible "railroad" adventure with a pre-written plot, I'm using ChatGPT to help with narration. This allows me to quickly improvise scenes & NPC dialogue on the fly, and the process is getting better the more we use it. The vivid descriptions tend to be appealing to players who like dialogue and descriptions that sound like they came from a fantasy novel, but it can be annoying to players who feel it "sullies the purity of their creative process" or those who just want to get straight to the point and fight monsters, collect treasure & gain XP.
Campaign Name: "Town on the Border Lands" (homebrew)
Session Number: 3 - but new players are welcome!
How to Join: Click on the Zoom link on the scheduled date/time
PREPARATION: Before the session, please design a 1st-level character using the Shadowdarklings character-generator page: https://shadowdarklings.net/create
PLAYER BACKGROUND: Feel free to pick a background that makes sense (i.e. your pre-adventuring trade) rather than randomly rolling it. You'll get advantage on skill checks associated with your background.
PLAYER BACKGROUND, ALIGNMENT & DEITY: In terms of alignment, choose from chaotic or neutral - not lawful. In terms of deity, choose one of the neutral or chaotic gods to worship or the mysterious deities known as "The Lost", but don't pick any gods form the Norse pantheon (Odin, Freya, Loki) since it wouldn't fit the setting.
PLAYABLE CLASSES/RACES: To make things interesting, players will be restricted to the lower-class faction composed of humans, half-elves, half-orcs, goblins & kobolds. Certain classes are only open to certain "ancestries" (a.k.a. races) as follows:
- Fighter (any race except kobold)
- Thief (any race except half-orc)
- Bard or Duelist* (human or half-elf** only)
- Ranger (human, half-elf**, half-orc or kobold only)
- Desert Rider or Kyzian Archer** (human, half-elf** or half-orc only)
- Pit-Fighter (half-orc only)
- Seer (human or half-orc only)
- Warlock (human or half-orc only)
- Basilisk Warrior (kobold only)
- Wizard (kobold or half-elf** only)
- Witch (goblin only)
- Delver* (goblin or kobold only)*NOTE: The Duelist & Delver classes debuted in Cursed Scrolls #5-6 but aren't yet listed on the Shadowdarklings character generator page, but you can find their class details in this Reddit thread - https://www.reddit.com/r/shadowdark/comments/1j93qbt/new_classes_from_cursed_scrolls_5_and_6_previews/
**NOTE: Details on Half-Elves and Kyzian Archers only recently appeared in the free preview of the Players Guide to the Western Reaches sourcebook - see pages 6-8 of the Dropbox copy: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/bneo4ii3tca2wba5hkpxa/AH9f36wT7k7lP71d9ZIXfQk?rlkey=k81omxc93aei2w4wfldo9hxri&e=1&st=0xhhym6b&dl=0
What You'll Need:
- Your imagination & whatever roleplaying skills you can muster
- A printed character sheet - it can be directly downloaded from https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/blogs/shadowdark-blog/shadowdark-rpg-character-sheet.
- Set of standard RPG dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) or online dice simulator - https://tacticaltokens.com/dice-roller/
- Zoom app (free for users) - https://zoom.us/download
Useful but Not Necessary:
1. A downloaded copy of the The Shadowdark RPG's "Player Quickstart Guide". https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/collections/shadowdark-core-rules/products/shadowdark-rpg-quickstart-set-pdf. - Virtual Greyhawk Con 6 (Online RPG Convention)Link visible for attendees
The Virtual Greyhawk Con is a community-driven celebration of the original Dungeon & Dragons game setting! Join a fantastic group of tabletop roleplayers for a weekend of online gaming and community building, all from the convenience of your home!
Several experienced GMs will be running a variety of games at various time slots throughout the 4 days of the convention. You can pre-register for the games you want to play on the Tabletop Events schedule here, which shows the specific time slots and adventure titles - https://tabletop.events/conventions/virtual-greyhawk-con-2025/schedule
So far they have adventures using the following rulesets:
- OSRIC
- Castles & Crusades
- Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Edition
- Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition
- Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition
- Dungeons & Dragons, 5th EditionThere will also be a seminar on Greyhawk's cartography by Anna B. Meyer and a special panel of Greyhawk experts that will answer your questions regarding the campaign setting.
Best of all, Tickets for all 4 days only cost $5.00/person (plus $1.31 TTE use charge).
Details on the convention can be found here - registration requires a TableTop Events account, but creating one is free:
https://tabletop.events/conventions/virtual-greyhawk-con-2025You can also check out the event's Facebook page for more details:
https://www.facebook.com/VirtualGreyhawkCon/
