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
3
•OnlineIntro to Shadowdark RPG - Adventures in Alkesh
OnlineThis is an improvised one-shot adventure set in or around the city-state of Alkesh and the surrounding desert, known as the Djurum. Characters can earn some quick coin by working as guides or guards for caravans, hunting bandits & thieves, fighting as gladiators (or healing them for their next bout), capturing wild animals for the arenas, smuggling goods (or people) into or out of the city, exploring Alkesh's ancient sewers & catacombs, and taking various missions for wealthy patrons that typically involve retrieving an important item or eliminating a rival by any means necessary. The market stalls of Alkesh have some interesting items for adventurers with enough gold, notably various exotic herbs, healing potions & poisons, masterwork scimitars, spyglasses & burning glasses, scale armor made from lizard hide, lightweight plate armor made from ankheg chitin, and shields made from bulette hide. Alkesh is also ideal for "carousing" between adventures and turning spare coins into XP, although risk-averse folks are better off sticking to the taverns in the nicer parts of the market and artisan districts.
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 trackless wastes of the Djurum.
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 I 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 just want to get straight to the point and fight monsters, collect treasure & gain XP.
Session Number: 1 - new players are welcome!
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! Earlier this year, Shadowdark's Kickstarter for the "Western Reaches" campaign book raised $2.6 million and should be released by March/April 2026, giving us a more detailed look at the setting for the official Shadowdark adventures.
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: Two days' ride south from the mining town of Ragadorn, the arid scrubland gradually gives way to a vast, shimmering desert known as the Djurum. The land is a mix of undulating sand dunes and rocky badlands, bordered on the northeast by the Gilzai Mountains and on the southwest by the Yarin Salt Flats. The harsh environment and the monsters that lurk in the desert wastes present formidable threats to unwary travelers, but the spice trade draws merchants & adventurers alike. Merchant caravans coming down from the north must typically pay the Siruul Elves for safe passage across their lands and then make their first stop at the Shar Oasis, a palm-ringed settlement guarded by the former gladiator Rameer the Lion and his men. From there, caravans have 3 options, each with its own risks: (1) head east to the foothills of the Gilzai Mountains and make camp at the abandoned Sandstone Fortress, which the bandits who patrol this region avoid because it's rumored to be haunted, (2) head southeast to "The Bones", the skeleton of a gigantic beast half buried in the desert that offers some meager shelter, or (3) head south to a natural spring on the edge of the salt flats guarded by the Hamad Clan, a semi-nomadic tribe of lizard-herders. From either of these 3 resting points, it's another day's travel southeast to the gates of Alkesh. (Caravans headed north to Ragadorn must retrace these steps in reverse.)
Alkesh's white walls and bronze-capped domes rise above the surrounding desert, and its natural springs and clever aqueducts water the hanging gardens that feed its populace of almost 70,000 people. Alkesh is ruled by the young Shar Yasmila and her vizier, Afarim Zarad. The city is divided into 7 districts: the Alabaster Citadel (royal district), the Gardens (noble district), the Spires (temple district), the Suq (market district), Silver Street (artisan district), the Forgotten Quarter (low district), and the Old Quarter (slums). Treasure-hunters & adventurers aligned with the "Torch-Bearers" guild often gather at the Jewel of Borak, a rough tavern located among the twisting back alleys of the Forgotten Quarter. There's a more sinister & secretive guild known as the "Jeweled Eye" that also operates in the city and tends to attract evil wizards & warlocks, but little is known about its ultimate purpose.
How to Join: Click on the Zoom link on the scheduled date/time
PREPARATION: Before the session, please design a 3rd-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 ALIGNMENT & DEITY: In terms of alignment, choose any you wish. In terms of deity, choose one that matches your alignment, but don't pick any gods form the Norse pantheon (Odin, Freya, Loki) since it wouldn't fit the setting.
PLAYABLE CLASSES/RACES: The inhabitants of the Djurum are primarily humans, although elves and half-elves are not uncommon among the desert nomads, while dwarves occasionally work as caravan guards or as smiths & artisans in Alkesh. Half-orcs are often seen among the mountain bandits or fighting in the arenas at the Shar Oasis & Alkesh for coin. "Skurrids" (rat-men) live in the sewers of Alkesh and occupy the lowest rung of society, doing most of the dirty work. Halflings, goblins & kobolds are almost unheard of in this region, so they're not available as player characters. Certain classes are only open to certain "ancestries" (a.k.a. races) as follows:
- Fighter (any race except skurrid)
- Thief (any race)
- Priest (human, dwarf or half-elf** only)
- Wizard (human, elf or half-elf** only)
- Bard or Duelist* (human or half-elf** only)
- Ranger (human, half-elf**, or half-orc only)
- Desert Rider (human, half-elf**, half-orc only)
- Kyzian Archer (human, elf, or half-elf** only)
- Ras Godai (human or half-elf** only)
- Pit-Fighter (dwarf or half-orc only)
- Warlock of Almazzat (half-orc only)
- Warlock of Kytheros or Shune (human, elf or half-elf** only)
- Warlock of Mugdulblub (human or skurrid*** only)
- Delver* (dwarf or skurrid*** only)
- Shaman*** (elf or half-elf only)
- Plague Doctor*** (skurrid*** 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
*** The Skurrid ancestry and the Plague Doctor class are from a third-party Shadowdark supplement but you can easily find their stats on the Shadowdarklings site's character creation tab if you check the Unnatural Selection" tab under 3rd Party Sources.3 attendees
•OnlineIntro to OSR Games & Shadowdark - "Session Zero" for New Players
OnlineAre 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.1 attendee
PAGE 3 (4-Day Convention in Oaks, PA)
Greater Philadelphia Expo, 100 station ave, oaks, PA, USThe 3rd annual Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo (a.k.a. PAGE 3) will be hosted at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, PA from Thursday, Jan. 15th through Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. It will feature the finest in tabletop roleplaying games, board game and miniature gaming events, a dealer’s area, guests from the gaming industry, a used game flea market/swap meet for non-commercial entities, an auction, seminars and so much more.
You can pre-register for the events you want to attend on the Tabletop Events schedule here, which shows the specific time slots and presentation titles -https://tabletop.events/conventions/philadelphia-area-gaming-expo-page-3/schedule#
So far they have play sessions for the following tabletop RPGs (OSR games in bold & Old School games in italics):
- OD&D
- D&D BECMI/BX
- AD&D 1st Edition
- AD&D 2nd Edition
D&D 3.0/3.5
D&D 5e
Alien: The RPG
Amazing Adventures
Battletech
- Boot Hill
Call of Cthulhu
- Castles & Crusades
Cyberpunk
Daggerheart RPG
DarkSpace
- Dungeon Crawl Classics
- Deathbringer RPG
Dragonslayer RPG
DungeonX
- Empire of the Petal Throne
- Gamma World
GURPS
- Marvel Super Heroes
MAZES Fantasy Roleplaying
- Mutant Crawl Classics
- Mörk Borg
- Mothership
Mutant Year Zero
Old Gods of Appalachia RPG
- Old School Essentials (OSE)
Palladium RPG
Paranoia RPG
Pathfinder
- Pirate Borg
Pulp Cthulhu
Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE)
- Shadowdark
Shadowrun
- ShadowWest
Star Frontiers
Star Wars RPG
Starfinder
- Top Secret
Trash Sexy RPG
- Traveller
- Tunnels & Trolls
Twilight 2000
- Villains and Vigilantes
Warhammer FRP
There will also be a variety of card games, board games, and miniature games, as well as contests, a ton of vendors, and a flea market for discount products. For those of you interested in designing your own game or becoming a better Game Master, there will be seminars on topics like "Let's Discuss the State of the OSR," "Create Your Own Magic System", "Campaign Building," "Fantasy Cartography," "Dungeon Building Tips" and "Imagining New Monsters".
NOTE: Since my free time is constrained as a new dad and I'm not sure I can go, this will be unhosted - i.e. you shouldn't expect to see me there. However, if you plan to go, I encourage you to connect & coordinate with our other group members who plan to go via comments on this event and/or through direct messaging.
## Here's the Convention Times for Each Day:
- Thu, Jan 15 2026, 10:00am - 2:00am
- Fri, Jan 16 2026, 8:00am - 2:00am
- Sat, Jan 17 2026, 7:30am - 2:00am
- Sun, Jan 18 2026, 8:00am - 6:00pm
## Ticket Pricing is as follows:
Thursday Day Badge = $60.00
Friday Day Badge = $55.00
Saturday Day Badge = $70.00
Sunday Day Badge = $55.00
Weekend Badge = $90.00
Weekend Gold Badge = $150.00
Details on the convention can be found here (registration requires a TableTop Events account, but creating one is free): https://tabletop.events/conventions/philadelphia-area-gaming-expo-page-3
And here's the event's Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/PhiladelphiaAreaGamingExpo/1 attendee
Past events
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