Old School Renaissance (OSR) (2000)

Overview

The Old School Renaissance, Old School Revival or OSR is a play style movement in tabletop role-playing games which draws inspiration from the earliest days of tabletop RPGs in the 1970s, especially Dungeons & Dragons. More popular systems developed under the OSR system subculture are
Shadowdark https://groupfinder.eu/library/shadowdark-rpg-2023
,
Dungeon Crawl Classics https://groupfinder.eu/library/dungeon-crawl-classics-2012
, 
Mörk Borg https://groupfinder.eu/library/mork-borg-2020
, 
Dolmenwood
, 
Mothership https://groupfinder.eu/library/mothership-2018
, 
Perils & Princesses
, 
Basic Fantasy

Description

The OSR movement first developed in the early 2000s, primarily in discussion on internet forums. OSR games encourage a tonal fidelity to early editions of Dungeons & Dragons. Less emphasis on predefined endings, and a greater emphasis on player choice determining the fate of characters. OSR Games provide play where wrong decisions can easily become lethal for characters and do not guarantee satisfying endings to character arcs. Characters live and die by player choice as opposed to the story's needs

Key features

Rulings Over Rules

Rather than providing comprehensive mechanics for all potential scenarios, OSR systems rely on the Game Master to adjudicate outcomes based on the players' stated actions. This approach is intended to expedite gameplay and encourage lateral thinking over rule memorization.

High Lethality

Player characters possess low survivability, particularly at early levels. Game mechanics often dictate that a single error or unfavorable dice roll can result in immediate character death. This design element encourages players to avoid direct combat and approach the game world with caution.

Player Skill over Character Skill

Game resolution depends heavily on the player's descriptive input rather than the character's numerical statistics. For example, instead of rolling a die to detect a hidden object, a player must explicitly state that their character is searching a specific area or manipulating a particular mechanism.

Gold as Experience

Character advancement in many OSR games is directly tied to the acquisition of treasure rather than the defeat of enemies. Characters gain experience points primarily by extracting valuables from dangerous locations and returning them to a safe environment. This heavily incentivizes acquiring loot while avoiding unnecessary combat.

Resource Management

Game mechanics require the strict tracking of consumable items such as rations, light sources, ammunition, and carrying capacity (encumbrance). Depleting essential resources in a hazardous environment poses a significant mechanical penalty, making inventory management a central component of gameplay.

Reaction Rolls and Morale

Non-player characters and creatures do not default to immediate hostility. Game Masters utilize randomized reaction tables to determine the initial disposition of encountered entities, which can range from hostile to friendly. Additionally, adversaries are subject to Morale checks during combat, dictating whether they continue fighting or attempt to flee when at a disadvantage.

Active games and players

OSR
OSR
Wise
West Marches / Living World
Power Phantasy: Vice & Viscera
Players
12
OSR
en English

Power Phantasy: Vice & Viscera

West Marches / Living World
One world and a big pool of players, but no fixed party - whoever signs up that week is who plays.
"In a time beyond beginning, when savage warrior-kings conquered and enslaved all who dared oppose them, and cruel lords of shadow raised black monuments to conjure eldritch horrors from beyond the outer dark. Gods and demons walked among men. To let your guard down for a moment meant death. This is the era of vice & viscera."

Read more

Save to favorites
OSR
OSR
Keswick
West Marches / Living World
TTRPG group for various systems - Cumbria
Players
6
OSR
en English

TTRPG group for various systems - Cumbria

Roleplay focused
Conversation, character and story take up most of the table time.
Newbie friendly
New players are welcome, and nobody expects you to know the rules beforehand.
Looking for new players for shadowdark RPG games in Keswick,Cumbria.  I have an established gaming group and am looking to expand session frequency through additional players Group is new player friendly Shadowdark is a rules-lite d20 system with OSR vibes. Open to other game systems in the future. Current casual  campaign is a west marches style setup where each session an expedition party leaves a central base to explore the world through rumours and previous expedition logs , each session ends with surviving party members returning to base.  Looking for players wanting to play sessions between weekly and monthly cadence, If is enough players available on a day(3+) then I will run a session/expedition.

Read more

Save to favorites
OSR
OSR
Online
Campaign
Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars
Players
0/4
GM
1/1
OSR
en English

Night Shift: Veterans of the Supernatural Wars

Horror
The game leans into fear, tension and dark themes.
LGBTQ+ friendly
The table is openly welcoming to LGBTQ+ players.
It is 2010 CE, and the world outside your window is infinitely more terrifying than you can imagine. You are all characters inhabiting the Urban Fantasy/Horror version of our world circa 2010. You can play a Psychic, a WItch/Warlock, A studious Sage like Giles from Buffy or Sam Winchester from Supernatural, a Mundane human who has been thrust into a terrifying world, a Veteran hunter of the Supernatural, a Chosen One like Buffy or Ashley Williams from Evil Dead, a Mad Scientist/Inventor, a Supernatural Monster, or a Someone who can see Dead people and control the creatures of death and undeath. If you are at all interested or have any questions, please ask in our messages or via the form you will fill out.

Read more

Save to favorites
OSR
OSR
Barcelona
Campaign
Looking for a Old School D&D Player at Barcelona
Players
0/6
GM
1/1
OSR
en English

Looking for a Old School D&D Player at Barcelona

Hola! We are a small D&D group looking for one additional player to join our ongoing campaign. The essentials: System: Old-school D&D using BX rules Setting: Mystara Language: English Age group: 30+ Schedule: Every other Tuesday, 18:30–22:30 Location: El Born neighborhood of Barcelona Experience: Some D&D experience is preferred, regardless of edition The campaign has been running for the past few months in a classic D&D setting that combines high fantasy, exploration, and political intrigue. Our play style emphasizes exploration, dungeon crawling, resource management, and creative problem-solving. Characters are vulnerable, combat is dangerous, and encounters are not necessarily balanced. Success depends more on player ingenuity and teamwork than on optimized character builds. If this sounds like the kind of campaign you would enjoy, send me a private message with a little information about yourself and your experience with tabletop RPGs.

Read more

Save to favorites
New
Posted 6 hours ago
en English de German
Shadowdark
Shadowdark
...
Mainz
Online
Frank Black
Hi folks. My name is Frank from germany and I am born in 1978. I started playing TTRPGs in the late 80s/early 90s (don't remember exactly) and had a hiatus between 2008 and 2016. In the early and mid 2000s I participated in the organization for a local convention of the german TTRPG Midgard. Most of my life I was the GM and to be honest I really liked it (probably more than beeing a player). At the moment I play in 2 local monthly goups (no GMing). I am not sure if I have to quit one of the groups I am currently playing in because I really dislike the system we are playing (Warhammer Fantasy 4E) and the group is not willing to change that in the near future. Besides of that I am more than curious to try out online gaming although I never did before. So please be patient with me. Old man incoming ;-) Today I enjoy OSR-games the most (Fantasy, SciFi and all other genres). The simplicity of it is just something I really embrace. I dislike extensive backstories for my PCs. I am convinced that it is more natural to build their personality as I play. I don't need characters that have already achieved everything in their backstories. Besides of that I am a gamer not a novelist ;-) I like my characters to go down in a big blow. They should not die of old age. The most memorable PCs I had are all dead :-) The worst thing that could happen to me as a player is if I recognize that the GM cheats just to safe me from certain death. DON'T DO THAT ;-) As a GM I roll openly and take the results as they roll. I don't balance encounters but I consider myself "fair" in regards of worldbuilding and player choices. I like when players don't optimize and just play without searching the solution on their character sheet. I will kill your character if they make bad choices or if fate demands it. I am not into voice acting or such things and I hate it to waste precious game time on playing out every-day-life of characters. The tavern evening with just talking, the 2 hour shopping tour with the local merchants, the chillout session in the public bath I've seen it all and I hated every single minute of it. Bring on the action, the adventure, thats the reason I play. As you may have noticed english is not my mothertounge. Especially my spoken english is probably not the best. But I think I could manage to be in an english speaking group. At least I would try it. I would love to find a group where I could try out online gaming as a player. I think I would not start online gaming as a GM right away but would love to evolve into that. I really don't care how to play online: VTT, Discord, Teams whatever. I really don't care at this point in time.
Save to favorites
en English
DND5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5E
DND5.5E
Dungeons & Dragons 5.5E (2024)
...
Online
Phobophiliac
Grimdark veteran Steady regular
I'm Nick, I'm a 32yo male/AMAB non-binary person, with a few years of experience playing D&D 3.5, D&D 5.0, and CoC 7th. I'm a little burnt out on those (mostly D&D/high fantasy) so I'd prefer to play a different system, but I'm not against those systems if the campaign is appealing enough. I'm open-minded, intelligent, and a quick learner so picking up new systems is pretty easy for me. The systems that appeal to me the most right now are Mutants & Masterminds, Cyberpunk, Mothership, Kult, Unknown Armies, any World/Chronicles of Darkness system, or any obscure or homebrew horror system (any setting with heavy horror). My ideal group would consist of people around my age but I'll play with anyone 18+. I'm friendly and get along with pretty much everyone, and have thick skin so I don't mind banter, darker themes, or adult content. LGBTQIA+ friendly (obviously lol), female friendly, POC friendly. I'm also not going to get too antsy if we get a little derailed from play sometimes, especially with goofier groups, but I love serious play just as much. Currently looking to play weekly on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday, during evenings/nights. Saturdays are undesirable at the moment but if I really love the campaign idea I can make the time for it. I can't play Tuesday afternoons and both Wednesday and Sunday are off limits at the moment. Long term campaigns are ideal. I'm a pretty dedicated player, I rarely miss sessions. Any VTT is fine (I love Foundry), theater of the mind is also fine. I'm not a big fan of Roll20 but I'll use it if I have to lol. I have and use Discord regularly. I also would pefer not to be on cam, but I do have a webcam. However I do not want to be recorded and posted on the public internet so skip me if you're running on a stream, youtube recording, podcast, etc. Recordings for private note-taking purposes are okay but do not post them online publicly. I love creating characters (especially flawed characters) so I usually have several character ideas for multiple systems either ready-to-play or brewing, even for systems I've ever played (such as M&M 3e, Unknown Armies, Kult, etc). I'm flexible enough to stick with RAW or go full homebrew, I will always work with the DM to ensure that my character is suitable for their campaign, especially if we dive into heavy homebrew. I generally prefer not to min/max but I'm not against it, I just find flawed characters (mechanical and flavor) to be far more interesting and fun to play. I don't meta game, backseat game, rules lawyer, and I don't have main character syndrome (if anything I'm a little shy of the limelight). I can also handle bad outcomes and character death, I believe that's just part of the storytelling aspect of TTRPGs. I love roleplay, combat, exploration, puzzle solving, pretty much every aspect of TTRPGs so I'm generally comfortable with any ratio. I also sometimes to photo-manipulation/digital collage art, drawn art (digital and traditional), etc for my character, other characters, campaigns, but I'm not very good at it (yet). Usually this is for comedic effect or out of necessity. I also do art and writing outside of TTRPG play. Not interested in play-by-post or paid games, sorry.
Save to favorites

Articles & Videos

Reviews

Sorted by:

No reviews yet.

Login to leave a review.

Other entries

Scvmrack
Tools & Platforms

Scvmrack

English
Polish
Free
SCVMRACK is a free, unofficial character toolkit for MÖRK BORG. It lets players generate characters in seconds, manage their character sheets during play, track equipment, weapons, armor, abilities, pets, silver, HP, Omens and more. Characters can be edited and updated directly in the browser, with support for English and Polish. SCVMRACK also includes searchable game content, character storage, Guilds for organizing groups, and tools that let GMs quickly view their players’ characters without taking control of their sheets. It is built as a practical companion for play at the table or online, with no account required for basic character creation. SCVMRACK is completely free and is developed as part of RPGTools.co.

Read more

Small Embers
Actual Play & Podcasts

Small Embers

English
Dungeons & Dragons
Actual Play
Small Embers is a Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) actual play podcast blending cinematic storytelling, immersive roleplaying, and epic fantasy adventure. Follow a group of unlikely heroes as they uncover ancient secrets, challenge powerful empires, and shape the fate of the richly detailed world of Elestia.

Read more

The Cosmere Roleplaying Game
Tabletop Roleplaying Games

The Cosmere Roleplaying Game

High-Fantasy
Complex
Heroic
The Cosmere Roleplaying Game is an officially licensed tabletop RPG based on Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe - the shared setting behind The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, and a dozen other series - designed by Andrew Fischer and published by Brotherwise Games in partnership with Sanderson's own Dragonsteel Entertainment. Announced in late 2023, its August 2024 Kickstarter raised over $15 million, making it not just the most-funded tabletop RPG in the platform's history but the most-funded tabletop game of any kind. The first campaign setting, covering Roshar from The Stormlight Archive, released digitally in mid-2025 and in print that October; a second setting covering Scadrial from Mistborn is planned for 2026, with more of the Cosmere expected to follow as Sanderson's novels do.

Read more

Looking for a group?

Find a tabletop group to join or players to invite. Groupfinder is a free looking-for-group platform. By players, for players.