This is a Blog About Oldschool Tabletop Roleplaying Games

See the title. Do I need to say anything else as an introduction? Probably not. However, I'm sure some specifics are in order.

If you're here, you may already know what a tabletop roleplaying game is, but I'll give you the skinny just in case you don't: You and (ideally) two or more people get together and tell a story. Simple enough? Great, but there are rules (whole systems of rules in fact), and these are what people will debate about the most.

When I say "Oldschool Tabletop Roleplaying," I'm not just referring to historic pencil and paper systems like the first Dungeons & Dragons game published in 1974. All of Gygax's and Arneson's early tabletop RPGs do fit the description, but others have made "new oldschool" games by taking heavy inspiration from the style and substance of what made early tabletop games distinct from more modern systems such as Pathfinder or 5th edition D&D.

We will call this "new oldschool" kind of tabletop game an "OldSchool Renaissance" or "OSR" game, since everyone else seems to be calling it that these days. It encompasses all TSR-era related content, so that's fine for our purposes here.

If I help grow the number of people interested in OSR, or kindle the existing passion among OSR enthusiasts, I will consider my efforts worthwhile. If I think a discussing a topic would be interesting or helpful, I'll post it on Random Magic Sword.

I'll try to give what's presented here substance and value to people who are tabletop gaming enthusiasts, like roll tables, suggestions for new mechanics, setting ideas, or even reviews. If there's a niche in the hobby to be filled, I'll give it my best shot.

Every post will have a central theme to it that is, to me, worth exploring in more depth or improving upon. I'll give each of these themes attention, and provide methods for using them in a game you might DM one day.

Remember: The goal of tabletop games is to have fun, not to "win."