The OSR Support Network

Well I was wrong ... sorta. My recent rants about the crazy confusion of the Old School Movement were right on a few points.

1. There is no central authority.
2. Resources and support are scattered from hell to breakfast, as they say in the cowboy west.
3. No network exists to unite OS players

But after conversing with a number of other OS bloggers and doing quite a bit of deep surfing through the OS web I've found some things out.

1. The OSM doesn't want a central authority--it defeats the purpose
2. While resources are all over the place that's a good thing; it shows more and more gamers are creating material. And there are a number of sites dedicated to collecting and cataloging such resources on their sites.
3. Lots of OS players are using pbp, pbemail, and skype gaming to get their fix until they can find gamers close to them

I've also heard the analogy drawn between the early days of gaming (from '74 to '78) and what is occurring now in the OSR. Back then, that came to a close with the release of AD&D, and with TSR's growing litigation- happy approach to anyone that looked like they were stepping on their turf. The desire now seems to be to keep the spirit of openness provided by WoTC with the OGL and the SRD. So, many of my points are really moot, at least to much of the OSR crowd.

The "support network" if one can call it that is actually vast if rather diffuse. For anyone wanting to start playing old school games, for someone looking to get back into the hobby where they left off 20 plus years ago, or for avid gamers just looking for old school stuff, just do a google search. You'll come up with enough OS stuff to keep you busy for weeks. It's what I've been doing for awhile now. I've still not plumbed the depths. I'm not sure anyone could. It would be a full time job to wade through all this stuff. And I've got a full time job.

Me? I just wanna play games.