OSRIC: "Rules Lite"?

So I've been wondering what makes a game "rules lite"?

I have had a tremendous urge to go rules lite with my campaigns. Blame the folk at Mythmere. For ever since I read _A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming_ by Matthew J. Finch I have been entranced with the potential of rules lite systems.

http://http//www.lulu.com/content/3019374

So do I stick with 1e or go with a so-called rules lite system like Swords and Wizardry, Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game or even hearken back to OD&D? Philotomy has urged me far in that respect. Of course when I ran across Stuart Marshall's Old School Reference Index Compendium "OSRIC" system I was initially sold hands down.

But then as I approached other rule lite proponents it was commonly said 1e didn't qualify as rules lite and OSRIC was a 1e retro-clone.

http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/osric/

Well, to help me make this decision I compared BFRPG with OSRIC today. This is what I see:

Actual Game Rules:

OSRIC: 82 pp
BFRPG: 47 pp

Spells:

OSRIC: 71 pp
BFRPG: 21 pp

Monsters:

OSRIC: 80 pp
BFRPG: 64 pp

Treasure:

OSRIC: 50 pp
BFRPG: 6 pp

So we're really talking a difference of 35 pp. And truthfully alot of these OSRIC pp are just helpful tables in generating dungeons, towns and wilderness settings. They are really not rules per se.

I would geusstimate the actual difference in rules pp between the two at about 27 pp.

So IMO OSRIC is fairly rules lite as well. Sure it carries behind it the collective weight of Dragon mags, adventures, campaign supplements, hardbacks and the general tone contained in Gary's version of 1e.

But what Stuart Marshall has managed to do is distill the skeleton of 1e, its helpful core campaign build resources and the spirit of 1e in a rules lite version.

So when we're talking "rules-lite" exactly what do we mean?

After my comparison OSRIC seems as free as any of the other old school retro clones. Okay maybe not as much as S&W, but close enough.

jus wonderin' ...

Out of shape gamers

Like Caramon trying to fit into his armor after he let himself go, we aging gamers tend to suffer from all sorts of physical maladies. I suppose its our basic sedentary natures. Sitting around watching Star Trek re-runs and rolling dice at the gaming table are the extent of our exertions most days. There is of course the obvious exception to the rule, but let's face it we could all use a fitness overhaul.

I suppose this is on my mind, because I'm trying to get "back" into shape, but my "back": is having second thoughts. My cholesterol also came in high--argh. am I really that old? So I've decided my daily hikes have got to continue after the summer mosquito season ends. I've also got to keep my martial arts training up. Something vigorous would probably be best, but I think I'll just keep up my Tai Chi for now, until my fitness catches up with my ambitions.

If a gate appeared now for me to step into my fantasy dreamland I would be about as useful as a sack of dried goblin dung. Well, a sack of dung that could execute roll back and press, but that ain't saying much where I'm concerned ; - )

live long and perspire,

Chris

Martial Arts and Gamers

So, I've been wondering lately. I read an article sometime back and found several more on the web recently about how hackers seem to gravitate to the martial arts. In other words their is a positive correlation between hacking as an activity and martial arts as an activity. Most hackers seem involved in the martial arts in some way shape of form.

Now, this was intriguing to me and as I'm not a hacker, I was naturally led to wonder why. Well there's a lot of psychologizing about it, but basically they say something about the mental discipline required for hacking is similar to that required by or trained in the marital arts. Well, I don't know about that--but I have seen in my own experience and relations a positive correlation between gamers and martial arts.

There seem to be a higher percentage of gamers that are interested in or actively training in the martial arts. I myself have studied the martial arts on and off since my teens. I started with light fighting in the SCA--obviously a medieval / fantasy motive there, eh? From there it moved into a fascination shared by my friends and me, though largely as armchair samurai and backyard stick swingers. But we learned quite a bit academically speaking.

Then in my early tweens I started to teach myself tai chi, which lasted for several years until I found my first real lung fu school--Shaolin Do. I trained there for a year, before becoming a littel disillusioned due to my over-analytical tendencies. So I dropped out and took ninjutsu for about three months. That didn;t last long, as I was basically a kung fu guy and ninjutsu was _very_ different. At this same time I had taken over a year of college level fencing, foil, epee and sabre. I was even asked to be an assistant instructor for the beginning foil classes. But I floated for awhile in regards to the traditional arts, studying up on what art might be best for me. Then one day in a bookstore I came upon a flier for a Wing Tsun school. Intrigued and out of the loop for too long I recommitted and studied for another year.

A crime and self defense crisis made me question the whole value of martial arts for self defense and I stopped training again. I even thought about going back to ninjutsu for awhile, thinking that hiding in the shadows, or backstabbing someone beats the hell out of having a gun held to your head. Then life changes and lots of other things transpired and I left martial arts alone for a long time. Oh I talked, meditated, prayed and studied about it. My good friend Scott and I carried on a lengthy correspondence about the art of Kenpo all the time I was on my mission. I played a little bit with various mission companions who also studied the martial arts and answered a lot of questions for myself about the true mature of the martial arts in light of all my experience.

And when I returned, married and life settled and I was recentered and happy once again I followed the call anew. And synchronistically I found a Kenpo school. I trained for a year or so and my instructor left for California. So I was left to my own devices once again. Back to the drawing board brought me back to my roots of kung fu, and I studied with Wing Chun videos, Northern Shaolin videos and even some Hung Gar and Hsing I. All the while looking for something to settle on. It seems that after all my study and practice I was the one year wonder and things would fizzle again and again. Was there a pattern I was supposed to be seeing?

At any rate I am now working with Doc Fai Wong's Plum Blossom Federation and studying Choy Li Fut in his distance learning program. I won't go into all the reasons I made that choice, but so far it's good--really good.

Which of course has me realizing--long ago--that one of the main constants in my life, one of the things I always come back to, besides gaming is the martial arts. Connection? Not sure, but of my longtime gaming friends 67% are into the martial arts. And a disproportionate number go into the military as well. Looking for adventure like I was? Not sure. Any ideas? I am really intrigued by this fact. I even once heard a radio piece on NPR about gamers heading off to fight in the war on terror as Paladins against injustice. It was a touching piece.

Especially in light of the Israeli Military's opinion that gamers should not be allowed in the armed services because their tendency to fantasize made them unstable for military life. Hmmm. They may have something there too. What the heck does that mean?

Lots for me to think through.

You?