OSR Does "Old School" in OSR only apply to D&D?

I feel like any indie dev trying to claim their game is OSR because OSR is cool and popular has in some ways ruined the term / label. I stand by the idea that an OSR game must be compatible with, or at least simply convertible to, B/X or AD&D. Otherwise what does OSR mean? For that reason I think terms like NuSR are genuinely helpful. It saddens me to think of it being used insultingly.

More broadly I hate that, it seems to me, modern publishing demands that your game be "triple A" or OSR. Why cant an indie game come out and just be its own thing, inspired by OSR but not OSR?
 

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StoneDev said:
You're right, although I would suggest Evil Hat is either in the triple A space or attempting to be in it. Im more talking about creators on Itch or first time kick starters. People without the backing of a company or publisher.
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Weird. Most games I come across on itch.io are neither trying to be Triple A or OSR. Most are solo operations or a creator and a few people helping out with editing, art, and layout. Just depends on your perspective, I guess. Confirmation bias and all that.
 

Reynard said:
This came up an another forum so I thought I would ask EN World:

When discussing the OSR movement, does it only apply to games that emulate early D&D? Or do other early games such as Traveller or Metamorphosis Alpha also qualify as "Old School" especially as it relates to talking about OSR games?
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Seems from my personal experience to be a controversial subject; some people seem to think if its not D&D its not even "Old School" let alone OSR. On the other hand, Cepheus Engine and its like exist, and there are people who clearly think it does. I'm biased because I'm only marginally interested in D&D-adjacents at all, and of the ones I have any interest in are not based on the older versions, but I still have some interest in games like Met Alpha or Traveller, especially updated ones.
 

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
There are whole companies that succeed by doing their own thing. Evil Hat springs immediately to mind.
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Just looking in my recent downloads (some of which are updates or the like), none of Wicked Pacts, Fragged Empire, Eclipse Phase, OutGunned or Vault are either OSR or AAA. At least two of those aren't super-obscure, either, unless you're going by D&D standards.
 

Mannahnin said:
I think that's just Old School, unless your play is informed by Renaissance-era analysis and play design.
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Naturally the pure-quill OSR types don't have to agree, but I always felt systems that started producing retroclones implied something very parallel to OSR in non-D&D games.

Of course I've seen people who don't even want to call those games "Old School" which is the point where I think they start showing a lot of nerve.
 

Thomas Shey said:
Naturally the pure-quill OSR types don't have to agree, but I always felt systems that started producing retroclones implied something very parallel to OSR in non-D&D games.
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Yeah, I can see that. Although the ones I've seen have been more iterations on those older games rather than clones.

Thomas Shey said:
Of course I've seen people who don't even want to call those games "Old School" which is the point where I think they start showing a lot of nerve.
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Yeah, I haven't seen that, and the idea is bizarre to me. If the game was published 30+ years ago how could it NOT be old school?
 

Mannahnin said:
Yeah, I can see that. Although the ones I've seen have been more iterations on those older games rather than clones.


Yeah, I haven't seen that, and the idea is bizarre to me. If the game was published 30+ years ago how could it NOT be old school?
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30 years ago was 1994 (ouch).

I am not sure there is a world in which Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd Edition qualifies as "old school."
 

Reynard said:
I am not sure there is a world in which Vampire: The Masquerade 2nd Edition qualifies as "old school."
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I'm in favor of punting that conversation until at least 2044 if we must have it.

(Just had the realization that I am now pretty much as far away from Weezer's Blue Album as I was from Beatles for Sale when the Blue Album was released. Time is weird.)
 

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