U-Con’s OSR/NSR Track

For 9 years now U-Con has featured and OSR specific track within our RPG Track. This track has proven to be quite popular in the time it has been here. In that time the OSR as a phenomenon in gaming has changed, as things tend to do. In recent years the NSR has grown out of the OSR with influence from other movements in table top role playing. This has brought about an entirely new, but adjacent type of game, which or OSR staff is very excited about.

We are excited to announce that these two adjacent roleplaying styles will now be featured together as one single track at U-Con beginning this year. This year, we will have an OSR/NSR track. If a GM submits a game that they know to fit one of these categories they may add that a game is OSR or NSR in the comments of their submission so that our events coordinators can properly schedule and tag the game. Some of you might not be clear on what the difference is, even if you are aware of the two terms. Some of you may need clarification so you know where your games fit on the OSR/NSR spectrum. Some of you may even be learning about these two styles of RPG right now as you read this! So, allow us to shed some light on the subject, and give you an idea of what U-Con accepts as definitions of the OSR and the NSR. 

The OSR

This is a handy introduction taken from Wikipedia:“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. It consists of a loose network or community of gamers and game designers who share an interest in a certain style of play and set of game design principles.”

This is a fairly accurate description. The movement started on internet forums by folks that wanted to continue playing editions of D&D that were played prior to the year 2000, while also needing new materials to do so. By 2006 the first games which identified as OSR were released. These were a retroclone (a game seeking to emulate the rules and play of an earlier game as close as possible) and a near clone (a game which is very close to the way that an earlier games rules were set up, but often incorporating some new ideas and game mechanics.) These games were OSRIC, which is an emulation of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game, which is an emulation of the basic version of D&D sprinkled with streamlined mechanics from D&D’s D20 era. 

These two games paved the way for a split OSR that would feature both clones and near clones for what is now going on 2 decades. It bears mentioning that many other classic games have been cloned in that time, from early iteration of RuneQuest to 1st edition Traveler to TSR’s Marvel Superheroes Role Playing Game. Still other games have been republished or have new editions closely resembling their early counterparts. These include games such as Top Secret, Gangbusters and Bushido. 

Many other clones were released over time as well. These included such titles as Swords & Wizardry, Old-School Essentials, Against the Dark Master and Zweihander.With clones and republications, also came what were known as “near clones”. These were games largely inspired by early gaming, with rules that were “close enough for rock & roll.” The earliest of these were games based upon rules from various versions of Dungeons & Dragons, but custom tailored for a slightly different experience. Some of these were made for ease of use at the table, while others were intended to give and old-school, yet different play experience. These include games such as Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, The Black Hack and Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

The NSR

In more recent years a new term has come up to refer to games that are a bit more fast and loose than what is often accepted as “OSR”. The NSR, or New School Revolution, refers to a groups of games that rose up out of the OSR but are not quite the same thing. These share a “rulings not rules” approach to roleplaying common in many OSR games, but are often more “rules lite” than traditional OSR games. Some of the games that are now referred to under the NSR umbrella were games once referred to as “OSR Adjacent.” There are many things that some NSR games also have in common with Story Games, but they are still not one to one. So, what can typically define something as loose as the NSR? NSR Games typically have: a GM in control of the game overall, a “non-vanilla” setting, are rules lite and focus on emergent narrative and exploration. Examples of games that might be classified as NSR are Cairn, Knave, Mothership and Troika.

What Qualifies For the Track?

Here are a few examples of each classification of the games that can be requested to be placed on the OSR/NSR track:

Actual Vintage Games: AD&D, BX D&D, MERP, early editions of Runquest, Warhammer FRP 1st Ed, Pacesetter Games, Traveller 1st Ed, Top Secret, Tunnels & Trolls, Boot Hill etc.

OSR Games/Clones: Old-School Essentials, Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, Against the Dark Master, Zweihander, Cepheus Engine, Iron Falcon etc.

Near Clones: Dungeon Crawl Classics, Mutant Future, Beyond the Wall, Stars Without Number etc, Shadowdark.

NSR: Cairn, Mothership, MÖRK BORG, Knave, Troika etc.

These games are, of course, only examples If you are unsure if the game you want to run qualifies, feel free to reach out.