I’ve been thinking a lot about this, since I’m kind of a weird outlier in the OSR and sometimes wonder if I even belong here at all-- my “old school” was monks and half-orcs in the PHB, Oriental Adventures and the Fiend Folio, the Complete Spacefarer’s Handbook and the Complete Book of Humanoids. Still… 100% about player agency and player challenge, making stories instead of telling them, but I wonder if the people behind all these “four in the core” and “Tolkien trio only” games were ever playing the same D&D as me.
Obviously very belated thread bump, but thank you for this.
And yet here you are!!!
:O)
Thanks for the comment!
This is the article that most helped me understand what play culture and play style mean, like Classic, Trad, OSR, Neo Trad/OC, Nordic Larp, or Story Games. It leaves out War Games with FKR influences and non-D&D traditions like shipping cultures, but it’s comprehensive.