The Big Introductions Thread

[Zack_Wolf]

Greetings Grognards! I am known as Zack Wolf, of Spellsword Home Entertainment Company. We and I are a small, newly-formed tabletop game company based in beautiful Walla Walla, Washington. I am currently wrapping up production on my first Kickstarter for The Evils of Illmire, a “mini-mega” adventure module for OSR systems.

Once this is complete, the plan is to fully launch a new OSR + Indie RPG focused YouTube channel. I hope to use the platform to spotlight the awesome work of talented OSR and independent creators, discuss OSR design and history philosophy, and stream OSR/Indie gameplay. I’m hoping that, through this channel, I can help to bolster the awareness of our niche area of the hobby and provide bright, palatable video content for easy, inviting entry into the niche.

[Oni]

Hi hallo.
I go by Oni online. I have a blog here.

I like my games quick-paced and weird. Dungeoncrawls are my favorite thing. After that curses and magic items that backfire badly.

Unlike my games, I don’t like a quick pace in discussion as we have on Reddit & Discord. Things get buried fast. I hope this instance will be an improvement, I will be active if you are. Stay safe everyone!

[IDDM1DM]

Hello there! I am Zach, Starcross to some, IDDM1DM on the long series of tubes. I would say that tabletop games are the thing that I do most.

I work in adult education and instructional design, which I was able to do largely because of my hobbies. Teaching a class or making a handout isn’t all that different from running a game or…making a handout.

I’ve created a weird game called Hivesworn: Queensfall with a friend, and I’m working sharing more of my work with others after 15 years of keeping it private. A blog will soon be revealed and my 1500+ notes will be converted over time.

My current games aren’t strictly OSR in name but I’m slowly corrupting my players that direction. I love the weird and the wild, but I love classic fantasy too. Honestly, I just love tabletop games in general but the OSR is my home.

[LF_OSR]

Hello Pitties!

I go by Bluiss (a mix of blue and Luis) from Southern California. Relatively new to the OSR scene but got into 3e when I was a kid, dipped in and out of casual games, and recently was struck by the OSR bug when I decided to brush up on the history of TSR and D&D. Been having a blast learning about OSR and am currently gearing up to DM my first handful of games.

I create OSR inspired artwork as well, hoping I can learn enough to help visualize some of the amazing ideas I’ve been seeing from fellow OSR creators. Along with artwork, I also produce a number of music projects ranging from dungeon synth to technical death metal. While creating artwork is a newer endeavor for me, music production is more my wheelhouse. Have had a number of professional clients for music production.

If you’re in need of some original artwork or music, reach out!

See you in the Pit!

[chiquitafajita]

Hi all!!

My name is Marcia I started playing DND 5e around 2017, and got into the OSR in late 2018! Right now, I’m running an online game with my friends using a mishmash of Knave and Here’s Some Fucking DND, and my favorite thing about it is how easy it is to just roll some characters and start playing! I’m also really interested in ‘cozy’ RPGs like Ryuutama, which I haven’t played myself but I’ve pulled some atmospheric and gameplay elements from there into my own games. I like old-school games because they are very diegetic in their play elements; the fiction emerges from the gameplay, instead of the gameplay controlling the story through things like FATE points etc.

I go by chiquitafajita_ on Twitter and Reddit, though those are both newer accounts which is why they don’t look super fleshed out. Can’t wait to read and participate

[thekernelinyellow]

Wow, this place is getting really crowded! We might need to dig a bit deeper! Also, I love the idea of calling ourselves “Pitties”.

So, welcome, everybody!

PS: I see that many of you are sharing your blogs and channel in this thread. While there is nothing wrong with it, we set up the Shameless self-promotion! thread to do just that, in the hope that your content will not get swamped by all the new people (and maybe it’s more likely that new users will check out blogs to follow from there, instead of reading an hopefully eternally increasing list of introductions).

[QuestingBeast]

I’m Ben, I run the YouTube channel Questing Beast, where I review OSR books. I’ve written Maze Rats, Knave, and most of Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, as well as a number of short adventures. I also have a newsletter called The Glatisant that summarizes my favorite things happening in the OSR blogosphere. Here’s my links:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/questingbeast
Twitter: https://twitter.com/benjamilt
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/questingbeast
Newsletter: https://questingbeast.substack.com
My games: https://questingbeast.itch.io/
My blog: http://questingblog.com/

[DUNGEONSandBRUTALITY]

'Sup… uh… “Pitties”?

I’m Zach (another one!), and I go by Dungeons and Brutality (D&B) because I like TTRPGs and metal music. Been a forever GM since about 2012; starting with 5E and then moving on to better things. My preferences in TTRPGs are most things OSR and PBTA.

Like others here probably, I’m toying with the idea of starting a TTRPG/OSR blog to write down my ideas and keep a written record of my group’s sessions. Recently have been playing MÖRK BORG and Monster of the Week with my homies.

I’m always down to bounce ideas around with others or receive music recommendations (and I will passionately throw music recs at you if you dare to show interest). With that said, see ya around!

My twitter if you’re interested (there’s a lot of Animal Crossing content on there currently, be warned): https://twitter.com/thiefofprose

[Xelor]

Hey everyone, I’m Xelor. I’ve been playing TTRPGs since 2015, and migrated to the OSR scene in the last couple of years, for the most part lurking in shadowy corners of various other forums. I primarily play Basic Fantasy, but I love dabbling around the interwebs looking for various other rule-sets and hacks, alongside wasting copious amounts of my limited free time thinking about RPGs. It seemed about time I got out of my own head, so here I am. I also recently started up a blog if you want to check that out too. Hope to see y’all around in the pit. Happy gaming!

[DanBoyo]

Hello fellows, my name is Daniel and im new to tabletop rpgs which i had my ups and downs coming in. Of course after doing my research and discovering the OSR, I thought id give it another chance to jump in and make new friends and join in the disscusion. Im currently starting with Basic Fantasy RPG which would probabaly be a good starter in the hobby.

[pedrogsena]

Hello, I’m Pedro from Brazil. My first contact with TTRPGs was around 1999-2000, with some solo books, and a simple, local system: 3D&T. D&D 3E was released around that time, but it always looked like too much mechanical/balancing work for a hobby. However, I was fascinated with what little contact I had with stuff related to older editions of D&D.

Fast forward to the current times, and to discover the OSR scene was fantastic: the classic feeling of earlier times, the simple systems I like, but also being open to modern innovations and to a fair discussion of the premises behind the scene’s themes.

P.S.: I’m a big lurker, so - pandemic notwithstanding - I probably won’t post much.

[Grognard]

Hello & nice to see all these people/pitties on this new forum! Chose the moniker Grognard since I am in early forties and GMing since thirteen, with 100+ players due to many short lived groups and a couple of long term ones. Getting into RPGs is easily top 5 of the best things I ever did, only a few other cultures and interests have brought me as many shared, joyous memories and as many long term friends. For that reason I got a D20 tattoo, randos that also play RPGs will come up to me to talk shop/tavern which is fun.

Played AD&D 1st a bit, GMed: AD&D 2nd tons, 5th quite a bit, some Fallout, Cyberpunk, Star Wars, Forgotten Realms, GOT/LOTR, lots of homebrew etc, and recently switched to Basic Fantasy RPG (I love it’s Open Source nature and it being sold at near cost/dirt cheap) as my primary system/group and started up a seperate MOTHERSHIP group. I never thought in a million years OSR would become so big much less that D&D/RPG would become “cool” and extremely popular, I am so happy about these developments, there was a time when RPG seemed very, very dead in my city, forums got quiet and lots of players quit or decided to focus on WOW, CCGs or board games.

While I have always played with about 40% women, I did notice that for some years now even more gals are getting into the hobby which is really great to see and GM for, mixed groups are fun. I am super picky about who I let into my groups and always attempt to make it a very cooperative, fun, every player gets to contribute a lot, creative and friendly type game for everyone involved. If someone does not feel very welcome or is barely speaking all night and/or did not laugh their ass off or didn’t get super into it at least some moments, I feel like I failed a bit as a GM and host for sure. My players seem to really enjoy my sessions, yet I feel I have sooo much to learn, there are so many levels… it is very humbling and educational to see kickass GMs in action on the interwebs. Fortunately, I hope to play and learn for another forty years.

About twelve years ago, on a forum, I started work on a hybrid, trying to incorporate the best things of the first 3 editions and making the game faster, way less rule dense, easier and more lethal. Never finished it. So I was stoked when I came across the OSR and realized people had managed such a hybrid and then some, I ended up spending many hours reading blogs and checking different OSR systems.

I love Forums, I contributed a few thousand posts to the aforementioned Roleplaying forum over the course of about thirteen years, if brevity is the soul of wit, I am not very witty hehe… Sadly that forum is permanently gone since about a year, so I was delighted to see other people on here that enjoy the forum format.

I live in Berlin, Germany and besides RPGs I am into a whole bunch of stuff, should you live in Berlin, happy to meet for a beer.

Big fan of Questing Beast/Ben, nice to see you on here dude! Thank you for all the amazing content you put out, reading DMG out loud, Newsletter, Youtube, Games,… you certainly are “down for the cause!” A big thanks to Kingroy23, kernelinyellow and everyone involved with making and running this forum.

See all you OSR peeps around!

-Grognard

[Spitsdale]

Hi! I’m Scott! I’m a longtime gamer from Las Vegas and I’m trying to move from OSR one-shots to a campaign.

[Ben_L]

Hi all! I’m Ben Laurence. I got the Mentzer Red Box in 1986 and started playing in earnest in 1988 with AD&D. I got back into gaming after a long hiatus by reading OSR blogs starting around 2009, and then was on Google plus up until they killed the platform. Over the last four years, I’ve been running a Labyrinth Lord/OSE campaign set in my version of the dreamlands. I’m also the author of the zine Through Ultan’s Door, and the blog Mazirian’s Garden. I live and work in Chicago.

[allsnop]

Hi, I’m Matt!

Found out about OSR this past winter, and it’s been such a revelation! I grew up with D&D 3.5e and 4e but never played as much as I wanted due to living in a super rural area that’s far away from cities and people. These days I still don’t really get to play much, though I’m hoping to fix that if I can find a good group for online play.

The thing I love most about OSR is the diy and maker spirit of it all. Everyone is blogging, talking about book design, making zines, writing, and just working non-stop. You all are inspiring. Takes me back to my punkband days when everyone was making their life for themselves.

I’m a bit of a lurker, but I’ll try not to be.

[spittingimage]

Hi, I’m Chris.
I’m a latecomer to the OSR. I’ve always loved tinkering with rulesets but the complexity of 3E at the time I found it wasn’t for me. I went in the other direction, but after a while my own work started to feel vague and lazy to me. When I discovered what people in the OSR were doing with a few simple established systems, it hooked me.

I run a blog at Late Night Zen where I try to post weekly about interesting or useful ideas/mechanics.

[maderschramm]

Hello everyone! My name is Paul.

I was introduced to roleplaying via D&D 5e; however, after discovering the OSR I’ve found that the content produced by this community speaks to me and inspires me in a way that 5e content did not. I love it all, from the gonzo settings and rules to the evocative artwork.

I’ve built several tools that I use to help run my games and am looking forward to sharing them with this community. I hope this forum takes off as I really do appreciate a longer form of discussion that /r/osr (where I usually hang out) lacks.

And I must be too old for discord, because I just don’t get how to communicate effectively there

[allsnop]

Totally agree re: Discord. I just cannot keep up with the speed of posting.

[DandyMan]

I’m Dan, I blog over at Throne of Salt.

[maderschramm]

And so many different sub threads, it’s insane trying to find any quality content in that medium.

That said, it is really good for getting a fast response to a quick question.

I’ve been happy with the /r/osr subreddit in general but as a whole there’s no real way for discussions to evolve over time. You get a day or two at most.