I think an OSR game could be along the lines of Darksouls.
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I get a lot of OSR kicks from Dark Souls and Rogue.
Like mentioned in previous posts, Dark Souls has meticulous dungeon exploration, deadly combat requiring caution, sometimes running away, rationing of resources, great clever but avoidable traps. Wonderfully “jaquayed” dungeons with loops and all that goodness. Plus some special qualities that only Dark Souls (and its derivatives) has:
Rogue is just pure dungeon crawling Basic D&D, stripped down to a solo experience, but no town, no classes. Most encounters can be avoided, but you do get xp from combat (and not gold), so you need to make wise choices. Running away is always an option, but escape is far from guaranteed. Darkness is terrifying, because you might run into a monster you’re not ready to handle. Magic is scary, because you need to, at first, identify spells and potions by trying them out, many are harmful. But you can’t afford to put off using magic for too long, because the dungeon gets deadlier by the level.
I’ve not played Nethack, but that one seems to have the complexity of simulation for more creative play. Then again, it also appears, from the outside, to be a game of character builds and mastering mechanics, but I could be wrong.
I’d like to someday make my own rogue clone, but I’m not really sure what I’d change. The balance of game elements, simplicity, depth seems pretty much spot on.
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For the style I play, survival games like Subnautica and No Man’s Sky are basically what I want out of OSR- emergent gameplay, exploration and item-based problem solving. What they lack for me is tactical infinity and more social/faction aspects but other than that the scratch the itch.
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I like Conan Exiles a lot, but I play solo and always get bored a couple hours in. It makes me want to play a wilderness survival TTRPG. It would make a nice mini-domain game with the players working around their camp, managing food, wood, getting resources, hunting.
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I am imagining something very specific here: imagine the gameplay of an entire series of SSI Gold Box games (or Forgotten Realms Unilimted Adventures), the character creation (without cheating), the exploration and the combat. More modern graphics, of course.
The Overworld Map is procedurally generated with 2-3 towns out of 5-6 different styles (video/audio, encounter tables, types of NPC and vendor) and 4-5 different dungeons out of 11-12 different styles (again A/V, encounter tables, types of trap and loot). From the jump, you can choose to go straight into the dungeon, explore the wilderness, or try to find an adventure hook in town. Basically, no matter which of these you go with, it will eventually lead to several suggestions/opportunities to go do something else.
And then it’d have a version of the quest system from Pirates of Realmspace (but, y’know, good) that take the form of NPCs promising you some reward to go do the thing and then come back. And completing the quests builds up hidden stats that unlock different quests that build up to multiple possible endgame scenarios.
… and that’s all I’ve got, though I like what other people are saying. I feel like everything after this basic premise is polishing up and diversifying the core crawling and questing mechanics to make it feel closer to an authentic old-school sandbox game.
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I’m skimming through this thread, and maybe I’m missing something, but has nobody suggested games like Minecraft and Terraria? They’re open-ended, little to no overt storytelling but lots of environmental storytelling, you have RPG elements as well as resource management, dungeon crawling, etc., gear and loot, domain play. Really the only thing you don’t have are NPCs, but those kinds of interactive social systems are the ones that would arguably be most difficult to translate to a videogame anyway (imo it is not currently possible to do, it would require an AI GM of a level of functionality that does not currently exist afaik…)
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Occidental Heroes has very OSR vibes imo.
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I’ve always wanted an RPG crafting system that gives me the same feeling as modded Minecraft - mixing tech items with magic items.
I’ve also wanted a video game that lets me overcome challenges through cleverness rather than following a defined procedure, but that tech isn’t available yet.
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To expand upon what @quantum_metaphysics said previously, I think Minecraft does a great job of allowing players to be clever instead of defining avenues of ‘victory’. Albeit unrealistic, the sandbox engine allows players to exploit the environment and construct situations that the game-world has to respond to. That is to say it’s not just a matter of the game having resource management etc.: more than any other game I can think of, Minecraft’s open systems allow the player to act dynamically and creatively.
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You might want to check:
Stoneshard
Monomyth
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Roadwarden
Honestly, I really think that Breath of the Wild fits what an OSR game could look like as a Fighter.
You start with low hit points, you can use every weapon, and you increase your power by adding magical equipment and hit points. Plus there is the absolute freedom of being able to do anything and go (basically) anywhere.
The game encourages emergent play using your gear. Too cold out? Get warm armor, carry a torch, eat spicy food, build a fire, or carry your magically enhanced fire sword to stay warm. Are there too many enemies in the camp? Wait till they sleep and set their weapons on fire to lower the difficulty.
There, for a newer player, there are massive difficulty spikes where the game doesn’t hold your hand (Guardians with laser beams, etc).
I was really impressed with how that game felt in terms of play.
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Look up Caves of Qud. It’s science fantasy, and the most OSR media I’ve consumed other than actual ttrpg books.
Exploration in a dangerous unknown world. Rougelike lethality. Simulationist systems that encourage creative problem solving and open-ended challenges to spring up. WEIRD ATMOSPHERE. Recovering powerful old relics from dungeons (high tech civilizations mostly forgotten), and with significant resource management. Mutations/spells/tech systems. Competing factions.
It’s all there except detailed role play or evolving custom questlines.
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Kenshi by Lo-Fi games gives me the OSR feel in a post-apoc alien wasteland. The world has a deep rich history that you can uncover by exploring but also the world is generally uncaring for your characters. You can play a single character or over time build a warband of sorts and if you die, you can continue as one of your allies. There’s dismemberment, mechanical prosthetics, base building, factions, etc.
I believe my only content warning would be that it also deals with slavery as one of the factions commonly enslaves those it deems unworthy but if it happens to you, you can escape through tricky means.
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I’ve heard Kenshi is in this vein. Is it fun? It seems a bit dark and gritty totally, but the gameplay sounds like it’d be up my alley.
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I’ve been listening to GMTK on YouTube who did an analysis of the open world design in LoZ Breath of the Wild.
It had great ideas for hexcrawl design. Specifically, landmarks on high visiblity places. The horizon acts as a fog of war, limiting visible landmarks but having a few landmarks draws the players toward different regions naturally and encourages the kind of exploration the designers intended.
They had tried using a points and paths model where events triggered on paths between key locations, but few players actually bothered to explore that way, so they changed to the landmark model instead.
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Found that video. Enjoy OP.
You may also like the GMTK Bosskeys series analyzing every LoZ dungeon design. It taught me about lock and key vs puzzle box style dungeons.
It’s definitely a bit darker in tone and very gritty. I think it’s fairly fun though and some of the NPCs are very quirky, not in a bad way but in a nice palate-cleanser way so it’s not all doom-&-gloom.
My favorite Kenshi videos are a series called Torsolo by ambiguousamphibian. It’s much more on the comedic side but I think it shows how capable a character can be with smart decision-making, especially a character with 0 limbs! Bad decisions have very real consequences that are hard to correct.
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It would lot a bit like Darkest Dungeon IMO:
- Detailed resource management (Torches, rations, etc) - yes.
- Retainers and henchmen - yes.
Not much travel and no morale for monsters, but has the right feel in my opinion. I don’t remember if traps are a thing.
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couple of people have already said Kenshi and Darkest Dungeon, which I totally agree. I will throw in a game called fear and hunger. specifically the first one, but also the second, but slightly less so [at least in vibe of a dungeon, mechanics wise its the same to improved] Dark and gritty megadungeon vibes. Dismemberment, needing to manage resources like torches and food, sanity mechanics, you can talk to monsters and find stuff out or avoid combat. Different ways to get around encounters and the sort. a content warning, the game and its sequel has some very strong adult themes, gore, sexual assault, its pretty rough. Sometimes it feels a bit much, games are still good, all considered.
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