A blog about Maps (I love maps), OSR Gaming, Speculative Fiction, High Weirdness and just about everything else. It's going to get weird in here.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Always Remember.
Episode 1: The Retro-Clone Menace
What is a retro-clone? Well... there are various answers to this question. Here is mine. A retro-clone is a restatement of an older out-of-print game system such as original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. (Not to be confused with that second edition pastiche.) Currently there are retro-clones for OD&D, Basic D&D and AD&D. I am not aware of a AD&D(2e) clone, but there may be one out there. I know there is one in the works.
I think retro-clones are a very good thing. First they are not owned by WotC, and they don't seems to have any interest in supporting older game systems. Their main focus is pushing the current edition of D&D and the various derivatives of it. This point was highlighted when they stopped selling all the out-of-print D&D PDFs a number of years back. (It's not like you can't find illicit PDFs of these books.) So here come the retro-clones. Now you can download these for free (in most cases) and they are not owned by WotC anymore via the magic of the Open Gaming License, System Reference Document, and the fact that rules themselves cannot be copyrighted.
What does this mean? It means you will always have access to old school gaming goodness right through your computer. It is also a means to get younger gamers into "classic" games. Let's face it. Young gamers are not very impressed with your 30-year old AD&D books. They know it's an old game right off the bat, and why would they want to play this old game when they can play a nice shiny new game? Now pull out a copy of OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord and there is no stigma of an old game attached to it. It makes it much easier to get people to play. I have tested this time and time again and it works.
I do not claim that retro-clones rule wise are superior to the original game. What I do say is the presentation of the retro-clone is better. It makes a better first impression. This is why I play retro-clones and I humbly suggest you should too. If you are not interested in attracting new and/or younger games, there really isn't that much benefit to play a retro-clone.
That's all I have no this subject right now. Feel free to flame away at me. I can take it.
I think retro-clones are a very good thing. First they are not owned by WotC, and they don't seems to have any interest in supporting older game systems. Their main focus is pushing the current edition of D&D and the various derivatives of it. This point was highlighted when they stopped selling all the out-of-print D&D PDFs a number of years back. (It's not like you can't find illicit PDFs of these books.) So here come the retro-clones. Now you can download these for free (in most cases) and they are not owned by WotC anymore via the magic of the Open Gaming License, System Reference Document, and the fact that rules themselves cannot be copyrighted.
What does this mean? It means you will always have access to old school gaming goodness right through your computer. It is also a means to get younger gamers into "classic" games. Let's face it. Young gamers are not very impressed with your 30-year old AD&D books. They know it's an old game right off the bat, and why would they want to play this old game when they can play a nice shiny new game? Now pull out a copy of OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord and there is no stigma of an old game attached to it. It makes it much easier to get people to play. I have tested this time and time again and it works.
I do not claim that retro-clones rule wise are superior to the original game. What I do say is the presentation of the retro-clone is better. It makes a better first impression. This is why I play retro-clones and I humbly suggest you should too. If you are not interested in attracting new and/or younger games, there really isn't that much benefit to play a retro-clone.
That's all I have no this subject right now. Feel free to flame away at me. I can take it.
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