Introduction To Old-School Role-Playing

Alright, this is a quick thread for my own little personal forum dedicated to role-playing games and general online RP's, primarily stuff like fandom RP's and tabletop role-playing games, and with a special focus on old-school role-playing games in particular.

For the sake of simplicity when it comes to defining what an "Old-School" Role-Playing Game is, it is any tabletop RPG made between 1974 and 2000 (up to and including Dungeons & Dragons 3.0) along with more recent OSR (Old-School Rules) games in the style of earlier editions of established games, primarily Dungeons & Dragons as it existed under TSR's ownership.

Prominent OSR games include both basic clone systems like Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, Castles & Crusades, Labyrinth Lord, Dark Dungeons, and newer OSR games that combine old-school rules with original settings and ideas such as Operation: White Box, Sabers & Witchery, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and my personal favorite, Lion & Dragon.

Some of my favorite Old-School RPG's are listed below, in order of their original release. Due to the mechanical disparities between the editions of the game, I am listing the editions of Dungeons & Dragons separately, along with a few of my favorite campaign settings for Old-School D&D.


Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
Boot Hill (1975)
En Garde! (1976)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition (1978)
Commando (1979)
Bushido (1979)
Call of Cthulhu (1980)
Basic Dungeons & Dragons (1981)
RECON (1982)
Twilight 2000 (1984)
Dragonlance (1985)
GURPS (1986)
Shadowrun (1987)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition (1989)
Spelljammer (1989)
Cyberpunk 2020 (1990)
Ravenloft (1990)
Vampire: The Masquerade (1991)
Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1992)
Mage: The Ascension (1993)
Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game (1994)
Masque of the Red Death (1994)
Big Eyes Small Mouth (1998)
Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game and Resource Book (1999)
Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 (2000)