What the OSR Can Do

There's been a couple blogostorms out there. Whether they are trolls or serious criticism, they are RPG politics, not concrete, practical matters. But can I rephrase these criticisms as practical challenges?

One of the big fights is over story in RPGs, something I will be talking about, but not just yet. The other is over the contributions of the Old School Renaissance; ironically, it's a complaint that the lovers of old school play have nothing new to offer.

But let's take that as a practical challenge. What practical things could the OSR pursue to offer something new to RPGs in general, while remaining true to old school principals? I'll steal this list from James Raggi, as an example of old-school thinking rather than as a definition, and create some practical goals:

Random Character Generation, Backstory:

Needed:

• better versions of Central Casting.
• optional background generation, like "The Devil's in the Details"-style tables (example for gnomes.)

I had a weird character creation process for Resist the Atom!, where dice are rolled on a character silhouette to allot scores and special abilities; perhaps I could adapt that to D&D. I like my approach to character backgrounds, but it would be better if there were a random version of that available.

Player Skill, Not Character Stats:

Needed:

• more blog posts or published guides to the player puzzle-solving play-style, similar to all the guides about how to immerse in your character or how to optimize your character.
• campaign options that de-emphasize stats/fight bonus inflation.
  

Slow Leveling/“Eternal” Campaign:

Needed:

• blog posts/guide to how to keep players interested in long-term play
• resources for generational play (as in Pendragon,) trading high-level characters for low (like henchmen.)
• resources for the OD&D "end game"
• eternal scenario generators.

Other "what is Old School?" lists could be developed into practical goals in the same way.