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PRINCIPIA APOCRYPHA Lost Principles of Old School Gaming Apocalypse Engine-style Principles and Advice from Ben Milton • Steven Lumpkin for running RPGs in the Old School Style curated, butchered, and amalgamated by David Perry with miscellany from Bryce Lynch • Chris McDowall PRINCIPIA APOCRYPHA Lost Principles of Old School Gaming Version 0.9ish September 17, 2017 Statement version, formatted for printing as a booklet To Do (comment on the doc with suggestions!) 1. Get feedback from wider audience - that’s you! 2. Test print & finalize booklet formatting, margins 3. Finalize text, smooth justification, spacing, capitalization, principle name sizes, update principle name summary list 4. Remove this list 5. Other formats Source Symbol Key ✦: Ben Milton Maze Rats - drivethrurpg.com/product/197158 ☆: Steven Lumpkin Agendas for Old School Gaming - roll1d100.blogspot.com ✻: David Perry The humble additions of a fan of both Old School and New School gaming NOTE: Some principles have their title changed, and some editing, trimming, and recombination has been done to the original source text to better fit context. The symbol indicates the source of the majority of the text in the paragraph preceding it. Cover artist unknown Fonts used: IM Fell English SC, Averia Serif Libre This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License might clash with the system, and get a Introduction handle on how a set of principles can aid in running these games, especially if your World of Dungeons is ostensibly the first players are new to Old School play. system that attempted to emulate an OSR-style game in the Apocalypse Engine. If you like the Old School play paradigm However, I felt like the lack of GM Agenda and want to instantiate them in an and Principles tailored to this style was an Apocalypse Engine or rules-light system, or unfortunate omission. I imagine new want to run pre-written Old School gamers looking at World of Dungeons and adventure modules with them, these should being quite lost, and even (especially?) if make a perfect Agenda. they are familiar with Dungeon World, they It should go without saying, of course, that may be quite thrown off track by the lack of the principles may not all apply equally to context. your game or a certain adventure, Likewise, many OSR rules-light systems depending on its style, tone, scope, etc. (such as The Black Hack) lack advice for Here are some Old School style games to how to run the game as a GM, and most of consider using these principles to run, and those that do (such as Whitehack) provide other sources of inspiration and advice. I very basic practical advice, rather than the would not recommend simply switching out codified stylistic and procedural framework Dungeon World’s principles with these. If that I find so useful from the Agendas and you want to run a PbtA game with them, I Principles of Apocalypse Engine games highly recommend Freebooters on the (Maze Rats being a welcome exception). Frontier or World of Dungeons. So, I decided to compile and piece together The Original Fantasy Adventure Game: some of these principles. They are ● Dungeons & Dragons, particularly the primarily pulled from two sources that are Basic & Expert sets (“B/X”) excellent in their own right: Maze Rats by Closely inspired by early D&D: Ben Milton (PWYW on DriveThruRPG), and ● Adventurer Conqueror King some posts and vlogs on Steven Lumpkin’s ● Basic Fantasy Role Playing blog, roll1d100.blogspot.com. These sources ● Dungeon Crawl Classics are attributed using the symbols noted in ● Labyrinth Lord the frontmatter. I’ve taken some liberties to ● Lamentations of the Flame Princess edit them for context, trimming, rewording, ● Microlite81 and combining some, to produce a more ● Swords & Wizardry cohesive whole, as well as adding a few pieces myself. Apocalypse Engine Games inspired by early D&D: If you’re familiar with Apocalypse Engine ● Freebooters on the Frontier games and are interested in playing The ● Funnel World Original or another Old School game, not ● World of Dungeons all the principles may be applicable, but OSR Rules-Light Systems: they should help distinguish how they play ● The Black Hack differently from Apocalypse Engine games. ● Into the Odd If you’re familiar with Old School gameplay ● Macchiato Monsters and want to bring that mindset to an ● Maze Rats Apocalypse Engine or OSR rules-light ● Whitehack system, these principles may help you ● Searchers of the Unknown identify where your ingrained GM habits ● Many others! Note: I’ve gone back and forth on what Old School term to use for the person running a game, to which these Principles are addressed; many Old School games use Judge or Principles Referee. But I finally decided that none of them have quite the right connotations or truly align with all the Principles. So, I will for GMs default to the most commonly used term, GM. Honor the dice Challenge them Divest yourself of their fate Offer tough choices Build responsive situations Build challenges with answers... Ponder the next chapter ...And challenges without Embrace chaos... Subvert their expectations ...But uphold logic Instill fear, deal death Make them think Deadly but avoidable combat Player ingenuity over character skill Telegraph deadliness Cleverness rewarded, not Let the dice kill them thwarted Keep up the pressure Oblige fictional positioning Ask them how they do it Fill their senses Give them tools to manipulate Reveal the world the world Layer environments Make tools unique Bring the world to life Don’t mind the fourth wall See your world as real Make your details matter Don’t overdo the preparation! Keep your Honor the dice situation ideas loose enough that they can be adapted to the PC’s choices and the flow of the game. Remember that unused prep Divest yourself of their fate can always be recycled in later sessions. You are not an antagonist to the players or After each session, ask the players what characters. Honestly portray the world and they plan on doing next and prep a few its denizens as they would react to the situations related to that. The direction of characters’ behaviour. Don't intend to the game should be guided by the player’s orchestrate the characters’ actions.✻ decisions, not the GM’s.✦ Be fair and impartial. Do not fudge rolls, do Embrace chaos... not roll in secret. This keeps the game Listen to that capricious muse, the dice. honest and dangerous, and prevents any Relying exclusively on your own accusations of favoritism or railroading. It imagination can be exhausting, predictable, also encourages the players to manipulate and feel less like an objective world to the and engage with the fictional world, rather players. External inspiration lets you divest than with the GM.✦ yourself of responsibility for the party’s fate.✻ Build responsive situations Use random tables to keep the game fresh. Don’t detail a plot to be played out; rather, The surprising twists that random tables establish situations with multiple actors add can bring an energy and mystery to the pursuing their own ends. Let the players’ game that is hard to improvise.✦ actions affect this environment, and have those changes affect the players. Let the Collect random tables. NPCs, names, items, situations worsen if the players don’t plot hooks, complications, relationships, address them.✻ locations, etc. Some great sources of tables: Maze Rats, Perilous Wilds, Dungeon During open sandbox play, create a Dozen.✻ number of nearby situations that contain a reason to get involved, some problems to ...But uphold logic overcome, and optionally a threat that will worsen the PC’s lives if not dealt with.✦ If there is an obvious reason for a particular wandering monster to be here, that's why One way to create interesting situations to they're here; don't bother rolling a random draw a grid that maps the relationships activity or reaction. This can help maintain between the elements of a situation and verisimilitude and let players make how they relate, interact, or how the party reasonable plans, as well as emphasizing might intervene.✦ the surprise and interest of the instances of randomness when you do use them.✻ Ponder the next chapter Don’t prepare a plot for the players to follow. During the game, observe how the players deal with a situation, and extrapolate the effects of their actions based on what you know. Don’t plan the results ahead of time; players rarely do what you expect them to.✦ Make them think Ask them how they do it Assume characters have common sense, but not their specific actions. Encourage or Player ingenuity over require the players to interrogate the fiction of the environment “manually” character skill rather than eliding it via a roll or assumed Old School PCs are very minimalistic character skill. But if they give up, let them because the character sheet is mostly there roll for a chance at a hint.✻ for when players make a mistake. Players are not meant to solve problems with die Give them tools to manipulate rolls, but with their own ingenuity. the world Therefore, present them with problems that: The focus of the game should be on creative problem solving, not brute force, so give ● Can be solved with common sense players the tools to make that appealing. ● Have no simple solution When you give players tools, you give them ● Have many difficult solutions✦ new ways to engage the world. For example: rival factions to manipulate, Examples: Cross a moat full of crocodiles. A potions with weirdly specific effects, items door in the bottom of a dungeon will only that can be combined or repurposed, open if sunlight shines on it. Retrieve a key dungeons with shortcuts and back from the bottom of a lake of acid.✦ passages. Add elements that allow the players to bend the world to their will.✦ Cleverness rewarded, not thwarted Make tools unique Clever solutions to a problem should A good tool doesn’t increase PCs’ damage or usually work, as long as they are within the add an ability bonus; it does an odd, very realm of possibility. Be generous. If the specific thing that is only powerful when action is unlikely or dangerous, call for a used cleverly. This turns every problem save or ability check, but only forbid a into a puzzle and encourages creative creative solution if it is clearly solutions.✦ impossible.✦ Examples: A rope that becomes as rigid as If players tend not to think this way, steel on command. A coin that lands on any present them with situations that are result you wish when flipped. A bell that nearly impossible to tackle head on, and produces a 1-foot sphere of silence around strongly reward even slightly creative it. A ring that instantly grows you a solutions. One of your goals as a GM is to different beard for each finger you put it encourage this mentality. Feel free to tell on.✦ your players as well that cleverness will get them farther than brute force.✦ Don’t mind the fourth wall Don’t worry too much about meta-gaming, Oblige fictional positioning or what the characters should know or Give them the benefit of the doubt when realistically deduce about a situation. Favor they’ve worked to give themselves the player ingenuity over character upper hand in the fiction. Don’t shy away embodiment.✻ from translating this into mechanical advantage.✻ into the fiction, and explore. If a challenge Challenge them is critical for the continuation of the adventure, consider placing a few solutions. Offer tough choices Three is a good number. "Okay, a key, a potion of Eat Metal... and if they befriend Make the players weigh risk versus reward. the Bisected Serpent, it can bore a hole The deeper players go into the wilderness through the stone."☆ or dungeon, the more perilous things should become. Whether because their ...And challenges with no resources are running low (food, health, equipment, light, etc.) or because danger answer builds the longer they linger, keep the "The deeps are stalked by a living players asking if it is worth pushing their maelstrom of ravenous psychic energy. If luck just a little bit farther. The greatest the players want to get the Golden Falcon treasures are always the hardest to reach.✦ they'll have to get past it, but I have no idea how they'll manage that." These are critical Risk and reward are also at the heart of for old school gaming. These exist to force combat. The PCs’ low health is meant to players to be creative in ways that surprise push combat quickly toward the point everyone at the table. Be cautious with where players ask themselves, “Should I placing these as challenges critical for the retreat to fight another day, or do I risk it continuation of the adventure (unless you all to finish them now?” The thrill of that intend for players to retreat and come back choices is at the heart of combat.✦ later), but sprinkling them around can Look for situations where all obvious surprise everyone at your table.☆ choices come with a heavy cost. These situations encourage unorthodox solutions Subvert their expectations and lateral thinking.✦ It’s inevitable that players will have knowledge about common fantasy elements Build challenges with from pop culture and other games. Inject multiple answers... common monsters, locations, and situations with your own unique twists for them to be Avoid singular chokepoints to progress. surprised by. This encourages players to Give them an obvious and equally but explore these differences and solve new differently-difficult alternative, but keep a problems that they don’t know the solution third option (or more) in your pocket. Then, to already.✻ if they dig for it, give it to them. Maybe it’s obscure, but preferable. Maybe it’s just as difficult, but more beneficial.✻ "There's a magically locked iron gate the players have to get past... how could they? I guess one of the NPCs has a key... and there's a potion of Eat Metal hidden in room 12C." When you build your adventures, seed them with challenges that you know the answer to. Maybe the player characters have a core capability to get past the challenge, or maybe you've just placed the solution somewhere else for them to find. Use these to encourage players to dig
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