Old School D&D

Jerome and I began playing in the early 1980's. We started with the Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and the Dungeon Master's Guide. I had seen the “original books” at a Con and heard about them.
Over time, the rules changed. There were more books and more classes of characters. There were way more monsters. TSR got sued by H.P. Lovecraft over the Cthulhu monsters in the Monster Manual.

There are some who do not like the current rule system, or the fact that there is another on the way. They want the original rules. There may be something to that. A simpler game. More role playing and less what do the dice say. Something that does not need a milk create of books. Something you can sit down and play.

Hence, Old School Renaissance (OSR). A convoluted way around copyright laws to bring the “original rules” back. I read about OSR in this article, "Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Wizards of the Coast’s Problem Child" . That led quickly into looking up a copy of the OSR rulebook. I have downloaded and printed the OSR Rulebook from the Old School Reference & Index Compilation. The first thing I discovered is that for a group of people who do not like big rule books, they managed to crank out 400 pages. The next thing was that they did a great job. It is a complete rule system, simpler. Seven races, nine classes, ok, more than 100 pages of monsters.

Something new to try.