I am struggling trying hard to figure out which old-school or OSR inspired RPG I will settle on to play. Out of the following games which would be your pick and please state your reasoning.

Old School Essentials

Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC)

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Against the Darkmaster

Low Fantasy Gaming

Magic World (BRP)

I would ask you first, what are you trying to accomplish?

My personal choice and recommendation is ACKS. It's a clone in the B/X family, so I'm shoehorning it in in place of OSE, but it's got more back end support for things like domain rulership and downtime activities if you happen to need it later. Also it powers up fighters just slightly, which I think is a needed change if you'd otherwise be running B/X-OSE by the book.

Has only a few ACKS-branded adventures, but those are generally of high quality, and compatibility with TSR and retroclone adventures is high - just convert AC and you're done.

DCC is a credible choice too. I had fun playing it. Go that route if you want a more metal feeling to your campaign, with the flavor built into the mechanics more than leaning on setting/GMing. For the full old school experience though you'll need to import xp for gold and copy wandering monster checks, reaction rolls and morale from another game. (OSE is as good as any for this.)

With a few exceptions, the DCC adventure catalog is surprisingly heavy on railroads. Really good flavor, art and production, but a flowchart would be a simple straight line in many of them. That's okay in a funnel (and you should run a multi-character funnel once, it's a fun experience), but gets old fast in campaign play. So I consider it a stronger option if you're planning to make your own dungeons and adventures than if you're expecting to run a lot of published adventures. Compatibility with the rest of the OSR is low, expect heavy conversion work for adventures from other systems f you even bother.

AS&SH seems to get consistently positive reviews, but I've never actually taken it out for a spin.

Old School Essentials
Do you like B/X? OSE is B/X and I'm unsure why people prefer it to Labyrinth Lord which is also B/X.

Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC)
Want Old School, but not as TSR did it? DCC delivers "it's fresh and new, but familiar", but I feel the 0-level funnel is the best part of the game. Very beautiful core book and a bazillion uber-gonzo adventures.

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
Pretty book that gets good reviews, but I haven't played it.

Against the Darkmaster
Never heard of it.

Low Fantasy Gaming
Very well done OSR game. Feels like Swords & Wizardry with better attention to melee. If I wanted an "low magic" OSR game, I'd go with this one, but my tastes are more gonzo. For me, Mazes & Minotaurs gives me the lower magic OSR game, but with a fun faux Greek myth setting.

Magic World (BRP)
Which one? I'm partial to the original. I can't speak to the new edition, but the original gave you all the kewl bits of RuneQuest minus the Glorantha setting. I wonder if OpenQuest or other D100 rules-lighter system would achieve the same or better than the current MW being sold.

Against the Darkmaster is the only one of them I'd even consider playing, but that's largely because it's more MERP-based than D&D-based, and I am not much of a fan of early D&D mechanics.

If you want balls to the wall crazy, with greater levels of lethality than D&D, and you can find players to roll with it; Dungeon Crawl Classics.  It is unique.

Hmm...if Against the Darkmaster is like MERP and Magic World is BRP and the rest are D&Dish, then maybe what you want is Palladium Fantasy.

I'm serious.

Palladium Fantasy gives you all that old school goodness, with mechanics from all the games you've mentioned rolled into it, and its got plenty of high quality supplements.

I'd personally go with Palladium Fantasy 1e, but if you want a "current book in print", then 2e does the job just fine (just a bit more high fantasy oriented).

I'm familiar with four of those six, and all four are solid games that I'd recommend. Next consideration would be the people you game with. What are they looking for?

Are they asking for D&D specifically? Then give them OSE. It is the generic, but satisfyingly familiar choice. If you don't mind the standard D&D high-fantasy trappings, it will deliver great play. It is a simpler game, than some on the list, in case your players want less crunch.

If they want something with a different feel, or like more complex systems, then the choice is harder (you have made good selections). Hyperborea, DCC, and LFG are all great games.

If I were stuck on a desert island, had only one game to pick, and didn't know who would be in the next plane to crash-land on my island ... I would pick Low Fantasy Gaming. I don't care for high fantasy settings, and while LFG is crunchier than I prefer, I think I would have plenty of time on my hands to master all its systems and provide years of entertainment for my fellow castaways.

Quote from: Dave R on July 02, 2021, 09:42:40 PM
My personal choice and recommendation is ACKS. It's a clone in the B/X family, so I'm shoehorning it in in place of OSE, but it's got more back end support for things like domain rulership and downtime activities if you happen to need it later. Also it powers up fighters just slightly, which I think is a needed change if you'd otherwise be running B/X-OSE by the book.

Has only a few ACKS-branded adventures, but those are generally of high quality, and compatibility with TSR and retroclone adventures is high - just convert AC and you're done.

DCC is a credible choice too. I had fun playing it. Go that route if you want a more metal feeling to your campaign, with the flavor built into the mechanics more than leaning on setting/GMing. For the full old school experience though you'll need to import xp for gold and copy wandering monster checks, reaction rolls and morale from another game. (OSE is as good as any for this.)

With a few exceptions, the DCC adventure catalog is surprisingly heavy on railroads. Really good flavor, art and production, but a flowchart would be a simple straight line in many of them. That's okay in a funnel (and you should run a multi-character funnel once, it's a fun experience), but gets old fast in campaign play. So I consider it a stronger option if you're planning to make your own dungeons and adventures than if you're expecting to run a lot of published adventures. Compatibility with the rest of the OSR is low, expect heavy conversion work for adventures from other systems f you even bother.

AS&SH seems to get consistently positive reviews, but I've never actually taken it out for a spin.

My campaign is based on DCC, but I use OSE material for sandboxing and domain rulership and downtime activities.

I can live without the old school xp for gold and copy wandering monster checks, reaction rolls and morale from another game -- YMMV.

Also, I find that converting OSR adventures to DCC is relatively straight-forward, but I will acknowledge that spellcasters (wizards, clerics, elves) take more work.

Hence, DCC is my recommendation. But the other games mentioned in the topic are also good choices. Really depends on finding a system that matches the style of game you want to play.

My personal choice would be Magic World. I have a pretty strong preference for BRP & related games over anything D&D / D20 related.

Lately I have been reading ZEFRS. It is free and feels old school. We might try it as a test at the table to see how we like it in action.

Castles & Crusades fits the bill for me