Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;606983It's a "what if" game in the vein of Spellcraft & Swordplay, something between Chainmail and OD&D, using 2d6 instead of d20. So it belongs in the "Other" category.

Changed and added more information.

From the introduction:
"Retro Phase, despite the title, is not a retro clone. It doesn't actually clone any other RPG."
And it shows: Retro Phaze and its predecessor Elegia utilize a d6 pool (roll and keep) system.

I made a personal rule of mine in the prg.net thread, that a game only counts as a retro clone if the designer views it as such.  In that case, I'll remove Retro Phaze.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;606875No Hackmaster 4e?  It's AD&D like but departs pretty heavily.

I heard as much about Hackmaster.  I am not familiar with its various incarnations, so I included the entire series under "Other RPGs."

Also, I added Old School Hack and Dungeon World into the Other RPGs category.

Quote from: Zachary The First;606925That is a plethora of rulesets.

Whatever their preferred D&D edition, or hybrid of D&D editions, there just about has to be something for everyone by now.

We're in a new Silver Age of Tabletop RPGs.  Old School, New School, or Indie Gamer/Dirty Evil Swine, it's a great day to be a player.

Quote from: Libertad;606873Added Crypts & Things to the list.

Thanks!  But any chance you could describe it as "a dark fantasy Swords and Wizardry variant"?  Simply noting that it is a "S&W variant" doesn't say anything about how it is (significantly) different from straight S&W.

3rd Edition Retro Clones:

Sword and Magic: Adventures on Fomalhaut puts an old school spin on 3.0.

Peryton Revised Edition is a 3.0 clone without feats. Feat-like abilities are back to class abilities and tied to character level, just like in AD&D.

Chroniques Oubliées is a French 3.5 clone. The defining trait: all skills, feats and spells are combined in feat chains (five per class).

Others (Retro Clones which don't fit into the above categories):

Pars Fortuna is a S&W variant with an exotic twist: Race-as-class is taken to an extreme as all classes are Talislanta-like races. ("No Elves!" And no humans, either...)
While fully playable on its own it is basically a S&W-compatible toolkit of variant classes, skill system and magic system.
IMHO one of the most fascinating clones out there.

Mystery Men! is a rules-lite superhero role-playing game based on the OD&D/S&W. Super powers are modeled after the familiar D&D spells.

Tales of the Space Princess is a Flash Gordon-like SF game based on OD&D/S&W.

Quote from: Zachary The First;606925That is a plethora of rulesets.

Whatever their preferred D&D edition, or hybrid of D&D editions, there just about has to be something for everyone by now.

I dunno, there's actually a lack of AD&D styled clones. Most seem to be either OD&D based or Moldvay Basic based.

Quote from: JeremyR;607117I dunno, there's actually a lack of AD&D styled clones. Most seem to be either OD&D based or Moldvay Basic based.

Yeah; for pure AD&D there's...OSRIC, Hackmaster 4e and...that's about it really.

Quote from: JeremyR;607117I dunno, there's actually a lack of AD&D styled clones. Most seem to be either OD&D based or Moldvay Basic based.

Once you strip out the Gygaxisms from AD&D, rectify the confusing parts, and peel away all the bits that the OGL can't stretch to cover, B/X or the LBB are about all that's left. A lot of what makes AD&D what it is is text or content that you can't really retroclone.

I would say it is more of a matter of AD&D 1E being deliberately designed to be fairly tied-down and not leave heaps of room for interpretation, whereas OD&D-Holmes-B/X-BECMI-RC had a bit more of a DIY air about it (especially in the OD&D to B/X era), so if you want to do a retroclone with a particular spin or twist rather than simply replicating the rules it's much easier to do it using OD&D or B/X as a basis.

Quote from: Akrasia;607034Thanks!  But any chance you could describe it as "a dark fantasy Swords and Wizardry variant"?  Simply noting that it is a "S&W variant" doesn't say anything about how it is (significantly) different from straight S&W.

149 pages of Swords and Sorcery fun. Be a wild Barbarian, a deadly Fighter, a soul-torn Magician or a sword sharp canny Thief, fighting evil Tyrants, foul Sorcerers and demons in a world rapidly dying and heading towards its final Nemesis.

The ruleset rolls cleric and magic users into one class which casts magic which is White/Grey/Black with hideous costs (usually from some poor victim) of casting Black magic.
It has new and interesting variants on the thief and he barbarian and the fighter has a few extra twists to make it more varied without needing 3e overhead.
It uses saving throws as skills and everyone can sneak or backstab.
The bestiary is deeply creepy and one reviewer said that alone made him want to play the game.
It has advice on how to Howard/Smith your game and make it truly S&S.
It is nicely illustrated.

I have played it twice, it does what is says on the tin, I know the writer, I don't like D&D much but it was an interesting variant that is more than simply a clone. [which may or may not increase it's utility to you]

Quote from: JeremyR;607117I dunno, there's actually a lack of AD&D styled clones. Most seem to be either OD&D based or Moldvay Basic based.

For the 4 years I played D&D I ran B/X, but also played AD&D.
I made an active choice to run B/X, it seemed a cleaner simpler game that had more consistency and less 'fog' about it.
Many friends mocked me for not being "advanced", but they enjoyed my games and after a while I went to University and discovered RuneQuest.
Funny how many retro people now appear to have been fans of the simpler rulesets after all, or are the AD&D peeps still playing with the old rulesets or are they the 3e and 4e people?

Quote from: JeremyR;607117I dunno, there's actually a lack of AD&D styled clones.

Obviously OSRIC can't be topped. It is the be-all, end-all clone of AD&D.

But it can be argued that Blood & Treasure, which you listed under "Others", is also an AD&D clone. That game is a special case as it is a "Rosetta Stone" for the different D&Ds, the modular approach that D&D Next announced to be. Blood & Treasure is a clone of OD&D, AD&D, and a bit of D&D3, taking "a little bit of everything from the first 3 editions" but at the same time being playable as a clone of each single edition.
It's three clones in one book, and technically belongs in each category.

Quote from: tzunder;607161Funny how many retro people now appear to have been fans of the simpler rulesets after all,

That has been noticed on the OSR forums and blogs beforel. I find that funny as well.
I was always more fond of BECMI but I had to DM AD&D because of my group's insistence. (Over the long run it was easier for me to drift them to RQ, WHFRP, and a test run of MERP, than to go "back" to the kiddie version of D&D.)

Quote from: tzunder;607161or are the AD&D peeps still playing with the old rulesets or are they the 3e and 4e people?

My old AD&D players left gaming behind.

Quote from: Bobloblah;606854Adventurer Conqueror King belongs in the "Other" category; it's decidedly its own thing.

I disagree. Having reviewed it, while it certainly has innovations and isn't JUST a clone, its very much based on the RC.  If anything LotFP is better qualified to be moved to "miscellaneous", its a further deviation from the main body of old D&D rules than ACKS.

RPGPundit

Also, there is no "Hackmaster 1st-4th editions and Basic".  The "Hackmaster 4e" is a meta-joke; there was no HM 3 on back.  It's Hackmaster "5e" and Hackmaster Basic.

Old Dragon seems to be a AD&D 1E-ish clone if not earlier; I'm guessing as I have to rely on Google to translate.

Quote from: JeremyR;607117I dunno, there's actually a lack of AD&D styled clones. Most seem to be either OD&D based or Moldvay Basic based.

Wayfarers is decidedly not a clone, however some have described it as 1.5E AD&D or some sort of alternate reality 2E. It has its roots in our games from those years. IMHO it has a je ne sais quoi that speaks to those times. YMMV

Quote from: Steve Dubya;607430Old Dragon seems to be a AD&D 1E-ish clone if not earlier; I'm guessing as I have to rely on Google to translate.

More of a Mentzer B/E ("red box") clone, actually, with a few accretions like ascending AC and secondary skills.

Oh, and it's got Cthulhu on the bestiary. I just feel I should really mention this.

The art is crap though.