So lately the Pundit has been talking a lot of unadulterated bullshit about the OSR, in his desperate, flailing attempts to find a new enemy that gives him the same afterglow as his hate-on for the "swine" gave him and he seems to have settled on the OSR because it has a name!
*gasp*
Sorry, had the vapors for a minute there, had to fan myself.
Never mind that this "name" is someone taking the first three letters of OSRIC and changing what the R meant, effectively adopting the name of the flagship product as shorthand.
In contrast to this alarming development of people wanting a short-hand for their forum posts, I'd like to relate my experiences with this movement.
First, I think I'm a perfect person to tell this story because I'm not really a part of the movement.
My first exposure to OSRIC, was when Phil Reed released the first OSRIC PDF on RPGNow. He and I had been talking about a product we could do together and after doing a True20 book together, I pitched him an "OSRIC version of Unearthed Arcana" and an "OSRIC version of Oriental Adventures".
He countered with "just make it one big book" and we were off.
I wrote the book and then moved on, beyond some forum posts at one of the forums (I think it was Dragonsfoot?) I moved on. I'm a freelance writer. I had other assignments waiting.
Fast forward like a year and I discovered grognardia, a blog I liked, written from a standpoint I definitely understood. I was more interested in looking back at 1e than forward to 4e.
I sent James OSRIC Unearthed, he reviewed it and also encouraged me to do other things for OSRIC.
At every turn (the limited forum exposure I had and grognardia) I was surprised at how receptive folks were to the little book I had done.
I had riffed on two books with Gary Gygax's name on the cover, and had blatantly disagreed with many of the choices he and Zeb Cook had made in those books in a number of key areas.
In short, I wasn't recreating my source material. I used by own design sense and my own playtesting to balance things.
I expected dismissal, or outright hostility but got a warm reception at almost every turn.
Now fast forward another year to uh, now, and I had decided to take my AD&D world and turn it into a product.
Again, I enrolled at an old-school forum, in this case K&K Alehouse and let out the word about my product and also asked some very pointed questions such as "how much detail do NPCs need" and "how do you feel about humanoids having classes".
In every case, to the product in general, as well as to my questions, I received nothing but positive comments and helpful responses.
In short, this isn't a movement looking to condemn or exclude.
In fact, as someone who has dabbled in it, I have to say its one of the more receptive and inclusive internet communities I've ever spent time in.