The best thing?

It influenced the latest edition of D&D to go back to a more traditional style system instead of continuing on the path it was going fro 3.5 to 4th edition.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;861236What barrier was there in the first place?  I was self-publishing for a decade prior to the faux-SR "happened".

I am looking at it strictly from a marketing perspective.

The OGL was developed at a time when PDFs had slowly begun to gain traction in the RPG market. From the OGL, later came the OSR. Dead tree products had already been present in the market pre-OSR, but trafficked mostly by those who had cash to burn, were a part of a larger publication outfit with history in the market or were able to cobble together enough to make a short run print.

My assertion is that the OSR pushed PDFs as a viable medium for writers, therefore lowering the monetary barriers which once prohibited self-publication while providing a platform to deliver original content cost-effectively without crushing the margins.

MEh, I saw a wave of pdf RPG publishing long before the OSR.

Risus, FATE, Neverwhere, The Window, Fable, The Pool, Mazes & Minotaurs, Uner a Broken Moon, Cineflex, Dead Raign, Fight, Thrash....etc etc It all exploded in the early aughts, when the term retroclone first came into common parlance in online rpg circles.

Quote from: TristramEvans;861262MEh, I saw a wave of pdf RPG publishing long before the OSR.

I don't disagree with that fact.

Quote from: ZWEIHÄNDERThe OGL was developed at a time when PDFs had slowly begun to gain traction in the RPG market.

My assertion is that the OSR pushed PDFs as a viable medium for writers, therefore lowering the monetary barriers which once prohibited self-publication while providing a platform to deliver original content cost-effectively without crushing the margins.

Flooded the Internet with free gaming material, some of it of very high quality, including complete rulesets, thus making it theoretically possible to enter the hobby with no more investment than buying a set of dice.

Quote from: Opaopajr;861258I heartily agree with this.

Organized Play was getting a stranglehold on the publically visible manifestations of the hobby. The end result was the GM looking like an underappreciated human game server with the players having little else to engage the world than debating the finer points of party composition, gear, build, and class balance.

Oh, you've played Pathfinder "adventure paths," have you?

What I HAVE noticed is that over the last ten or so years, more people who didn't cut their teeth on pre-1980 RPGs seem willing to accept that older games are worth playing in their own right.

If the OSR is partially or completely responsible for this, which I don't know, I will happily drink a toast to their health.

It gave me a new way of looking at D&D, and to some extent at RPGs generally. I definitely think it improved my GMing. I understand a lot more about what sort of preparation is worthwhile and what isn't. Apart from the materials, various concepts such as Maliszewski's "Tentpole Megadungeon" have been really helpful in breaking away from linear thinking. I think it's even helped when running a Paizo AP, not to be afraid to mangle, change, omit and add stuff.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;861355What I HAVE noticed is that over the last ten or so years, more people who didn't cut their teeth on pre-1980 RPGs seem willing to accept that older games are worth playing in their own right.

If the OSR is partially or completely responsible for this, which I don't know, I will happily drink a toast to their health.

Yeah, there is an actual real-world renaissance in the popularity of older editions, with pre-3e and retroclones widely played. They make up a good proportion of games at my Meetup.
I remember in 2008 before the OSR kicked off, I wanted to run Classic D&D for my first Meetup campaign but I was too ashamed to do so! So I ran a Classic/3e mash-up where the monsters used Classic BECM rules and the PCs used 3e. Nowadays when I want to I run straight-up Classic D&D with confidence, and get plenty of players.

For me, I got two big goodies:

1) Free "versions" of OD&D made it easier for me to get new players. The free PDFs have been a boon for the hobby.

2) Many of the writers in the OSR have created stuff that greatly has added to my enjoyment of the hobby. There are many very talented "amateurs" who bring powerful enthusiasm to their work that is inspiring.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;861355What I HAVE noticed is that over the last ten or so years, more people who didn't cut their teeth on pre-1980 RPGs seem willing to accept that older games are worth playing in their own right.

If the OSR is partially or completely responsible for this, which I don't know, I will happily drink a toast to their health.

In my view what the OSR contributed is a variety of explanations, tutorials and how-tos for using classic edition s'as-is' and spread the word of their existence far and wide. So much so that pretty much anybody who would be interested in playing can find something that works for them in learning the game.

And it succeeded in generating enough interest so that it was worthwhile for Wizards make the original games available again in print and/or PDF. And that is a very good thing in my view.

Proved to me that the industry can survive without D&D. Sure D&D has the highest profile, production budget and so on, but if you want to actually play D&D (kill monsters take their stuff get lost in mazes etc) there are a zillion ways to do it without giving WOTC any money, all legal and out there now, forever.

It's WOTC/D&D designers job to come out with something better than everything else if it wants the $$$$$$, because, after all, a lot of the OSR stuff is free.

In most cases with the OSR, you get the idea that something is done for the love of the game, rather than thinking someone will get rich. Of course, you might strike lucky with a mega kickstarter, but chances are most OSR stuff is read by a few hundred and a lot is ignored, save by the author and friends. That's fine. The sense of 'I made that' and knowing someone else out there might use and like it, is enough for most I should think. By now I reckon most people are clear that giving up the day job to design rpgs is a bad idea.

I was kind of hoping for more concrete things, like how LotFP showed you could have fighters be the only ones who increase base attack by level and make it work (and solve the problem with fighters being overshadowed by magic-users at higher levels).

That's just one example.

Quote from: RPGPundit;862225I was kind of hoping for more concrete things, like how LotFP showed you could have fighters be the only ones who increase base attack by level and make it work (and solve the problem with fighters being overshadowed by magic-users at higher levels).

That's just one example.

The OSR isn't generally about mechanical innovation, though it did get me comfy using ascending AC in my Classic D&D game.
Mostly it showed a fun way to play that for all intents and purposes was new, though based on some ideas of how games were run ca 1974-1977.

Quote from: RPGPundit;862225I was kind of hoping for more concrete things, like how LotFP showed you could have fighters be the only ones who increase base attack by level and make it work (and solve the problem with fighters being overshadowed by magic-users at higher levels).

My frankenclone has stuff culled from various blogs and forums including
Clash Bowley's 'Associations', Rob Conley's Majestic Wilderlands skill system, Nicolas Dessaux's ' use DEX score for unarmoured (ascending) AC' and JD Jarvis' encampment tables.

My biggest change due to the OSR was using the S&W single save, modified by class.