Given the recent and highly politicized controversies regarding Wizards Of The Coast and Paizo combined with a lot of the issues inherent in both the Pathfinder Society and the D&D Adventurers League, I've decided to start a group of my own for organized play both online and in real-life.

However, this organized group is explicitly apolitical and is NOT limited to a specific game or edition, and unlike the Pathfinder Society or the Adventurers League, this group is all about the old-school games of the 70's, 80's, and 90's as well as modern-era spiritual successors like OSR games and other games of a similar fare.

This is WARPS, the Worldwide Anime & Role-Playing Society and it is very much a loving throwback to the good old days of gaming when the hobby was all about having fun and being "edgy" was not seen as a bad thing.

Despite the name, you don't need to be a fan of anime to join WARPS. All you have to be is a fan of old-school games and someone who is fun to game with. I decided on the name because I am a fan of anime (especially old-school stuff from the 1990's and 2000's) and I figured it'd make for a good acronym.

Here are some important questions and answers....

What is an Old School Game?

An old school game is defined by WARPS as any role-playing game released between 1974 and 2000, with OD&D as the starting point and D&D 3E being the end point. However, we will allow modern games that are intended to be an emulation or reflection of old-school games (such as the OSR) and we will also allow D&D 3.0/3.5 in our society as well, even if it is generally considered the first "New School" game.

What is the OSR?

The OSR (Old School Rules) is a movement within gaming that is comprised of modern games that are based on the old TSR-era D&D rules. The earliest OSR games were OGL-based clones of these older editions, although since then the OSR has grown to include original games and original settings that simply use the old D&D rules as the basic frame for the core mechanics.

"Old-School" D&D is defined as any version of D&D published before TSR was purchased by Wizards Of The Coast and the subsequent release of the third edition of D&D in 2000. This includes the original boxed set from the 70's as well as both editions of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and the many iterations of Basic Dungeons & Dragons.

What games will be covered by WARPS?

The following games will be supported by WARPS in official play and some of the games will have overarching plots that drive the "official" campaign every year. These games can be played either in person or online. Online play will include things like forum-based Play By Post, Play By Email, and playing over services like Discord or Roll20.

As a general reference, the games listed were released between 1974 and 2000. Some of these games are still in print but WARPS will not use editions of these games released after the year 2000 in our sanctioned games.

WARPS is all about old-school role-playing and so the list of potential games for our GM's to pick is quite large and yes, I intentionally included Phoenix Command and the other Leading Edge games as the ultimate challenge for the most hardcore of WARPS players and Game Masters alike.

The 70's
Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974)
En Garde! (1975)
Metamorphosis Alpha (1976)
Traveller (1977)
Basic Dungeons & Dragons, Holmes (1977)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition (1978)
Gamma World (1978)
Boot Hill (1979)

The 80's
Call of Cthulhu (1981)
Champions (1981)
Basic Dungeons & Dragons, B/X (1981)
RECON (1982)
Basic Dungeons & Dragons, BECMI (1983)
Twilight 2000 (1984)
GURPS (1986)
Robotech (1986)
Phoenix Command (1986)
Living Steel (1987)
Ars Magica (1987)
Teenagers From Outer Space (1987)
WEG Star Wars (1987)
Macho Women With Guns (1988)
Shadowrun (1989)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition (1989)

The 90's
Cyberpunk 2020 (1990)
Aliens Adventure Game (1991)
Vampire: The Masquerade (1991)
Basic Dungeons & Dragons, Rules Cyclopedia
Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1992)
Mage: The Ascension (1993)
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1993)
Street Fighter: The Storytelling Game (1994)
Changeling: The Dreaming (1995)
Feng Shui (1996)
Big Eyes Small Mouth (1997)
Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game & Resource Book (1999)

And Beyond!

Dungeons & Dragons, 3.0/3.5 (2000)
Most OSR Games

The WARPS Blacklist

These games will NEVER be supported by WARPS in any capacity and are not even eligible for the independent GM play games that WARPS can endorse. They are condemned by WARPS and are antithetical to our values.

FATAL (2003)
Wraeththu (2005)
Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition (2008)
MYFAROG (2013)
Beast: The Primordial (2016)
Zweihander (2017)
Vampire: The Masquerade, Fifth Edition (2018) [Previous editions are fine]
Anything that was ever "Powered By The Apocalypse"

There will be more updates in my next post, detailing officially supported campaign settings for certain specific games and details on how to make your own homebrew settings part of the official WARPS roster!

Sorry to burst your idea but the OSR has this covered

Free Location And Inclusion Laws Supporting New And Interesting Leisure Situations

FLAILSNAILS

Quote from: estar;1095504Sorry to burst your idea but the OSR has this covered

Free Location And Inclusion Laws Supporting New And Interesting Leisure Situations

FLAILSNAILS

Maybe WARPS and FLAILSNAILS can work together?

Especially since WARPS isn't just limited to the OSR/Old-School D&D.

Man, its too bad that you don't mention WEG d6 Star Wars in your list. You could have had a brand new avatar based off this image.


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Quote from: jeff37923;1095514Man, its too bad that you don't mention WEG d6 Star Wars in your list. You could have had a brand new avatar based off this image.


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I forgot about that one! That's a very popular classic!

Why is Zweihander on your hate list?

Quote from: Doc Sammy;1095505Especially since WARPS isn't just limited to the OSR/Old-School D&D.

it not limited to any particular system.

QuoteArticle 2

As stated, PCs may be imported/converted from any game of roughly the same genre and system as the new GM's game, however the new GM is free to determine precisely what "roughly the same" means. GM and Player shall negotiate any complex translation issues regarding system-specific mechanics or powers.

Quote from: trechriron;1095531Why is Zweihander on your hate list?

Namely because Daniel Fox is a colossal asshole and a hypocrite, regardless of how well Zweihander may be designed.

MYFAROG may be a well-designed game for all I know, but I am never going to support Varg Vikernes either.

The Federation of Liberated Universal Maniacal Professional Haters Syndicate

... have you all on notice.

Quote from: trechriron;1095531Why is Zweihander on your hate list?

Maybe because it is made by Daniel Fox and refuses to support Daniel Fox due to the shit Daniel Fox had done?

A major problem with starting up an Org Play is you need a volunteer tree. AKA, lots of responsibility and management for no reward.

The other issue is content creation. If hard enough for companies to support one game with Org Play content, and you multiply that by each game you support. There was a time in the late 90s and early 00s where RPGA was supporting multiple Living campaigns and they were stymied by trying to generate quality content for each different game.

I am surprised there isn't a prominent Anime RPG currently on the market.

Perhaps Anime has become too broad a genre for anything but a "universal RPG", so maybe the better bet is a Anime Fantasy RPG based on Arcadia Quest, aka a tie-in with the boardgame setting and give people more to do with the CMON minis.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/arcadia-quest