Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Spotlight: OSRIC Player's Guide


Charlie Mason of Seattle Hill Games has put together a Player's Guide for OSRIC.

It is 220 pages, soft covered, spined in orange, and contains all the information a player needs for 1st Edition AD&D... as presented in OSRIC. This isn't his version of OSRIC, this is OSRIC, word for word, at least, part of it, races, classes, equipment, spells, combat rules, etc.... just laid out better including much better art.

The PDF is free, and the print copy from Amazon is only $8.

Now, numerous times, I've contemplated contacting the right folks to acquire the current Black Blade Publishing copy of OSRIC, not because I need it, rather, because I want it. But I keep hesitating. Why? Because I'm not a big fan of the layout. It pains me to say that, considering the effort these fine folks must have put into producing the book. The major flaw is the fact that many charts are not contained on the same page or two-page spread... probably to save space. You should never have to turn a page back and forth to scan the contents of a chart. All charts should be contained on a single page/two-page spread and if this creates white space, so be it, add art.

Then I got wind of an OSRIC revision project in the works, perhaps still a couple years off from completion...

So, my question at this point: Is this Player's Guide a part of that current OSRIC revision project or is it just a stand alone thing? 

Because this book is nice. Well laid out and the interior art is PERFECT. If the revision of OSRIC is done exactly like this... It would certainly make for a fat tome, no doubt, but adding the rest of OSRIC to this exact book, in this exact fashion... I'd pay a king's ransom for it.

Of note, spells in OSRIC are listed alphabetically by class, whereas traditionally, they are listed by level by class. I'm a fan of alphabetical period, not by class, not by level. Any time I need to look up a spell, I know the spell I'm looking up, finding it should be easy. If you don't do it straight alphabetically, there should be some sort of tab noting what section of the spell descriptions you've opened up to, to help guide you to you're destination.

ERRATA NOTE: On page 4, in the section on Dwarfs, under Infravision, there is a reference to the Light and Vision rules on page xxx (it should say 162). If you know the diligent folks working on this project, kindly pass this along.

Anyhow, a few samples and link below...




Classic orange spine.


Cleric!


Nice.


Fighter!


I approve.


Sample two-page art spread.


Yep.


Cool.

You can purchase a copy at the link below.

 OSRIC Player's Guide

Nicely done.