OSRIC

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OSRIC, short for Old School Reference and Index Compilations, describes itself as "a compilation of rules for old school-style fantasy gaming...intended to reproduce underlying rules used in the late 1970s to early 1980s" [1]. It is a role-playing game. Although OSRIC never refers to this directly for legal reasons, it is intended to reproduce the rules of the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

The legal basis of the project is that rules may not be copyrighted, only the "artistic presentation" of those rules.[2] It also uses the System Reference Document.

The purpose of OSRIC is to allow other people who create material that's compatible with the first edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, to describe it as "compatible with OSRIC": thus alerting potential users that it's compatible with first edition AD&D, without directly saying so and thus making themselves vulnerable to legal action.

A number of products do indeed describe themselves as compatible with OSRIC, including (as of June 2007) three books published by Expeditious Retreat Press[3], three by Ronin Arts, three by 0one Games, several by Goblinoid Games and half a dozen other small-press publishers with one product each.

The OSRIC rules are free to download from the game's site in PDF form.[4]

Contents

[edit] Monsters of Myth

As of May 2007, the OSRIC site says that Monsters of Myth (a book of new monsters not previously published in an AD&D-compatible hardback) will be "coming soon".[5]

[edit] See also

There are a number of free role-playing products which similarly attempt to reproduce the rules and/or 'feel' of early game systems.

  • Mazes and Minotaurs is presented as a re-imagining of early Dungeons and Dragons, but based on Greek mythology rather than northern European.

[edit] References

  1. ^ About OSRIC (English). Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  2. ^ US Copyright Office (English). Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
  3. ^ Advanced Adventures (English). Retrieved on 2007-08-22.
  4. ^ Download OSRIC (English). Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
  5. ^ Coming Soon -- MOnsters of Myth (English). Retrieved on 2007-06-02.

[edit] External links