OSRIC Player's Guide

There is a new Player’s Handbook -- er, Player's Guide -- for OSRIC (the “retro-clone” for first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons) available. The PDF is available for free here; paper versions are available on Amazon (Canada/US). 

OSRIC, of course, was the original retro-clone. Along with Basic Fantasy (which appeared around the same time), OSRIC helped to launch the “Old School Renaissance” almost two decades ago. 

The original OSRIC was not a proper ruleset; rather, it simply included the necessary information (tables and the like) to permit the publication of material (primarily modules) for 1e AD&D. Shortly after it originally appeared, however, OSRIC was fleshed out into a complete game. Since then, though, it has not been substantially updated. 

But there are now plans to revise it so that it (a) includes more material from the original Dungeon Master’s Guide (in particular, I think, material having to do with campaign-building and running) and (b) more closely resembles the 1st edition AD&D rules. (Since it was the original attempt at a retro-clone, OSRIC was cautious in replicating the original ruleset. Subsequent retro-clones, like Old School Essentials, have demonstrated that near complete fidelity to the originals is unproblematic. So hopefully half-elves will not be so horrible in the revised version of OSRIC.) 

I believe that there will be a kickstarter for the revised edition of OSRIC sometime next autumn. In the meantime, it’s great that there now is a very attractive player's book available.