Hey there! I love your writing and I've found some cool new stuff through your recommendations so I wanted to say thanks for that.
I also wanted to ask if you knew of any osr games that attempt to emulate roguelikes or roguelites. So I guess what I'm looking for is broadly compatible with old schools d&d alikes, quick or at least easy character creation since the players are expected to die a lot (but thats common to most osr), but mostly some kind of meta currency or meta progression that allows the players to slowly make progress even as the characters die. Maybe some kind of base building mechanic? I don't know. Do you have any recommendations?
THEME: Rogue-likes, Easy Characters, & Meta Progression.
Hello, thank you so much for your kind words! I've cobbled together a few disparate recommendations, many of which will probably work in tandem with some other resources. I hope that in this hodge-podge you find something that works for you!
Vicious Circle, by HauntedPicnic.
Over and Over. This Place is Wrong. This Village is wrong.
Vicious Circle is a Horror TTRPG where Players are trapped in a looping Village.
Each week it falls prey to all manner of terrifying entities, states of madness, phenomenon and creatures. Monday, all is well. By Sunday all is hell.
You play as a new arrival to the town who soon discoveries in order to break free of this never ending cycle you must survive past midnight on Sunday. If you do you are free!
Vicious Circle uses a generator table to create new horrors every time the time loop resets. When your character dies, they pass a useful item on to your next character, but they're not guaranteed to die! Survival is possible, and rewarded by new abilities that may improve chances of survival the next time round. This game appears to be built for something with a bit more longevity than a one-shot, so you might really build some history with the town before the game
Quantum Nobodies by DNGNCLUB.
YOU START AS A NOBODY AND YOU DIE AS A NOBODY.
Again and again and again and again and again…
Quantum Nobodies is a game for one night with 2–5 players. You take on the role of a NOBODY, a living paradox trapped in a Quantum Loop, stuck in a cycle of life and death. You must work together with your fellow anomalies to complete your mission and escape the liminal world before the mysterious GOD COMPLEX locates you and scrubs you from reality permanently.
Here's another game that gives you your characters back after they die, due to the nature of the time loop that they find themselves stuck in. The downside is that this game is designed to be a one-shot, with recurring loops happening in a single session. If you like media about characters who learn something new every loop, you might like Quantum Nobodies.
The Knot hangs ponderous, heavy - pulling taut the tangled threads of the Fabric Between Worlds. Tired, callused hands pick at the threads, easing the tangles, bit by aching bit. Slowly, deliberately, they pull at loose threads to scrutinize with weary eyes, as they mutter amongst themselves. Piles of threads form at their feet, growing ever larger, until the eldest amongst them finally speaks. ‘That is… enough. For now. With these Thrums - these tangled, fraying threads - They can return.’
The others simply nod, and gather together what threads they have found.
The eldest stares at The Knot that threatens all that exists in the worlds, ‘The rest… is up to Them.’
LOOM is a Fantasy Action TTRPG where players take on the roles of fallen Gods - tricked out of their Domains - trying to reclaim their seats of power. LOOM is a combat heavy game taking inspiration from video games like Hades.
I'm recommending LOOM because it's inspired by a rather famous rogue-like - HADES - but also because it's built on the LUMEN system, which is known for easy character creation that can get you up and running pretty quickly. LUMEN games are great for powerful characters, like gods, which means that death doesn't really work in the same way. This allows your characters to experience a game loop while still upgrading and becoming more powerful over time.
Cyclic Dungeon Generation, by Sersa Victory.
Cyclic dungeon generation is the name given to the level creation algorithm in Joris Dormans’s 2017 roguelite Unexplored.
Taking inspiration from games like The Legend of Zelda, this algorithm generates dungeons by composing together cycles: circular loops of linked dungeon rooms designed to create a specific flow of game play.
There are several types of cycles that can be used to construct a dungeon, such as lock and key or hidden shortcut.
By nesting multiple different cycles, a dungeon can be generated that feels more like a human being intentionally designed it, rather than a purely random scattering of chambers.
This isn't a game in itself, but instead a guide to making a dungeon that might help you turn any OSR game into a rogue-lite. It comes with an adventure that you can use with Old-School Essentials, and includes methods to make the dungeon interesting even after multiple passes, such as roaming monsters, false goals, and locked doors that require a key. If what you want is help making the OSR games you already love work as a rogue-like, this might be the tool that you need!
Shard, by emmy, for LIGHT.
Some settlements and bases are scattered across the system, but the Lighthouse is home; you call it home.
Not everyone has the luxury of living at the Lighthouse. With this module you will rebuild a settlement and defend it from invading forces. It will not be easy, but who said it should be?
I've already talked about how LUMEN games are great options for folks who want to emulate various elements of video games, but Shard* specifically adds the base-building that you're looking for, as a supplement to LIGHT, which just so happens to be the first LUMEN game ever written. The base is called The Lighthouse, and it's meant to be a bastion that will help you fight against the Dark.
We Deal In Lead, by Odin's Beard Games.
Stride into perilous worlds and give 'em hell with lead and grit.
We Deal in Lead is an 88-page full-color rulebook delivering genre-bending gun-slinging in a post-apocalyptic weird west world. Designed by Colin Le Sueur and inspired by The Dark Tower and the Man With No Name, We Deal in Lead is a lightweight combat-focused TTRPG perfect for brutal one-shots, tense solo excursions, or epic campaigns.
An OSR-style game built off of Cairn, We Deal In Lead is just as dangerous. It propels your gunslingers into various worlds, allowing it to work with cross-compatibility with various settings, but there are a few elements that you might find helpful in particular. First of all, your Gunslingers are part of an Order, which can both grow and take drawbacks as your Gunslingers die or progress. There's also elements of your characters that could theoretically be passed on even if your blorbo dies, such as your gun, which can be upgraded as you find key pieces of treasure, or your companion, who has their own stats and abilities that they can contribute. Since it's compatible with Cairn, any dungeon that's Cairn-compatible should work for We Deal in Lead!
Milk Bar, by Eryk Sawicki.
After Ameripol pushed too hard, cut too many corners, and ignored one-too-many warning lights, The Belt was shorn in half and their sick experiments flooded our farmland and destroyed our city. The majority of people left. Sadly for you, the first thing you got taught in Communard school was that jumping ship and hoping for greener grass doesn’t work: you have to stay and fight for the future you want.
Inspired by OSR games such as Cairn and Mothership, Milk Bar has easy character creation and a pretty punishing setting that likely pulls a lot from dungeon design, but re-contextualizes it in a post-Soviet, post-apocalypse, weird alien-touched setting. Because you play as hosts of a commune-like Milk Bar, I think there's also a lot of potential for base-building. You'll need to keep track of resources in order to keep your Milk Bar running, as well as manage problems that will inevitably show up in a post-apocalypse. With a whole chapter on building and running your Milk Bar, I think there's a quite a bit to make it matter, even if your characters die!
Games I've Recommended in the Past…
Dice Souls, by Chris Bissette.
Rogue Blight, by Junk Food Games.
Tower Defense Recommmendation Post
Escape from Hades, by only1marek.
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