Thoughts on Old School Stylish

Old School Stylish is a supplement that "replaces [the typical OSR] class system with one that focuses on what your characters do and find in the game world." Characters begin classless, and gain Styles, which grant a package of advanced abilities, in play. The author provides lots of examples of how to use these, ways to implement the styles, etc. You get the sense that the author has really played around with the mechanics here. I feel like the majority of OSR blog posts and supplements are virtually unplayed, so this is good to see. 

The supplement comes with lots of stuff, but there are two main pillars to the supplement: changes to the magic and Styles.

Part A - Styles:

Lots of people have thought through diegetic advancement with varying degrees of success. Games like Cairn boil it down to "figure it out." This actually works very well in my mind, though may be unsatisfying for some. Delta Classes are on the other end. Basically, classes progress by performing certain feats in the game world rather than gaining XP. The requirements are typically so specific that they are difficult to remember in play, become cumbersome to track, or they are unreasonable in the first place. Like lots in the OSR space, they are more of a thought experiment than something meant for play.

Old School Stylish is a bit more palatable because it's a lot easier to track: perform a task for a master or undergo some quest and gain a style. Characters can only have three styles, and they come in complete packages, so things are easy to track. Each comes with one or two abilities and a small stat boost. The abilities aim at providing new options. 

Perhaps my only criticism about this is the "Starting Styles" that characters begin with. I'm not sure what this system is supposed to accomplish. Unlike the normal styles, these provide only very small bonuses that are, largely, numerical. I think they are supposed to differentiate starting characters, but, in practice I'm not sure it really adds much. It's okay for characters to be mechanically the same; in practice its player approach and character personality that really makes a character, anyone.

Overall, I love the system and am planning to adapt it for my next campaign.

Part B - Magic:

The magic system is very straightforward. Rather than use HP, characters cast spells with magic points equal to level. Equipping spells, rather than using a slot system, reduces maximum HP.  Heavier armour reduces magic points. Players have lots of power to decide their character's role. Very elegant. 

Ironically, I think this is the best bit from the book. I had thought for a long time about how to do the whole RPG thing where everyone is a little bit of a Fighter and a Spell Caster. Cloud zaps fools and slaps them around with the Buster Sword, same with Chrono and everyone else. I think that the magic point system here makes a lot of sense. The trade off of equipping spells = HP cost should work really well in play. Fighters probably ought to carry a spell or two that provides them with an edge in combat and it'll still be handy to have dedicated mages who load up on utility/support spells. Given the low HP numbers, powerful spells have a serious cost. 

GLOG and Old School Stylish:

This system is actually a lot like GLOG Classes. Like GLOG, the Styles focus on abilities that provide interesting options instead of straight upgrades. Styles can also be mixed and matched like GLOG classes. There are two main differences:

- Styles are found in the world, instead of gained upon level up. Randomly gaining unrelated abilities upon levelling up is one of my main issues with multi-classing systems, and Styles resolve this.
- GLOG classes offer their abilities piecemeal, while Styles give everything up front. GLOG classes have a problem where the most potent abilities are unlocked at the end of a class's progression. Characters are, thus, dissuaded from multi-classing. Too bad!

Old School Stylish resolves my main problems with the typical GLOG set up: cool!

My Next Campaign:

My next campaign is using Old School Stylish as its basis for character advancement. Changes are the following:

- System in use is The Vanilla Game with my own bestiary and treasure tables, rather than OSE. This means lots of small numerical stuff is translated over, and includes some number noodling that ultimately doesn't matter. (Such as the conversion of all damage to d6s). Some other changes are in place as well (For example: I don't like spell damage scaling with level) 
- My own spells and styles will be in use, though where convenient I will take from existing sources.
- Starting styles will be removed.
- Characters will have a max of two rather than three style slots. Other forms of diegetic advancement (Items, reputation, gaining territory, mounts, etc) are in play like always. Each Style can be thought of like a set of magic items. They are pretty potent: I think three is a little much.
- I will be pretty flexible with letting players make their own styles. I think that's pretty cool. It's gotta be organic, though, or will require lots of effort from the character.

Verdict:

Seems pretty cool. Looking forward to using it as a basis for my campaign!