Characters, Decyphered!

    With all the talk about how the game master is a player too and the hullaballoo about collaborative storytelling, one would be forgiven for thinking that tabletop roleplay was more of a team sport and then hockey, basketball, and live action military exercises combined. It isn't, but the GM has their own part to play. how does this relate to the spirit of old school roleplay? Let's find out.

     At the risk of sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud, I gotta say that one thing is that we lost during the rise of the new school is the art of playing tactically— and I don't mean going through dungeons like you're playing Rainbow Six, but making decisions based on the environment before the character sheet. Ironically, as games went further out of the way to empower the characters, they seem to have done so at the expense of the players.  As characters gained more options, they choked out the player, and the character sheet shifted from A glass to break in case of emergency to a comprehensive guide to what your character can and cannot do. That is where, in Cypher System at least, the asset comes in (or the bonus die in Call go Cthulhu, or advantage in Dungeons and Dragons,… you get the idea)

      If Koan Mandala and Ganza Gaming  are to be believed, than Cypher System and Old School Roleplay/Renaissance may in fact be friends—or at least allies of convenience.  I intend a Koan-adjacent take on the principles of OSR by application.  And the name for this marriage of Cypher and OSR to be… OCR! Hey, if it's good enough for Venger Satanis ,…