First Impressions - Old-School Armory

Old-School Armoury - very orange!

Old-School Armory (OSA hereafter) is a softback, perfect bound 204-page black & White book, kickstarted back in December 2021 and fulfilled via DriveThruRPG.

Its concept is simple, but the stretch goals somewhat expanded the final product. I'd have been happy if the final stretch goal had been released standalone, as 82-pages of adventure significantly increases the book size of what was meant to be quite a tailored product.

That tight focus was all about gear. It gives fast options for equipping player characters for a game, the aim of which is to speed entry into play. There are a variety of levels of load out (to reflect the different levels of cash characters may have) and higher levels are also considered. The author has carefully referenced different editions of Basic D&D to bring this together.

OSA also has a simple encumbrance system; easy to track, and easy to work out exactly what the consequences of trying to carry out all that loot are. Now, I was only really into this when I first started with D&D, but a traumatic experience in the One Ring RPG has made me rethink my apathy about such things. There are definitely times having such systems helps, and having a simple, graphical and effective one is a big boon.

Gunpowder weapons make an entrance with decent rules but the most interesting addition was the sentient sword as a class. There are two versions - an independent weapon which can fly, and a wielded weapon which relies on someone to swing it. It's an interesting new character class, and done very well.

The book rounds out with an 82-page adventure, "The Clockwork Armory". The characters have travelled to a famous gnomish emporium to buy equipment, but things have gone wrong. What follows is an adventure of weirdness, clockworks and corruption. It didn't really float my boat thematically but I think it would work fine as a one-shot as characters try to survive, make a profit and avoid corruption. The maps were functional but uninspiring, but the artwork is good.

Overall, I like the first 127-pages more than the last eighty-two, and I can see myself using them with Old School Essentials when I next bring that to the table. A good, useful supplement.

1 July 2022