When my kids were about 2 and 4 years old, a squirrel jumped onto the power transformer by our house. It did not go well: the squirrel was blown off onto the road, power went out for our neighborhood, and my kids asked me, staring at the smoking squirrel from our yard, “Daddy, is that squirrel dead, or just sleeping?”
Uh, he’s dead (and yes, this is a real thing made by a real taxidermist).
By all accounts, the Old School Renaissance is dead, broken into pieces when G+ died back in 2019. And by all accounts, I mean this thorough one by Prismatic Wasteland, and all the blogs it cites saying the same thing. Ask other people, and the OSR could be on a fourth-wave, or even a holy toad brain-infection.
So if the OSR died in 2019, have any innovations happened in the OSR scene since then? Let me consult a list or two: Black Sword Hack (2020), Cairn (2020), Worlds Without Number (2021), Hyperborea (2021), Vaults of Vaarn (2022), Errant (2022), Dragonbane (2023), Shadowdark (2023), Tales of Argosa (2024), His Majesty the Worm (2024), Mythic Bastionland (2025), Vagabond (2025). And all the GLoGs and Borgs...
Going by innovation and by market share, OSR // NSR // POSR games (OSR+ games) seem to be having something of a moment. Rather than tapering off, tons of fresh new OSR+ games have emerged post-2019, showcasing cool new rules, cool settings, and cool new ways to play lethal, simple fantasy adventure games. The OSR blogosphere (and GLoGosphere) also show no signs of slowing down, with the Bloggies and Gloggies going strong. And while one could argue that the definition of OSR+ games is so general as to be meaningless, it is clearly a genre with touchstone traditions (rules and procedures) and a familiar feel (vibe and principles).
What is missing from the current wave of OSR+ games is a central sense of community. But who needs that? Instead of one community scene, we have dozens, hundreds even. Across Discord and ENworld the salons of the OSR+ gather for discussion, in the tradition of 16th to 18th century Europe. Mr. Prismatic Wasteland runs one such salon, the Cauldron another, Phlox a third, Sly Flourish a fourth (and Explorers Design, Dice Exploder, on and on). Sometimes it seems like every new RPG and artist spawns new salons for discussion of art. But each day, artists, game creators, and players gather around the electronic beds of their hosts to share, debate, discuss, and create together.
It's entirely possible that such fragmentation will ultimately lead to the breakup of the OSR+ into many artistic movements. But right now the conversation still flows widely, even as groups develop unique takes and traditions. Artists flit from salon to salon, from one scintillating thread to the next, seeking respite and comfort from the wilds of Reddit and Backerland. Sometimes you buy your host a virtual coffee to sit by their hearth, and many are completely open, a light always burning for guests. Cross-pollination needs variety to be fruitful, and OSR+ creativity is still a burning fever despite the sacking of Rome Google+.
You want to create or blog about RPGs? Please, come in, sit a while. What other ideas have you gathered in your journeys? Have you read that post on 1-hp dragons?
A reading of Molière, Jean François de Troy, c. 1728
For you see, the OSR is not dead. It's just sleeping. And while it is sleeping, it is having many strange and wondrous dreams.
