OSRIC

by Matthew J. Finch (Initial Author)

The 2.2 edited version, also available through Stuart Marshall and Black Blade Publishing as 8.5x11 trim size. This compact A5 trim available exclusively through James D. Kramer design services contains the OSRIC rules, complete with indexes.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy

396 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2011

Reviews

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Backstory: I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons since I discovered the original TSR Games D&D Basic set in the 70's. Through the years and many iterations of the now-owners Wizards of the Coast, I feel as D&D (for brevities sake) has changed tremendously over the years. Some for the better, some for the worst. Recently, there has been a spike in popularity in D&D from a Netflix series and a streaming group that plays live. It motivated me to pick it up again with some friends to play the most recent fifth edition. I felt it lacking in many ways.

Along comes the "Old School Renaissance" which began in 2004-ish. Out of that came OSRIC, which stands for Old School Reference and Index Compilation. This is a collection of all of the rules from the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ruleset published starting in 1977 to the mid-eighties. . OSRIC captures the essence of where it all began.

The book itself is set up very well. From the first few pages it throws you immediately into a comprehensive explanation of the terms without any fluff in a very easy to read, legible format. There are a table of contents that spans almost every page and topic in the book. Need to find a specific spell or monster? You can find the exact page right at the beginning of the book. And in the character creation portion of the book, there is no fluff. All of the tables are very easy to read and understand. There are tables for every playable race and class. There are tables for practically everything you can think of. Keep in mind, AD&D was built on a lot of limitations which are not prevalent in the current editions. That is part of the draw of playing "old school" way.

For the book itself, the pages are a heavy, durable stock and the hard covers are sturdy. When you pick up this book, you can feel the quality that went into it. I bought the first edition, not the paperback, full disclosure. And don't expect a dry textbook without any artwork. There are many drawings sprinkled between the covers. Some brilliantly drawn full page artwork that will put you in the mood to get lost in this Sword and Sorcery fantasy setting.

I bought OSRIC because I had mistakenly sold all my original AD&D books over the years. It was referred to me by a online thread dedicated to this "Old School Renaissance" in tabletop role-playing games. I feel as if I don't need to buy another book. OSRIC supplies everything I need to run an OSR campaign. Also, the experience in dealing with Black Blade Publishing, the company who wrote and distributes this edition, was excellent. I'm looking forward to running my first old-school campaign with my friends using OSRIC.

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

OSRIC is interesting because it was one of the first retroclones - an attempt to make old D&D rules available again using the open licensing of third edition. Or in this case, to allow fans of AD&D to publish adventures and other material compatible with those rules without getting in legal trouble with Wizards of the Coast. In that way I think it had a fair bit of success, and while AD&D is now legally available again as PDFs, I can still see the value in making it easy for people to publish new material using old school rules.

But on the other hand, OSRIC is sort of weird because it only kind of clones AD&D. It feels like it's designed to more be an AD&D as the authors actually played it, because it cuts out a number of things from the actual rulebooks. There's none of the complex weapon types versus AC adjustments, no psionics, no monks, no weird proto-prestige class bard. There's also none of the interesting split AD&D where the Player's Handbook was really just enough info to make characters, with the Dungeon Master's Guide containing plenty of vital rules from more details on how individual spells work to the actual attack tables. But OSRIC also leaves in certain things that still feel clunky to me, such as item saving throw tables, and it makes fun of the wandering sex worker table from the DMG only to include it's own version which feels contradictory. It also doesn't contain various things that I feel are important to D&D, like the cosmology, and as far as I'm aware the promised subsequent volume to cover that and other high level topics has not materialized.

Plus it's lacking a lot of what makes reading early D&D material fun - Gary Gygax. Gygax and his collaborators had a way of writing the rules that doesn't really lend itself to an efficient or easy to reference rulebook, but with the archaic features like race-based class and level restrictions I'd be unlikely to use AD&D so I don't care. Instead, I remember finding myself entertained by the insistence on using obscure and strange words and the somewhat more discursive style of writing that makes it feel like you're being taught the rules. Also, I (at least in theory) like the weird things like monks and bards.

So while I recognize OSRIC for what it is, and admit it's importance to the larger OSR movement, I can't say it's all that engaging to read, and there are better options for me to use should I want an old school vibe with easier to use rules.

[Harun Musho'd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Placeholder rating for OSRIC 3.0 Player Guide (2025)