You got it! As John Adams of Brave Halfling Publishing recently announced, their new original edition clone will be designed to match terminology with Labyrinth Lord.
What does that mean? It means for the first time in the OSR two publishers are working together to unify their games, instead of working totally separately and possibly further fragmenting old-school gamers.
What will that mean? It means that in the design of Delving Deeper instead of inventing new and different terminology, like some spell or monster names, or saving throw names, etc. There will be a coordinated effort to make these things consistent between Labyrinth Lord and Delving Deeper.
Sometime back a number of people voiced frustration with all the new games coming out, all just slightly incompatible in ways that might make using modules between games a little tricky. John and I realized we had a chance to collectively create the Rosetta Clone everyone has been looking for. Between Delving Deeper and the Labyrinth Lord core rules and Advanced Edition Companion, for the first time the full range of old-school fantasy will be available in a way that makes any modules or other supplemental material easily ported between games.
We'll all be speaking the same language toward the same goal!
So, for real this time, "Zee game is Zee Zame." Just different flavors.
13 comments:
This is a very good move.
At the simplest level, it's painless to change the original edition magic item names to follow the Labyrinth Lord naming, for example. That decision makes running (and writing) adventures a little easier.
I'm encouraged by what I've heard about DD, and glad that LL stands to benefit too.
Awesome.
Wow, that is exactly what I'd been hoping for! It makes my work on my campaign setting quite a bit easier. Thanks guys!!
Weird. Carter Soles and I just finished a conversation about an hour ago that started with "What's the point of the Delving Deeper ODD clone other than to further fragment game systems?" and finished with the counterpoint of "Goblinoid's inter-compatibility [between e.g., LL and MF] is really the way forward/Dan Proctor is a genius."
Up 'til now, I didn't care about the new clone, but with this news I can see how it might alter my game. Righteous.
That's completely awesome. Now I just need to go visit Google and figure out what Delving Deeper is. :) Aha. Grognardia post about it. Must go read . . .
- Ark
On the Clone Complaints:
Problem that wasn't a problem, I'd say. People will buy what they want, and developers will develop what they want. Of all the things to get worked up about, this would seem to be at the bottom of the list, imo.
"What's the point of the Delving Deeper ODD clone other than to further fragment game systems?":
This line of thought absolutely boggles me... Just. Wow. It's BHP's lookout, but I'd say that they feel they were bringing something worthwhile to the table?(Looks to me like that, anyway.)
Regardless of the motive, I expect nothing but excellence to come of Goblinoid and BHP joining forces! They're both produce excellent product, and are helmed by pesonages that seem to be more about expanding the hobby, and bringing Fun back to the table than any thing else.(And may they profit by doing so.) I've bought nearly everything GG has to offer, and I'm looking forward to Delving Deeper and X-Plorers from BHP.
Good luck with this!
Great news.
I am intrigued by this news. I can't wait to see how all this develops.
I've never seen the variety of clones as fragmenting the OSR scene. So long as the clones are roughly compatible, I don't see it as being any different from the way D&D has always been - each group essentially playing differently because of houserules and/or misunderstanding the rules.
Back in the day, did anyone say "We're playing AD&D, so we can't use D&D modules," or vice versa?
I'm still a bit confused as to what DD is going to be. Is DD going to be something similar to LL+OEC in one book?
John can clarify, but my understanding is that no, DD will be a close clone of the original game in ways that LL + OEC are not quite as close. So there are differences to LL. The key issue is in terminology and small details like that.
I think this is a good move.
Not that the differences between the various OSR-style clones are insurmountable, but if "fragmentation" can be avoided, especially simply by selecting common terminology, it can only help.
I wonder how/if this will affect the stated mission of DD to not change anything that didn't absolutely need to be changed.
@John Adams
Good to know. I figgered as much.
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