In April 2021, a fruitful essay appeared called " Six Cultures of Play ," by blogger Retired Adventurer, receiving a lot of deserved attention. It seems to have established some terms for further and ongoing discussion since then. In this entry I address the distinction construed there between the earliest two "cultures of play" and how they differ from what is known as the OSR (Old-School Revival). The essay rightly calls the OSR "a romantic reinvention, not an unbroken chain of tradition." For some reason, this instance of the claim (which is true) seems to have registered with gamers who read this essay while earlier, similar statements did not. One reason for the growing acceptance is that gamers who care about these things have begun to digest Jon Peterson's book of late 2020, The Elusive Shift (which I reviewed here ). This book is leading even the most dogmatic and grumpiest OSR-aligned players to admit that the neat "old"/"new...
Musings on table-top role-playing games today after spending a quarter century away from them.