I love reading about the growth of more 'cooperative' and story-based TTRPGs. I played one session of 'real' D&D and it was so combat driven as to be boring (plus, I came after the wizard, who had to reread all his spells before every turn to calculate which was the mathematically best option).
The table I've played with for a while now is so cooperative about story, we will suggest complications to one another and ourselves to make things more interesting.
You hit right at the core of the line I dance along when I GM. I find games like DnD too restrictive for me to have fun, if I'm GMing RAW. Ever since I came upon Mork Borg and learned of OSR games, I've not really looked back.
I had a similar experience with trad games. What you call restrictive I experienced as simply stressful: too many expectations with no tools to help fulfill them. My way to the OSR games was through Cities Without Number initially, but I haven't looked back either.
One thing I haven't mentioned in the article is that the concreteness of the world in the OSR play style helps me personally get to that emotional sweet spot, as well. The fact that danger is real, PCs will die if logic dictates it, etc., helps me feel more grounded, and get more strongly emotionally involved.
So in a way, the fact that OSR games don't focus on story and emotion helps me get more invested in the story and feel more. It's a bit weird but I'm sure I'm not alone.
I love reading about the growth of more 'cooperative' and story-based TTRPGs. I played one session of 'real' D&D and it was so combat driven as to be boring (plus, I came after the wizard, who had to reread all his spells before every turn to calculate which was the mathematically best option).
The table I've played with for a while now is so cooperative about story, we will suggest complications to one another and ourselves to make things more interesting.
You hit right at the core of the line I dance along when I GM. I find games like DnD too restrictive for me to have fun, if I'm GMing RAW. Ever since I came upon Mork Borg and learned of OSR games, I've not really looked back.
I had a similar experience with trad games. What you call restrictive I experienced as simply stressful: too many expectations with no tools to help fulfill them. My way to the OSR games was through Cities Without Number initially, but I haven't looked back either.
One thing I haven't mentioned in the article is that the concreteness of the world in the OSR play style helps me personally get to that emotional sweet spot, as well. The fact that danger is real, PCs will die if logic dictates it, etc., helps me feel more grounded, and get more strongly emotionally involved.
So in a way, the fact that OSR games don't focus on story and emotion helps me get more invested in the story and feel more. It's a bit weird but I'm sure I'm not alone.