12/30/2012 2:42:21 AM
Greg Dent
Administrator
Posts: 195
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Ok, nobody's actually asked us yet, but I'm sure someone is thinking it (or will ask us), so I figure I'd best explain this one up front. Why are we moving towards our own game system?
Good question. There are actually many reasons, but chiefly is that OSRS is what we use when we play RPGs. Why do we use it? Well, we started out playing other systems and generally found them to have problems, or things we didn't like. So we started changing the rules. Eventually the rules changed enough that it was its own system. And at this point, we actually are pretty happy with what we came up with.
All of the key elements of the OSRS came out of things we found lacking in other systems (active defense, hit locations, classless character advancement, critical hits, stamina vs. wound pools, a functional magic system, armor as damage reduction, etc.) You can see the roots of the OSRS as far back as the Arms and Armor book I wrote for Bastion Press about ten years ago. So basically, OSRS is actually the system that we are familiar with, comfortable with, and love.
Next comes the business reasons. We jumped on the Pathfinder bandwagon when we restarted Oathbound for a couple good reasons, number one because it was the closest thing to the old d20 system Oathbound was originally written for. Number two because we had assumed that there was a whole bunch of people out there that were rabid about pathfinder and would buy anything with the Pathfinder logo on it. Well, that didn't turn out to be true really. Oathbound fans bought the books, but I don't know that anyone else did, so Oathbound ended up being a big money-loser for us. Not that I'm blaming Pathfinder, but my though is, well, if I'm not going to make money making these books, we then I might as well make them my way, which is in my own game system that I prefer.
And then reason number three is that it's really kind of frustrating to put some other company's logo on our books. That means that it's very hard for us to control what we are doing. The rules can change out from under us and then we'd have to go back in and rework something, or publish a brand new book and have it be out of date. There's also the fact that if the other company decided they don't like what we've written, they can make us destroy the books (not that they have, but they could). And then there's just that we have to adhere to rules we don't like. I'd much rather just have my fate in my own hands.
And finally, we'd been working with these rules for so long and they've worked so marvelously for us that at some point it seemed crazy not to share them with you all. So here we are. If you have enjoyed our other products, I suspect you'll find this one quite satisfying as well. It's been kind of our baby for quite a while now, and it's nice to not have to pretend it doesn't exist. I hope you enjoy... and feel free to add to the system, it is open-source for a reason.
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President, Epidemic Books
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