Daily Ladies

I'd like to repeat the qosuiten from the first comment and just throw it out there: (just) What is Old School Roleplaying'? Is is the particular game design imposing a particular gameplay method i.e. class/archetype/function based and attribute tied, akin to vanilla D&D (this seems to be the consensus I feel)? Or is it perhaps inspired by the classic type of the adventuring modules popular in late 70s early 80s the dungeon crawls (and derivatives) of monster bashing and treasure hoarding? Where does the particular flavour of the setting come into all this? I admit that the whole concept eludes me somewhat, I mean I understand what the ingedients are and I would be able to recognise OSR games but the category seems very fuzzy. For example I own several games which I would consider retro but a few of them are also (or could be) considered new editions e.g. Star Frontiers (available online), Dragon Warriors (Magnum Opus Press), and Metamorphosis Alpha (Mudpuppy Games). It would appear therefore that the retro-clone moniker needs to be taken literaly as a game based on classic product but not the new edition of the product , does it? Vague Which brings me to another idea. Perhaps this whole OSR movement is a veiled reactionist initiative against the new editions of old favorites . Too far fetched? Maybe, but the timing is thoughtprovoking let your inner-conspiracy-theorist loose ;D On a different note, I find it interesting that the retroclones typicaly referred to are D&D based (posibly reflecting similar tendencies of publishers back in the day), sometimes almost to the point of replicating anachronisms which were canonical in the old products. I personally hadn't discovered the hobby before the 90s so my perspective is entirely different. To me old school is more about the setting then the gameplay, so I can use my system of choice and visit Greyhawk, Grey Box FR or, heck! even Spelljammer and that would be pretty old school.