Currently, I primarily roll with Labyrinth Lord. It’s what my long-running campaign has used, so that’s my default route. I’d considered switching to Swords and Wizardry, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that after Bill Webb’s behavior at cons.
So currently it’s “Labyrinth Lord as default, add on additional elements as needed.” My ideal base system would probably look like a tweaked version of LL plus Basic Fantasy to start with, and then additional elements from there.
The few times I’ve facilitated OSR games, it’s been with:
I’ve read the Black Hack 2e, and I’m very interested in running it someday. It’s mechanics seem fun, but I Haven’t found a book to use it with, just yet.
I just ran a couple sessions of Bloat Games upcoming “The Blackest Death” which take Whitebox and removes leveling and adds in ‘AND/BUT’ to the success/failure rolls on the d20 by having your roll an additional d6 and on a one you add in negative and on a 6 you add in positive. I was running Tomb of the Serpent King and the players enjoyed it.
Other systems I’ve used and enjoy are Troika!, Into the Odd, Scarlet Heroes (for 2 or less players) and BX Essentials. BX Essentials replaced LotFP as the go to BX D&D rule set.
One of the things I really like about Knave is its attempt to reclaim dump stats, particularly in making ranged combat Wisdom-based (which makes so much more sense than Dexterity). I would go even further, making Cleric spells Charisma-based.
Knave for D&D clones, Into The Odd for weirdness and simplicity, Troika! for really weird, and Vagabonds of Dyfed or Freebooters for that 2d6 feel.
What is it about those systems that leads you to use them for those specific purposes @yochaigal?
Knave is a brilliant distillation of key old school tropes, but manages to keep that retroclone/D&D feel. Ben M. went through and retooled a lot of the key concepts like Ability Defense, stats (WIS is used for Ranged Attacks! No more dump stats!), all while keeping close compatibility with old-school modules.
He also introduced a simple (and flexible) inventory system that keeps crunch down, while letting the players play without classes. Do you want to know three spells, but also wield a sword? No problem! Want to change that later? No problem! If a group of players wants a mixture of problem solving/critical thinking but with the ability to shuffle their character around a bit, it’s my first choice.
Into The Odd/Electric Bastionland is unique. It takes core OSR concepts like lethality and problem-solving to a whole new level, while at the same time, establishes character purpose with an imposed setting. No to-hit rolls: everyone just does damage - watch out! Three stats for everything a character might do; arcanum for magic, party debt as a reason for dungeon crawling. Even if you don’t play ItO, Chris M.'s blog posts are well worth reading, both for the player and the GM. I find the simplicity and “high-lethality” (Chris hates when we say that) very attractive, and rolling up a character randomly makes it easy to see them killed, and fun to create anew. It’s explicitly not a D&D clone, and that’s what I like about it.
Troika! is a different beast entirely. Much like its predecessor Fighting Fantasy, Troika is like D&D through a Science Fantasy funhouse mirror. It uses Skill points and random character backgrounds to create a totally new way to game; and like others have said the backgrounds make the game. I love seeing what players do with it! It’s also been referred to as “hipster planescape” and based on the book art (I have the PDF of the successful KS, still waiting on a print copy) I can see why. Also, the initiative system is bananas; players and enemies put tokens in a bag and… the GM pulls out either who goes next, or if the round ends. Very weird and difficult to predict combat! Finally, the inventory system is fascinating; you have to place easier-to-reach or smaller items on top, and depending on the speed at which you’re looking for an item, you might not succeed at finding it!
Finally, I combine Vagabonds of Dyfed, World of Dungeons and Freebooters into one pile, because although they all have different approaches to OSR gameplay, they all owe allegiance to Dungeon World and other PbtA games. Honestly, whenever I run one of these systems I feel like I could achieve the same effect with Dungeon World + Hard Moves, except for players that don’t like fiddly bits (like Moves, Playbooks etc). In that case, Vagabonds is probably the best choice.
Vagabonds is pretty rules-lite, but has enough meat to “feel” like a full game, while WoDu is… well, two pages. Both are great, and both do pretty well at achieving their aims. Vagabonds feels incomplete to me, though: I keep buying the supplements, but they don’t really add to the game all that much, while WoDu and its variants are too lean for my generic fantasy tastes. Freebooters does its job with aplomb, I think; I haven’t ran 2e yet but I’ve read through it. I’m very excited: it feels like Jason took Freebooters 1e and Perilous Wilds and made a complete package out of them.
So… yeah that was a lot of rambling; my apologies. I think I’m still searching for the “perfect” version of a PbtA-style emergent narrative/dice system with unifying moves, freeform classes (like Knave) and crunch-free gameplay that doesn’t sacrifice story or lethality. So far, I keep coming back to DW or my own One Shot World for running OSR modules for players who want less lethality and more story, and Into The Odd or Knave for those that don’t.
Labyrinth Lord…
Finally I can say that Stras’ Into the Dark is released!
Check it: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/293145/Into-the-Dark
@Diogo_Nogueira
This sounds great! Tell us more!
Edited: @Diogo_Nogueira: I see this is the deal of the day on dtrpg. Sell me on it! The descriptions I have seen are a bit confusing to me: D&D 5e meets OD&D meets Fate that without leveling and is somehow rules light is confusing to me. Do you have a better description?
I used Into the ODD for its elegantly simple procedures (I especially like Pick or Push) in 2020 for online play.
Lately I started to mix location-based modules with
minimalistic Free Kriegspiel Revolution or PbtAish rules. 24XX was easy to hack, for example, and proved to be very useful in making a 90-minute-long session eventful.
I dig Labyrinth Lord too, though OSRIC is my go to because it is 1e.
I do enjoy that game the most, though I’m sure nostalgia plays a big part in that. 
What is Pick or Push?
From the designers website about pick or push https://www.bastionland.com/2016/01/choices-and-consequences-pick-or-push.html
When you offer two good (or two bad) choices, and the player has to pick one or push for getting (avoiding) both.
Just as get2joe linked.,
Thanks! I didn’t remember reading in ItO.
Maybe it’s not in the free version!?
it was on Chris Blog as a way to run Into the Odd. It was added to the rules with Electric Bastionland in the Conducting the game section.
This sums up how I feel exactly!
Oh, except I want completely classless.