My Big Three
Three ideas I keep coming back to at the table.
Welcome back. Thanks for taking another look at my evolving notebook.
This space is meant to stay loose. It’s a place for thoughts that come out of play, ideas that haven’t fully settled yet, and questions I’m still turning over.
I wanted to make this next post a rough outline for what I plan to explore in the coming weeks, a sort of teaser for what’s ahead. I’m intentionally keeping things loose here. I’m no expert, just a hobbyist, and I’m not trying to approach this in a scholarly way. I just want to put my two coppers in and talk about what’s stuck with me at the table.
As I’ve mentioned before, I came into the OSR scene fairly recently. My first real experience was in 2019, running a Dungeon Crawl Classics funnel during DCC Day. Since then, making the trip to my local game store for DCC Day has become a small tradition, a chance to revisit the game that first pulled me in.
Now, six years and several old school systems later, I’ve begun to see the shared principles that form the heart of the Old School mindset. They’re the DNA that shows up in every setting, system, or flavor I play.
If you ask ten people about the OSR’s “core principles,” you’ll end up with twelve different answers. And there’s always that one person who goes way too deep and flips their answer halfway through.
Over the next few posts, I’ll be giving my personal opinions. And because I’m one of those above people who deep dive and pivot halfway, I’ll go into them even more later on. But for now, I have three overarching principles that, to me, define Old School play:
Three Core Principles of Old School Play
Player-Driven Stories – The players drive what actually happens at the table. Their actions shape the unfolding story, not what’s dreamed up beforehand. Having a plot is fine, but be ready to rewrite it a few times.
Flexible Rules – Old school rules are inherently light, and sometimes they’re barely needed at all. If a player does something “off the books,” making a quick judgment and moving on usually leads to better stories and keeps everyone engaged.
Meaningful Consequences – Because the players are driving the story and the rules are handled with a light touch, every choice leaves its mark, big or small, for good or for ill.
I don’t plan to present these as strict definitions or hard rules. Think of them more as observations, things that seem to work, things that keep games feeling alive, and things I keep coming back to no matter what system I’m running.
"The notebook isn’t the game — it’s what survives after."
— Eldric Pike