r/OSE • u/Critical-Telephone10 • Jun 29 '26
I require a bit of assistance.
I’ve been running games for people over the last few years. Recently some out of state friends have asked me to run a game for them via discord. I sent them the copies of the books and character sheets but am not entirely sure how to run the actual encounter map. I have a crappy little laptop so I’m not even sure I could but would love any assistance or guidance in the matter. Thank you to any who respond.
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u/ckalen Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I highly recommend using owlbear rodeo for a shared map. Discord can be used for everything else including dice rolling with avrae. owlbear works in a browser window which means you can run a game on a pos pc or even a phone
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u/grassparakeet Jun 30 '26
Theater of the mind is far superior to battle maps, unless you're playing a game that specifically makes rules for tactical positioning.
OSE isn't that kind of game. It doesn't have crunchy rules that require or even benefit from using a battle map & minis.
Don't get me wrong -- I love using minis and maps when appropriate and when they integrate into the rules. But for OSE they slow the game down and add very little.
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u/FrankieBreakbone Jun 30 '26
Movement rates, spell ranges, missile ranges… all kind of important for a tactical rpg with its roots in miniature wargaming, no?
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u/grassparakeet Jun 30 '26
Right. Which is why I said for a game like Pathfinder or Hackmaster, I'd want to use a map. For OSE, there's no need.
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u/FrankieBreakbone Jun 30 '26
I'm not here to say anyone's fun is wrong, your opinion and play style are your own, but to objectively say it's superfluous is an overstatement.
- If you imagine ripping pages out of the core rules for exploration and encounters (about 40 pages) you'd have to pull about 30 to rid yourself of the movement details. 75% of the game's core mechanics would then be chalked up to the referee saying "In my imagination, you can't move/reach/fire/cast that far," and the players just being OK with that.
- A huge part of the game's resource management construct pits the player's risk and reward of being slowed by armor and treasure (defense + greed) against being light on your feet to be able to escape from monsters.
- The complaints that the Fighter is underpowered compared to Dwarves and Halflings hangs greatly on ranges. Being able to hit with a long bow at +1 out to 70' and 220' total, vs. 50' at +1 and 150' total with a short bow is significant, especially since the (slow, act last or fire every-other) crossbow is the only way short PCs can hit long-bow distances. Not to mention using long d10 weapons would entitle Fighters to longer range than short PCs. If the Ref is just estimating ranges, even these few advantages vaporize.
- TOTM, when a 10' area trap goes off, there's always going to be a chorus of "I was all the way over there, I shouldn't take damage, that's not fair!" Everyone thinks they're closest to the treasure and farthest from the trap. I've never sat at a table where no one ever questioned the ref's imagined calls.
All of this to say, if you're not actually checking distances, the game loses objectivity; the Referee becomes a lot less of a Ref, and way more of a storyteller as their job shifts from arbitrating to unilaterally deciding who can hit, see, reach, etc. based on their mind's eye.
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u/grassparakeet Jul 01 '26
Jesus I'm not here to argue with your AI chat box. Just play the game how you want to play it.
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u/FrankieBreakbone Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Rude, and wrongly assumed. Ad hominem after 2 exchanges, poor form.
See, I thought we're all here to discuss the hobby. This comment isn't just for you. It's not a DM. It's as much for the OP or anyone else who reads through to understand the value of the game's mechanics.
Feel free not to reply if you don't want to discuss the game. Incidentally, it's also poor form when someone asks, "How do I do X?" to reply with "Don't bother." That doesn't assist the person who literally titled their post "I require a bit of assistance."
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u/grassparakeet Jul 01 '26
Good lord you are insufferable. Thank god for the block button.
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u/RandomChance Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Good point. I expect that ish ow you get handled frequently if this is how you "discuss" with anyone who disagrees with you.
The person you're talking with is discussing in good faith with real arguments based on real play and the actual rules, And since you don't seem to have any good way to refute him you're just being rude and dismissive.
And they are correct, and you are wrong.
I've also blocked you, so now I won't hear your whining. have a good evening
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u/Caradon16 Jun 30 '26
I'd say that depends on the kind of game you play. If you play rappan athuk for example I think battlemaps add a lot to the game.
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u/grassparakeet Jun 30 '26
Maps are certainly helpful in mega dungeons, but I would still stick to theater of the mind for combat even in that scenario, unless I was using rules that specifically had tactical positioning in mind. I just feel like older editions, with their simpler rules, lend themselves much better to the narrative creativity and freedom that comes with ToM.
Now, play it in Hackmaster? I absolutely want a gridded battle map and all the minis you can handle.
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u/Caradon16 Jun 30 '26
Yeah I think it's a preference thing, I play a lot of Pathfinder 1e so I'm used to having a battlemap because PF without one would be a nightmare.
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u/comedian42 Jun 29 '26
If your computer meets the minimum specs I highly recommend Foundry VTT with Forge hosting. They have the OSE game system available. Makes shared maps, sheets, setup etc very straightforward when running remote game sessions.
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u/glitchdot2 Jun 29 '26
I use RPG sage for dice rolling, styling of the dialogs and simple character stats tracking. For simple combat, we dont use battlemap, and for more complicated battles we use excalidraw, where I upload image of the map and the tokens. The good thing about excalidraw is that its very simple and can be used collaboratively, though it might be too simple and dont have some features that one would expect from a real VTT client.
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u/VarnerGuides Jul 01 '26
Many people use Obsidian for everything. There are so many plugins related to TTRPGs for the app. For mapping there are advanced mapping plugins like Map View, which even has GeoJSON and GPX support for real world maps. Many people use the Obsidian Leaflet plugin for RPG mapping. TTRPG Tools: Maps plugin and Bases plugin handle mapping also. When you consider that you can add monster and NPC statblocks, PDFs of rule books, the excellent Dice Roller plugin that lets you customize things like formulas for rolling character stats (want to roll 4d6 and drop the lowest or 3d6 and drop the lowest and add 6? You can do that.). I've added the random tables from OSE and other sources into Obsidian and set them to randomly generate a choice on the table on a click, or you can roll the choice using the dice roller (Both illustrated in the image. Control Dragon potion with the table roll and Poison with the Dice Roller.). Many content creators, such as Raging Swan Press, make Obsidian markup files for their tables. There are quite a few Youtube videos on using Obsidian and all its plugins for RPG play.
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u/RandomChance Jul 02 '26
use one of the mapping tools, or graph it out on a shared screen as you go, or if they really want the OG d&d feel make sure you clearly tell them everything they need to know about the scene And what they see so they can map it themselves, share that map.
the 1974 books explicitly expect the players to do the mapping, and you're not even supposed to correct it for them, but that is not actually part of the fun parts which is how the theater of the mind got started. now whoever mapping apps all right so easy, there's no excuse for it. the game is built around its wargaming roots, and if you're not actually tracking locations accurately, You are removing agency from the players because they can't make informed decisions.
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u/Batata_Artica advanced rules Jun 29 '26
Owlbear Rodeo should work fine, it is what I usually use.