Today I am celebrating post number 300 on the Grumpy Wizard blog. Since it is a special occasion I decided to do something different. This is an essay I sent out to my email list back in April. Some readers thought it deserved a wider distribution and so here it is.

If you enjoy the essay, sign up for my email list. You will receive a link to this and other longer form essays in PDF format. With the occasional exception, those essays will not be posted on my blog.

The creative impetus of this essay was a new setting that I’ve been developing. The game mechanics of my preferred game system, Swords and Wizardry: Complete won’t work with some of the thematic elements of the setting. The cosmology and magic are a complete mismatch. Character progressions wouldn’t fit either.

This catalyzed some thoughts about what “old school’ means to…