The Old School Referee
A downloadable Guidebook
(Community Copies Available Below!)
Build Worlds, Craft Adventure Scenarios, and Have Fun Running the Game
That's the goal of The Old School Referee, a free handbook filled with simple procedures for Referees new and old.
If you've never run a Tabletop RPG before, or if you struggle with disorganized or over-bloated prep time, I hope this book can help!
What's Inside?
- The Essentials of Refereeing: Information, Adjudication, and Neutrality
- Growing a World from Simple Seeds with Trouble, Treasure, and Faces.
- Crafting Adventures rooted in Interesting Encounters
- Advice for Starting a Campaign, Building a Party, and Running the Game
- Monster Crafting guidelines
- Easy to Use "Hoard Tables" ranked from 0-5, with 48 Magic Items sorted into 3 tiers
- Loads of examples
- Art 100% from the Public Domain
- Appendix C: 5 Pages of helpful tables for improvisation and inspiration.
How Long Does it Take?
Following the procedures takes about an hour for building a playable world or adventure, focusing on what's near the players. You can always do more, but it shouldn't take a second job to run a game.
A Sample Adventure
If you'd like to see what an adventure created with The Old School Referee could look like, check out Abara Cad Ebra!
Compatibility
The Old School Referee was built for maximum compatibility. The Monster and Treasure sections are the only areas designed for a specific game, Shadow & Fae, and even those should be easily adjustable for most OSR games.
Thanks for Reading, and Happy Gaming!
-Hilander
Updated | 1 day ago |
Published | 5 days ago |
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (5 total ratings) |
Author | Hilander |
Tags | Fantasy, gm, nusr, OSR, referee, Tabletop role-playing game, zine |
Purchase
In order to download this Guidebook you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.75 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Community Copy
If you're not in a place where you can afford The Old School Referee, please feel free to grab a community copy!
I doubt I'll ever run out, but if I do, please let me know!
Download demo
Development log
- Abara Cad Ebra!1 day ago
- Zine 2! The Old School Referee is Done!5 days ago
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