I’m taking the OSR to have started on August 11, 2004 with the first mention of an “old school revival” in the dragonsfoot.org forums. Earlier events are provided for context.
1997 (Jun 3) Wizards of the Coast acquires TSR Inc. TSR had at times an adversarial relationship with its customers in the 1990s. Peter Adkison was a fan and a player of Dungeons & Dragons; Lorraine Williams was not.
1999 (Aug 5) Silver Anniversary Collector’s Edition box set is released at GenCon. It contains reprints of the D&D Basic Rulebook as edited by John Eric Holmes and reprints of the modules B2, G1, G2, G3, I6, and S2, in addition to a new adventure by Len Lakofka—assigned code L3—which had been run as a tournament at the 1979 GenCon. In the early days of the OSR, reprints of older editions of D&D were much desired. The market was small, however, and WoTC seems to have saturated it with a print run of 5000 of these box sets.
2000 (May) The website dragonsfoot.org offers character sheets and fan-made adventures for download and use with D&D, though the game was not mentioned by name on the home page.
2000 (Aug 1) D&D 3rd Edition is released which came with the Open Gaming License making it legal and easy for 3rd parties to publish materials for D&D.
2001 (Jan) Rappan Athuk: The Dungeon of Graves: The Upper Levels by Bill Webb and Clark Peterson. Described on the cover as “Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel”. Lower floors will be added in two sequels. A sensation in its day because of its large size and demons.
2001 (Nov 27) PDF webstore rpgnow.com open for business. In June 2019 the domain was redirected to drivethrurpg.com.
2001 Hackmaster 4th Edition is released. Kenzer & Company is allowed to publish this parody of Dungeons & Dragons as part of a legal settlement resolving the appearance of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic strip in the electronic Dragon Magazine Archive of 1999. Despite the humorous house rules the game is playable and it could be regarded as an early retroclone.
2002 (Jan 23) Self-publishing website Lulu.com open for business.
2002 (May 20) Gary Gygax joins dragonsfoot.org. The dragonsfoot.org forum is set up soon after. In its early days dragonsfoot.org had a section for Lejendary Adventures on its home page; whether that came before or after the association with Gygax I couldn’t say.
2002 (Aug) The d20 edition of Necropolis by Gary Gygax which had previously been published for Dangerous Journeys in 1992.
2002 (Nov) D&D collecting site acaeum.com adds a forum. In 2002 the Acaeum suggests a price of $2000 for a mint condition 1st print “woodgrain” Dungeons & Dragons box set. Woodgrains aside, most stuff in fine condition was selling for at best two to three times the original list price.
2003 The first Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure, “Idylls of the Rat King”, is published. Although the DCC adventures were published for 3rd Edition D&D, the cover art and the design of the modules recalled the early days of Dungeons & Dragons. Erol Otus and Jim Roslof contributed cover art.
2004 (Jan 20) wheggi posts this on dragonsfoot.org: “Do you mean that you need a translation from High Gygaxian to Common?”.
2004 (Apr) The first issue of Footprints, the dragonsfoot.org e-zine.
2004 (Apr 30) Gazoo writes on dragonsfoot.org: "I think Castle Greyhawk and places like it were developed at a time when adventurers had never heard of a 'beholder' before, so walking into a room, in a brand new game, and fighting some monster like that would be interesting. Rotating passages that screw up the party mapper might not be as much fun as they once were." And Gazoo concludes with "The 'mega-dungeon' ideas I like best are ones like subterranean cities, and conglomerations of various monster strongholds." The post alludes to the changing standards that were likely a difficulty preventing Gygax from publishing the original Castle Greyhawk. The post is the earliest mention of the word "megadungeon" that I have found.
2004 (Jun 9) PDF webstore drivethrurpg.com open for business.
2004 (Aug 11) On dragonsfoot.org, T. Foster writes that "If the 'old-school revival' continues to pick up steam" then Hasbro will “realize that there's a demand for 'collector's editions' of the classic games (OD&D, AD&D, B/X D&D) and we'll see them back on the shelves in some form or another." This is earliest use of the phrase "old school revival" that I’ve found. People have been using "old school" to describe older styles of Dungeons & Dragons since the beginning of the dragonsfoot.org forums.
2004 (Aug 30) Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor by Goodman Games. I don’t think Dave involved himself with this project any further than selling his name for use in the title.
2004 (Aug) Castles & Crusades is released as an OD&D style box set at Gen Con. C&C republishes the 3rd Edition D&D rules with modifications, the most significant being a replacement of the skills, feats, and saving throws with a system built around ability checks. Am I getting this right? The OGL allows me to republish the D&D rules while changing any of the rules I don't like?
2004 (Dec 19) Knights & Knaves Alehouse sets up at its original knightsnknaves.proboards.com location. Only talk about editions of D&D authored by Gygax personally is allowed, so no B/X, BECMI or 2E.
2005 (Feb 21) The first Gygax QA thread is created on dragonsfoot.org. Gygax wrote a lot about his current projects such as Lejendary Adventures, but when people asked, he had something to say about the foundational years of D&D.
2005 (May 23) Scott Driver, while reviewing the Castles & Crusade Player's Handbook on rpg.net, uses the phrase "High Gygaxian". The complete sentence is "I think they were making a stab at High Gygaxian in some places – that tortured, purple but evocative style unique to E. Gary Gygax, as exemplified by the AD&D 1e Dungeon Master's Guide."
2005 (Jun 25) A post on dragonsfoot.org by "Guest" uses the text "old school renaissance on the horizon" after earlier saying that from "reading the posts on the various rpg boards over the last couple of years it does seem there is a shift in thinking amongst the gaming community concerning what they want from future rpgs. The illusion has been dispelled that the d20 ultra detailed number crunching method would lead to a better gaming experience. A pining for more narrative simpler play and a looking back to the old days seems to be the new way forward." This is the earliest reference to "old school renaissance" that I’ve found, and if it is the earliest, "old school revival" has priority.
2005 (Jul 14) AD&D Initiative and Combat Table (ADDICT), a by-the-book combat procedure for AD&D, by DMPrata on dragonsfoot.org. How one conducts combat in AD&D is not explained in one place, and some argue that the rules are vague and disorganized to the point that a unique BTB way to run combat does not exist. DMPrata had the intention to run his footnoted interpretation of the procedure by Gygax for final approval, although I don’t know if that ever happened.
2005 (Aug 25) Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh by Gary Gygax is published by Troll Lord Games as a Castles & Crusades supplement. This is not the anticipated version of Castle Greyhawk by Gygax himself, just the outlying areas.
2005 (Sep 9) Knights & Knaves Alehouse moves from knightsnknaves.proboards.com to knights-n-knaves.com.
2005 (Sep 20) T. Foster posts on K&KA that a good dungeon has (1) large chambers, (2) long mazy hallways, (3) lots of multiple choice areas (4) lots of vertical mobility, (5) lots of secret doors/passages/areas, (6) lots of navigational hazards, and (7) high and low traffic areas.
2006 (Jan 20) Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game by Chris Gonnerman (Solomoriah on dragonsfoot.org) available for download as PDF. A candidate for the first OSR retroclone. The game is close to B/X or the BE of BECMI. It uses the ascending AC of 3rd edition at the cost of an incompatibility with the classic modules. Unlike in B/X and BECMI, demi-humans also choose a class.
2006 (Jun 29) OSRIC by Stuart Marshall and Matt Finch available for download as PDF. The game is a retroclone of AD&D 1st edition.
2006 (Jul 14) In an enworld.org thread entitled "Is The Sunless Citadel a well-designed adventure module?", Melan argues "no" because the dungeon is linear and he concludes that "SC plays too much like a story with a definite beginning and end". To emphasize his point, on the next day he posts a follow up on dragonsfoot.org with schematic graphs which highlight the topology of how the rooms in the Sunless Citadel are connected. The Sunless Citadel was a level 1 module published in 2000 for 3rd edition, and in the first post, Melan said that "an introductory module should be among the best of the best". His use of graphs to show the topology of dungeon structure is a first.
2006 (Sep) Insect Shrine of Goblin Hill PDF shared on K&KA. Raggi promises a print version in December. I don’t believe Raggi delivered on the print version, though the material would be included in “Better Than Any Man” (2013).
2006 (Sep 22) Matt Finch (posting as Mythmere) on K&KA about OSRIC: “It is designed for compatibility with 1e. It's not actually intended for play, it's a tool for publishers/authors to use while writing.”
2007 philotomy.com website by Jason Cone. The website disappeared in 2012, but his “musings” are still floating around the web as a PDF. Cone decided to run an OD&D campaign, and over time he came to prefer LBB by the book. Cone considered the original game’s lack of a thief class to be a positive.
2007 (Mar 31) Meepo mentions the existence of his 4 page “Holmes Companion” on dragonsfoot.org. The companion concisely extends the Holmes rulebook to 9th level.
2007 (Aug) Last print issue of Dragon magazine.
2007 (Sept 14) Labyrinth Lord by Daniel Proctor. A closer approximation of B/X than Basic Fantasy RPG, with attack tables like early editions of D&D. As evidence of its status as the leading early retroclone, Stonehell, Anomalous Subsurface Environment, Barrowmaze, and Dwimmermount all claim to be LL compatible on the cover.
2008 Quick Primer for Old School Gaming by Matt Finch. The precepts are "rulings not rules", "player skill, not character abilities", "heroic, not superhero", and "forget game balance".
2008 Swords & Wizardry by Matt Finch. Initially published by Black Blade, then Frog God Games in 2010. A retroclone of OD&D. One saving throw is used instead of the traditional five. There have been several versions of S&W, differing in how much material from the supplements is included.
2008 (Mar 1) First post on grognardia.com. Maliszewski posted almost daily for four years. An impressive achievement, even if you discount most of the posts as nostalgic fluff.
2008 (Mar 4) RIP Gary Gygax.
2008 (Spring) Fight On! #1. An OSR ‘zine. 13 issues were published as described at https://www.fightonmagazine.com.
2008 (June) Mutant Future by Daniel Proctor. Said to be Labyrinth Lord compatible, and thus more an adaptation of the B/X rules to a post-apocalyptic setting than a retroclone of Gamma World.
2008 (Jun 6) Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition
2008 (Sep 26) Supplement V: Carcosa by Geoffrey McKinney. A setting in which it is necessary to perform human sacrifices to cast spells.
2008 (Oct) Castle Zagyg: Upper Works by Gary Gygax. Edited by Jeffrey Talanian and published by Troll Lord Games. What fans wanted was the original Dungeons & Dragons version of Castle Greyhawk. What they got necessarily suffered alterations since many of the names are owned by WotC. It was moreover written to be compatible with Castles & Crusades.
2008 (Nov 17) Fantasy Fucking Vietnam, which will be renamed Green Devil Face #1. Another OSR ‘zine. It was edited by Raggi, who contributed many of the articles.
2008 (Dec 21) dwayunu's odd74 one page post: "I'm trying out an approach of mapping by sectors of 30 x 30 squares. That leaves room on the same page for a succinct "key." The OSR has always had a fascination with megadungeons, even though the canonical example has never been satisfactorily published. Its opposite the one-page dungeon is an invention of the OSR movement that goes back to this post by dwayunu, who emphasized the value of putting the key on the same page as the dungeon. Within a year one-page dungeon contests were being held. However, over time the contests would become more exercises in artistic skill than dungeon design.
2009 (Jan 9) Grognardia post that “Last Sunday I began my Dwimmermount campaign.” He adds that “we were using Swords & Wizardry as our baseline rules, with quite a few tweaks”.
2009 (Apr 7) RIP Dave Arneson.
2009 (Jun 5) First North Texas RPG Convention, run by Doug Rhea and Mike Badolato. Only games written before 2000 are allowed.
2009 (Jul 9) Death Frost Doom on sale. A popular Raggi adventure which some see as a rip-off of “The Lichway” from White Dwarf #9 (Oct/Nov ’78).
2009 (Jul 29) “Five things that needed saying” by T. Foster on K&KA. For T. Foster, the OSR is about recreating a D&D playstyle that existed in the 1970s. His OSR manifesto counters critics who argue that the game was terrible back then, or that the game needs to evolve.
2009 (Aug 3) Guy Fullerton observes that "xp for gp is such a fundamental concept in old school play" in the thread "What's up with the Zeb cook hatred". The next day he starts the thread "Importance of xp for gp". T. Foster remarks that "XP for treasure (I don't say straight XP for GP because I include XP for magic items as well, which I know is a whole other can of worms) is, IMO, a nice objective standard that accomplishes what I want without either the extra bookkeeping requirements or unintended consequences of other methods." No one in the thread insisted that GP be the only way to earn XP.
2009 (Oct 30) Stonehell: Down Night-haunted Halls by Michael Curtis. One of the first megadungeons to come out of OSR movement and still among the best.
2010 (Feb) Advanced Edition Companion, a supplement for Labyrinth Lord by Daniel Proctor. Back porting all the extra classes, monsters, and spells in AD&D to work with the B/X clone that is Labyrinth Lord.
2010 (Jul 23) The phrase “jaquaying the dungeon” is coined by Justin Alexander to sell the idea—not by any means new—that dungeons should have loops.
2010 (Nov 10) Stars Without Number by Kevin Crawford. The game combines the setting of classic Traveller with the rules of B/X. Most grognards love classic Traveller, so I wonder who asked for this. Maybe the start of the late OSR trend of adapting the B/X rules to every conceivable setting, though Mutant Future already existed.
2011 Lamentations of the Flame Princess edition of Carcosa. A toned-down edition of the controversial setting in a handsome hardcover.
2011 (May) Vornheim by Zak S and published by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The first collaboration of Raggi and Zak S.
2011 (Jun) Anomalous Subsurface Environment by Patrick Wetmore. A remarkable science-fantasy adventure for Labyrinth Lord.
2011 (Jul 26) Zak S blogs about his use of Google Hangouts to run a session of Labyrinth Lord.
2011 (Aug 29) First post on tenfootpole.org, a site which reviews adventures. Bryce Lynch is at his best when reviewing bad adventures because the traits he cites as bad are so incontrovertibly so. His blog is a study in what we could call "failed novelist syndrome": long room descriptions filled with details irrelevant to play and that can't be communicated easily to the players. The traits Lynch gets excited about in adventures are more particular. At least I don't always find myself sharing his enthusiasm.
2011 (Sep 26) Delta D&D (Daniel Collins) releases his Book of War. “The primary goal has been to create something that's statistically consistent with what would happen if D&D were played out with hundreds of men per side, while still making it elegant to play.” Collins wrote code and ran Monte Carlo simulations to get the strength of the monsters and other combatants right in the Book of War.
2011 (Oct 20) Grognardia posts that “I've also been giving a lot of thought to the publication of the Dwimmermount megadungeon”.
2012 (Feb) Adventurer Conqueror King System by Alexander Macris etal. B/X with extras. Each demi-human race has its own classes. Rules for domain play.
2012 (Feb) Barrowmaze by Greg Gillespie. People roll their eyes that Gillespie is a professor and assigns his own dungeons as reading material for his students, but Barrowmaze, his first work, is nevertheless one of the classic adventures of the OSR era.
2012 (April) Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea by Jeffrey Talanian (Ghul on dragonsfoot.org and K&KA). Talanian collaborated with Gygax on Castle Zagyg. His AS&SH was AD&D with all the Tolkienesque elements removed. AS&SH has its own, clearly explained combat round and lots of classes.
2012 (April) WotC reprints the original AD&D Monster Manual, Players Handbook, and Dungeon Masters Guide with different covers, gilt edges, and ribbon markers. Print-on-demand versions are also available that do not have the gilt edges or ribbon markers.
2012 (Apr 14) Dwimmermount Kickstarter closes with $48,756 raised. The kickstarter is run by Autarch, the publisher of ACKS.
2012 (May) Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Goodman Games continued to make DCC adventures for 4th edition, but with the imminent release of 5th edition, they decided to produce their own game. The discontinuing of 3rd edition meant that their back catalog could no longer be sold—a lesson learned. The DCC RPG game itself retains some 3rd edition features such as skill checks. The game uses 13 different types of dice. Players start with multiple characters who go through an “adventure funnel” to see which character survives.
2012 (Jul 26) Playing at the World by Jon Peterson. Coincident with the OSR movement was an interest in the history of D&D, but before Peterson all we had were the occasional reminiscence and a lot of fan headcanon. Peterson took a scholarly approach to the subject and he was able to track down an impressive number of contemporaneous documents for source material.
2012 (Dec 1) Grognardia goes on an eight year hiatus. I don’t have inside information on why Maliszewski abruptly left the internet, but he appears to have been overwhelmed by the challenge of delivering a Dwimmermount book on schedule that was up to expectations.
2012 (Dec) The OSR community is created on Google+.
2013 (Aug) Hardcover LotFP Rules & Magic book ships.
2013 (Oct 17) Crowdfunding campaign for the hardcover LotFP referee book closes with $32,944 raised. As of this writing (2024-09-26) the referee book has not shipped, though Raggi continues to describe the project as being worked on. I would like to see it. I thought the referee book in the original LotFP box set had good advice. Raggi was an experienced and thoughtful DM.
2013 (Nov) WotC reprints the original D&D box set. Art by Greg Bell is removed. I assume this is because they are often swipes of comic book art.
2013 (Nov 1-3) First Gamehole Con in Madison, WI. Gen Con had moved from WI to Indianapolis in 2003. Gamehole brought gaming back to its birthplace in Wisconsin. Alex Kammer has an amazing collection of vintage, shrinkwrapped D&D.
2013 (Nov 20) First post about the Holmes Manuscript on the Zenopus Archives blog. Zach Howard got a copy of the manuscript that John Eric Holmes submitted to TSR, and by comparing it with the rulebook that was published was able to detect the changes introduced by the TSR editorial staff.
2014 (Aug 15) Dwimmermount ships two years later than the original estimated delivery date.
2014 (Aug 19) D&D 5th Edition
POSTSCRIPT: THE END OF THE OLD OSR?
2018 (Dec 6) In an effort to explain a survey on the OSR which yielded “weird” results, T. Foster writes on dragonsfoot.org that over on Google+ “Zak S and James Raggi are the twin godfathers of this ‘new OSR’ movement.” Two days earlier in the same thread tedopon wrote that the “OSR seems an antiquated concept over the last five years or so.” Often the end of a movement can only be seen in retrospect, so it is perhaps not surprising that it would take several years for people to realize that the OSR was over. To add to the lack of clarity, there was something calling itself the OSR and thriving on Google+ which even had some continuity with the old OSR, seeing how some people such as Raggi had moved over it.
POST POSTSCRIPT: THE END OF THE NEW OSR?
2019 (Feb 11) Amanda Nagy, aka Mandy Morbid, posts on Facebook that she had been abused by new OSR godfather Zak S.
2019 (Apr 2) Google+ shuts down. Google had announced on Oct. 8 of the previous year its intent to shut down the service.
