The Essential Old-School Fantasy RPG!
Old-School Essentials is a role-playing game of fantastic adventure, monsters, and magic!
Simple, robust rules: Old-School Essentials has light, easily modified rules, putting the focus of play on shared imagination, improvisation, and fun.
Easy to learn and reference: Old-School Essentials is meticulously edited and laid out, with the aim of maximising ease of reference during play. Everything is logically organised and presented in a quick-to-read format based on "control panels" — side-by-side pages presenting a single topic in its entirety.
Compatible with decades of material: Old-School Essentials is based on the classic 1980s Basic/Expert rules (B/X), the most popular edition of the game among connoisseurs of old-school RPGs. All material written for the B/X rules over the last four decades can be used with Old-School Essentials, without any conversion effort whatsoever!
100% old-school rules, 100% modern design!
Classic and Advanced Flavours
Old-School Essentials comes in two flavours. Advanced Fantasy = Classic Fantasy + extra classes, optional rules, spells, monsters, and magic items.
Classic Fantasy: A classic game that's quick to get started with. Contains all content from the 1980s Basic/Expert rules: 7 character classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), 100+ spells, 200+ monsters, 150+ magic items.
Advanced Fantasy: The classic game expanded with advanced classes, options, magic, and monsters. Contains everything from Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy plus reams of additional material inspired by the 1970s Advanced 1st Edition rules: 15 extra classes (acrobat, assassin, barbarian, bard, drow, druid, duergar, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, illusionist, knight, paladin, ranger, svirfneblin), optional rules for choosing race and class separately, 100+ extra spells, 120 extra monsters, and 150 extra magic items.
Both flavours are 100% compatible!
Also Available as Modular Box Sets!
Both flavours of Old-School Essentials are also published as boxes containing a set of slim books, each detailing a different aspect of the game.
Classic Fantasy box set: A deluxe box set of 5 books: character options, spells, adventuring rules, monsters, and magic items. Contains all content from the classic 1980s Basic/Expert rules: 7 character classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), 100+ spells, 200+ monsters, 150+ magic items. Coming to Kickstarter late 2021! (Cover art to be revealed.)
Advanced Fantasy expansion set: A deluxe box set of 4 books expanding Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy with reams of extras inspired by the 1970s Advanced 1st Edition rules: 15 extra classes (acrobat, assassin, barbarian, bard, drow, druid, duergar, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, illusionist, knight, paladin, ranger, svirfneblin), optional rules for choosing race and class separately, 100+ extra spells, 120 extra monsters, and 150 extra magic items. Coming to Kickstarter late 2021! (Cover art to be revealed.)
Great for sharing around the table!
Check Out Old-School Essentials For Free!
A fully illustrated, 56-page sample of the basic rules of the game required by players is available for free.
Getting started: The full introduction and character creation rules.
Classes: The four core human classes: cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief.
Equipment: Full lists of adventuring gear, weapons, and armour.
Adventuring rules: The rules for dungeon adventures, encounters, and combat.
Spells: The full rules for spell casting and the complete set of 1st level spells.
PDF Starter Pack: Only $29.95!
Want to quickly get started with Old-School Essentials? The Old-School Essentials PDF Starter Pack at Bundle of Holding gives you everything you need to start playing!
The complete game rules: The complete Classic Fantasy rules.
An adventure scenario: A dungeon suitable for beginning characters, presented in an easy-to-run format.
A referee's screen: The most commonly referenced tables and game rules presented on four panels.
21 pre-gen characters: A set of 21 pre-generated characters for groups who want to jump straight into the action.
All for just $29.95 (total retail price $42.50)!
Resources and Community
Free downloads. Get your character sheets, spell trackers, etc here.
Online rules reference. The complete Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy game, online for free! Perfect for introducing new players to the game.
Online generator tools. A set of tools to quickly roll encounters, treasure hoards, magic items, NPCs, etc.
Third party products. Check out the other companies who are publishing material for Old-School Essentials!
Third party license. A simple, free-to-use license enabling anyone to publish content for Old-School Essentials!
Old-School Essentials Facebook Group. Join our thriving Facebook discussion community.
Necrotic Gnome Discord Server. Join our flourishing Discord chat community.
Old-School Essentials errata. Listed by book.
Coming Soon!
Looking for news on products that are coming soon / in the works? Check out our "coming soon" page!
Updates and Announcements
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Mega Launch! →
Winter's Daughter — Revised Initial Encounter →
Exalted Funeral UK and EU Stores Coming Soon! →
