To be a Game or to NOT be a Game?

 The more I work on developing my Heirs of Argax setting and running campaigns there, the more I'm confronted with the notion of whether or not I'm just writing a setting or actually a new TTRPG?

The online consensus (or at least the majority when asked) is that "we don't need more game" but rather that "we need more places for our games" and that "we need more interesting stuff for our games." The first point is a somewhat valid one, especially where the OSR/D&D scene is concerned. There are a lot of D&D-esque games out there. I know...I own a lot of them. So does that mean we just stop designing? Not really. This same prevailing sentiment was echoed before Shadowdark came along and I think Kelsey did alright for herself. But I will still let the main point stand. At every Con I attend, I hear countless people talking about "this OSR game I'm working on" and I get it...there are maybe too many out there. 

The other two points of "places" and "stuff" are more than valid. "Places" referring to setting and adventures and "stuff referring to classes, magic items, spells, etc. This also echoes the advice I received from other designers I like and trust. The unanimous feedback was to publish a setting for a specific system (not generic OSR) and to not design an original system for it...yet. Examples abound from Gods of the Forbidden North for OSE to ShadowSun for Shadowdark, or even my own Beyond Basic series of "stuff" for OSE. 

Then there's Greg Gillespie and what he's done. Greg initially wrote a number of megadungeons (e.g., Barrowmaze and Dwarrowdeep) for Labyrinth Lord. After their success, he then went on to publish his own game, Dragonslayer, to work with his dungeons and setting (coming soon...). The TLDR on Dragonslayer is that it's based on B/X D&D, but with some great changes to make it unique and not "another B/X clone game" that many online bemoan.

Now where does this leave me with Heirs of Argax? Well I'm sticking with the advice of it not being a new game, but rather a place to run a different OSR game: Swords & Wizardry. I know I have a previous post out talking about using different areas of the world for different game systems, but that's just for me at home. What will be published will be for S&W. That being said, I am considering publishing a rules supplement that details my house-ruled version of S&W/OD&D for Heirs of Argax. This wouldn't exactly be a new game, but would fall more into the "stuff" category for an amazing existing game.

For now, I am just focusing on designing the "places" category but will be posting the "stuff" stuff on Patreon over time.