Old-School Essentials is an adventure role-playing game of exploration, danger, monsters, and magic. The game is intentionally rules-light, putting the focus of play on imagination, improvisation, and fun. The rules are optimised for ease of use at the table, with meticulous attention to wording and layout clarity. What's more, Old-School Essentials is 100% compatible with the classic Basic/Expert game from 1981, meaning that decades of adventure are at your fingertips!

A Complete Game All in One Book

The Old-School Essentials Rules Tome is a complete game of classic fantasy adventure, containing the following:

Core rules: Rules for character creation and advancement, adventuring in dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea, magic and combat.

Rules for character creation and advancement, adventuring in dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea, magic and combat. Character options: Seven classic classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), complete lists of weapons and adventuring gear, extensive lists of vehicles, mounts, and vessels, mercenaries and specialists for hire, rules for stronghold construction.

Seven classic classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), complete lists of weapons and adventuring gear, extensive lists of vehicles, mounts, and vessels, mercenaries and specialists for hire, rules for stronghold construction. Spells: The complete set of 34 cleric spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 magic-user spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players or cleric, elf, and magic-user characters.

The complete set of 34 cleric spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 magic-user spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players or cleric, elf, and magic-user characters. Monsters: A selection of over 200 classic monsters to challenge adventurers of all levels.

A selection of over 200 classic monsters to challenge adventurers of all levels. Treasures: A hoard of over 150 wondrous magic items.

The material in this book forms a complete clone of the classic Basic/Expert game, including all rules, classes, spells, monsters, and magic items.

Deluxe Print Edition

A deluxe, sewn-binding hardcover edition of this book is available from the Necrotic Gnome publisher website. The game is also available in the form of a boxed set of 5 modular books.

Note that there is no print-on-demand edition of this book!

Advanced Fantasy Supplements

Two supplements are available for groups who want to inject some of the flavour of the 1970s Advanced rules into their games:

Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules: Adds 9 new human classes (acrobat, assassin, barbarian, bard, druid, illusionist, knight, paladin, ranger) and 6 new demihuman classes (drow, duergar, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, svirfneblin) to the game, all carefully adapted to the power level of Old-School Essentials.

Adds 9 new human classes (acrobat, assassin, barbarian, bard, druid, illusionist, knight, paladin, ranger) and 6 new demihuman classes (drow, duergar, gnome, half-elf, half-orc, svirfneblin) to the game, all carefully adapted to the power level of Old-School Essentials. Advanced Fantasy: Druid and Illusionist Spells: The complete set of 34 druid spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 illusionist spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players of bard, druid, gnome, illusionist, and ranger characters.

Free Basic Rules

A 56-page, art-free sample of the basic rules of the game required by players is available here: