Modern (but Old-School) Dungeon Crawlers

[Catullus64]

Sometime last year, my group and I tried out BECMI D&D (1977) and had a great time. We all got really into the nitty-gritty of logistical decision making and tense dungeon crawling that the system offers.

That being said, the system shows its age in pretty massive ways that are hard to get over. Its design and presentation is often baffling, obtuse, or just plain bad. I don't think any of us are too keen to do a long-form campaign in vintage D&D.

I know there are as many retroclones and imitators of that classic D&D style as the day is long, so I'm soliciting recommendations. Let me know what your system of choice for old-school dungeon crawling is, and why.

Significant boni include (roughly in order of importance):


Simplicity of rules and clarity of presentation; this is a really important one, and the main reason why I don't want to just stick to BECMI D&D or other systems from the 70s and 80s.
Gameplay that stresses resource management (light, provisions, carry weight, etc.)
Cheap/free to obtain online.
A good starting adventure & some creature statistics included with the rules.
Lethal combat, though ideally not quite as lethal as old D&D.
An implied or explicit setting for the game with lore provided.
Systems for character improvement, akin to D&D XP-and-Levels system.
More sophisticated magic system.

[Zuras]

Worlds Without Number, WhiteHack and Beyond the Wall are my three highest recommendations.

WWN is by far the most modern available system that still strives to be module-compatible with old school dungeons.

WhiteHack is a straightforward roll high under/baccarat resolution system plus a super flexible fiction forward (you are an X, so you can do Y, not your character sheet says you can do Y, so you are an X).

BtW is just a streamlined riff on B/X that completely reworks the magic system and drastically livens up character generation.

[Vahnavoi]

Lamentations of the Flame Princess

The base system is a simple & cleaned up modernized retroclone of B/X D&D. Artless version of the rules is available for free on the company's site, along with "Free RPG day" adventures and supplements from past years. The setting is early modern Earth with horror fantasy elements, but there's a bunch of supplements that offer more fantastic settings. My recommendations for dungeon crawling would be Red & Pleasant Land (Alice in Wonderland plus Dracula) and Veins of the Earth (Underdark but WEIRD), though availability might be compromised due to internet drama. Of individual adventures, I would recommend Death Frost Doom, Death Love Doom and Weird New World. The Fire, Blood, Death anthologies have several of these.

As possible negatives, few of the recent supplements focus on dungeon crawling, and most of the catalogue is focused on being spicy, gory and horrifying in ways that other product lines shy away from.

[Trask]

The new Free League game "Dragonbane" looks promising for what you describe, although there aren't a whole lot of reviews of it online. Its kind of a low to medium crunch version of Basic Roleplaying with some D&D 5e and OSR-adjacent sensibilities mixed in. The system is simple, but does a lot with its low complexity budget. Its a D20 roll under system with mostly traditional ability scores, and a good variety of skills. Highlights include; an active defense system (parrying vs dodging), armor as DR, comprehensive rules, including chance for weapon breakage when parrying, fear table, severe injury table, poisons, and all kinds of items. It certainly isn't ultralight, but it is fairly light. The magic system is points based, same as activating "heroic abilities" which are basically powers/feats for non-casters. The game is a tad light on spells, but the ones they have are well chosen and seem unlikely to prove annoying or gamebreaking in the way that D&D spells tend to be.

All-in-all it seems like a solid game for someone who wants to crawl dungeons with something lighter than WotC D&D but with more modern bells and whistles than TSR D&D and the other OSRsphere games.

[inuyasha]

-Snip-


Simplicity of rules and clarity of presentation; this is a really important one, and the main reason why I don't want to just stick to BECMI D&D or other systems from the 70s and 80s.
Gameplay that stresses resource management (light, provisions, carry weight, etc.)
Cheap/free to obtain online.
A good starting adventure & some creature statistics included with the rules.
Lethal combat, though ideally not quite as lethal as old D&D.
An implied or explicit setting for the game with lore provided.
Systems for character improvement, akin to D&D XP-and-Levels system.
More sophisticated magic system.


I think Basic Fantasy (https://www.basicfantasy.org) might be something for you to check out. It checks a lot of those boxes pretty easily, especially the free part. You can also buy print copies for incredibly cheap.

It's based on B/X, so it's easy and simple. Resource management, and things like light, are as important as you make them, but in old school D&D they tend to be fairly important (especially light- I don't usually bother with food, personally). The combat is lethal, there are tons of adventures also freely available, and character development is the same.

The only things it doesn't have are an implied setting, although I'm sure it would not be hard to find one for free or cheap that's B/X compatible, and a sophisticated magic system; it's just like any other old school D&D variant.

It's also got an active community and many, many, many supplements you might enjoy. Just having a glance again I actually found a whole adventure series which might help fill in your setting for you.

As for something that's a little out there, if you want something a little different, if more complicated, there's always Dungeon Crawl Classics. It's not as simple as most OSR games, but hoo boy does it have an implied setting and a complex magic system. It's also very lethal, and I'm pretty sure the core book has a starting adventure in it. It might not quite fit if you want something that's a bit more like BECMI or B/X, but if you want something that's cranked up to 11 and a little crazy without being too much like a later version of D&D, I'd definitely give it a look.

[stoutstien]

Second the without number series and whitehack with a nod to the mork borg games if you (the GM) are comfortable filling in gaps.

The retroclone/ hack market is amazing as of late so I'd shop around. A lot of players are looking for the back catalog systems.

[Zuras]

I’d add that some of your requirements are in conflict, based on my experience with OSR games. The systems with more complex Magic systems either relatively de-emphasize resource management or are a bit more expensive (or at lest not free).

Knave 1e, The Black Hack and similar gear-centric games are pretty minimalist in the complexity of their magic systems, but they’re cheap. I’ve heard lots of good things about Knave 2e, Shadowdark, and Five Torches Deep, but they’re merely inexpensive, not free/cheap.

What modern features are you looking for? If you want complex customization through choosing new abilities as you level (like 5e feats), Worlds Without Number delivers that while keeping the old school vibe. If you like story-first mechanics from modern systems like FATE, but also want OSR style play without any meta currency, WhiteHack will fit the bill. If you just want modern presentation, not modern rules, OSE is probably what you want (minus the cost issue).

What do you mean by “modern”?

[Catullus64]

What do you mean by “modern”?

Clarity in presentation of the rules is the respect in which I feel that B/X D&D is badly out of date, and would never pass muster if it came out today. I feel safe in saying that standards have evolved on this stuff:


Rules which are redundant with/conflict with one another.
Rules explained in vague/inconsistent language.
Rules that are relevant to one another being spread out across multiple sections (or even multiple books) with no clear way to find them.


I had a look at Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and sadly it seems to have similar problems, though nowhere near as bad (many other aspects seem cool and worth borrowing). Basic Fantasy and WhiteHack seem a little better, from what I've looked at. I'm hoping for more opinions/details before investing in any of the ones that cost more money.

[Zuras]

Clarity in presentation of the rules is the respect in which I feel that B/X D&D is badly out of date, and would never pass muster if it came out today. I feel safe in saying that standards have evolved on this stuff:


Rules which are redundant with/conflict with one another.
Rules explained in vague/inconsistent language.
Rules that are relevant to one another being spread out across multiple sections (or even multiple books) with no clear way to find them.


I had a look at Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and sadly it seems to have similar problems, though nowhere near as bad (many other aspects seem cool and worth borrowing). Basic Fantasy and WhiteHack seem a little better, from what I've looked at. I'm hoping for more opinions/details before investing in any of the ones that cost more money.

In that case, all my friends who regularly play OSR games swear by Old School Essentials for the clarity of its rules while still sticking with the B/X template. I personally prefer the the universal roll-under/improv it style. It doesn’t have a comprehensive free version, though.

The free version of Worlds Without Number is definitely worth checking out if you’re interested in a modern OSR version.

[Tanarii]

Personally I'm waiting for Free League's Dragon Bane pre-order to arrive.

They did a great job with an old-school hex crawl (with optional campaign mode) in their Forbidden Lands. The only thing I didn't like was that it, like their Mutant Year Xero post-apocalypse series that I'd love to run some day, uses dice pools. Dragon Bane isn't supposed to do that so I'm cautiously hopeful. They've already proven to me they understand focused design concepts, so I'm confident on that front.

Also you could do Torchbearer. I'm not a fan of Crane as a designer (he's not OSR, he's Forge), but he definitely knows how to do a narrowly focused game.

[Satinavian]

Dungeonslayers would probably match the description.

[GreenDragonPage]

Shadowdark might be the system you are looking for. It is a mondernized version of old school D&D