Regularly Scheduled Rant

I'm really enjoying this solo campaign so far and I think it highlights why the #BrOSR old school style of play appeals to me so much. Over the first series of posts, we have created a pretty decent campaign setting in a few hours using the tables from the 1979 AD&D DMG. Our burgeoning world has inherent dynamics, plenty of gaming hooks, variety and sufficient verisimilitude to suspend disbelief and promote player engagement. This is far superior to any commercial offering because you and your players can make this world your own and go completely insane with it because there is no railroad story to knock off the tracks.

This was done without cost, without lore dumps, and without prepackaged ideology imposed upon us. 

Don't give money to people who hate you.

I've been playing RPGs since I first discovered the D&D Basic boxed set (with the awesome Erol Otus cover) in 1981 when in the fifth grade (via the famous Dynamite Magazine #82 article, for those old enough to remember). I quickly graduated to AD&D and these tables are how we would create dungeons and the surrounding environs (albeit in a flawed a cheesy manner that only 1980s pre-internet adolescents could execute, given the lack of tutelary resources at the time). Of course, I played all the classic modules (with Against the Giants/Descent into the Depths of the Earth being clear favorites), but only recently realized, in  hindsight, why those modules are truly classics and why all Current Edition content will never achieve any lasting impact on the soon-to-be dwindling tabletop market. 

All TSR-era modules were intentionally generic so you could insert them into your world. The designers always left room for customization (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not - looking at you T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil and Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits). Sure, they assumed a World of Greyhawk background, but once you get past the intros, you could essentially place them anywhere. "Lore dumps" were typically 3-4 paragraphs max, all of which could be easily summarized, changed or omitted. Especially when High Gygaxian prose took over...

The classic designers didn't cram political ideology down your gullet and were active fans of the medium. They genuinely wanted you to enjoy playing the modules in actual AD&D game sessions. 

They weren't failed authors with delusions of grandeur, hoping their magnum opus would be optioned for the next doomed Hollywood affront against common human decency. 

They weren't self-obsessed navel gazing idiots who wrote the "adventure" as a testament to their enlightened vision of how you should view the world.

They weren't interested in building a "lifestyle brand" by writing adventures...with cookbook/cocktail recipe tie-ins that will only end-up in landfill.

I've read far too much Current Edition official product as well as indie/OSR content and have come to what should be a fairly obvious conclusion.

It sucks.

Most is poorly conceived, poorly written (seriously: use MS Word and hit F7; also use this and this), and poorly produced (it literally falls apart whereas my 1980s era TSR rulebooks are still in near mint condition despite heavy use). 

The only objectively good material that is getting produced is at the indie level (just a few personal faves: Operation Unfathomable, ACKS, RPG Pundit's stuff - there are many others) and most definitely NOT by purple-haired WOTC Wokesters. Even at the indie level, easily 90% of the material falls into the "failed author with delusions of grandeur" category and not anything that would be useful to the core audience of TTRPG players. I'm not the first to ruminate on this. I refer you to Walker's Retreat for more detailed, and excellent, commentary.

Why would you spend your hard earned dollars, in an inflation-fueled recession, with a company that produces an objectively physically inferior product containing subjectively poor content? Buy the old books from eBay or yard sales if you require physical media, or get creative with your internet searches for digital options. Try to avoid feeding the beast by giving it your hard-earned cash for official reprints via DriveThru RPG unless that is your only option.

Don't give money to people who hate you.

Once viable source material is in hand, use it to make your own content - for free! You'll find it to be infinitely more enjoyable that being harangued by the Current Edition propaganda spewed by mentally ill proselytes.