for use with Old-School Essentials
A torch timer the whole table watches burn down, a GM Library that's actually yours, and a character sheet that never fights the rules — classic OSR play, run fast.
Also runnable with
Author your own classes, ancestries, backgrounds, spells, equipment, monsters, and random tables, then import or export the whole library as a bundle. It's the same shape as the game you already run — you just stop retyping it every session.
An eleven-step wizard walks a new player through building a character across six classes, and a full sheet holds the rest: saves, combat, equipment, spells, an XP bar, encumbrance, and conditions, all in one place.
Encumbrance tracks in slots, not pounds, per the rules — no unit conversion mid-fight while someone's trying to figure out if they can still carry the loot.
A real-time light timer runs while you play, visible to the whole table. When the torch is close to going out, everyone feels it — the pressure isn't a GM reminder, it's a clock on the screen.
An initiative tracker keeps a fight moving, with reaction and morale rolls built in — the parts of OSR combat that are easy to forget mid-melee are just there, ready when you need them.
The best VTT for Old-School Essentials is the one that tracks the resource clocks automatically: torches, rations, encumbrance, and the dungeon turn, instead of leaving them on your notepad.
Old-School Essentials is Necrotic Gnome's restatement of the 1981 Basic and Expert edition of the world's first fantasy RPG: the same rules, reorganised so you can actually find them at the table.
Yes. Old-School Essentials uses descending armour class with THAC0, matching the 1981 rules it restates, and it also includes an ascending armour class option if your table prefers that.
Both are modern old school dungeon crawlers. Old-School Essentials restates the 1981 rules faithfully. Shadowdark rebuilds that feel on modern d20 conventions with real time torches.
One game, free forever — no card, no countdown, no expiry. Support the project and the caps lift instantly, content carried over.
Requires Old-School Essentials. "Old-School Essentials" and its logo are trademarks of Necrotic Gnome, used with permission under the Old-School Essentials Third-Party License. Old School Fantasy is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Necrotic Gnome.