i was trying to work this out in a discord server and i basically ended up summarizing it like this; would you say this is an accurate description?
Viewing post in What Is An OSR Anyway
In a sense. However it is not necessarily restricted to dungeon delving; OSR games should handle just about any situation you'd find in any other game or setting. And yes, you don't set out to tell a story that the GM has planned out, but it can certainly produce wonderfully interesting stories that come about as the result of play - the interactions of the players and the game world as portrayed by the GM, even if that takes the form of a bunch of anecdotes stitched together. Often stories you hear from OSR sessions sound so strange and creative that there's no way it could be the result of a planned narrative.
Another difference is that "solving" a problem in an OSR game does not have a number of discrete solutions that are codified into it (though roguelikes tend to allow a greater range of potential solutions than other types of games). Instead, the GM should be open to those wildly creative methods of solving problems formulated by the players. Often, a GM doesn't even know how a particular problem could be solved when they create it.
Sorta?
I think looking at how OSR games in general describe themselves. Being role-playing games derived from DnD for most part. They are games in which you play roles, unlike story games which are games designed to tell specific stories. The kind of roles and the rules of the game do influence the kind of stories that emerge through play, and the kind of play.
I think they have more things in common than they have differences. At they end, you also have a story, i.e. a linear series of events, you can tell each other after the fact.
I feel most of what David Perry describes above also applies to other games that are about "playing to find out what happens". Very few that I know are about playing out a prescribed story.
For example, if I were to write a PbtA OSR game, I would say the MC section should have something like this:
Agenda:
- to engage in creative problem solving.
- to keep the future unpredictable.
Principles:
- Employ and reward player ingenuity.
- Try to be impartial in your judgement.