I've picked through a lot of OSR styled games before and have never been impressed. Then I learned about Beyond the Wall and the unique twists it put on the concept. Powered by The Apocalypse style playbooks expanded so that they tie together the PC's to eachother and the world.
This turned what I might have passed over into exactly my jam. The quick character and game creation tickles my narrative player and GM bones just right and the expanded rules for combat and game creation found in the Further Afield book helps lay the groundwork for a more expansive sandbox style campaign.
The included character playbooks with just the core rulebook alone are nice and the literally dozens of others avaliable for free or for a generous donation give a delightful amount of options for stories and group makeups.
Though all this talk of playbooks doesn't mean it doesn't have good ol' fashion roll your stats and pick your class character creation. And here's where it gets better smooth. With only three classes, Warrior, Mage and Thief with limitless options for hybridzing the classes (with proper GM discussion of course) making the kind of character you want to play is quick and virtually painless.
I don't think I'll be drinking deep of the well of OSR games myself but this particular game is going to be one of my go to systems for the kind of coming of age, small scale fantasy adventures that I adore.
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