Now I have a base setting for the Lurne campaign, I need to choose a system. Here are a few likely candidates.

Genuine old-school D&D

I have access to B/X and BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia (BECM actually, I don’t own a copy of the Immortal rules, but I don’t expect to get that high anyway). I have played BECM quite a bit when I was younger, it would be fun getting back to it but I don’t know if the fun would last a full campaign.

If I choose this option, I will probably houserule a few things to make the game feel a little more current; I would at least use the ascending AC and saving throw rules from Swords & Wizardry, if nothing else.

AD&D2

Because I own the rules and, hey, why not?

I would have to choose what to include and what not to include, though. The “complete” class series? I own the books for the four base classes but not the others. And what about the race-specific books? I own the Complete Book of Elves and the Complete Book of Dwarves, but I’m not sure I should include these and not anything halfling-specific.

At least I know the Player’s Options books are out. I have played a few games with them back in the day, and I didn’t find they added anything to the game except complexity.

Microlite

Either Microlite 20 itself or, say, Microlite 81. I never played it, only read the rules; they feel kind of right to me, but I’m not sure they would fit the campaign feel I want. I’m afraid they would eventually devolve into a standard d20 campaign; I do enjoy d20-based games (I played 3.0 and Pathfinder) but I tend to think of it as too technical.

Castles and Crusades

Another one I never actually played. The rules read like a less baroque AD&D1; I would probably enjoy it a lot. In fact I would very much like to run a few old modules, at least the U series and maybe T1-4, with these rules. They would probably be a good fit for Lurne as well.

D&D5

Either the genuine thing or another SRD5-based game; the French Héros & Dragons is an obvious candidate. In fact I would probably use everything from both H&D and D&D5; it only needs a single additional restriction, that any given character may only choose feats from one of the games, not both.

It would need a few house rules for making it feel a bit more old-school; at least the experience system would need a few tweaks to make exploration more important than combat.

GURPS

Just because why not. I have bought the basic rules, along with GURPS Discworld, more than 10 years ago, but I never actually played it. Reading Peter dell’Orto’s blog about his Felltower campaign makes me want to play it. I would need to get the DF rules, though, and it would probably play quite different from D&D. Not that it’s a bad thing, but I’m not sure it’s what I want for this specific campaign.

So?

I will probably select H&D eventually. Actually this is the system I was thinking of when I first thought of starting the Lurne campaign; I started looking for other systems when I realised the mostly combat-based experience system of the later editions of D&D was ill-suited to this kind of game.

Anyway, I will probably write a couple of posts about experience and other possible house rules before choosing for sure. At least this will help me make sure I made the right choice. :-)