This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/osr by /u/RfaArrda on 2025-06-08 20:50:37+00:00.

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This isn't a universal lesson, just a personal reflection on a gaming experience that was truly transformative for me, guiding me towards the OSR—whatever that may truly mean.

I've been playing D&D for 25 years, starting with D&D 3.0 in my school library in rural Brazil with my nerdy friends. The book was a photocopy; we couldn't afford the original, and our parents thought playing RPGs was akin to summoning demons (but this post isn't about that).

After almost 20 years absolutely obsessed with D&D—not just consuming fantasy adventures but truly embodying my own character, interacting with the world, and crafting my own stories—I realized that in all of them, I was the grinder, and the goblins were the meat.

I don't recall ever, during the long modern era of D&D, conversing with those vile, village-raiding creatures. They were present at the start of every damn adventure, and God knows there were many beginnings... And if I saw a goblin, my only thought was to set my blood-filled eyes on its precious XP, desperate to escape level 1. My only language with them was, "I attack."

A goblin was never a real threat to me. And today, I know it didn't have to be that way, but that's how we learned to play; that's just how things were in D&D for us.

It was then that the OSR, like a Holy Grail, shone brightly for me. I won't drag out the story, suffice it to say that while playing a bewildering adventure with the antiquated rules of a game called Old School Essentials, my magic-user was struck by a poisoned arrow, fired by an unnamed Goblin, before he could even utter his first arcane words in the session.

I died. My friends died. The goblins mocked our bodies and peed on them. I changed. The way I play D&D changed forever.

That's how my eyes were opened to a far more enjoyable way of playing. I didn't want to be the hero of a pre-written adventure arc; I wanted to challenge myself on a deadly delve into a mythical dungeon and try to survive through cunning, strategy, and a good dose of luck.

And so, I started trying to interact with those bands of goblins. I became interested in the petty needs of those cursed creatures and began to negotiate with them.

Goblins have helped me scare off a dragon and loot its treasure. Goblins have betrayed me, and I've betrayed them too.

OSE, Knave, Cairn... The endless PDFs I have in Google Drive folders linked to the OSR movement are a tremendous opportunity for fun that Goblin helped me find and hoard.

Thank you, nameless Goblin who fired that poisoned arrow. Thanks to you, today I remember the grotesque names of many Goblins.