Incidentally, for those interested, I heard back from OSE.
I will be releasing an Old School Essentials version of Palace of the Golden Princess.
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Me? Old School is a attitude, not a rules set. Admittedly some rules sets are better suited to the old school way. 0D&D was the invention of Old School, you needed it. AD&D was Gygax trying to kill Old Sschool and failing. It also converted XD&D into a ānoā system. āWhat is not permitted is forbidden.ā Lizards of the Coast continued that attitude. Pathfinder broke out of it. I donāt have enough experience with 5e. I neither own nor play it.
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Thatās not what the actual rulebooks say. Gary then Dave āZebā Cook continued the fine tradition of āYou Can Try Anythingā.
AD&D 1E DMG page 110 column 2 paragraph 1 and AD&D 2E DMG page 9 state the same thing that the rules donāt cover every situation, so the DM must adjudicate the action and assign appropriate probability for dice rolling.
It wasnāt until Monte Cook and his DANDINO 3.x that created the entire āIf You Donāt Have X Then You Canāt Do Yā way of doing things.
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Gary also outlined very detailed guidelines of what to do to characters that stepped outside the bounds of their alignment. The whole weapon proficiency thing was one big ānopeā system.
Friendly reminder that AD&D had rules upon rules in an attempt to normalize ambiguities for tournament play. Home games were expected to be different and up to the DM.
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Pathfinder was 3e for people who didnāt want to convert to 4e. The 3e/Pathfinder I ran for a decade didnāt just try to have rules for every situation, it was extra specific in itās wording on how things worked. I think these games trained DMs to ask for rolls in every situation and players to ask āwhat do I roll forā¦ā every situation.
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This is poignant. I play in a Pathfinder game and itās exactly that way. Why do I have to roll if Iām searching a body. Either stuff is there, or it isnāt. Do I really have to roll after I gave a big shpiel to the castle guard? Why donāt I just roll and skip making up a story?
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Most GMs either already know what theyāre going to tell you regardless of your roll, or ask you to roll to catch a moment to collect their thoughts. 
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We roll when a success or a failure would both provide for valid situational opportunities.
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OSR is a combination of a style of play and nostalgia for old games from the early days.
Some have the narrow minded view that it is only early D&D or only games by the original TSR.
I prefer the broad view that it is games from 1974 to about 1985 plus clones of old games.
What I like about OSR as a play style is less complex rules, player knowledge & skill, and not being limited to whatās on the character sheet.
A campaign is an open world that never ends and is always available for players to explore.
Sadly, some real jerks act like they get to decide who is welcome at the table. What they donāt realize is that they are guarding a broken down free standing gate with no walls and the real OSR is welcoming and inviting because weād rather game than spend time arguing about what is and isnāt OSR and who is and isnāt welcome to play. Let the gatekeepers have their broken down gate, weāve got games to play.
I remember the days of the Satanic panic. My parents used their brains and read the books and realized itās just a game. We had to deal with not upsetting those who might react poorly, and it was tough getting games together. Because of that, all are welcome at my table. I know how hard it is to get a game together when it was really tough because of that minefield of stupidity.
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I just took my old AD&D DMG off the shelf. How did I ever read that thing? It has to be 6 point type. And thick. The Pathfinder core book is more readable (Larger font, and more readable. TSRish, took me years to school that out of my writing.) and thinner than the AD&D DMG and PM combined.
To wit you cannot write a rule book for every aspect of a life simulation. Life is chaotic. I had a friend that tried to rule counter every way her players could sabotage the game. What is the saying;āNothing is fool proof, fools are ingeniousā? You had a game so locked up you could not do. Better to be as bare bones as is possible and still cover the bases.
For those that donāt know what RBGs are, I tell them it is a set of rules for letās make believes that prevents those āI shot you1ā āNo to didnātā moments we had as kids. Rules should follow the KISS principle.
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Was it the 1E or 2E DMG?
You had younger eyes that could read it better. 
If I had to guess the font size of AD&D 1E DMG is 8-10 point font for the bulk of the text. The larger font size is most likely 12-14.
In the 2E version itās all 10-12 point.
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I had a pica stick around here. Canāt find it. Now, I know the Monsterous Compendium was 9 point because I specifically asked TSR what the size and typeface were so my homemade monster sheets would match (Iām that kind of nerd).
But amen to younger eyes. If I was dedicated to finding out I could print a bunch of sample type and check what matched. Iām not that dedicated.
So I looked, 2nd is a larger font, but still three column across the page. Most likely 9pt like the Monsterous Compendium. 1st would have to be 8 or smaller.
3.5 is still 9pt. I can read that on a good day (without my glasses). Itās nice having them all lined up on a shelf.
Nope, Pathfinder is still 9pt. Huge cosmic books! Itty bitty type.
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Ahh you have the original. In the revised and premium edition they switched to a larger font with two columns.
We is getting older. 
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Thatās where Iām at, too. My favorite OSR thing is Hyperborea, which is a clone that draws from both AD&D and Holmes Basic set in a Clark Ashton Smith inspired setting. I also like Stars/Worlds Without Number and Swords & Wizardry. Where I draw the line is games that claim to be OSR but are really just ticking that box on DTRPG to get views (or because they have a misunderstanding of what it is and why people choose it over contemporary games). I think Iām pretty flexible but I still want OSR to mean something. At least as a consumer so I donāt waste time trying to figure out if someoneās homebrew is actually related somehow to old D&D. Many just arenāt. The worst are the clearly 5e sups sneaking out of their wheelhouse. As the saying goes: if everything is OSR than nothing is.
Thereās a lot of misogyny and racism in general on the web there and itās crept into unmoderated gaming discussions. But my experience where people are actually looking for games (on Meetup, Facebook) is the old-school grognards are just as welcoming if not more so. Those of us in the US are in the midst of what seems to be a cold civil war and unfortunately prejudice from both sides affects who anyone will and wonāt associate with [Iām hoping thatās matter-of-fact enough to say without sparking political discussion which isnāt my intention]. Iām sorry if youāve encountered gatekeeping, itās a terrible time.
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True statement. I like to think games are a way we can share something in common. I try to keep that in mind when I feel prejudice rearing its ugly head. RPGs and cooperative games are a great way to overcome those feelings.
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Gatekeepers can stick their tongues to cold metal poles. I want open minded people, but not so open their brains fall out. To wit, those that use and listen to reason, and seek evidence.
I just want people to leave their politics out of it regardless of where they sit on the spectrum.
Reason is seldom, if ever, welcome in political discourse.