The B/X Core

If I could go back in time and rebuild my library the right way, it would be around B/X-based books and games. I would never have touched 5E books. The B/X-based games do anything and everything, and they are mostly compatible with each other.

Old School Essentials is the glue that holds it all together— the universal base game that covers all the classics —and in the zines, all the expanded races and classes can be found. If all else fails me, I can play this and still have fun with any of the books in my collection.

The question isn't, "What game will replace 5E?" The answer is a few games, but using compatible numbers and systems. All these games can create a highly compelling framework, with plenty of options and a far easier set of rules that play like the classic game.

White Star covers the other end of the gaming genres —science fiction —and it is trivial to pull in White Box-based games into my collection. This is an iconic science fiction game, and it works with every other B/X-based and White Box game I own. This is sort of that freewheeling "Guardians style" science fiction that Starfinder did so well.

From here, the ...Without Number games are an easy addition to my collection, and give me excellent generators for any world that I can imagine. These are also games in their own right, covering fantasy, post-apocalyptic, science fiction, and cyberpunk genres. Stars Without Number can be more serious science fiction, so now I have a 'hard science' tabletop game to play if I want to. This game can also replace Traveller and give me a similar experience, without the Imperium.

The fantastic 'Cities Without Number' game is an excellent cyberpunk game. Still, it also covers modern-day gear and adventures, so it could be easily modded into a super-spy, vice squad, or modern military tabletop game if I wanted. I now have two fantasy games to play and two science fiction games in my collection, and I do not have to worry about conversion or parts of my library becoming unusable.

Ashes Without Number is the newest game and covers post-apocalyptic gaming. This can do anything from a zombie survival game to Gamma World, so everything is covered here.

Do I need monsters? I can pull them from any of these games. All of it works together well.

All of these are compatible with each other. So they all work together and build together. Why am I wasting money on games that don't work together again? Why do I need to wait for 5E games when they're only designed to play one genre?

Also, I can switch between any of the Without Number games, White Star, and OSE if I want to play something slightly different without having to re-learn a new system.

Toss Dark Places & Demogorgons (OSE Edition) in there for 80s kids on bikes running around and trying to solve mysteries. Want World War II? There is a White Box game for that. Want Gangsters? B/X Gangbusters has you covered.

Do I want downtime, skills, feats, and all sorts of other character customizations? The excellent On Downtime and Demesnes add-on book for any B/X game will give you plenty of options to add to any of these games. This book is a game-changer, and it adds so many 5E-like optional customizations to B/X characters that your games will become completely different.

Do I want to go big and play a full king-and-conqueror game with all the toys? I have ACKS, and this is a giant game that maintains B/X compatibility. If I want fast-and-loose fantasy, I can pick up OSE or Worlds Without Number. If I want a huge, massive, serious game of empire building, ACKS will fit me well. I would like to include Tieflings and Dragonborn in my ACKS game. Just port them in from the OSE Zines and give them an ACKS class. It works. I can drop in a spaceman from White Star or Stars Without Number into my campaign, and it works. They can shoot their blaster at ACKS monsters, and all the numbers work together seamlessly. Attack bonus, d20, versus AC, and roll damage.

We are done here! Stop messing around with over-complicated combat rules and get to the story, please! This is the massive problem with 5E: it treats combat as the story, and everything is built around violence and death being the answer for everything. It stems from the original Magic: The Gathering philosophy that the "card battle" is the game. In D&D, the "tabletop combat" is the game, and all serve that one blood-soaked master (that takes forever to play one fight).

Only Shadowdark solved the 5E combat taking forever problem, and it did that by being more like these games. Shadowdark is like DCC, a transition game off of 5E, leading me back to the original games, where I will find the most fun.

Want something more First Edition? Adventures Dark and Deep has you covered, along with OSRIC. This is still all compatible with my B/X games. Zero edition is covered with Swords & Wizardry. All of it works together. So far, this is five fantasy games, two science fiction games, a 1980s game, a post-apoc game, a gangster game, a WW2 game, and a cyberpunk game.

I don't need eight shelves of 5E books anymore when I have one with games that do it all, and they all work together efficiently.