BX and Star Wars

The original Edge of the Empire game was released in 2012, and it is still an amazing experience. This is one of the most lore-dense games I have encountered in this universe, and it continues the tradition of the roleplaying community carrying the Star Wars fandom and keeping the torch lit when hope seems lost and the light is dimming.

I get that this seems like a modern game, but it really feels like something from the late 1980s that carries into the 1990s. Technically, the West End Games' Star Wars system is the 1980's version of the game, but this is what we have today, and it works well enough to take me back.

If we can have Classic Pizza Hut back in 2026, we can have Classic Star Wars, too.

The same thing applies to Old School Essentials; this is my 1980s throwback game. While yes, we have the original BX books in PoD these days, there is no guarantee those will be around forever, and OSE is the path forward. The original BX books are the better game for learning to play, but Basic Fantasy also does a wonderful job teaching the game. For me, OSE is a fast-playing, more-optioned, easier-to-use, streamlined set of rules that disappears into the background and lets me focus on the dungeon turn, the story, and being the referee.

Keep your BX books close for inspiration and for that positive karma. For me, OSE is BX D&D, the game that brought it back to the mainstream and became the de facto standard for creators and adventure writers. There is no way you can publish for BX anymore except through the OSE license, and that is getting free of the OGL next year. The BX books are teaching games only until the rules are released under a Creative Commons license. If Wizards could put out as much as possible under the CC, for every edition, that would be a huge gift to gaming and go a long way to winning me back.

Given the sad state of both 5E and Star Wars, I am ready to go back to the 1980s and forget today, and relive those times. Yes, that is not possible without d6 Star Wars (you can still get the d6 Space system in PoD), but the Edge Studio games are fine and in print rotation. I am supporting this game while it is still out there, and I hope it continues.

Do I hope Disney can turn it around? Yes! Wishing for failure is just evil. I want good Star Wars again. Until I can get it, I will go back to the last, best Star Wars we had. There is an argument for Rogue One, Andor, Mando Seasons 1 & 2, and The Force Awakens being glimmers of light in the darkness - so the current state of things is not a total loss. We have fallen off, post-Pandemic, and we need a turnaround.

TFA had potential. It could have gone so many places. Even that seems like something that could have started off rough but gotten better over time. If I ever play in the sequel universe, it will be with TFA as the starting point, and nothing that comes afterward will count.

Poe would be a hero, assembling a team of Resistance fighters under Leia's guidance.

Finn would be a Jedi and lead the new Jedi Order through Luke.

Ben Solo would need to find redemption through sacrifice, just like Vader, through Han.

And Rey would fall to the dark side, betraying them all, and becoming the new Emperor.

Look at that poster, that is the story it tells me. Where the characters are, the lightsabers they are holding, Rey crossing the red saber towards the darkness, and Finn holding the blue. Subliminally, this is the story we were promised but never given.

The game lets me tell that story, fulfill the dreams I had of that place in my universe, and finish the trilogy in my head the right way. Yes, it is fan fiction, but it is better than what we got. One of the most beautiful things about gaming is being able to finish one story and begin another. And to take the huge box of action figures and vehicles, this big box of toys, and play pretend.

TFA, as a starting point, could be salvaged.

The Edge of the Empire and sister games are GOOD Star Wars games, full of nostalgia and memories, written by people who love the EU and the source material. I hope these continue and are even expanded upon. I want PDFs and VTT support!

But I know this may not happen, so I will hold onto my library tight.

It is really all I have, unless someone makes a "clone game" of BX Star Wars in a like universe. There is White Star, and that is getting a new edition from those who brought us OSRIC 3.0, which is great news. I need more drop-in replacements for some of the "SW-like" items and to make parallel, BX-based play in this universe easier.

There is room in the BX and OSR communities to make a parallel science-fantasy game that delivers a Star Wars-type experience well while leaving the door open for us to write our own stories. This is likely one of the next steps to take in the hobby, just to keep the stories alive if the licensed game were ever to fall.

Until then, I will be back here in the 1980s, enjoying myself, with classic BX and the EU books and games. I will keep an eye on the new stuff and hope it shows promise, but I know where I will be happy.

Here.

The Star Wars Moment

The Mandalorian movie is what pushed me over the edge. It wasn't terrible; the movie's biggest sin is that it was merely average. This is weekly television, like an episode of Buck Rogers airing on NBC.

Star Wars should never settle for average.

Star Wars is exceptional.

Average is the death of Star Wars, the taking of something we collectively hold as a betterment for ourselves, the ideal of the Republic and the Jedi, the noble fight against evil, the stories of personal struggle and failure, epic redemption arcs, and it reduces it to "streaming content."

The world is worse off if average Star Wars exists.

In fact, the world is doomed if average Star Wars is all we are going to get from here on out.

The New Republic is a metaphor for the world overcoming its divisions and constant infighting, abandoning slavery and tyranny, forging unity based on the common good, and moving toward a true galactic civilization. The Empire is the metaphor for the old military-industrial complex model of society, and the notion that perpetual war is the only thing holding civilization together. This world is doomed if we abandon those ideals.

These ideals were born out of the chaos and death of the Vietnam War.

We abandon Star Wars as a unifying cultural force, or let the television people run the show, and we are heading right back to the wartorn battlefields of the 1960s. This will be a worldwide war, starting as small engagements first, as blocs grab resources, populations, and use revolution and bloodshed to capture ideologues and crack down on dissent in bloody massacres.

Star Wars helped us move on from that massive cultural wound, and it gave us an enemy to fight against and an ideal to hope for. A Star Destroyer bombing an innocent world is the same parallel to a B-52 carpet-bombing towns and villages. The Death Star is a nuclear war metaphor. Stormtroopers cracking down on protestors is the National Guard at Kent State.

These television writers are too stupid to grasp the obvious metaphors.

Most of them are content to sell toys as oblivion rages around them.

Other writers will make Star Wars small, like a reflection of their own personal battles, and try to frame the franchise around tiny ideas and struggles, matters of self, and societal acceptance. That is a huge mistake, too, since the Star Wars metaphor is bigger than just one person. This is not a struggle session using Star Wars as your set dressing. What happens in this galaxy affects the entire universe; your actions, your moral corruption and downfall, could kill billions.

Every choice matters here.

Every action has a galaxy-wide consequence.

Who we are, what we do, the choices we make - they will eventually affect the entire universe. This is not a personal, introspective, intimate franchise. This is a global struggle painted on a galactic backdrop. The choices we make as people matter, and an introspective Star Wars is a selfish, "me generation" Star Wars that dooms the world in the most selfish, self-centered way possible.

There is no New Republic; everyone is hustling to "get theirs." You are basically a Hutt, only caring about money, not caring about others, and your selfish actions directly lead to the harm of others. You keep a princess as a slave. You use violence to intimidate others. The only thing that matters to you is making an example out of people who owe you money, because you are a thug and a gangster.

Star Wars dealt with the "me and get mine" generation pretty harshly. You could never be on the side of the New Republic if you were a side hustler. Sacrifice was needed. A lack of self-interest is required. Unlike the Mandalorian, who is ripping off the New Republic, ostensibly for good reasons, he is hurting the cause more than he is helping it. Mercenaries like that are a drain on resources that causes suffering to others, since the money is not there to buy ships, pay troops, get supplies, or feed refugees.

And mercenaries like that will sell out the New Republic if the Empire comes along paying twice.

It is a terrible precedent to set.

Sure, "Mando would not do that," but what about other mercenaries? Surely he is not the only one. You hire a hundred and half sell you out? It is not a sound strategy, and it will cost the New Republic lives and the moral high ground when a mercenary working for the New Republic blows up a passenger ship full of innocents, and another sells the Empire the names and locations of New Republic sympathizers and military bases. Those in it for the money are in it for the money.

We play the role-playing games and can see that clearly.

Those of us who know Legends Star Wars know the truth about mercenaries and self-interest. We know the truth about corporatism and military power. We know the fight about selfish interests versus sacrifice for the greater good. We know that profits that do not contribute to the greater good directly fuel evil. We know that some ideals are bigger than all of us.

We also know the distractions of the corporate machine and how they lull us into forgetting the sins of the overseers and Empire, how consumerism, promiscuity, disco, and distractions paved the way for complacency and more wars. The tools to get the populace disinterested in the New Republic and the ideals of a better universe are in the opium of corporate consumerism. If the Empire can just distract and placate the population with baubles and trinkets, no one will want to fight for a better life. The same goes for class infighting; any distraction and internal division is a tool of the overlords.

All of this was so clearly laid out for us in the source material.

Here I started this thinking the Star Wars fight was about preserving a rule system for everyone to enjoy and create their own stories. I thought this was an old-school fight about saving a narrative gameplay system that so many enjoy. Even those who just want to enjoy and preserve the Legends stories for entertainment sort of miss the point. This is not a fight about game preservation or our ability to tell stories in the classic universe. This is not about BX being superior to 5E.

This is not about shilling for a corporation to see its profits rise as validation for a life we do not have, or some phony, hollow victory against "the other side" on a fake social media platform. I am not here to cheer on profit margins or celebrate when they fall because the company made a stupid mistake. What sort of life is that? It is the definition of a vapid life, consumed by vile side-ism or hateful schadenfreude.

New Star Wars lost touch with what Old Star Wars meant. It is a pale imitation that wears the costume but lacks the heart and soul. Every tone-deaf release they make confirms that point.

They just don't understand it. My stories? The ones I play in my games? Those reflect and reinforce the true narrative and spirit of the original stories and movies. I was alive during the 1970s and saw the first movie on the first week of release. I know the time and the world in which this cultural force was born.

The fight for Star Wars is a fight to save the world.

One Million Pageviews

We broke the one-million-pageview lifetime-hits mark yesterday, which, in the world of blogs, is a huge achievement. Very few people read blogs regularly, which puts us in an elite club. I ask Google's AI, and it says only 5 to 10 hobby blogs have cracked this lifetime number (take that with a grain of salt, as I suspect it is far more). I started this blog because I missed reading the classic Grognardia way back in the day and wanted my own space to reflect on gaming's long history.

"I don't always agree with you, but this is a great blog..."

I don't expect anyone to, which is the beauty of our hobby. Back in the 1980s, we were all just figuring this out, and there was no standard way to do things, and everyone had their own ideas. This is why so many amazing games originated in the 1980s and 1990s. My views and opinions constantly change, depending on my mood and frustration with live service models. I will put a game in storage, multiple times, only to realize later that I really miss it, and back out it comes again. Some games now permanently live in storage, and I realize I can live without those.

But like you, my thoughts change, and I work them out here. Others may agree or not, or be struggling with the same things I mention. It is all good. This is a discussion. Discussions make the hobby special, and being able to have them without some ideologue coming in and telling us, "this is how you must think," is an openness and conversation that I like to encourage.

We have seen the "MMO culture" merge with the hobby, with people declaring "everyone must be on one platform!" That is against the spirit of gaming and experimentation with which this hobby began in the 1980s, when we would play several games and be exposed to many ideas that helped us grow and learn. If all you know is 5E, you have a very narrow view and experience from which to talk about gaming. And someday, 5E will go away, and the platform adherence crowd will move on to the next thing.

Preaching loyalty to a single Wall Street corporation is not what gaming is about. We are free thinkers, tinkerers, experimenters, game designers, thrill-seekers, and fans of the hobby and its culture. We mixed games, used Rolemaster crit charts for AD&D, played Car Wars all day, loved Battletech, collected Rifts books, played Star Wars, went to Pizza Hut, and jammed to the best music on the radio, playing our favorites.

And I never expect any views on what I write. I'm not an influencer, nor do I have a YouTube channel. That may change, too, depending on my time and how I feel.

But a million pageviews?

Thank you.

The Recycling Machine

One of the reasons Star Wars feels like it is dying for many is the endless recycling machine that the new movies keep churning out. They will keep taking bits of lore, characters, props, vehicles, Legacy plotlines, and other parts of the old lore and absolutely waste them in the new timeline, to the point where they make no sense there.

Grand Admiral Thrawn belongs in the series in which he was written, that story, and that tale. Tell that story, please. Cheaply using him as a toss-in character for a random TV show is so wrong, like the writers couldn't be bothered to come up with a new character, so they pull in something people are familiar with to fill a spot they need filled.

And it never works.

We end up hating the new thing because we were never given the old thing, which we were promised.

And they purposefully threw out "the old things" since they did not want to trouble their writers with learning lore, yet we still have to learn lore to see how this bit of that old thing sort of fits into these new things. The puzzle piece that fit perfectly in the old puzzle never fits in the new one, and you have to bang it in to get it to sloppily fit.

I end up hating the new thing.

And by extension, I end up hating the old thing. And by that logic, I hate every other old thing since I know the writers will steal everything not tied down in the Legends storylines to sloppily insert in their stories, when it is as simple as coming up with something entirely new and never having these problems in the first place.

These writers never had the skill to write Star Wars.

They are so insecure that they have to steal things from their betters.

It comes off like "we can never think of a great mob boss." Hence, they just keep re-using Al Capone everywhere, even in modern movies, and I sit here thinking, "Can't you writers come up with something halfway original, rather than recycling every bit of nostalgia from the things we loved?" Make a new Thrawn! Make someone cool and unique that we can latch onto! Do something new and different.

And liking the old lore feels like watching a Walmart get looted during a riot.

Well, there goes that thing we loved out the door. Pretty soon, you get numb to the vandalism and rampant scavenging of lore, and you block it all out - the old and the new.

It is a chronic problem. These corporations want younger voices to appeal to a younger audience. Yet, the education system has failed so hard that the classics of literature (which Star Wars borrows from heavily) are not even taught anymore. They have no clue why one thing is in a book, how it relates to a classic myth or legend, and they will go off on some social media thing they saw (the colored smoke clouds from festivals are cool), and think that visual element has a deeper meaning than something with parallels in classical literature.

They are trying to maintain a car but do not understand how a car works.

So I say, "It all ended with the EU." This is the OSR of Star Wars. That strange future-shock story, 130 years after with Cade Skywalker, is the last known good part of the original Star Wars. To be fair to the current creators, I will always give them a chance, but there is a part of me that compartmentalizes the older stories and keeps them just like we keep the rules and lore of the OSR.

I used to hate the Yuuzhan-Vong. I felt the EU went off the rails at that point. Now, I miss them.

My stories will always be set somewhere in the original EU, and I will never pull in a modern-timeline story into my playtime. They need to fix the mess they have there currently, but my imagination and stories come first. It does feel like giving up on modern Star Wars, and it makes me sad. For a few years, I drifted away from the idea entirely and let it die.

Star Wars was dead to me.

It hurt, since this blog started with coverage of the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games, and these are the ones my brother and I loved. We played these together on his stroke recovery. I remember those days at the end of the EU, the promise of new movies led by Disney, and looking forward to them.

When they de-canonized Legends, I had a bad feeling about this.

But Star Wars was still cool; the memories were good; I remember all the fun we had with the West End Games d6 System version of the game; and, finally, being able to play in that universe. The Star Wars universe still felt like a living, breathing, interesting place.

Last weekend, the hour-by-hour disaster watch on YouTube with the new Mandalorian movie made me face the music. Could I finally let it die? The movie sounded like something I had no interest in, but the coverage was so universally negative, and likely deservedly so, that I had to stop watching.

So, having left Star Wars for dead years ago, the noise around the movie brought it up again in my mind. Was it really dead to me?

And I recently went back to BX as my fantasy game of choice, since D&D 5E became too much for me to support, the books too modern and anachronistic, and the original gameplay of BX felt far superior to 5E's "superhero story adventures." I could split the new D&D stuff from the old. We have enough distance here that BX feels like an entirely different game than D&D 5E.

The new stuff has nothing to do with the old.

A line can be drawn in my mind, and I can play whatever I want with BX, even classic settings such as the Forgotten Realms, and not have any of the new lore take away from the old.

If that line of thinking worked for BX and D&D, why couldn't it work for Star Wars?

What resources do we have to make it happen?

Well, we still have a game supported by reprints of classic books from Edge Studio, and the earlier game from Fantasy Flight still works great and has data for most of the Legends lore. We can support this game, show them some love, and hope the license stays with them so they can keep supporting the system.

Which is why I say the new movies and shows always have a chance. I make that promise to the current owners: Please don't pull the license for this game, and I will keep an open mind. We need to keep the classic lore a vibrant, interesting, and ever-growing space, even if it is just the role-playing game. If the license ever gets pulled, I will likely play Star Wars with a BX rule set, such as Stars Without Number. For now, we have this great game, and it is supported and in print.

If they want to make new books for this system with the new stuff, I will buy those.

This is what I support.

With a game decided upon, now the question becomes, can I compartmentalize the classic lore and just play in that universe? If I can do that in the OSR and have things feel entirely different, then I can do that for Star Wars. Other people feel the same way, and we are getting a group of people who are tuning out to the newer movies and shows, and tuning into the Legends-era movies and books.

And people are starting to feel like "lost fans" out here, and giving up hope. I was for a while, but I had to re-learn what it meant to be a fan, sort of like my progression with BX and fantasy gaming, by learning that the older games were just better built, not so influenced by MMOs and mobile games, and not designed for live service models. If I don't want any of that, I will need to go back and find something I liked.

I am a fan of these discreet things.

I am not so confused and lost anymore.

I know what I like, and I feel good about narrowing it down.

I am open to new experiences, but I have a higher bar for those. I just can't be beholden to the past; I need to look for the best in anything new we get. But I want the current game to remain in print and supported; I do not want a 5E version of Star Wars to come out, I need to spend more money, and the narrative dice system I love goes away.

What we have is perfect, supported, classic, full of EU lore, and a wonderful, thematic experience.

Stick with this, and I will always give new stuff a chance.

But I can compartmentalize the "world of the games" and enjoy myself again. I can pick a starting point, like at the beginning of a specific novel series, tell myself "the future is not written in stone," and begin a new game with a fresh outlook. When I first pick up the dice, that's when the lore diverges from what could come, and the universe is mine now.

That I can be a fan of.

And I can start the long road back.

Fighting for Classic Star Wars

So many have given up on Star Wars that it feels hopeless. We are like Luke, sans hand, clinging onto a central shaft antenna, learning Vader is our father, and giving up all hope.

I know the feeling; this is the same feeling I got with 5E. There are some things I like about it; it is still D&D, after all, but I really can't agree with most of it. It is not that "I can't stand it" that is hyperbole; if "new Star Wars" is on, I may watch some of it, but I won't go out of my way to keep up on it or watch the newer movies again. Same with D&D 5E, I can play it, and it isn't terrible, it is just so clunky, the character sheets are massive, and I have better.

I just don't really care for the new Star Wars stuff.

Like, I do not care for the new D&D stuff. And that's okay.

But I am not going to throw out my great memories of either.

Legends Star Wars fans are sort of where the OSR was during the 3.5E days. Why do we need you luddites? What is this OSR thing? You people are insane for holding onto the past, clinging to outdated lore and stories, and looking like you worship clunky, worthless, old, and outdated material. 3.5E works well enough as an "old school" game if you want it! You just have to flavor it, and things are fine. Why aren't you using modern rulesets?

These days? The pure genius of BX is slowly dawning upon people. How the game was about mapping the unknown, the brilliance of group initiative, and the careful tracking of time and resources. The sheer magnificence of BX reveals itself in play, creating engagement, tension, and a fear of the unknown, and delivering compelling gameplay.

BX is rapidly replacing D&D 5E as people's game of choice these days. This is what the cool kids play. This is where the fun is. You won't get burned out or tired playing BX; you will have fun.

If all you enjoy is the Legends stories and universe, you will have fun.

You can dream here again.

This is the OSR fight. We know "real D&D exists," and we can hold it in our hands. We can play it. We love it for what it is, and the experiences it brings to our tables. The game is classic, the memories golden, and sharing the experience is unifying and creates bonds with others.

We may see the old stuff recycled into the new, but that does not tarnish or change our memories of it. We know what an AD&D beholder used to do; this wasn't a video game monster, destined to be a challenge and eventually defeated, no, the beholder was a permanent character-killer, disintegration-ray-firing, TPK machine. The beholder cut character egos down to size.

And we know real Star Wars exists; it is just so hard to stay focused, since what we are being given today is so poor in quality that we want to dismiss it all. The constant nostalgia farming and endless bringing back of the "greatest hits" diminishes our memories of the past; it is almost a reverse nostalgia, where the more they bring up the past, the less we want to see of it.

But I like classic Star Wars like I like classic D&D, and I will fight for it. Star Wars represented something magical, a call from the stars to be better, to reflect upon our sins, and to feel goosebumps at the sight of brave heroes overcoming all odds to stop evil and save the day. To hear the music, and cheer when good triumphs over evil, or feel despair when evil delivers a deathblow to the forces of good.

This is as much the story of tragedy as it is of heroes.

These are the stories of adventure series from the dawn of cinema.

In D&D 5E, it feels like you will never die, and level 20 is a sure thing. There is a boredom of inevitability with the system, a certainty that sakes me to say "so what" to the entire character progression system. I don't really care about 5E characters since I never feel any real threats to them.

In a BX game, characters die. In Star Wars, characters die. Given the nature of Star Wars, it is a bit harder to die than in BX, as you have a few heroic mechanics to save yourself, but those can and will run out if you are stupid and careless. Or just plain unlucky.

But, just like in BX, a character's death is not the end of the game. It is the beginning of a new character's story. In 5E, you have this immortality clause, which means if you do die, it is quite likely the end of the game, and you won't really want to create a new character of that level again, just due to all of the character sheet complexity and build choices.

What hurts is that it is hard to be a Star Wars fan right now. In the OSR, indie games and new content are constantly coming out. Even if D&D is taken off the shelves and never sold again, we still have enough like it to get by.

With Star Wars, we have one game and one source of new media. The game is worth your support, and I feel that playing it and loving the classic universe sends a message. What makes it hard is the constant negativity streaming in from the new projects, and you get despondent and feel hopeless, like "Star Wars is garbage."

Well, my memories aren't garbage. The games I played with my brother aren't either, nor are the characters we played in this universe. How I felt back then isn't either. How I looked forward to the movies and the excitement I felt while in line for the original releases of each film is not garbage.

And yes, I saw each of the first three movies in the theater in the first week of release.

Those weren't just good times, they were pure magic.

They ignited a passion in me for art, storytelling, and technology like nothing else could. Part of me feels that the forces seeking to diminish Star Wars know its power, and that this is an attack on our future as a people and species. I love space and technology. I love art and music. I love great storytelling. I love lasers and spaceships.

But we are in an age of the trite and mediocre. Corporate storytelling. Nostalgia farming. Live services and subscription models that force us to accept the lowest common denominator. It is easy to give up hope. The new movies are not on the level of what we had, and the television shows are mostly forgettable. It makes me feel that we can't bottle magic anymore.

But there is a way.

And for me, it is through gaming and the Legacy books and movies. I can capture that magic as much as I want, as often as I want, and all at my gaming table with a character sheet and a set of dice. I just need to imagine and block out all the negativity in my head so I can enjoy those good times.

Like a Jedi in training, I block out the negative emotions and calm myself, channeling only the good times that once were. With my mind clear, I can create thrilling tales and stories again. The universe can come alive. The dreams and emotions return. The dead feeling I had is gone. The hope shines brightly.

Dreams are worth fighting for.

YouTube: How To Love Star Wars Again: A Guide For Tired Fans

A good video today, and one on my mind as I put together the "OSR for Star Wars" in my head and figure out what that means to me. Please like and subscribe, and show this creator some love! Watch the video all the way to the end, too, as that helps the algorithm and gets this video suggested to other people!

How To Love Star Wars Again: A Guide For Tired Fans

That title speaks to me. He is going through the process by starting with fiction, which is a journey I will take as well. I am starting with gaming, since that is a path close to my heart.

If we want to show others, there is a way back from the dark places we find ourselves in as fans, then watch and share. We can share the word of us as 'tired fans' and find a way back to a place where we can love the parts of the story we still do and learn to compartmentalize, putting the rest in perspective.

It feels like rehab, and in a way, it is.

A great video today, and it perfectly encapsulates my feelings.

Shadowdark vs. OSE

Shadowdark is an amazing game, and I love the table dynamics and timer-based play. This is one of the best dungeon-style board games, instantly playable and quick to jump in and get started. I love this game, though I feel the third-party books got a bit bloated, and many of the early releases water down the game or add too many options. I desperately need to clean out my library. I have too many books for this game; when it should be a light game, I now have a shelf of okay books.

What keeps me coming back to OSE? Well, for one, there is no torch timer. In a real-world span of 5 minutes, I can say two torches (hours) of time burn down as the players excavate a collapsed tomb. You can do that in Shadowdark, but the game is more comfortable with the live timer and the tension that it brings to the table.

I have far more control over time in OSE, and the time tracking and management are not real-time. It is just a checklist, and it proceeds rapidly. In OSE, you can cover far more ground since the game is not played in a "tactical, on-map" mode all the time. Part of Shadowdark's appeal is that tightness and small-map appeal, where you are not exploring a 100-room megadungeon, and the scenarios are tight and tactical.

Shadowdark is more of a board game, and I love it for that.

OSE is more of a traditional pen-and-paper RPG, with a dungeon turn, mapping, a caller, and marching order, and I love it for that.

Another area where I prefer OSE is in mapping. Shadowdark is more "played on the actual map," where in OSE, the players do the mapping. There is zero chance of getting lost on an official map displayed on a VTT, and the player's map will never be wrong, lost, burned by a fireball, eaten by green slime, or unable to be read in the pitch dark. Players can make mistakes mapping, and this is the classic gameplay loop taken from real-life cave explorers and their accounts in the 1960s and 70s.

In early computer games, you had to "map a map" by hand next to the computer. You got graph paper, and you mapped out what the computer described to you. Your mapping skills and ability to take notes were factors in your success.

Shadowdark is more like the old Dungeon board game in many ways, and is today's version of that classic. This is one of the best table-based, tense, teamwork-required, and timed games ever written. But OSE brings a different type of fun to the table. OSE does campaign play, near-infinite options, the old-school gameplay loop, and the best resource management in gaming.

When you consider the resources you manage in OSE, it is not just the number of torches, but also time, spells, health, rations, equipment, and the chance of getting completely lost. The classic reaction roll and morale rules are baked into the OSE dungeon turn, meaning not every encounter will be a fight. This rule is in Shadowdark for random encounters. Did you encounter orcs? Are they friendly? Would you trade with them if you needed rations or torches? Do you attack or backstab them? In OSE, you need to make that choice. In most 5E games, the choice is made for you.

And OSE carries forward BX's wilderness exploration rules, where it is also possible to get lost and find yourself fighting to figure out where you are, how you will survive, and how to get back home alive. OSE also has dominion play, so it has a complete beginning, middle, and endgame.

Shadowdark is still a favorite; this is a tight, focused, "experience game" that extends 5E into tabletop dungeon play. Like Nimble 5e, it is a second-generation 5E game that drills down on a specific experience with a laser-like focus. It does fast, jump-in, time-limited table-top games better than most other games out there, even 5E. Where in D&D you are struggling to finish one combat in four hours, you have finished six fights and an entire dungeon in Shadowdark in half the time.

D&D has a massive time-to-play problem. It is killing the game for many and cutting it off at the knees at the high level for most players. Most do not want to play past the 7th level. D&D is failing us, and the D&D-like games are not doing much better. All of them have the same problems. Some are presented better, others have neat mechanics, others balance for math, but they all fall short past the 8th level.

Shadowdark is the best-in-class for timed, tight, focused, pressure-cooker, and forced teamwork play. You either learn how to be efficient and work as a group, or you run out of torches and everyone dies. Nothing puts a random group of people at a convention together and forces them to work as a team like this game. It is a genius idea, best with others, and a time-limited run. The perfect convention game has been written.

OSE is a second-to-none campaign experience, and it beats 5E in character sheet complexity, the dungeon turn gameplay loop, and mid and high-level play. Where 5E has you running dungeons to level 20, OSE has you running dungeons, exploring the wilderness, and running domains all the way to level 14. For me, the ease of running multiple characters makes this a snap to solo-play. For me, OSE offers simple play, a classic gameplay loop, and varied play-styles that all work together.

They are not the same game. One cannot entirely do the other's job.

You play Shadowdark, you are on the clock, uncovering a known map, watching your torch, and trying to complete objectives before time runs out. You are moving extra carefully, working together as a group, and not wasting time. All while trying to survive.

You play OSE, and you are in the classic gameplay loop, mapping, using time and resources wisely, surviving, and trying to explore the unknown, however big that unknown may be. OSE can go massive in scope and scale, even to the wilderness and world level. And OSE goes micro, down to the next ten feet of hallway and that ten-foot pole.

They are different games, both best-in-class, and they beat D&D in those respective areas.

Add Nimble to the mix, and you have little reason to have D&D at all.