BX Makes You Immune to Bad 5E Advice

If you follow the dungeon turn, everything will work, the universe shall keep its logical order, resources will tick down naturally, wandering monster rolls shall be made, and you will not need to endlessly listen to bad YouTube advice for 5E. The more of these 5E "advice" videos from YouTube creators that I watch, the less I want to play:

• How to Roleplay
• How to Write a Backstory
• Speeding Up Combat
• Don't Use Alignment to Roleplay
• Quick Dungeon Prep in Under 4 Hours

Just looking at the titles makes me want to poke D&D with a 10-foot pole and set the trap off from a distance. Some of them mention mechanics removed from 5.5E and present themselves as current topics. All of them are a terrible waste of time that makes me dislike 5E more than I should. They make 5E sound like the worst game ever written, since it seems like so much help is needed to play it correctly.

Terrible advice videos spread negativity and confusion for the game.

I now block, unsub, or steer far away from these videos in my suggestions.

D&D YouTube is infamous for spreading negativity and confusion for views. The vast majority of people hate-watch the negative coverage of the Wizards, just like the majority of Star Wars viewers hate-watch to see the franchise crash and burn. I stay away from most of the negativity since it is addictive like booze; you can get drunk on hate, and you need to abstain from it just to have a clear head and enjoy life again.

All of it hurts D&D, even the older editions. And the confusion and horrible advice drive people from the hobby.

How do you play the game?

By playing the game.

Back in the day, roleplaying was optional! You were not forced to, nor did you have to, come up with a backstory, declare a character goal and motivation, or layer a weak narrative inspiration-dicing system on top of the game. Due to the inspiration system, you are now forced to roleplay to gain a mechanical advantage in combat.

In BX, you do not need to engage with roleplaying to play the game, and many did not even start gaming with backstories or psychological profiles. The game gives you no benefit from roleplaying.

If you just wanted to play "dwarf," you picked "dwarf" and played "dwarf."

That was your "playing piece," like the shoe or dog in Monopoly.

If "dwarf" survived, maybe you gave him a name. Maybe you gave him some background. It was not required, nor did it give you a mechanical benefit. We usually figured it out by level 3, sometimes 5. Until then, it was just "dwarf."

In fact, that "feature" let us get new people into the game more easily, since it reduced the pain of losing a character and the number of decisions needed before play began.

Want to play with us? Want to play an "elf"? Sure!

You did not need to think about roleplay to play BX D&D.

You just "played."

And prep? The modules were typically 16 pages long, shorter than a single high-level character sheet, and you could read them during lunch break. This 6-hour fallacy for session prep is alien and not D&D. Most games needed no prep. Flub a room description or miss something? Most of the time, it didn't matter, and we put whatever was missed in the next room. The dungeons were meant to be expanded, so you could always make a new room and put it in there.

I get the feeling mixing D&D with a narrative game was a mistake. Writing "roleplay rules" into the game complicates play, creates a barrier for new players, and makes the game less accessible. Giving mechanical advantage to an out-of-game roleplaying reward cheapens storytelling and investment. Are you really playing your paladin as chivalrous, or are you just trying to gain inspiration for a combat benefit?

BX was a clean, simple, and straightforward game.

Let the narrative games be narrative games.

Mixing the game with a storytelling system was a misstep, and it ended up hurting our ability to tell stories with the game, since it linked mechanical benefits to something done naturally and for no benefit.

OSR Buyer's Guide Page Updated

https://sbrpg20.blogspot.com/p/osr-buyers-guide.html

I updated the OSR Buyers Guide page to cover BX, and here are my best suggestions for getting started with various editions in the hobby. Today, information, links, and discussions of BX are laid out, with my picks for the best in the genre, both in inspirational material and rock-solid books for play.

Gone are the discussions of alternate editions and versions (Labyrinth Lord, Dragonslayer, etc.), and a page will likely be added later to discuss them. Times change, and those need to be updated.

Can White Star do ...Star Wars?

White Star feels like a White Box Star Wars game, but it pulls in so many other inspirations that it feels like an "anything" White Box game. That unfocused feeling, where star squirrels are running around with space-pirate halflings, makes the game capable of handling Star Wars, since it has many of the iconic elements, but is very all over the place in terms of genre support.

There is Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, and a bunch of other stuff going on here.

I wish the game were less random and more focused, with the special genre support in expansion modules. The base game should be as generic as possible, and things like Star Knights and other "war-of-the-stars-like" elements should be added in the "science fantasy" module.

The Trek-like elements could be added to a space federation module, with xenomorph-style content in that module, and so on. There is room in BX for a "star opera"- style game, and White Star tries to be an everything game, but it feels like it is trying to do too much.

I love the idea of BX sci-fi, and I miss the old Space Opera game, which did generic science fiction that could be Wars, Trek, Alien, Galactica, Rogers, Apes, or anything else. A BX version of that would be a dream game.

White Star sort of floats in generic sci-fi, not really Star Wars-inspired, and just generic, yet with oddly specific classes and race choices. With a lot of work, it could do Star Wars, but it would need a lot of houseruling, custom classes, gear, vehicles, and starships. A lot would need to be cut out, but it is possible.

For others to play with me? Easier to play the official game and let them experience that. I have had "let's play X with Y" games fall apart on me before, as it is too hard a sell for people to buy into, and even more so if "X" is available as its own game. There are times when it is easier to buy something they can buy and agree to play that together.

If we are playing Star Wars, and the game is available and in print, we will play that. It is far easier to sell and get people interested in the official game than in a homebrew or a modded system.

But, White Star does an okay Star Wars with some modding and tweaking. It needs the iconic aliens, or facsimiles, as classes. Some of the goofy classes should be pared back. We need more gear and a bunch of starships to replace the official ones (most work fine, but I want to see more). It works; it could be better if it were more focused, and some assembly is required.

If you are looking for a game that is in the OSR that could serve as a Star Wars game, White Star is as close as you can get at the moment.

Community: What We Lost Along the Way

I went to a Society for Creative Anachronism event the other day, and it hit me.

This is what we had in role-playing games, online games, MMOs, and other social spaces where we come together as a community and share that sense of community and companionship. Us as many, we as one.

These days, any online space I go to feels like something meant to hustle people through an 'experience' as fast as possible, queue people up for a bunch of story events, and get as much money from you while keeping the line moving.

Even D&D adventures feel like "tourist experiences" that simulate the actual thing, a best-of experience, meant to let you say "I played Tomb of Horrors" without actually playing Tomb of Horrors. Not like it was intended. This is the "you can't die" version, without 14 levels of campaign build-up and having months of play on the line if your character does not make it out. Every one of these classic dungeons is presented on some "infinite staircase," which is just a level-select tool for playing something, saying you experienced it, and ultimately meaning nothing to you or your character.

None of those level-select dungeons mean anything.

No community in most online games that I log into means anything.

In the SCA, you are at the event, you talk with people, you contribute, and what you put in is what you get out - even if it is just to dress up and enjoy the day, it is a real experience with real people. It isn't D&D or even a place to play D&D; you are actually "doing the thing" as close as you can to back then, and trying to understand and live the life of someone from that time.

The crafts, music, simulated combat, archery, fencing, foods, and ambiance of the era bring back that camaraderie and community that I sorely missed in today's online games.

And there is no "group finder" or "paid progression" in real life. Cosmetics? Find them yourself, or learn how to make period-appropriate garb. Learn a craft. Learn music, for real, not a "skill" that D&D says you have. Learn how to fight or fire a bow. Learn calligraphy or period art.

Meet actual people.

Become a part of a group.

Get an actual skill instead of a game telling you that you have one.

Do something real.

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.