B/X Essentials

B/X Essentials! These are fun little books I found over on DriveThruRPG, and they are essentially a core rules set for B/X games split up into modular books. There are three of them out, and a fourth one is in the works covering monsters. Right now, there is a book for the base rules, a book for classes, and a book for spells (covering cleric 1-5 and MU 1-6). These are kind of what I wanted from the old D&D Essentials guides but never got.

Why another set of B/X rules? Why not? At this point, B/X is the closest thing the pen-and-paper gaming world has to UNIX/LINUX, with many different distributions and flavors available and they will be in print and be around forever due to the OGL.

What is cool about B/X is that it all works really similar to each other, adventures mostly are compatible, classes play alike, and even the math is more or less similar no matter what you play. You factor in things like the special features of a game, support, class books, and other flavor related items and you pick a favorite version and play. You could play in another game with a different B/X system and still know most of what you need to know.

The goal (as I read it) here is to publish a setting-neutral base game where you could use the framework to create any B/X flavored game from (or use to play the original), and more importantly kind of be a version-neutral reference guide and clean up the original B/X rules. These are noble goals, and let's say I wanted to make a sci-fi B/X style game. My options? Recreate the wheel and craft a new variant B/X system, or extend an already-published B/X clone like Labyrinth Lord. This is a third option, start with this and have just the basics, and then extend as much as you want in any direction.

I could also play a simple dungeon game just using these rules and be fine. It is all cool.

There is a text-only version of these for free, and you can pick up some printed books and the full-art PDF for cheap, which I did because I want to support this effort (and they are cool books). The art is very flavorful and cool in these books, I love the varied styles and humor here, and it does feel true to the old-school feeling of B/X and OSR.

I like this, sort of a setting-neutral and modular approach to B/X. I still like my Labyrinth Lord collection and that game is one I love and have an investment in, but I share the feeling sometimes all I want is just something simple, something basic, and something which doesn't start with the fantasy assumption and sits there like a blank canvas for my creations.

Make a B/X style gangster Noir game? Why not? This gives me a great basic rules set without all the fantasy baggage and my plate is clear to create a classes, equipment, and setting book covering the parts that are different in my creation. The base rulebook doesn't need to be touched, and all you need to play is Core plus the setting-specific book. You don't need to worry about ignoring clerics, magic wands, and orcs when you are out clinging to the running board of your Packard sedan with a tommygun in hand - you have the base rules and your setting specific book and you are all set.

There is nothing to ignore here and you can focus your playing and designing just on the world you create, and I love that modular design goal here. This is a cool effort, I am happily awaiting the monster book (which is in proofreading now and should be out soon), and I will continue to support this effort because I love B/X and the more the OSR the merrier.