B/X Essentials: Core Rules

Let's do a deeper dive on each of the B/X Essentials books, starting the the B/X Essentials Core Rules book. This is a 34-page saddle-stitched 6" x 9" book, so it isn't all that big but it is dense and packed full of the core rules needed to play most any B/X game. This is halfway between a published game and a scholarly reference, and if you are comparing differences between B/X games this is a handy book to have since it gives you a starting point to work from.

As time goes on I feel that 'API reference' is important because there really aren't any rules on what is the final ruling on a rule or aspect of a B/X rules set - nor really, should there be. This is helpful since it attempts to lay out a rule and its implementation in a published source, and then attempts to work through discrepancies and differences. I feel it would be kind of silly to say 'this is the official source' when it would be better to say 'this is a well-researched source and other games differ by X and Y' on a rule or aspect of B/X games.

It is all a little soft on rulings and definitions since B/X itself is an emulation of a style of rules and era of play and really, there can't be an official source at all - but there can be well researched and useful ones.

I say most any because there is always going to be special rules needed to cover rules specific to situations that will come up in certain games, for example there aren't rules for shotguns, grenade-like weapons, or automatic fire in this book. This is just the basics for fantasy-style games, and I feel, that is as it should be - because this is where it all begins.

Ability Scores

We start with a short forward, and then two pages of rules for ability scores. We do not get how to create a character, just how the ability scores work and a page of tables describing what the ability scores at different ranges and what those do. The mentions of things like hit points or other concepts are kept to a minimum, as this just focuses on ability scores and their uses.

Why put in character classes when they could be different in every game you play? I like this approach since you don't have to ignore anything or rip out parts of the game you aren't using, if I am playing a Roman gladiator type game, my classes will be gladiator, soldier, politician, bandit, or whatever else I want my game to be focused on.

This eliminates waste and repetition, and it also sets a good base down for any game you want to create with these rules. I hate building a game on top of another, and then having the base game sitting there offering options to players that I don't want them even thinking about, using, or aware of - please stay focused on the game as it was crafted. Here? Just ability scores and no classes, and just how these scores interact with the rest of the rules.

Basic. Simple. Clean. I like it.

Sequence of Play

After that, we get a page laying out the three sequences of play in a B/X game: dungeon turns, encounters, and wilderness days. I like this emphasis on structure from the first pages, since I feel it helps codify the game as a structured play experience instead of something more narrative and soft. There should be this Dungeon the Board Game vibe to older-school games in my feelings, and at least that is how I like playing them. When you play soft, you invite a lot of fudge and player disagreements...

"It hasn't been that long, my light spell should still be up." 

"Another torch, oh come on!" 

"We aren't making that much noise." 

"We brought enough food didn't we, who wouldn't?"

I hate assuming and I hate gimmes. If the party is doomed because someone forgot to buy a flint and tinderbox, so be it. Laugh off your lack of shopping skills and let this stand as a hilarious moment of party ineptitude. The dungeon and wilderness sections remind the referee to pay close attention to these things, such as rest, light sources, rations, and spell durations which are critical concepts to track in B/X style games - especially when resource usage is combined with a tight control of time.

B/X games often have a tight focus on resources, and that is for a good reason. Preparedness keeps you alive, and you try and go camping without food, shelter, warmth, or water - it sucks. Also, your gear is what allows you to pull off all sorts of cool stunts and tricks when it comes time for the referee to determine is a silly plan works.

I like this slightly more strict tracking of time and resources, and to me, that is a part of the 'play' of an old-school game - thinking ahead, planning, and preparing. It also trains players to be careful and write everything down - but that sort of stuff matters in old school games and is a part of the fun. If someone bought a mirror (and it isn't broken), then they get to use it for all sorts of cool more-than-a-medusa tricks, such as peering around a corner, signaling others from a distance, grooming, looking behind a chest or shelf without getting too close, reflecting a shaft of light to somewhere dark, or all sorts of other cool uses creative players would have for such an item.

I feel if you "let them have a mirror because they would have one" because you want to reduce bookkeeping and you are throwing away an important part of the game. Gear (and carrying capacity) matters, so make it your life.

Adventuring Rules

Next up is a long section of adventuring rules, and while I know they are all technically 'adventure rules' I would have liked to see these split up into subsections such as travel, survival, and other topics. That is the game designer in me speaking though, not the reference-minded referee. The section is actually an A to Z sorted on every adventuring rule from air travel to water travel, and I can see why in a more reference-minded work it was done this way. This is a reference book, and it you are looking for healing rules you can find it quickly in the H section - which now that I think about it feels right for a book feeling more like a reference work.

I think that is one of the more important points to consider when using B/X Essentials as a set of for-play rules, the books are more designed as reference works, so things may not be organized in the way you expect, but once you know you are playing out of a A to Z fantasy RPG reference encyclopedia, things makes sense and I can actually find things faster. For new players (or players expecting a traditional 1234... teaching style game) though this may trip them up, so it is worth noting.

That said, I like the gritty and survival-minded adventuring rules presented here. Way back in the days when I used to read Dragon magazine as a kid I always thought the letters saying 'wilderness encounters ruin the adventure' were sort of silly, as I thought wilderness encounters getting to the dungeon were just as much as a part of the game as wandering monsters. Yes, you could die or get completely lost on the way to the adventure, but that was a part of the danger of living in the world.

You need to worry about supplies, mounts and making camp. You need to decide on a schedule of keeping watch. You need to worry about maps and navigation. You need to have a plan should things go wrong. You need to know how to be able to deal with all of the things you may encounter out there on the way to a dark and dangerous place.

You may need to hire retainers, a ship or two, a team of pack animals, buy a month's worth of supplies for 50 people, and a group of workers for this treasure-hunting expedition to the middle of nowhere. Never assume this is one of those '5 person party in a fantasy novel' sort of experiences, as you may need to put together a large expedition for money up front if you are hunting that 50,000 gold-piece haul you heard rumors and legends about on the Isle of Nowhere, especially if that treasure hoard is protected by a dragon.

But as a referee, you need to be fair. You don't need to treat every wandering monster encounter as an instant video-game ambush combat encounter. So you encounter a griffin, does it need to be instantly in your face, ready to fight? Could it be you see it flying by, heading back to its nest, hunting, or just sitting in a river cooling off? Is that group of orcs off in the distance marching towards a hamlet, camped on a hill that you spot nearby, engaged in a battle with a troll, or is the entire group of orcs dead after being blasted by dragon fire?

As a referee, did you use the reaction chart to determine what the reaction is if the encounter meets the party? Perhaps the orcs are just passing through and a bit wary, but willing to trade for supplies. You never know and you should never assume, there are evil and possibly orc-aligned humans in these fantasy worlds so there could be chances to interact with wilderness encounters a more narrow-minded referee would see as 'just monsters.'

Never assume an encounter means combat, and always have that high CHR character out front for parlay (look at the monster reaction chart and realize that even a +1 reaction modifier and a little care can disarm a lot of situations). And never get stuck in the rut of thinking like you are in a limited video-game or simplistic party-based fantasy adventure novel, there are a lot more ways to approach problems in classic B/X style games when you hire specialists, retainers, and use the resources and factions of the game world in creative ways.

Basic Combat Procedure

Two pages of combat rules. Nice. I have this rule that if a role-playing game's combat rules are longer than the rest of the other rules sections of the book the game is unnecessarily over-complicated and some sort of war-game pretending to be a pen-and-paper RPG. You know the feeling, these games with endlessly complicated combat rules, forty or fifty special conditions, page after page of rules covering special situations, and typically full of combat character build options (with 1 out of 10 options actually being worth taking).

Not here. Two pages and we are done and can move on.

I get this feeling pen-and-paper games always have this magnetic pull back towards their complicated war-gaming roots and we can never escape that. There are many, many times I don't really care about build options and combat complexity and I want it all aggregated away. Like, in story-based games. Or old-school games where the decisions of the player in the dungeon (in the moment) outweigh the decisions made during character design (before play). There are some games I feel where once you make a great set of character design choices you don't really need to play because the results are almost predetermined by your build, or the same abilities are used over and over (aka D&D 4) and what promised a lot of flexibility ends up being a script played over and over again.

There's an interesting two-handed weapon rule that states all characters using two-handed weapons go last during a turn, as if they had lost initiative. When you get to the Classes and Equipment book and realize that all missile weapons are listed as two-handed weapons this rule takes on a new realization - most traditional missile fire cannot win initiative and always goes last (except for one-handed missile weapons like slings or thrown weapons).

Though I miss the rules for grenade-like weapons and those oft-reprinted miss charts that used squares and a d8 for direction and some other roll for distance. Those rules may have came later but their omission is noted since I am so used to seeing them changed and over-explained down to war-gaming detail in almost every pen-and-paper game from the era.

If you use the "all weapons do a d6 damage" option it makes two-handed melee weapons pretty pointless as well, but since we like our funny dice shapes and huge damage rolls this strange side-effect isn't probably seen that much. But a part of me likes the "all weapons do a d6" option because, you know, a sword, an arrow, and a dagger do the same "movie damage" anyways in more cinematic settings and we don't need to go in that much detail. I like the option but I feel in practice would rarely use it.

What happens when all participants are using two handed weapons? Is that simultaneous initiative (as if everyone had lost) or does it go on the rolled order (but after all the one-handies)? My preference is the latter.

Other Combat Issues

More combat rules! I know, I was hoping for too much, but this is only two more extra pages for really special cases such as cover, attacking from behind, or unarmed attacks. Morale is also handled here, and I feel this is another part of old-school games that gets hand-waved away in more modern games. Old school fights typically end in a rout by the survivors, and this becomes the most dangerous part of the fight.

If the rout is on the players' side, it is running for their lives.

If the rout is on the monster's side, they need to be stopped before they trigger a second encounter - either by the monsters fleeing to another keyed room or attracting the attention of wandering monsters. Chances are, you are already owed a wandering monster roll just from the noise of the fight, so chances are something may be coming to investigate, add to that a group of screaming goblins running for their lives and you have just upped the odds for trouble.

I feel some pen-and-paper games fall into this video-game mentality, where each room must be handled as a separate battle-chess like encounter or the game's CR or balancing system breaks and the whole game falls into "not fun stop being unfair land" or something. Old-school dungeons are more organic than that. There is a chance if you allow one of the front cave's goblin sentries to get away he runs screaming into the common room full of 20 goblins and you have a real mess on your hands.

That is what fireballs are for.

Then again, noise like that is alerting the whole darn lair. The goblin chief's guards will probably block off the passage, hide the treasure, and ready shortbows. Spells will be prepared by the tribe's shaman. The dire wolves will be set loose in the lower halls. All hell breaks loose.

Good times.

Again, this is when you start pulling out cheats and using up your game-breaking, but one-use, spells. Sleep. Lightning bolt. Fireball. Start burning those expensive scrolls. Your spells aren't balanced for a single-room encounter because you are going to find yourself at times needing something with a bit more power than that. Some things are meant to be unbalanced because life isn't fair, and henceforth, neither should you.

Standard Combat Charts

The base game's fighter-mage-thief and racial classes sneak into the book in the next section in the combat and saving throw charts. I suppose there is no good way to aggregate this, though I could just rename and re-purpose the charts into "combat classes," "semi-combatants," and "non-combatants" if I wanted to re-use them for a new set of classes - and same thing for the saving throw charts.

Ont thing I have always been a fan of is re-purposing saving throws to include more types of hazards. In my games, paralysis saves make good fear saves. Breath weapon saves can serve as dodge rolls. Spell saves make good mental attack saves. Death saves? Of course, instant death, system shock, or any other sort of save or die mechanic. Wands? Wands are odd since you would expect those to fall under spells, but wands are easier to save against than spells and they fall between death and fear saves - so I typically make these a health (ward versus disease) save since dwarves, elves, clerics and fighters all excel at these. At 10th level a dwarf isn't going to get sick, save versus wands at a 3+ please.

Magic

Finally, magic. Not lists of magic items, but rules for memorizing spells, casting spells, spell effects, spell books, and magic items come into play here. We also get rules for magic item types, such as potions and rings, and how many of each can be worn or used during a turn. We also get magical research and then the book closes with the OGL and an index of tables.

There aren't any lists of magic items, which I like because again, the basic rule book isn't tying me to one setting and its list of magic items. Just the types that may or may not be in the world and how they are used is covered, and that is it.

It Is Easy to Get Excited About This...

That is my feeling about B/X Essentials, especially after reading the Core Rules. I haven't felt this way about a game since Traveller's little black books. I love multi-genre B/X style games that use the rules for an entirely new experience, such as Labyrinth Lord and all of its spin-off games such as Mutant Future and other games in that multi-verse.

But with B/X Essentials, I see the holy grail of a generic universal B/X based system right here in front of my eyes. A B/X style Traveller, where you start out a level 1 pilot with 1d6 pitiful hit points and explore the vast hex-grid galaxy star by star? Maybe your starting 10 meter long scout ship is a piece of junk with only 10 vehicle hit points, AC 9, and is armed with a single 1d4 damage light laser? That is possible here.

A spy game in the genre of Top Secret, or a gangster game like the classic Gangbusters? Those are possible too, like as if TSR never used a d100 system for those games and stuck to what everybody knew, loved, and worked. A Gamma World style game that didn't drastically change the starting hit point scale and instead had that familiar B/X style progression? All possible here.

The possibilities are endless because the starting point is so clean and well-presented. Like a painting that leaves a lot of white space to let your imagination fill in the details, this book leaves out the genre-specific content and invites you to fill in the blanks with your own creations.

A Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers style campy space romp? A horror-style Cthulhu game? A cavemen and dinosaurs game? A Wild West style gunslinger game? Post-apocalyptic survival? Pirates? Zombies? Ninjas? Commandos? Space opera? 1970's detectives?

A vast new world of B/X gaming starts here and that has me excited about all the cool and wonderful things people can build from a basic and expandable basic set of rules like this.