Flipping through my wonderful spiral-bound copy of Basic Fantasy (a format I honestly wish more publishers would use) it struck me how universal this set of rules has become. One could say that about all of B/X, or at least the B/X core rules, as many games have went off in a million different directions as of now. But this set of rules sticks to the most basic of basic 4+4 setups: cleric, fighter, mage, thief and human, elf, dwarf, halfling. Nothing else, no race-as-class options, no paladins or rangers, no 9th level spells, and no AD&D options thrown in there just because - the rules set feels to me like the best of what you need to have fun, and nothing extra.
Now, I like my extras, but there is a point where you put so much on a hamburger it becomes a salad on a bun with an inconsequential piece of protein lost in there. More is not better, and as B/X matures I feel we are entering this "more is more" phase where retro content is mined for an ever-expanding product line for each game. Pathfinder 1st Edition became that for us, two shelves full of books that I feel these days are honestly only good for mining for OGR content. The game got too big, with too many options, and it felt like it collapsed under its own weight (along with one of our shelves holding it).
Basic Fantasy sticks to the basics, and it throws out everything that isn't needed. All of the options around "this or that" such as ascending vs descending AC are tossed out. It feels like the original set of Monopoly board game rules to me. It isn't 100% B/X, but it is B/X enough with modern mechanics that all the confusion has been removed and just the best parts retained.
Also, I feel no pressure to include classes and spells from expansions outside the basic book. These days I buy a game from a big publisher and I know a year or two from now the game will change entirely, players with the new book will want to play that, and as a referee I will feel bad about not supporting "official" content. And other players will want the book too, and the entire experience as a referee will suffer.
The business model for games written by big companies are 100% dependent on the number of referees in the community, and it gets harder and harder to manage the larger the game becomes. It is like shipping a video game console and having a controller shortage that gets worse over time. Somehow I feel the timing of a release for a new edition of the game is an entry point likely determined by a graph somewhere tracking the number of referees left in the game. I assume a longer-term graph instead of one at launch, as all games tend to follow a decrease in interest curve.
The Advanced Content
Old School Advanced Fantasy feels like that to me, a set of rules in a different universe where the D&D and AD&D split never happened. We have B/X Bards and Paladins. We have most everything from the Monster Manual. More is more, and while I love all the new options and content, the core experience feels slightly lost in the bun. I look at the Old School Essentials Basic Fantasy book and see a simpler game. I have both, so it is a choice now, but the difference exists.
I would still play the Basic version of OSE, just to keep the experience focused and having that classic feel.
I suppose when it comes down to it, Old School Essentials feels more like a traditional role-playing game, where Basic Fantasy feels like a set of rules for a board game. I could break out the original Dungeon! board game and play that with Basic Fantasy. If I want to tell a story, give a group a plethora of options within B/X, develop a colorful world and setting, and have lots of different factions and pieces to play with I will definitely go with Old School Essentials. Labyrinth Lord always sits there in the darkness calling though, and it is a solid option too if you really love that "D&D is evil" heavy metal vibe going on with that game.
Thinking back, I seem to recall that AD&D was created by TSR to create a new game from the original rules and there was something about royalties and creators - so it was messy. A lot was added and changed, there were rules tweaks everywhere, and the systems were made different to a point where the two games were not compatible. If there was no pressure from the business side, I wonder how many of the AD&D changes would have made it into D&D if the two had stayed one game.
Historical note, Wizards did buy the rights from both sides and D&D 3.0 unified the game back into one system, and brought us the OGL - which is a historical and brave moment that helped build the world we see today.
As creators build new games from the shadow of the additional content introduced by later products, I feel there is a valid question here about crafting a product that is unified and does something well versus a more kitchen sink approach.
Some B/X games are more boxes of Lego bricks that can be crafted into anything, while others do a specific setting well. Some building block sets come with a few blocks, while others come with many. One game can't be everything to everybody (but some do come close). I really am a fan of many B/X games, and there are times I am in the mood for one and not the other.
And since they are all B/X, I only have to keep a few differences in the way they work in my head. Or not. It all just works well and is similar enough if you cross-pollinate rules and concepts nothing will be broken.
The Board Game
One thing I love about Basic Fantasy is it is printed (from what I know) at-cost, so there is no commercial need to keep new books coming out. They are there if you want hard copies, and this is done as a convenience. No salaries or advertising budgets need to be payed, next year's books don't have to be planned, and the rules just stay what they are. No expansions are planned - other than the ones you make yourself or download from other people.
That is a simple, user-focused community that I love, like a group of Unix users all contributing programs, scripts, and utilities to help each other out for free. While I love my art-filled, stitch-bound, beautiful professional quality books that other games bring to the table - there is a side of me that craves the simple, user-focused, open-source style community of Basic Fantasy and the no-extras and no-nonsense base set that everyone begins with. It is like the Raspberry Pi in a way, you build a community around a common piece of "hardware" that works well and is well-supported, and all of a sudden a lot of cool things start happening.
No, it doesn't have all the cool things my other games have, but what it does have is a strong and vibrant community without the motive to produce more and better content. The game is free from commercial pressure, and that, along with this beautiful spiral bound edition, are key features the game ships with.
Even in these days of the incredible offerings out there (and on my shelf), I feel there is still a place for a simple set of rules like this in my gaming world. These are my Monopoly-style rules, perfect for hacking or just messing around with.
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