Is OSE Dropping BX?

https://necroticgnome.com/blogs/news/ose-2026-update-faq

I see some handwringing over OSE's move to a unified, standardized edition based around the Advanced rules. If what Castles & Crusades did with their amazing "de-OGL-ing" of their game, I would not worry one bit, and removing some of the "iconic terms" that some find so endearing (beholder to eye of terror, as given in the above link) is nothing but a nuisance, since call it what you want.

A few name changes to "owned IP" are not going to kill BX, but will make it stronger, able to stand on its own for the first time, and enable creators to use the iconic monsters and magic items in their adventures with a brand-new, not-tied-to-Wizards creative license. This is the birth of Open BX.

C&C did it just fine; I am not worried.

Breaking free of Wizards is exactly what the game needs in this moment.

Troll Lord Games did an incredible, exciting job of removing the OGL.

And the OGL is not BX. It should never be, since the OGL can be taken away from us someday. I am not letting them take BX from us as an extension of that. It is probably a moot threat, but I have no trust in companies with billions of dollars to throw around at a whim, and what they may do with that to kill competition. The little guys need to do everything possible to protect themselves and, by extension, our hobby and the investments we've made in our games.

Getting rid of the OGL is worth it at almost any cost.

A few name changes, or having the game under permanent threat because of "the feels?"

Who cares?

BX is greater than D&D. BX is greater than a few names we used to call things. BX is more than an old set of terms and spell names. The community of BX creators comes first. And 98% of the terms are already in the CC 5.1 document, so not much will need to change, anyway.

BX is a way of life.

The game will still beat with the heart of BX, and there is no need to go running back to dead-license versions and reprints from Wizards just to have a few names printed in your books. You are turning your back on a larger community of creators who need the support of passionate fans to run back into that cave of Wizards and the versions of the game that can never have new content created for them.

My old books work fine; they are not going away.

But creating new content is what this move is all about. They can't go forward with new starter sets, demonic grimoires, adventures, and expansions under the OGL. We will get more new stuff once the license is finally cleaned up and the game stands on its own. The new products will be possible because of the new license, and the game's future will be secure. We already have so much more in OSE than we did in the original books, with new classes, races, and ideas in an amazing game! Why would I go back?

If we want BX to live on its own, apart from the OGL and Wizards, we should embrace the new version and this new vision of the game. This is still 100% BX, but it is now Open BX. If the "old books" can't be expanded upon or adventures written for, then we will go crawling back to the dead-end versions of the game, and the game will eventually die.

An open-source and open-license version of any system will be superior to a proprietary one.

We need to move on. A few things here or there are nothing compared to having an open system.

This is the version of the game that will move forward as the old system slowly dies, goes out of print again, and is pulled by the parent company for whatever reason they come up with on a meeting room whiteboard. I want a game that is protected from "someone's stupid idea" for increasing profits.

Sure, for a few moments, playing with the original books will take me back to the 1980s. But nostalgia is a form of depression, and it is also selfish to support a version of the game that creators cannot write for. The BX community comes first, as this is the Open BX version of the game that will live forever.

OSE isn't dropping BX.

They are making it permanent.

A few changes are needed, but we will come out of this with a better game.