Off the Shelf: White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game

As of this writing, this book costs five bucks on Amazon. Compare that to boutique OSR games that cost ten times as much. And crowdfunding campaigns where the top supporter levels are often 100 times that. Don't get me started on supporting a 5E habit, which can quickly run into the thousands of dollars.

And, arguably, you get more in this game than you do in most others.

Sure, this book is printed on cheap paperback newsprint, but who cares? My T&T 5.5E book is printed the same way, and I love it. For the price of three D&D hardcovers, I could buy three dozen of these books and hand them out to play with people in libraries, SCA events, and anywhere I go. Couple that with dice bought in bulk, and getting someone into the hobby would cost me eight dollars. Keep the dice; I just gave you a lifetime of fun and adventure.

It's one thing to play in someone's game; it is another to walk away with the complete rulebook and dice to play it. D&D is not that game anymore. Outside of free PDFs, most of the OSR isn't this accessible anymore, either.

Basic Fantasy on Amazon costs twice as much, but is a more premium product. I would like to see a low-cost option there, too. Of course, Basic Fantasy needs to be mentioned in the conversation since it is the standard-bearer in open gaming. Both are compatible, so you could easily play adventures for one with the other. I love White Box FMAG for its ultra-cheap, paperback smell, newsprint paper, no-frills, digest-sized feel. Basic Fantasy is still a full-sized book; this is digest-sized and ultra-portable.

This is so cheap it is in its own category of gaming.

But it isn't cheap in design or quality; it is a great, well-thought-out game with a solid design. More OSR games need no-frills editions. Why are we locking the hobby into expensive POD publishing options, where a copy of most OSR games runs from $25 to $100? Yes, full-color hardcovers are expensive, and the PDFs are often free, but we need to push prices down and get the games into more hands.

Newsprint, no-frills, digest editions are the way to go, subversive and easy to pass around.

In an era of pricey, expensive, get-rich crowdfunding, it is nice to see a game that puts its players first. Like Basic Fantasy, this one is worthy and cheap enough to give away for free as a gift to someone priced out of D&D, or someone whose parents can't pay the hobby's entry fee.