OSR RPG REVIEW: Whitebox - Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2021
- Based on the Original Dungeons and Dragons game, a handy, well edited digest sized OSR for your consideration. Check it out!
White Box OSR RPG on Amazon: amzn.to/3oXIL3r
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Oh goody. This is my favorite OSR game. And one of my favorite review channel. Score and score.
Wow, thanks! Hope you like the review!
@@captcorajus I did. Loved it. The only thing I missed was a mention of Mr. West's amazing Character Sheet. I love his work so much that I am going to get one of your t-shirts for my birthday (the one with the d20 and the pseudodragon).
@@rolanejo8512 Right? It wasn't till I was watching the video during the premier that I realized I didn't mention James V West's Character sheet!! Serious facepalm moment. And thanks! I love what he did with that dragon, it looks great on a shirt!
This would be perfect to throw in a backpack for camping trips---there''s nothing like playing D&D around a camp fire in the middle of the night.
I actually ran this as a campaign for a little over two years (actually a combination of this and S&W Whitebox, and I made a ruling on the rare occasions where the two books contradicted each other). We recently switched to OSE, but I really miss the simplicity of this system. I could literally make up a monster on the spot with just three stats: AC, HD, and movement. Everything else was a d6.
Why did you switch to OSE?
@@webwarrior1.038 The short answer is everyone else was playing it. OSE has become the most popular old school retroclone by a long shot, so I was naturally curious to try it. I also appreciate all the formatting work that Gavin Norman does for the book (I work in publishing and I know first-hand how difficult that is). I backed the kickstarter for the classic and advanced boxed sets as well, so I wanted to use them. And I wanted to roll different dice for damage and hit points. I do sort of regret switching. If you're coming to OSE from something modern like 5E, than OSE is a lot more streamlined, but coming from Whitebox it seems way more cumbersome and complex. My players have already noticed I stop to look up rules more often. If I started a new campaign I would most likely return to Whitebox.
@@RobbiGraves Yeah that's the impression that I get from OSE. More AD&D than 0e. I'm a fan of the 0e "light"-ness of rules. I appreciate what AD&D did but the amount of rules can get annoying as a DM. Let the players roleplay and let me as DM make rulings!
I'd rather have a weapon that was thematic for my character concept rather than picking the most powerful weapon according to a simulation's rules.
This is a great little game and IMO the best presentation of OD&D with modern language and ideas. And you just can’t beat the price!
I finally read through this book yesterday, and every page brought me back to the '80s and '90s OD&D and AD&D that I grew up on.
Thank you for reviewing this one! I'm running a D&D B/X group on a elementary school. Usually I use a homebrew set of rules from the D&D rules encyclopedia. Have ordered Whitebox and will give it a try. :D
I am buying this right now.
One of the most accessible OSR titles out there (second to BFRPG personally).
Thanks for another great video cap! Hope you do the WhiteBox/OD&D derivatives some day (White Star, Operation WhiteBox, Guardians, Colonial Troopers etc).
Very cool little product, for sure.
Looking forward to that review next week!
I really like this one. The way the book is layed out is just top notch.
I prefer the mechanics of the origin setting of D&D
When no one feared having nipples and what not in their art, when you could show violence in your black and white ink art, when demons were demons, angels were angels, Zeus was Zeus, orcs were orcs, etc.
Im pretty sure TSR got in hot shit with the nudity and that wasnt even showing nips in the day. Also pretty sure TSR got in hot shit for the demon stuff, hence why they stopped calling them demons in 2nd edition.
But orcs were orcs, good times.
Just bought it! Thank's for the review! You are my favorite RPG channel by far.
I've been meaning to aquire this one. Well I should be getting a copy of Friday via Amazon Prime! 😎
one of the most underrated books....
Old vid, but, I had to say…. This has been my go-to for many years now, if not also my beloved B/X. (Sometimes ya want one or the other).
I only learned of OD&D (despite beginning gaming in 1986 and loving older stuff from the start) when S&W was released.
I was sad that S&W:WB was missing this or that. Charlie did amazing work filling in the blanks!
Also, the thief ought not be there….so I’m so glad it is! Haha!
I agree with you about the thief class here. It’s great from the start and it really does seem and feel and works as though the class was there from the beginning! So that’s cool.
The lower numbers, lower power curve overall, the smaller modifiers, a +1 being a big deal, etc…. So much fun! So easy, quick, all the rest is imagination! Yay!
Great review! Sorry I missed it til now but glad I finally spied it!
Thanks, man! Cheers! 🙂
I have this and White Star!
Hope you like White Star!
White star is AWESOME!!
So glad ive found your channel, excited to jump back into the action and this gave me the push
That's great!!
My favorite retro RPG! Right up there with OSE in my top 2.
Superb Capt! Thanks you so much for doing this review. I Looooove whitebox and it is the game that made me want to let my community know why I play RPGs.
I have this one, love it! It was my first osr book
Wait! This is only 5 bucks? Just like BFRPG... Hmmm... May have to look into this.
Do it! It's the most accessible form of OD&D currently available.
My first OSR game was Old-School Essentials, which is great and all, but White Box FMAG is an even better introduction, and at least for me, a better game for long term play; it's little "modern" improvements really do help. Its extremely easy to play with and the art is beautiful, cannot recommend it enough.
@@narmuzz2750 ikr? I am looking over at my 50 dollar limited edition OSE tome, thinking: I could have gotten White Box for 1/10th the price and not need to deal with thief's percentiles? Dawm, how did I miss this one..
This looks great! I also imagine that this could be an alright introduction for people new to tabletop RPGs as a whole!
Absolutely!!
I see we have a Wandering Monster James Spahn in here :)
Hopefully he will fix White Box Gothic so that Cap can get a copy in print.
I concur!
Nice vid and really balanced review.
Sweet! I just got this one a few days ago but I have family in town so I haven't had much chance to delve into it yet.🧙👍
Thanks for making this video. I really enjoyed it. :)
Also, just like B/X, I can bring in whatever from Fiend Folio, or Dragon Magazine, so long as I’m slightly mindful….be it beast, item, idea.
This has become my primary game. It slays with a low price point, traditional features, sensible and useful options, and absolute ease-of-play. It's a creative DM's ideal toolbox, especially if you're competent with rules and capable of developing some of your own. The potential is great, the book is wonderful (even without the index), the art is inspiring, and the road of adventure is long and winding. Grab this book, dice, a notepad and pencil, and get on to gaming!
I have this in the black and white cover , maybe you could review the For Gold and Glory rules sometime
I also prefer the black and white cover, but alas I couldn't get that one in hardcover so I went with the Eric Lofgren one.
I rarely worry over small details. I sum up this item as 'complete' and user friendly in that you won't be bogged down with a massive tome. Great for lite gaming. Exceedingly portable. Old school and DM friendly.
Just ordered it on the amazones
I mean there are some things about this book I'm not a fan of but it's under $10 so still worth it. Descending AC only!
I still prefer BX as my main system but I could see this a starting system.
Thank you
When I first played D&D as a kid part of the appeal was the use of many different strange shaped dice. Games that exclude these and focus on just d6 or d20 appeal less even after all this time. Such is the power of nostalgia.
Really like this game looks fun 😀😀
Bit too stripped down & simple for me. OSE Advanced scratches my itch for fast play without too many moving parts though I must admit that I love the single saving throw in Swords & Wizardry, Hyperborea, etc.
Yeah... OSE and AS&SH are my jams! But this has appeal for introduction for younger players, maybe as a convention game or a one shot.
Never heard of this rule set. Ty for explanation and review. I hope one day you do call of Cthulhu and Vampire the masquerade one day. 😊
I've already done CoC a few years ago. Its actually one of the more popular videos on the channel.
ua-cam.com/video/jCP6ZmvVS2I/v-deo.html
@@captcorajus I’ll go look ty Captain!
@@captcorajus yes you did, and may I say the title card had some nice retro side-boob. 👍
@@Johnny_Nitro lol... hmmm, maybe that's why its got so many view. :P
@@captcorajus it's the interwebs Cap, kinda goes without saying. 🙂
Another great review! 👍🏽
Thank you 🤗
@@captcorajus you are welcome!
There is also an approved artless editable .odt file on Smoldering Wizards blog/forum so you modify to your tastes.
Cap, question for you... I get a strong paladin vibe from you. Tell me, was Pally your most played class type when you weren't behind the screen?
Lol.... no. Actually it was rogue to be honest. My paladin however was very detailed and had six vows that he took. I wrote up a holy book as well. I basically approached it from the standpoint of the way I saw paladin's played, and why many people hated them, and wrote these vows:
Vow of Truth: The Paladin is an agent of truth. At all times he must put aside his personal feelings, and seek truth. Truths should never be hidden, no matter how painful, revealing them is better than deception. Deception is a lie, and lies are the tool of evil.
Vow of Justice: At all times, the Paladin must use truth to seek justice. The Paladin may never pass judgment, that is the province of the authorities for which he swears fealty. Vengeance is an act of selfishness, and only concerns the individual. Selfishness is a tool of evil.
Vow of Law: The laws of the land for which the Paladin swears fealty must be followed as long as they are just. Persecution of Innocents is never to be tolerated. Persecution is a tool of evil.
Vow of Tolerance: All races are composed of individuals. A Paladin's judgment is to be based on actions, not preconceived notions. Prejudice is a tool for evil.
Vow of Mercy: Justice must be tempered with mercy. Laws are often cold, and written to benefit all, but sometimes fail to adequately address the needs of the individual. Mercy allows for this. Justice without mercy is tyranny. Tyranny is a tool of evil.
Vow of the Defender: Innocents are to be defended at all times. The Paladin's actions should never endanger innocents, and he should make every effort to avoid doing so. Endangering innocents is recklessness. Recklessness is a tool of evil.
Atonement: If the Paladin breaks one of his vows, he must atone. This may include deep meditation, fasting up to and including loosing Paladin abilities.
I also has a book of 'Do's and do nots'. Very heavily influenced by eastern philosophy.
For example:
Do nots are not commandments. They point out certain paths a follower can take that will cause problems in their lives. If you wish to avoid these problems, then the list of 'do nots' can help you avoid these pitfalls.
1:01 Do not keep your nose buried in this book to find truth. Truth is found in nature.
1:02 Do not try to use what you learn from the book of Truths to become something else; use it to become a better whatever-you-already-are.
1:03 Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment
1:04 Do not confuse perception with truth. Profound truths are gained with wisdom.
1:05 Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
1:06 Do not follow the path of the Zealot. He curses all that he believes, darkens the paths that he follows, spawns the evils he wishes to quell, and destroys rather than creates.
1:07 Do not let the path and desire of romantic love turn to selfishness, and the power of desire remove you from the path of enlightenment.
I sort of made these up as I went along. Every time I 'quoted' in character from the 'book of truth' I'd make a note of it, and add it to the book. These are just a few examples... My paladin wasn't 'celibate' but his vows required him to take romantic attachment seriously, etc.
@@captcorajus ... Are you "sure" you aren't a Paladin in real life? I like those vows actually. Reminiscent of Yoda in some points. "All his life has he looked away. To the future, to the horizon, heh. Never his mind on where he was, Hmm. What we was doing." And ofcourse, "fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
To be honest, I remember The Empire Strikes Back and the Yoda segments as being incredibly profound. When he said "size matters not" and then lifted the x-wing out of the swamp, it was almost a spiritual experience for me.
So much so that even though I was very disappointed in The Rise of Skywalker, when Luke lifted the same x-wing out of the water I teared up in the movie theatre. The original trilogy is something very very special.
Anyways... Pretty sure your a Paladin.
@@Johnny_Nitro Oh, I definitely borrowed a little from Yoda and a bunch of places for those. lol
Great review, thanks! Would it be easy to say what the differences are between this and Swords & Wizardry?
S&W offers more classes. A wider variety of optional rules, more spells, more monsters, etc.
@@captcorajus Thanks!
A natural 20, indeed!
Where can i get the Stephen Poag cover? I dont see it on Amazon( the adventurers fighting lizardmen)
I got all of my books off Amazon. They may be sold out.
@@captcorajus thanks i will check again.
I never knew of this product and was pleasently surprised. I have the middle covered one. Not sure if there are differences. I was immediately attracted to the artwork. It's well done. And it needs to be good artwork to even get my attention. I own another knock-off version of D&D rules but the art is so bad I can't even open the book. I haven't read a word.
There's no difference other than the cover.
Anyone have recommendations for materials to use with these rules? The official website only has one issue of a fan magazine.
Pretty much ANY OSR module or classic adventure will be compatible with these rules.
Yes I am interested in playing D&D white box games basic fantasy games I played it a lot since 1968.
But you show three different books are they the same book with new publications and new covers are they different books with different information in them ?
Yes, I said in the video they are the same rules, just different covers.
With how easy the 1d20 -> 3d6 conversion is, I'm almost disappointed this didn't lean in to be fully d6, but I get that it's a retroclone.
Go Gonzo and add in White Star plus Okum's Sailor Scouts.
Dave did awesome stuff with Sailor Scouts!
@@TheConfessor Your White Box Gothic is excellent. Please fix it on drivethru for hardcopy printing. I do like old fashion books.
@@TheConfessor now that I see you here. My 6 y/o son and I had a wonderful afternoon today playing White Star. Played GM-less game in which he was an alien brute and i was an alien mystic and we crash landed into a planet of ice skeleton dinosaurs. Thank you so much for such a wonderful product.
Question. @10:30 on page 82, there is a listing for Centaur. Is the [ascending] armor class of 16 for "w/ shield" correct? Should it not be 15 instead of 16? I mean, if the "descending" armor class is 5 for a normal (non-shield bearing) Centaur, which equates to an [ascending] armor class of 14... where does the extra +1 OVER 15 come from when the Centaur has a shield? Do all Centaurs that pick up shields suddenly give them +2 properties? Maybe I missed something :(
What modules are made for this?
Could you please tell there's nothing in a book about hirelings, I mean their abilities or attributes. Does it mean that I have to make them on my own?
White Box is one of my go-to OSR games. I'm debating on whether or not I should shell out ten dollars to WotC for a pdf of the original white box D&D set. From your experience, is there anything included in the original game that you think adds something needed to improve running this retro-clone? Does OD&D have anything special that could reasonably warrant owning both, beyond just collecting purposes?
If you can get the art on a pin, i'd get that.
Cappy, can you do a review of a game called "Dungeon Questing" by Mikael Hassel
its based on the Swords and Wizardry White Box rules,
One of the things that put me off OSR is the restrictiveness of classes and levels,
This game while stated as OSR has a system that doesn't use that, you can build what you want,
its also 2d6 instead of the normal d20,
I really like this game, more for its potential,
I'm thinking of hybridising this with True20
(maybe making it a 4d6 game, etc)
The game is dirt cheap on drivthru and the book can be printed on lulu
The OSR classes are NOT restrictive. That's a common misconception. They are very OPEN.
The key is to recognize you don't have to just take things AS IS. Work with the DM and collaborate. That's the FUN of OSR.
You look at 5E and if you want to create something not already listed its a major pain. The basic classes in OSR are so generic that you can modify or alter them to reflect your imagination however you want.
All that said, I'll take a look. Not a big fan of the 2d6 mechanics however.. as it created a bell curve rather than linear probability.
@@captcorajus
Classes and level are restrictive in the sense they funnel limited choices down a very narrow line, its not fully creative freedom, (that is if you play it out of the box, as is, I rarely ever do that tho, and the people that know me trust my decision, yes there will be a bell curve, but some (looking at you GURPS guys) that would say that's a good thing, giving a consistency to the outcome, I just see at as another tool in my toolbox (I try to keep systems different enough between setting as not to have "bleed through" by association)
The reason I brought this to your attention was so you could share this with viewers, some that maybe are not confident in house ruling, yet want an OSR system without the class and level system, (Btw, I've been trying to "recan" the classes as three classes, Mind, Body Soul, (that was an idea for Blue Rose)
Still it sucks, and the concept is so heavily tied in to the core of the OSR it's nice to see someone do something different
My go to Fantasy RPG. I would like a supplement book that would add dungeon, town, map generation and a list Delving Deeper type of Treasures.
To have two A5 books to play anything I want from Fantasy would be the dream.
Do you have a suggestion for such a supplement?
White Box is the damn $#!7
Table 40 on page 80, i can't understand it... any help?
Attack matrix for monsters? Are you using Ascending or Descending AC? The top number is the AC of the Defender. The left number is the Hit dice of the monster. Cross reference to determine the number needed to roll on a d20 or better to hit.
@@captcorajus using ascending... so if i am to hit a basilisk with 15ac and 6hd, i need to roll above a 9?
You only use this matrix for MONSTER attacking a character. So if the Basilisk, HD6 is attacking a 15 AC character, yes, 9 or better.
@@captcorajus ok so if my character has 15AC and the basilisk rolls a 9 he hits me... right? Coming from a "place" where you simply have a +6 to hit, this seems rather daunting to learn, why bother with such a small thing, when the old school objective seems to simplify the rules. All the other rules I understood immediately, but this is quite strange. Thank you very much for your help brother! Oh... actually the book has this info, for each class/race, for example for the fighter, page 14 table 5. 😉
Only a d6 and d20, guess I will stick to AD&D…great video
Looks interesting but the thievery rules are way too dumbed down. It's not the same thing to pick pockets as it is to climb walls. Also all the cool dice were one of the most attractive aspects to brand new players. Now they only use D6 and D20. Otherwise I like the format and content.
Simplified does not equal 'Dumbed down". Though I agree with you on the climb walls issue. I might list that as a seperate statistic, but keep thievery as you say.
@@captcorajus I agree - simplified does not mean dumbed down. But there's a saying, you should make things as simple as possible but no simpler. Once you go past that mark you've dumbed it down. 😎 This is on the wrong side of that line. Same with the dice decision. I think at some point if you don't believe your players are smart enough then you lose something. Of course simple and elegant are appealing to all. It's sometimes a difficult balance to achieve. One of the ways that Gygax with AD&D really did a masterful job that has yet to be equaled.
It is a fantastic, "pick up game" in a sense, character creation to game play is so quick (less than 30 minutes). So.... the simplicity is why it is such a fantastic game.
I have taught several people the essence of the game within 10 minutes.
I would keep the RAW 2 in 6 chance at level one, except climb walls (5 in 6: close to the original 87 %).
I really dont like the digest size, and I dont know what it gains anyone. Seems fiddly to me but I know it horses for courses. I would much rather a nice full size saddle stich version.
Why are fun and complexity incompatible?
I never said they weren't. However, complexity tends slow things down. One of the hallmarks of OSR is a move back to simplicity, so I simply was commenting on the design choice.
They are not, but in may cases, usually in more modern style games, complexity is added without a clear goal in mind. If you have two rulesets that, at the table, achieve the same results, you could argue the more complex one may have some unnecessary weight.
@@captcorajusmaybe better to say speed over complexity then ;) thanks for the video!
@@narmuzz2750 don't you mean unnecessary "wait"? 😜
@@narmuzz2750 I think this game design principle should be called Okham Two-Handed Sword. WhiteBox can do everything that 5e can do at a fraction of the effort.
Ur d20 scores should be random tho, U should throw actual D for it.
In my #opinion.
Only a d6 and d20, bummer
I ❤ whitebox rpg!!!