Saturday, March 18, 2023

The Orders Top 5 Favorite Things About White Box



With so many great OSR games out there why has The Order embraced Whitebox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game as our game of choice and what is it about the game we love so much that we have run a weekly game using it for the past 5+ years.

Well I though I would share The Orders top 5 favorite things about this game.


Top 5 Favorite Things About White Box: FMAG

1.    We absolutely love the unified skill for the Thief. Nobody ever wanted to touch the Thief class in my Swords & Wizardry Complete games so I always house-ruled the unified saving throw as also serving as a unified skill for Thieves.

2.    It's conciseness. To paraphrase from the introduction " The conciseness of White Box is a breath of fresh air after the voluminous and verbose trend in modern fantasy role-playing games". Less is truly more in this case. The game offers enough to spark the imagination and then gets out of the way. What you wont get are pages and pages on monsters, their histories, their lairs their legendary actions and so on and so on. For anyone who doubts conciseness I highly recommend you check out some of the Lamentations of the flame princess books or even Mork Borg. One brief but evocative sentence can inspire a unique and memorable encounter or even an entire 4+ year campaign.

3.    Price Point. The fact that you can buy this book for the price of an americano is a true service to the gaming community and I both thank and salute Charlie Mason for providing the game at cost. On top of that your getting a Players Handbook, Monster Manual and DM's Guide in one easy to carry book that provides a lifetime of fun. To date I think I have easily purchased over 30 of these for my gaming club and as gifts. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the gang pull out their dog eared, highlighted copies on game night.

4.    Size. Love that White Box: FMAG is digest sized. It is so easy to carry a half dozen of these to game night. Hell a copy will even fit into my pocket if I wear the right pants.

5.    Ascending Armor Class. While I love me some Old School OD&D I embrace Ascending Armor Class like a comfortable pair of Pajama's. I just want to wear them all the time, or rather use Ascending AC all the time. It's just easier, combined with the fact that I run games for a lot of people that are new to the hobby and well, it's just easier to grasp while making for an easier transition for those that play newer editions of D&D or Pathfinder and play in my games.

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