Gangbusters B/X Edition — More like Gangbusters White Box Edition, by way of Eldritch Tales

Back in the early '80s, TSR branched out from D&D into other genres - Star Frontiers for Sci-Fi, new editions of Boot Hill and Gamma World, Marvel Superheroes, Top Secret for Espionage, and Gangbusters for 1920s crime in the vein of The Untouchables. Although I owned it, Gangbusters was the one I never actually played or ran, presumably because by the 1980s the cops & robber thing was sort of passe.

It featured a fairly simple d100% system, with 4 ability scores and a few derived ones, like hit points and driving skill. It had levels, and you could spend XP to improve ability scores and gain skills (which were also d100% based).  It sort of had classes in the sense that characters had a job and some of these had some special abilities.

Nalfeshnee-Kin Racial Class — I Want My Flying Monkey-Boar Demon Class

Racial Class Nalfeshnee-Kin is the third demonic racial class from James Mishler Games, meant for Labyrinth Lord but should work with any B/X based game. Nalfeeshnee demons, better known at Type IV demons are perhaps a strange choice for a racial class, as they are giant winged boar-apes, but this works surprisingly well.

Nalfeshnees are normally 11 hit dice monsters (at least in 1e and Advanced Edition LL), which are more than other demons and to reflect that, they start off with 2 hit dice. Amusingly, they off start off as very small, only a foot and a half tall, growing half a foot or so per level. Their appearance is also randomized, with each body part potentially being from a different type of ape or pig, as well as random assortment of wings.

B/x Essentials is apparently now Old-School Essentials and has a Kickstarter

As someone who started with AD&D and a mix of OD&D (since the DMG hadn't come out yet), I always think of Basic as being somewhat newfangled, not old school. As to why it's supposedly so hard it needs new easier versions, I don't get, but as of this writing, 858 people and nearly $60,000 of their money do get it

Still, Mr Norman is a talented man so his success is well deserved. I just wish it had been for his more original products (like the Complete Vivimancer) than a re-hash.

One amusing thing, though

Compatibility: Old-School Essentials is a 100% accurate restatement of the original Basic/Expert rules (B/X), with nothing added, changed, or removed. All material written for the B/X rules over the last 38 years can be used with Old-School Essentials, without any conversion effort whatsoever!

B/X as a rules system literally lasted for 2 years, replaced in 1983. It is literally the least successful version of D&D ever produced (even Holmes lasted 4 years)


As near as I can tell, it only had 5 modules written for it - B3, B4, X1,X2, and X3. (B1 and B2 being for Holmes)

Class Catalog for B/X Essentials Review — 5e and old favorite classes for B/X

Perhaps the most notable thing about Basic/Expert D&D (and its later Companion, Master, Immortal successor) is race as class. In some ways it's both a strength and weakness, as it provides all sorts of different game play experiences by allowing monster characters, but it can also be restrictive when playing more human like creatures. What if you want to play an elf that isn't basically a fighter/magic-user?

Class Catalog from Crossplanes Game Studio brings a variety of racial classes to B/X Essentials, a grab bag of AD&D 2e races (aasimar and tiefling), 5e races (dragonborn and pixie), as well as variants of existing ones (dwarven thief, dwarven priest, elven rogue, halfling burglar), plus the gnome and half-orc.

Pacesetter Games & Simulations has a Kickstarter for yet another B/X Rules Set

I am suffering from the flu (actually fell asleep driving home from work, though thankfully I woke thanks to the rumble strip on the side of the road) so perhaps this is all a delusion of my fever ridden mind. But Pacesetter Games &  Simulations, the one by the Barshes, is apparently going to produce books of their version of B/X.

By my count, this is at least the 4th version. You had Labyrinth Lord, then Adventures in the East Mark, then B/X Essentials, now this.  I guess maybe Adventures in the East Mark is more of a BECMI clone and it never got past the first set. At least in English.

Anyway, I'm not sure the elder Barsh ever finished the kickstarter for the Acaeum (sp?), but this is being done by his son, who apparently did finish his 5e kickstarter.

OTOH, apparently it's not written yet and somehow promises to be done by June 30th. 

Fifty Fiends Review — Fiendish Foes, Mismatched System

Fifty Fiends from New Big Dragon Games (Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr.) is a curious book. Firstly, because like almost all his other work, it's a ridiculously low price ($1) given the amount of content (70 pages). That includes original illustrations, albeit by the author, but he's as good as some "professional" artists who sell stock art. The other curious thing is that despite it being a book of demons and devils and chaotic neutral outsiders, it's for Basic and Expert D&D (B/X). Which didn't have demons, devils, or really outsiders at all. You had something like them introduced in the Immortals set, but they were meant to be a challenge for Immortals, not normal characters.

To me this is one of the odder, even maddening trends of the OSR — re-creating everything from 1E instead of just, you know, playing 1E. This is especially puzzling to me in the case of B/X and BECMI. Although I was (and am) mostly a 1E fan, I did enjoy BECMI because of its differences from 1E. The different classes, different spells, different monsters, different cosmology, and the consequences of its rules on the world it developed. Adding everything from 1e to B/X & BECMI makes BX/BECMI worse, not better, because they deserve to be their own thing, not a copy of 1E. But it's like 1E has cooties or something, in the eyes of the OSR.

Arsenal of the Warrior Princess Review — Very Good Short Tomb Crawl

Arsenal of the Warrior Princess is a short-ish module for 3rd to 5th level characters from Starlight Games, written by Alessandro Dellamotta. It's meant for B/X but should work with any OSR game. Perhaps the most unusual thing is that the author being European, uses the metric system. I'm not sure if European editions of B/X actually used that, but it's fairly easy to convert, 3m = 10', so 18m = 60, 24m = 90, and 36m = 120

The premise is that the dungeon complex was a weapons research facility of a long lost ancient empire, run by the daughter of the emperor. There was a magical accident and it killed everyone inside. Rather than the ancient empire using raise dead (which in B/X can be cast by a 7th level Cleric) or reincarnation or anything that you'd think an empire would have, they just buried her. But they did re-animate some of the dead in the complex to serve as guardians. Beyond that, they also buried the warrior princess with her magic sword. She really, really loved her magic sword.

False Promises Review — Converted Adventure Needs a Bit More Converting

False Promises from Throwigames came out last year around the holidays. I didn't get it at the time since it was $5 for 20 pages, a bit too pricey for my budget for a blind purchase, but the price was later dropped to $2.50 which is more in my wheelhouse for modules I know nothing about. Indeed, I didn't know it when I bought it, but apparently it's a conversion to B/X D&D of an older module written for the company's own house system. Regardless of its origins, it actually sort of feels and looks like a late '90s 2e product than anything else. 

Misieres & Misfortunes — Free B/X Supplement for playing in 17th Century France

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. Well, I think that's actually a bit later. But at any rate, Miseries & Misfortunes is a free 54 page supplement for B/X games.

Have to register for their store, but it's a small price to pay for something pretty cool.

(thanks to Bargle at Dragonsfoot)

Free B/X Cosmonaut Class

From AOS, by way of the RPGSite, comes the Cosmonaut class (or download here).

It's meant to simulate something like a Planet of the Apes or Buck Rogers (the TV show) scenario. Includes some new items and a couple of monsters. Definitely check it out.

The Complete B/X Adventurer is out

The Complete B/X Adventurer from Running Beagle Games, who did the excellent B/X Companion (basically a variant version of the Companion rules, meant for B/X (Moldvay and Cook), instead of Mentzer's Basic and Expert.

Anyway, basically it's a bunch of new original classes, 17 in all. So while the price of $10.00 might seem a little steep, compare it to all those $1 classes.