Tuesday, July 20, 2021

White Box, where hath ye gone?

Random thought before bed:

It makes me quite sad that people seem to no longer be creating for WB like they once were a few years ago.  :-(

13 comments:

  1. I get it. It my favorite set of rules. I loved the way people tinkered with it. Now there's not as much out there.

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    1. Yeah, I was very happy when everyone seemed to be producing something for it, now, it is just a desert.

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  2. Writing for WB was for a large part a way to signal the author's strict adherence to the ethos of the OSR. Aside from that, 90% of modules written for B/X clones could be labeled "White Box" without changing one comma. Since B/X is now the lingua franca of the OSR it just makes more sense to publish under this moniker (LL or OSE) to get eyes to your product. But frankly a lot of those products, especially the hexcrawl/sandbox ones, feel more WB than original late-era B/X to me - so don't be sad : WB lives ;)

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    1. Oh yeah, I agree, I convert stuff all the time (mostly on the fly, it is so easy). There is just an 'aesthetic' (if you will) or tone of the adventures, books, etc written for White Box. Especially in the over-produced realm of OSR zines these days, there is simply a lack of 'that White Box feel' going around lately.

      Everything seems to want to be Mork Borg at the moment. ;)

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  3. The more I think about it the more I just want to write for WB. It's infinitely hackable, easy to adjust depending on the system. And even running bx can get mind boggling for my brain. Maybe I'll just write for it instead.

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    1. White Box will always be my game of choice. I love OSE, I really think it is the best version of D&D, certainly of B/X that we have had, and I will run it as well. I just miss the days when it seemed something new was coming out for White Box nearly every week.

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    2. I go back and forth between WB and B/X. It might be because they're both so easy to abbreviate. Really, though, the simplicity of both fits my needs now.

      I particularly love what people have done with WB. Games that are on the opposite end of the spectrum like "Crypts & Things" and the original "The Hero's Journey" to "Crimson Blades" and non-genre stuff such as "White Star".

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    3. Yeah, it seemed 2010-2017 or so were the Golden Age of White Box. I too love both systems, seems like my friends prefer the additional choices that OSE provides them whereas I prefer the 'player skill' aspect o WB.

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  4. I lament the loss of G+, where I think it was easier to disseminate stuff...

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    1. We are so old, lamenting about the 'good old days' of G+. ;-)

      Yeah, I wish we could go back to the early days of social media, before politics tore our hobby apart. G+ killed the blogs...yeah, yeah, I get that they are still around but they arguable do not have the following or presence they once did. Then G++ killed G+ (actually they just moved it from 'free to all' to 'paid for'.

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    2. Holy crap! The politics! I just want to read about games man! And the cool stuff people come up with for them!

      And I too miss G+.

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    3. I do miss the old days of OSR Blogs and G+ before all the craziness took over. I'm with you Narmer! I shut down my blog at the first of the year after over a decade.

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    4. I saw that. I appreciate that you left your blog up. I very rarely update mine anymore. I keep intending to but...

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