What IS B/X, in 2022?
Looking beyond the trademark
For my previous overview of the current B/X revival, see B/X Lives!
Last month, I published an article celebrating the amount of new material currently available for B/X Dungeons & Dragons. I limited the scope of my essay to content created or marketed specifically for B/X—the D&D Basic and Expert rules released by TSR in 1981. That, however, was just the tip of the iceberg. To keep the article tightly focused, I intentionally excluded material created for faithful retro-clones of B/X—supplements and adventures which are all substantially or fully compatible with the original rules. This material further expands the published resources available for playing and running B/X.
This, of course, poses the question of what exactly we should consider “B/X” in 2022. As I have discussed previously, the Old School Renaissance has produce a great many RPG products, a number of which are based on B/X. Are we to consider all of these to be B/X—in spirit, if not in fact? It depends on how you want to define “B/X”.
The Formal Definition
Strictly speaking, the only material that can be considered to belong to the B/X system are the two rule books released by TSR in 1981, and eleven adventures adapted for, or modified for use with those rules. A less legalistic approach includes any publications created by third-parties for use with those rules over the past 41 years. This is the definition I used for my article last month.
The Aesthetic Definition
A more permissive approach is to say that any game system which plays and (perhaps more importantly) feels like B/X can be considered B/X. Frequently, such rules-sets also make a considerable effort, in their layout and art, to look like B/X.
The Functional Definition
Finally, a strong argument exists for claiming that any rules system which allows you to play one of the original TSR adventures for B/X, without significant modification, meets the standard to be considered B/X. The same goes for any third-party supplement or adventure which is usable with the original rules, without significant modification.
When it comes to evaluating retro-clones, their supplements, and adventures, I lean toward a combination of the aesthetic and functional definitions—if it feels like B/X in play, and you can use it to run old material with only minor conversions, it is B/X. This would include, among others, the retro-clones BX RPG, Basic Fantasy, Labyrinth Lord, and Old School Essentials1—what we might call the B/X retro-clone product line.
B/X Retro-Clone Product Line
Using the definition above as our criteria, let’s take a look some of the resources available to B/X DMs and players in 2022:
BX RPG
Adventures
BX1 The Screaming Temple
Rules
BX RPG Dungeon Guide
Basic Fantasy
Adventures
BF1 Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign
BF2 Fortress, Tomb, and Tower: The Glain Campaign
BF3 Strongholds of Sorcery: The Glain Campaign
DC1 Tales From the Laughing Dragon
SP1 The Endless Tunnels of Enlandin
Game Aids
BFRPG Accessible Character Sheet
BFRPG Standard Character Sheet
Basic Fantasy Creature List Spreadsheet
Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game Charts and Tables
Monsters
Basic Fantasy Field Guide
Basic Fantasy Field Guide, Volume 2
Basic Fantasy Equipment Emporium
Labyrinth Lord
Adventures
The Bone Harvester
Game Aids
Dogs in the Dungeon
Rules
Advanced Edition Companion
Labyrinth Lord: Revised Edition
Lordling: Fantasy Role-Playing Game for Kids
Old School Essentials
Adventures
Halls of the Blood King
Game Aids
Old-School Essentials Adaptation Guidelines
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Reference Booklet
Old-School Essentials Author's Notes on the Rules
Old-School Essentials Cleric and Magic-User Spell Tracker
Old-School Essentials Druid and Illusionist Spell Tracker
Old-School Essentials Dungeon Time Tracker
Old-School Essentials Purist Character Sheet
Old-School Essentials Rogues Gallery I
Old-School Essentials Referee's Screen Inserts
Old-School Essentials Underground Character Sheet
Old-School Essentials Vagabond Character Sheet
Monsters
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Monsters
Rules
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome
Old-School Essentials: Basic Rules
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Characters
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Magic
Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Player's Rules Tome
Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy: Rules Tome
Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy: Treasures
This list is incomplete. It contains material created by the publishers of only four B/X retro-clones, and not even all of that. It omits any material created for each of these retro-clones by third-party publishers, material created by the publishers of any other B/X retro-clones, and any material created by third-parties for those retro-clones.
As you can see, the resources available in the larger B/X ecosystem far surpass that produced specifically for B/X itself. This is an amazing development, which no one (as far as I know) predicted prior to the beginning of the Old School Renaissance, 16 years ago.
It turns out 2022 is the golden age of B/X—let’s enjoy it while it lasts!
Coming Soon
Here’s what I love most about B/X…
Some readers may wonder why I have omitted Lamentations of the Flame Princess from this list of examples. I consider LotFP to be a special case—but that’s a topic for a later article.
You are so very correct!
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