White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game

by Charlie Mason

White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game is an easy to learn role-playing game in the style of the original game created by Gygax and Arneson.
It is based on and compatible with Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Gaming, Fantasy, Fiction, Games, Reference

170 pages, Paperback

Published August 31, 2016

About the author

Charlie Mason is a UK-based Health Advocate, Fitness Enthusiast, and Law Student on a mission to help people pave the path to longevity. Consistently researching anything pertaining to wellness, he is currently working on a multitude of health-focused books for the greater good of his community and the world at large.

When he isn’t writing or studying, Charlie enjoys swimming and bicycling every chance he gets. He is also an avid gardener with a green thumb.

To receive complimentary eBooks on all things health, fitness, and dieting, feel free to visit Charlie Mason’s official website: http://eepurl.com/cWkGlj

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think you can go _wrong_ with a feature-complete 144-page game ruleset for less than $5. Especially when you already know what you'll be getting, or near enough.

It some ways it reads like an exercise in deconstruction. How much can you slice away before you are damaging the common understanding of the game? How much of the common understanding can you leverage before having to explain how a concept applies in this context?

The text works at cross purposes here. There's no way that a rank newbie could be handed just this book--no iconic Morgan Ironwolf character, no example of play--and be able to recreate the experience of play from first principles. For example, the description of "hold person" doesn't say outright that the effect is "person is held in place and can take no offensive action for the duration". You have to _know_ it. The only reason you'd look it up in here is to figure out how long it lasts and if a saving throw applies.

Yet there is also the inevitable page describing dice notations and "this is what d100 means" section which you read exactly once in your life and then skip over forever. And sections about campaign building and treasure selection and admonitions that the rules are bendable to your will. Thanks. I got this.

The mass of optional rules is not a bad thing, and certainly shows the modularity that is possible with such a minimal ruleset glued together with referee go-with-the-flow, but it does imply that the convenient "House Rules" back pages list the agreed-upon mechanisms and that the referee set those expectations ahead of time.

The William McAusland art used throughout was the perfect choice.

[Carlsagansghost · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best $5 you can spend on an OSR RPG.

[Ty Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been on a whirlwind tour of retro, OSR style roleplaying games recently after looking for cheap but high quality core books to put in Little Free Libraries with dice sets. In terms of price, White Box wins, available for under 5 bucks in physical format. The art is also a clear step above what you get with Basic Fantasy Roleplaying.

Unfortunately in most other areas I much prefer Basic, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Swords & Wizardry, etc. The ruleset here with White Box is serviceable, but not as in-depth or well laid out as other Old School Renaissance games. I did like how there are optional rules presented regularly so you can tailor the level of complexity in the system to your gaming group, though.

There's sadly a total lack of supplements and adventures to support White Box. Of course, you could convert any old school basic D&D adventure or use stuff from the other OSR systems, but for my purposes in wanting splat books and adventure anthologies in physical format to bundle together for Little Free Libraries, the lack of support for the system is a bummer.

[b · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really great crash-course into very early D&D rules, but inconsistent editing quality, redundancies, and some descriptions bare to the point of uselessness frustrate the reader. I think if you’re looking to run an older system this is still a valuable manual, but be prepared to do way more intervention/refereeing than any modern system would ask of you. I read the black cover and it’s honestly a very aesthetically satisfying book. Really grateful to have read it, and would recommend it to anyone coming in to look at this era of D&D for the first time.

[Roger L. Boyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly simple and fun system based on old school Dungeons & Dragons.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started playing Dungeons and Dragons with the original White Box set. Purists may quibble about the small variations on exactly which white box set was the first, but I’m quite sure it was close enough.

I was given it as a birthday present by a group home counselor whose name I believe was Dave.

It was completely incomprehensible and unplayable. Written for die-hard miniature game players and based on another medieval miniature game it should have disappeared into obscurity as the useless set of booklets that it was.

I don’t have the original copy, but I have since gotten a copy of for nostalgia’s sake.

I have no idea how I figured out how to play it, but indeed I did. And for a cripplingly shy kid who had a very transitory life I thought it might be a good way to make friends.

It really wasn’t.

I wonder what a ‘new’ version of it would be?

After an introduction and an explanation of the dice (polyhedral of course) there is a character sheet. It is nicely hand-written and a bigger on the back page. Appreciated but I wonder if they could be copied without breaking the spine. Nicely the web site is still there!

Attributes holds no surprises except that modifiers are never more than +/-1. 15+ or 6 or less. Either roll 3d6 and shift points towards whatever Primary Attribute you want or if a GM allows roll 6 time and place where you want. An Experience bonus to XP is given two different options.

Attributes also don’t seem to have abbreviations. It’s always Strength, not STR. Also Charisma gives bonuses from -2 to +2 so the same table could have been easily used for the rest of the attributes but wasn’t.

Hit points are full six-sided dice. There are only 10 Levels.

Alignment has three choices: Law, Neutral and Chaos, though it hedges for those who want nine alignments.

Clerics can only use blunt weapons and no missile weapons except oil.

Magic-Users start with spell books, though the rules don’t say what spells are in it. They also forget spells as soon as they are cast.

The Elf keeps one of the weirder aspects of the original Each day they can either be a fighter or a magic-user, though as a magic-user, they can still wear armor.

Armor splits the baby and gives both ascending and descending values.

Experience points are awarded for both killing and treasure.

Turns are ten minutes and rounds are one minute.

Dungeon doors must always be forced open (roll) and automatically open for monsters and close themselves.

Monsters automatically see in the dark.

"Alternate Rule: The Saving Throw Matrix" is something seen often in this rule set. “Here’s how the original did it. It sucked by if you want to keep doing it that way here it is."

It’s a little disconcerting. Who is “White Box" for? Oldy oldsters like myself? (No, I gave up D&D in the late 70s). New players? Aren’t they just going to get confused by all the alternatives?

If the point is to make selling new White Box material viable again, then is everything sold going to have to have two different Armor Class, Saving Throws and other mechanics to be usable?

"Chapter 6 Spells & Magic" starts with spellcasting working in different ways depending on which alternate combat system you are using.

Charm Person is even vaguer than the original if I’m not mistaken! Merely stating that the “….unfortunate creature falls under the caster’s influence."

Cloudkill does no damage whatsoever!

Unfortunately another game has bumped my reading of White Box though I’d like to come back to it someday.

I don’t honestly see any surprises at all in the book. It is what it says it is, a return to basics, the very beginning. There has been some clean-up along with some waffling.

As such it has all the virtues - common sense simplicity - and all the faults - maddeningly vague - of the original.

Execution-wise though it’s 1,000% better than the original so for that sake:

4****

[Gonzalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the last year and a half I have been fortunate enough to play a number of ODD games with someone who started in the hobby then and there. While playing the game was a wonderful experience, never knowing if your next step was going to be your last, reading the books contained in the original "White Box" was not. On the one hand, it was amazing to see how many things still present in the game were already there, and perhaps even more incredible, to see what was missing (a magic user without magic missile, no rogues, etc.) The problem came when I wanted to put it all together, and I saw the cracks in the system. Now, a lot of that might be the expectations of a 2024 gamer with the very first incarnation of the game, but while I can see a lot of it might be simply "it is your game, use your imagination", part of that is poor rules writing, and navigating the in between space of being part a supplement for "Chainmail" and a whole new (kind of ) game.
That is ODD, but Charlie Mason's White Box picks up all the good stuff, which is most of it, organizes it for modern readers, adds some wonderful art (and rogues), and tells you clearly "here you should use your imagination." The result is a game that feels very much like the very first incarnation of D&D, without having to flip between two games and four books. There is not a whole lot (of rules), and because of that I believe it is a very good introduction to the hobby for that people that do not what to feel overwhelmed by rules, only by monsters, and accept that the person GMing is going to be fair, although not necessarily nice.
Now I just need an adventure to test it, and some people willing to go back then with me.

[Katrina Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit more indepth than Cairn--this is a wonderful tome to grab, when the full on rulebooks for D&D, Pathfinder and GURPS are well beyond what your budget can allow

Now the various items/elements you can do in this ttRPG are scaled back from those other options--but you are less likely to get Choice Paralysis in this ttRPG setup, than you will with the more pricy more options filled ttRPGs out there

If you gave a group where money is tight--this is definitely a very decent option to call out and bring to the table

Much more accessible--and honestly, I can expect a much larger player base as a result of this

[Matthew Bane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never played DnD in the 1980s, so I have no nostalgia to lean on. However, one of my favorite games of all time is Four Against Darkness. I'd heard that 4AD was OSR adjacent, but it seems like its White Box without the GM and missing some role play. I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome White Box sounds to run or to play. seems like 4AD, but with friends.

[J.R. Handley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and informative little booklet that even a noob can figure out!

[Dave Capano · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent reorganization and minor tweaks for ease of play to OD&D rules!

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good restatement (along with a few, mostly optional, updates) of the original D&D rules.