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My analysis, from a D&D perspective, of Michael Moorcock's "The Queen of the Swords", the middle novel in "The Swords Trilogy". https://bxbandits.substack.com/p/source-material-the-queen-of-the

What is this "spit ball" of which you speak? I have traveled the length and breadth of the Known World and have never encountered such a thing... ;)

Another monster inspired by Michael Moorcock's "The Knight of the Swords"--something other than dragons or griffons for aerial knights to ride, if they can keep their mounts in check... https://bxbandits.substack.com/p/grievous-bat

I don't disagree with what you say about The Back Hack, and being unfamiliar with White Hack, I'm not in a position to disagree with you there either. ;) My limited purpose for this review was to identify where each OSR game started. I mostly relied on what the data I could find say about...

The qualitative part of this review turned out to be more of a challenge than I had expected, but I settled on a conclusion that satisfies me as to the nature of the role B/X has played in the OSR to-date...

I recently read Michael Moorcock's Swords Trilogy. I really like the rivalry he establishes between the elf-like Vadhagh and the equally ancient Nadragh, as well as his inclusion of both magic and technology in some of his fantasy stories. The elnes are my attempt to create an equaly powerful...

Thac0 isn't part of the Basic or Expert rules, which rely on combat matrices. I didn't encounter Thac0 until 2e, although I assumed it was a house rule that had been incorporated into the official rulebook (the 2e rules may even say this--it's been decades since I've read them.)

Thank you for your reply! What does and doesn't qualify as OSR at this point is highly subjective, which just goes to show how successful it has been. Like the GPL on which it's based, the OGL was the fountainhead of products that wouldn't exist without it--some very different from their source...

I had no idea that was the history of S&W. Thanks for enlightening me! I added the text of the article to the OP. :)

Thanks for the tip. I just bought a copy and will check it out!. :)

I allow B/X thieves to backstab at range, since the rules don't prohibit it--but I also remind a player who decides to play a thief that, at first level, they're basically "a backstab guy and a climb walls guy." Sort of like a B/X magic-user at first level is either a sleep caster, a magic...

Yes. It's important to remember the starting target age for B/X was 10. One of many reasons the Moldvay Basic set was so successful was because it gave pre-teens a rule-book they could read and understand in an afternoon, then immediately start playing with their friends. In the current era of...

My guess is Moldvay didn't want to take up two different lines for Tolkien, and probably considered LotR an adult work, so he included The Hobbit along with it in the Adult Fantasy section.

I was only looking at systems, since the claim I keep running into is that more OSR games are based on B/X than any other system. You make a good point, however, in that when I do the qualitative analysis, I need to address product support for different OSR systems, as that obviously makes a...

I analyze the numbers both ways--if you just look at OSR systems based directly on B/X or 0D&D, then B/X has more. If you expand the scope to also include OSR systems based on other OSR systems derived from B/X or 0D&D, then 0D&D has a lot more--mostly thanks to The Black Hack and Swords &...

Sounds like you and I had similar experiences. We moved out to the country right before I bought the Moldvay Basic set. While I had a couple of friends who played, my isolation meant that I read and daydreamed a lot more than I played. Too bad we didn't have Discourse back then! :)

Thank you! I'm looking forward to writing it. I should have it up this weekend. :)

I love the history of D&D! So when I ran into the repeated claim that B/X is the basis for more OSR games than any other system, I had to dig into it. Part 1 of 2... https://bxbandits.substack.com/p/the-beating-heart-of-the-osr?r=9qcce&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web "A common opinion I’ve...

The greatest danger of metaphysical Chaos may be unpredictability, rather than malice. https://bxbandits.substack.com/p/monster-of-the-week-chaos-koi?r=9qcce&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Regrettably, the biggest influence on D&D these days is D&D--either by calling back to previous editions, D&D fiction, or video games that were themselves inspired by D&D. Insularity doesn't grow and deepen the game, but it does crank out more of the same, which is good for sales (at least in...