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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9602029" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>What Aldarc said. B/X took over from AD&D as the most popular TSR version in the OSR some years ago, and OSE (originally named B/X Essentials) has become the most popular form of it because of its super clean and user-friendly layout and organization (as well as its ongoing series of high-quality modules). Between that and the sturdy and attractive physical books, it's super convenient and usable as a reference.</p><p></p><p>Unless you've already got a lot of experience with the original B/X books and know where everything is in them, OSE is the most usable and accessible way to play it.</p><p></p><p>And the Old School Advanced expansion does a wonderful job of back-porting much of AD&D's expanded content (classes, races, splitting class from race if you want, spells, magic items, monsters) into the simpler, cleaner B/X rules framework. So you get the best of both worlds.</p><p></p><p>I agree that buying just the three volumes, the Classic Fantasy Rules Tome (all the core rules from B/X) and the Advanced Fantasy Player' Tome and Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome (all the expanded AD&D-style stuff) is the best way to buy it. You don't even need the Classic tome if you just want to use the Advanced stuff; the Advanced books include all the core rules content from Classic. But I like the option to just use the simpler rules all in one book.</p><p></p><p>The rules themselves are B/X without any substantive changes (just occasional editorial decisions where something was ambiguous), though, so they retain that edition's issues. Thieves basically suck, unless you house-rule them. HP are low and 0HP = immediate death, so that calls for a house rule at most tables.</p><p></p><p>My current favored house/table rules are <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/working-on-succinct-ose-house-rules-for-online-pickup-play.677558/post-9450692" target="_blank">here</a>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 9602029, member: 7026594"] What Aldarc said. B/X took over from AD&D as the most popular TSR version in the OSR some years ago, and OSE (originally named B/X Essentials) has become the most popular form of it because of its super clean and user-friendly layout and organization (as well as its ongoing series of high-quality modules). Between that and the sturdy and attractive physical books, it's super convenient and usable as a reference. Unless you've already got a lot of experience with the original B/X books and know where everything is in them, OSE is the most usable and accessible way to play it. And the Old School Advanced expansion does a wonderful job of back-porting much of AD&D's expanded content (classes, races, splitting class from race if you want, spells, magic items, monsters) into the simpler, cleaner B/X rules framework. So you get the best of both worlds. I agree that buying just the three volumes, the Classic Fantasy Rules Tome (all the core rules from B/X) and the Advanced Fantasy Player' Tome and Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome (all the expanded AD&D-style stuff) is the best way to buy it. You don't even need the Classic tome if you just want to use the Advanced stuff; the Advanced books include all the core rules content from Classic. But I like the option to just use the simpler rules all in one book. The rules themselves are B/X without any substantive changes (just occasional editorial decisions where something was ambiguous), though, so they retain that edition's issues. Thieves basically suck, unless you house-rule them. HP are low and 0HP = immediate death, so that calls for a house rule at most tables. My current favored house/table rules are [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/working-on-succinct-ose-house-rules-for-online-pickup-play.677558/post-9450692']here[/URL]. [/QUOTE]
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