OSR Swords & Wizardry White Box Rules (allegedly) self-delisted from DTRPG and Mythmere Online Store due to trolling and "fanbase warfare"

[aiouh]

Some redditors noticed that you cannot purchase White Box anymore:

Other user (u/Megatapirus) on OSR commented with some (alleged) background information:


The Discord links to Mythmere Games Discord Channels are broken and the Subreddit also seems to be gone so I cannot verify this. Hence ALLEGEDLY

 

[Nikosandros]

I don't understand any of this. Is there an edition war among clones of the OD&D boxed set? Is that enough to retire a product? I'm puzzled.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

A niche inside of a niche. It's probably a handful of people being annoying. I can understand the feeling of just not having energy to deal with something, no matter how small it may be.

 

[Nikosandros]

A niche inside of a niche. It's probably a handful of people being annoying. I can understand the feeling of just not having energy to deal with something, no matter how small it may be.

I'm probably missing the context, but couldn't they just ignore those people?

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I'm probably missing the context, but couldn't they just ignore those people?

Maybe they could. I have the temperament and personality to ignore the noise. It's relatively easy for me to ignore comments on social medias, or annoying people in my life and to not care. But I've met numerous people in my life for whom it was very difficult. No amount of "Just don't think about it, let they say whatever" worked. It affected them. I can't relate, but different people are different.

And the reality is that he's probably going over comments, discussions and emails about his products to support his customers. It becomes unavoidable to see the ugly too. It's not as easy as putting a stack of pictures of your ex in a box in the closet.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I don’t run into this very much. Most OSR fans I talk to tend to buy a bunch of the retro clones. I know I have a bunch.

 

[Morrus]

Anybody want to tell me what this is about? I'm not going to go read a bunch of Reddit threads. Use your words.

 

[aiouh]

Anybody want to tell me what this is about? I'm not going to go read a bunch of Reddit threads. Use your words.

According to a blogger Attronarch's Athenaeum who also wrote an extensive article on what differentiates S&W White Box and White Box: FMAG

Matt & Suzy pulled the game due to trolling and negativity they have received since the launch of S&W WB 4th printing (the 2024 version). They might revisit/reconsider it after OSRIC 3.0 campaign has been fulfilled. I hope they do!

Also going through old archived S&W Forum posts there seems to be some animosity between the community because there was some disagreement between who publishes what (S&W Mainline and S&W White Box) with the now-publisher of Delving Deeper who sought to adapt the 3 booklet white box game a little more faithfully (despite also putting some of their own spin on it)

On top of that there also seems to be some vibes-based animosity towards Matt Finch in general because some people claim that he has altered S&W Complete Revised and other S&W games too much towards his own inclinations rather than being a faithful reproduction of the original game. And from what I have gleaned every 20 people playing OD&D there's 40 interpretations of how the game is supposed to be played.

 

[Nikosandros]

According to a blogger Attronarch's Athenaeum who also wrote an extensive article on what differentiates S&W White Box and White Box: FMAG

Also going through old archived S&W Forum posts there seems to be some animosity between the community because there was some disagreement between who publishes what (S&W Mainline and S&W White Box) with the now-publisher of Delving Deeper who sought to adapt the 3 booklet white box game a little more faithfully (despite also putting some of their own spin on it)

On top of that there also seems to be some vibes-based animosity towards Matt Finch in general because some people claim that he has altered S&W Complete Revised and other S&W games too much towards his own inclinations rather than being a faithful reproduction of the original game. And from what I have gleaned every 20 people playing OD&D there's 40 interpretations of how the game is supposed to be played.

Thanks for the summary. It is still completely baffling to me. You don't like Matt's "spin" on the rules? Pick a different version or, better still, do one yourself. Do you want to play it exactly as it was? Buy the PDF of the original.

 

[Desdichado]

Based on the comments on that reddit thread, it's likely literally ONE GUY using sock puppets. If that's actually true, he can be dealt with. Most content providers, and even the police, don't allow online harassment.