What the Hell IS a "B/X Companion?"

Okay, so I've received enough questions...in emails and comments (here and elsewhere) regarding my B/X Companion project that I figured I should probably tell new folks what it's all about. After all, I just picked up another six followers today...I'm sure they don't relish the idea of combing through the 500+ post on this blog just to "put it all together."

Thing is, I sometimes (often?) forget that I have an audience reading my blog. It's not really designed at hyping/promoting my wares (not yet, anyway), and most of what I share is just my own thoughts and ideas, my excitement about a project or game, reminisces about my personal history...and more often than not serious rants about something or other that's bugging the crap out of me.

So here's the skinny on the B/X Companion:

My B/X Companion is intended to be the mythical 3rd volume designed to complete the work begun with Tom Moldvay's Basic Rules and continued in the Dave Cook/Steve Marsh Expert Rules, both published in 1981. Both promised a "Companion" volume that would conclude the series...instead TSR (and Frank Mentzer) re-wrote and re-published a five volume series (BECMI) that, while certainly interesting, failed to deliver on the promise of those earlier works.

What do I mean by that? A few different things:

- in many ways, B/X edition of Dungeons & Dragons (the 1981 rules) are a codified version of OD&D...the Little Brown Books of 1974. Most everything present in the LBBs are present in B/X. Some of the exceptions (stuff left out) are added back.

- rather than "add to" the rules as written, Mentzer re-wrote the rules. An example are the thief abilities: originally, they were supposed to top at level 14 and NEW ABILITIES were to be presented for higher level thieves. Instead, Mentzer "changed the math" so that they simply stretched to 36. I want my amp to go to 11...I don't want to simply make 10 "a little louder."

- in many ways, the style of the BECMI (Mentzer edition) books is toned WAY down from the mature form of the B/X edition. B/X was designed "for Adults" (as it says on the cover)...the bibliography includes books by Kurt Wagner, Robert Howard, Moorcock, Leiber, Aspirin, etc. as inspirational reading. In every example of play, a Player Character dies and the players exhibit much more cutthroat tendencies (Exhibit A: Frederik's death and the party's treating of the goblin prisoners; Exhibit B: Black Dougal's death and the party's treating of him!).

This mature tone/style is absent from the Mentzer version. In fact, while the B/X edition bears the epigram "for 3 or More Adults, Ages 10 and Up," the Mentzer version says only "For Any Number of Players, Ages 10 and Up" seeming to imply the game is for 10 year old kids. Likewise, there is no bibliography of inspirational reading (adult or not), there is only the imperative for the DM to "BE FAIR" (again, as if telling a child to "play nice") and an introduction to the game where one is forced to learn the rules vicariously through a Lawful hero type as his friendly, Lawful companion...rather than expose young innocents to the whole gamut of human possibility I suppose.

ANYway...

The B/X Companion is not a "stepping stone" to AD&D or a "missing link" between the two editions (as is the Advanced Edition Companion published by Goblinoid Games). It IS mostly compatible with Labyrinth Lord, as LL is mostly patterned after B/X itself. It does not use "intellectual property" of TSR/WotC/Hasbro...you won't find mind flayers or beholders, for example. You will find a lot of other creatures from myth and legend (which is where most of the original D&D monsters came from) as well as spells and magic items inspired by both literature and film. You will also find additional rules for high level play, including rules for managing domains and ideas for running high level campaigns. Also, some cool artwork from several talented (and very generous) artists.

All in a paperback, 64-page rule book...the same size as the original Basic and Expert sets.
: )

When I first started this project (June 2009), I don't think I ever really thought I'd make it this far. It was a lark...a vanity project for my own enjoyment. Kind of like this blog. Now...well, one thing I remember now is how much I really, REALLY wanted those Companion rules to be published as a kid. They're mentioned on the first column of the first page of the introduction to the Moldvay Basic rules...my first RPG as a kid. I played the hell out of the Basic and Expert Rules (itself promising a Companion set) and finally moved onto AD&D long before we even realized Mentzer's Companion set had been published...and as IT was incompatible with our (then) preferred edition, we kept what we liked (magic items, huge dragons, Domain rules) and junked the rest. It wasn't until my 20s that I realized how sweet and coherent Mentzer's design was...and it wasn't until my 30s that I realized it was actually B/X (that 1981 edition) that I preferred and that Mentzer's "closed system" design felt hollow and toothless, a pale shadow of the thing that had originally fired my imagination.

Looking back over my B/X Companion, I am pleased to discover that it, too, fires my imagination. It's almost ready, folks...just wait a little bit longer.

; )