B/X Companion

[thegreyelf]

Without a doubt one of my favorite products to come out of the OSR is the B/X Companion from Running Beagle Games. It's an incredible expansion of the B/X rules, the one we were promised back in 81 that never materialized. It appears, sadly, that it's no longer available in print. The RB storefront on DTRPG only has it in PDF format. Anyone know if there are plans to offer it in print again? It would seem a simple process to simply put it on DTRPG as a POD (I know that because I have S&S up there).

Any thoughts? Anyone know the author? Does he post here at all?

Also, to clarify, I actually own one of the original print copies from back in 09. This is more idle curiosity than anything.

[Stormcrow]

I commented on it when it came out, probably on Dragonsfoot. Where it presents lists of new things, monsters, magic items, spells, it does well. But it spends much text trying to SEEM like the real Companion, telling us things we already know about the game, rather than actually innovating. This facet of it is a missed opportunity.

So as a filler for additional levels beyond 14, it's good, but nothing you couldn't get from the Mentzer Companion, not to mention Masters and Immortals. It's more like a way to satisfy an OCD need for completing what Moldvay started than an absolutely essential piece of the high-level game.

[Restless]

It appears you can still buy hardcopies from the author at his blog.

[thegreyelf]

Dec 21, 2018 12:02:48 GMT -6 Stormcrow said:

I commented on it when it came out, probably on Dragonsfoot. Where it presents lists of new things, monsters, magic items, spells, it does well. But it spends much text trying to SEEM like the real Companion, telling us things we already know about the game, rather than actually innovating. This facet of it is a missed opportunity.

So as a filler for additional levels beyond 14, it's good, but nothing you couldn't get from the Mentzer Companion, not to mention Masters and Immortals. It's more like a way to satisfy an OCD need for completing what Moldvay started than an absolutely essential piece of the high-level game.

I disagree. It takes a different approach to the Mentzer Companion, offering different abilities, which were promised in Basic and Expert (such as thieves throwing their voices). As for the information offered, it doesn't matter if we know it from other supplements--it's an effort to present said information in the context of the B/X rules, and it's ideally laid out to be pulled apart and binder-ized just like the original Basic/Expert rules were. To me, it's a superior presentation to BECMI overall.

[jeffb]

I never purchased the one you mentioned, Jason.

I ended up with a lulu softcover of The Companion Expansion- which is a similar work. And now Available for free on DriveThru

I don't think I ever used it at the table. It's in a box somewhere. Reading some recent reviews, I think I need to re-visit it.

[asaki]

In my mind, Companion would have just been a bunch of stuff from the Supplement books that didn't make it into B/X.

I was trying to make my own, but then I started getting a little anal about all of the changes from OD&D->Holmes->Basic->Expert...sometimes it's hard to tell which changes are intentional, and which are oversights and mistakes, or omitted for space. Sometimes I just need to tell my brain to be quiet and leave things alone

So instead I decided to just take OD&D and merge (most of) the Supplements back into it.

[Vile Traveller]

I like Blackrazor's Companion (I have a physical copy), I think he did a good job picking up on the clues in the Cook/Marsh Expert book and extrapolating from there.

However.

In the decade or so since then I have concluded that B/X is absolutely fine as it is and doesn't need to go to level 36. Sticking with 14 levels makes demi-human level limits workable. Necrotic Gnome stuck with B/X very, very closely and that's where I think Old School Essentials succeeds (aside from outstanding production values). If and when I get around to doing a second edition of BLUEHOLME™ I will almost certainly dial back from 20 levels.

So, like asaki I think there's a place for a B/X companion which adds additional options and the like from the OD&D supplements - again, sort of like what Necrotic Gnome did, except he went with AD&D rather than OD&D.

[jeffb]

Vile Traveller

Agreed- I think just "beefing up" the existing B/X books would make a better Companion than trying to make massive expansions in levels, rules for domain and planar play etc. That stuff sounds fun when you are a kid, but in practice high level D&D is pretty bad.