White Box - Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game | Review and Page Through

Jeff shares a review of the old school renaissance roleplaying game White Box - Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game from Seattle Hill Games. The 144 page book is available in hardcover for $24.99 or in PDF for free through DriveThruRPG. Or grab the softcover, just like Jeff's for $4.30 at amazon.com. Is this a fantastic flashback to the fantasy roleplaying of the mid 1970s? Or is yet another forgettable OSR retroclone? You'll find out!
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0:00 Introduction
01:53 Taking a look at and discussing White Box
21:34 Final thoughts and the review score
#WhiteBoxRPG #TTRPGs #SeattleHillGames

[@edwardromero3580]

I picked this up from Amazon a couple of weeks ago. They sent me the color cover. I’m jealous of your black and white cover! Cool little game. A good one for grab and go fantasy role playing. Thanks for the review.

[@mattjackson]

This has been my favorite OSR rpg since it came out. Damn near perfect.

[@Thegaminggang]

It's a very solid little book, that's for sure!

[@namelessjedi2242]

That actually is how Elf characters were presented in the original game.

[@goodlookingcorpse]

The rules about elves choosing to be magic-users or fighters each adventure is in the original game (1974),. In Greyhawk (1975) it seems to be saying that elves can be fighter/magic-users, fighter/magic-user/thieves, or thieves, but it's not clear whether they mean that multi-classed characters pick a single class for the day or have the abilities of both or all classes at the same time. In Basic D&D (1979) the elf racial class had the abilities of both magic-users and fighters (but not thieves) at the same time. So that seems to have been the intention, or at least by the time Basic came out Gygax had decided it was a better idea. I would probably prefer to have elves locked into the phases of the moon or something, having different abilities and restrictions at different times, just because it's more weird and interesting.

[@JamesEck9095]

Like the game (one of my favorite D&D books, thanks to the simplicity) and liked your take on it.

[@evilzombie]

Yeah i ended up with the dragon cover and kinda wish I had the black and white one. But I love the book. Finally finished reading through Basic Fantasy RPG so I started up in this one now. I think all of the crash course videos on RPG systems is driving my wife crazy at this point cause I have them playing all the time, haha.

[@sunsin1592]

I just got the Hero Quest board game reboot and I'm thinking about adapting its adventures for this and/or Old School Essentials to introduce some people to RPGs. Leaning towards this due to the cheapness.

[@Rich_H_1972]

Just found your channel; great review! Big fan of White Box FMAG. It's really streamlined and has some great approaches to refinements like the single Thievery score and the single Saving Throw score per class. It also has lovely black & white art of a consistently high standard. The elf option of choosing daily is really goofy though!

[@Thegaminggang]

Welcome aboard! I agree the elf option is odd. ~ Jeff

[@Rich_H_1972]

@@Thegaminggang At least it does present the more 'normal' alternative too though!

[@kentuckyrex]

Anytime I plan to start a WB campaign, I keep coming back to watch this video to hype myself up a bit. There's just something about watching Jeff giving his stamp of approval on something.

[@Thegaminggang]

Thank you so much! I hope the quality of videos has improved since this. ~ Jeff

[@michaelc4060]

Glad too hear your doing well after a triple-B. That's no mean feat. Critical Hit! Love your videos and your approach. Keep up the good work.

[@Charles-jj2su]

Sweet! Might have to play this sometime. Big fan of old school and simple systems :)

[@Thegaminggang]

Go for it!

[@zombietotseater3894]

Also, yes the Elf used to be able to switch back and forth from fighter and magic-user between “adventures” not “daily”.

[@darthboothyreviews]

an old friend of mine got me the softback edition for thanksgiving, I'm really looking forward to reading and running it!

[@Thegaminggang]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@pnilsson7446]

The OD&D actually had race restrictions (such as dwarfs could only be fighters etc). The races also had class level restrictions, as in Whitebox FMAG. Race as class came later on!

[@Thegaminggang]

I could have sworn original D&D had race as class, not race class restrictions. Then again it's a long time since I took a peek at the original white box set. ~ Jeff

[@paulll47]

Although old school essentials remain my go to for fantasy roleplaying, this one is a very close second, seriously I don't know If I would have bought OSE if I had found this one first...

[@randomsleepyness]

Glad to see you back and happy to hear your health is returning! I LOVE this system, it was my first osr book. I bought all 3 covers (it's so cheap why not!)

[@Thegaminggang]

Thanks for tuning in!

[@jasonmabry8526]

Glad you are doing well!! I got the red cover from Amazon but I like this one better. Another great video!

[@Thegaminggang]

Thanks again!

[@VhaidraSaga]

I'm so glad that you keep getting better and better. This is another review I am excited about. Do you have any plans to review "Veins of the Earth" from LotFP and "Survivalist's Guide to Spelunking" by AAW Games? I'd really love to hear your learned opinions on these books.

[@Thegaminggang]

Thanks Nicholas! Honestly, I probably won't be reviewing either of those releases since about 99% of the items I review are sent to me for review. I tell folks all the time if they'd like to see me review something, they should reach out to the company and make them aware of The Gaming Gang and what I do. ~ Jeff

[@rathorrath401]

Another big thing is for thief, it changes out all the % tables, to a simple x in 6. Great way to streamline it.

[@jayvillanueva723]

This game kind of looks like four against darkness that I'm a big fan of I actually help play test some of their stuff and get to add stuff to some of the books as well. I'm just looking for new systems to play right now I'm trying to run a solo basic fantasy RPG session by myself. But like I said this reminds me of four against darkness and I'm going to grab myself a copy on Amazon thank you for the review I subscribe to the channel as well

[@blamp666]

You are eternal!

[@Thegaminggang]

I wish! :) ~ Jeff

[@ilyaalexakhin8745]

Great review! Bought it on a whim after your vid and did not regret it! Only problem is I found Delving Deeper a couple of days later and now I'm into it even more than WB:FMAG, hahaha Would you mind reviewing Delving Deeper next if/when you get a chance? Curious on your take..

[@Thegaminggang]

Thanks for sharing!

[@NoActuallyGo-KCUF-Yourself]

I love White Box. I finally got around to reading the book a few days ago. Took me just a couple hours to get through the slim 140 pages. Can anyone tell me how it compares to Castles and Crusades? I want to try that one too.

[@Thegaminggang]

C&C is far more crunchy as far as mechanics. I'm in the midst of reading the three core books for review and I like what I've seen so far. ~ Jeff

[@ScannerSloppy]

I always think it's weird when a small press RPG has a section for brand new players to the entire category of RPGs. It's like...dude...no one is buying or reading this book, unless they're already familiar with mainstream D&D

[@Thegaminggang]

Hahahaha! I think the same thing all the time! ~ Jeff

[@Bren71319]

The description of the “Human” race seems to be missing from this rule system.

[@finger3181]

The standard class option rules are based on humans.The races section gives the differences in rules for demi-humans.

[@GlenHallstrom]

There's a forgettable OSR retro-clone? :)

[@enderbykarate]

looks ok, if you havent yet try knave, lil better organized quick shot game for me

[@Thegaminggang]

I've peeked at the original Knave. At a grand total of about eight pages or so, it's far too minimal for my tastes. Plus, isn't it mainly tables? ~ Jeff

[@zombietotseater3894]

Optional rules presented confusingly? That’s just you. I think they are right where they need to be and are pretty concise. This book is well put together. I’ve read OD&D, Delving Deeper v4, and Swords & Wizardry white box, and while all are good, none of them complete like WB:FMAG. Oh hell yeah on the McAusland art. I own all of his Mutant Epoch books. ALL OF THEM!

[@Thegaminggang]

Optional rules are right where they need to be? That's just you...Seriously though, your comment would make people think I gave this a negative review when the reality is I liked White Box quite a bit. ~ Jeff