B/X versus BECMI | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 Spotlight (2024)

vivsavage said:

Which do you prefer and why? To muddle the waters more, also consider B/X versus ONLY the BE of BECMI.

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See Also

B/X, BECMI, and Rules Cyclopedia: What are they? | Dungeons & Dragons / Fantasy D20 SpotlightA comparative history of Dungeons and Dragons - BECMI 1983An Actual Review of B/X and BECMI D&DA glance at Basic D&D, B/X, and some clones (LL, OSE, BFRPG, DFB, BECMI and others)

Going just off of B/X vs. BE I'd say I prefer B/X mainly for the layout and presentation. I find B/X to be more succinct and handy to reference. BE is... rambling and disjointed in comparison, IMO. Also I prefer the art in B/X. I think it has more charm.

B/X, hands down. Mainly because B/X is more concise, more adult, and written to be more usable as a reference. BE is more kid-friendly, and more of a tutorial for non-gamers. Also, B/X has the Erol Otus art that many find to be so cool.

As far as rule differences, they aren't substantive enough to care about... Most house-rulings are far more game changing than the miniscule rules differences. B/X is a little more restrictive towards magic users (and most people, I think, ignore this restrictiveness, or fail to even notice it to begin with), and a little more friendly towards thieves (slightly more favorable skill progression). Also, I like the idea of the game topping out at level 14, and not level 36. Honestly, I think level 10 (or even less) would make a better stopping point.

Ultimately though, the differences between, say, OD&D, B/X, BECMI, and various retroclones are pretty insignificant. You could play Swords and Wizardry and it will feel like D&D, or you can play Labyrinth Lord, and it will feel like D&D, or you can play B/X... or whatever.

It depends on my wants and needs.

At the moment, it's B/X because the group only meets once a month, and I want to explore D&D as an exploration adventure game, with a clear endgame of the PCs getting their strongholds.

However, if I had a group that met weekly, and I wanted to do more of a gonzo heroic adventure game, I'd go with BECM, introducing the awesome weapon mastery rules, dominion rules, and plane jumping.

The "kiddiness" of BECMI is overstated, IMO. It basically amounts to one part of the Basic Rules Players Manual. The rest of Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master rules are just as adult as any other edition of D&D or AD&D. The Companion and Master Rules, in particular, are pretty dense.

Having a lot of experience with both, here's how I see it. I love B/X like everybody else, but you can't ignore the BECM line because the rules are better in a lot of little ways. For instance, in B/X, they left out the radius of the sleep spell effect. In B/X they left out the detect invisible spell description altogether. You don't get strength damage applied to thrown weapons in B/X, but you do in BECM.

The really big difference aside from 'errata' like the aforementioned is that in B/X, a magic-user can't add spells to his spellbook from scrolls, and he can't have more spells in his spellbook than his memorization limit. In BECM, it is more standard D&D where a magic-user can pump up his versatility by copying scrolls to his spellbook, thus having more to choose from. Plus, the Companion supplement adds badly needed grappling rules, an ability for pcs to restore drained levels, etc.

I prefer B/X.

ken-do-nim said:

The really big difference aside from 'errata' like the aforementioned is that in B/X, a magic-user can't add spells to his spellbook from scrolls, and he can't have more spells in his spellbook than his memorization limit. In BECM, it is more standard D&D where a magic-user can pump up his versatility by copying scrolls to his spellbook, thus having more to choose from.

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This is one of the reasons!

I can't remember many of the other reasons as the last time I sat down and compared them was ages ago, but I remember my conclusion.