Where U At, B/X?

This is a meandering TTRPG design post mostly pondering why I haven't been making D&D stuff lately.

I just thought this was funny. I don't know.

Yeah, so I haven't had the inspiration to work on any D&D-based stuff in a long hot minute.

Got me to thinking about why. Because for a long hot minute I was all about the B/X D&D shit. What changed?

Well, I've always been into designing other types of systems. I've always felt that a good RPG has its own original system for maximum effect. Even though I used to be drawn to "generic" systems (GURPS, The d6 System, FUDGE, etc.) because they felt like toolkits, I also felt like they were a one size fits all... which means one size fits nobody.

You get your hands on FUDGE in the 90s and it feels fucking amazing. "You mean I can just make my own game with this?!" And yeah, you can. But hey... here's the secret: You can just make your own game without FUDGE or GURPS or D&D.

Anyway, not shitting on those games. I think FUDGE was amazing and I loved getting my mitts on it in the 90s. But the real shit is when you design a game from the ground up. You don't have to jettison stuff you don't need and you don't feel compelled to include stuff you don't need because it was already there. You just make what you want.

The reason I did so much material for B/X type games was that it was the first RPG (B/X is just cleaned up 1e, after all), it was the game I played as a young teen, and thousands of goons from my generation know it well. It's because of the vibes, not the system.

These days I'm more interested in designing games from other starting points. I don't want to be hemmed in by a set of rules that wants to do things other than what I want to do.

Aside: Isn't it weird that I feel like I have to justify my decision to NOT base a game on D&D?? Most folks reading this who don't have this problem are scratching their heads and wondering why the fuck this is a thing. But it is a thing! Perhaps it's some kind of OSR brain rot? I don't know.

See, even now my instinct is to say "I still love B/X!". But why would I have to say that? I created 8 issues of Black Pudding, a B/X-based zine. I published modules based on that game. I have nothing to prove or justify. So I am not going to tell you that I still love B/X.

I just find all this fascinating.