2010 Aug 23 12:04 PM

B/X Companion initial impressions

The mailman delivered my B/X Companion a few minutes ago. The cover art by Brian DeClercq is beautiful. It has a nice old-school feel without being a slavish imitation of Erol Otus’s B/X covers. The book is 64 pages in length, not counting the table of contents and index printed on the inside cover, and formatted in two columns. It’s 8.5” x 11” saddle stitched, so it’s slightly taller than the B/X books.

The book covers levels 15-36. Of course, demi-human advancement is capped below those level, but the book includes material useful for all classes, such as information on domain rulership. As one might expect, the greatest number of pages are occupied by new spells, monsters, and magic items. There’s also rules for siege combat, a new Bard class, and adventuring on other planes. I’ll post more about the B/X Companion again after I’ve spent a couple of weeks with it, but the my initial impression is that it’s a good buy. I’ll leave you with this example to wet your appetite:

Craft Device: this is the thief’s ability to construct elaborate traps of mechanical nature. Cost and time to construct will need to be decided by the DM (similar to construction of magical devices). Thieves use these devices to protect their hideouts, though they may build them for others at a price. Failing the craft roll by more than 10% means the device was not constructed correctly, and all the time, money, and components are wasted. Failing the roll by 10% or less indicated the thief successfully created the device, but is himself the first victim of the device as he sets off the trap!

2 comments:

JB August 24, 2010 at 3:21 PM

Thanks for buying, man! I hope you find it worth the read!

Paul August 24, 2010 at 10:38 PM

Thanks for writing it, JB. I’m enjoying it.

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