B/X Essentials: Core Rules 2nd Edition

Cover of the original B/X Essentials: Core Rules. Illustration by Andrew Walter.
I've reached a major milestone in my work building up to the revised editions of B/X Essentials for the Kickstarter next year! I've finalised the text for the revised Core Rules.

"What exactly will be different in this new edition of the book?" I hear you say. Now that it's all finalised, allow me to provide some more details.

Introductory Content
The first big change is that I've added a few pages of introductory content aimed at players who are new to B/X and to old-school gaming. I've not gone so far as to include a full "What is an RPG?" section, but I discuss the following:

What is B/X Essentials? Why is it structured as it is?Basic terminology.Rules modules and required books.Compatibility with other games. (I think this is a bit of a hidden secret within the OSR: that most old-school games are trivially compatible with one another. I don't think this is at all obvious to new players.)The basic concepts that are assumed by the rules. (For example: magic, gods, monsters, lost treasures, dungeons and the wilderness, civilisation and the borderlands.)The game stats that make up a PC. (Previously, there was no explanation of what hit points or Armour Class are.)
Reorganised Adventuring Rules
My recent posts have described how I'm approaching reorganising the rules, using the concept of "control panels" for different modes of the game.

More Stuff is Considered Core
As I progressively wrote the original B/X Essentials books, things popped up that I noted, in retrospect, should have been included in the Core Rules. A really obvious one from the second book (Classes and Equipment) was the rules for alignment. Alignment is a core concept of the game -- not something that only affects player characters -- so it should go in the Core Rules book. There are many other examples.

As a result, the revised Core Rules is a much bigger book -- nearly twice as long, by word count -- but it really does contain everything that is core to the game. The other, revised rules modules will now focus purely on providing the modular content of the game. A good example here is that the rules for adventure generation (that originally appeared in Adventures and Treasures) are now in Core Rules; the revised Treasures book will consist purely of the magic items.

As you can see, this shifting of rules content into the Core Rules book sets things up better for the additional / alternative rules modules that are planned / in the works. For example, those rules for alignment won't need to be repeated in every book of alternative classes and equipment.

Re-Editing
Finally, in going through the text once more, I've taken the chance to improve wordings, clarity, and accuracy. Naturally, all known errata has been fixed, as well.

Table of Contents
You're probably wondering what this all looks like! Here's the table of contents of the shiny, new, revised Core Rules:

IntroductionAbout B/X EssentialsAdventure GamingPlayer CharactersGame StatisticsCreating a CharacterAbility ScoresAlignmentLanguagesExperience and Gaining LevelsWealthAdventuringAdventuring BasicsParty OrganisationHired HelpHazards and ChallengesDungeon AdventuringWilderness AdventuringWaterborne AdventuringEncountersEvasion and PursuitCombatOther Combat IssuesVehicles and VesselsMagicTypes of MagicSpellsMagical ResearchMonsters and NPCsMonstersNormal HumansNPC AdventurersNPC StrongholdsCombat TablesAdventuresAdventure ScenariosDesigning a DungeonDesigning a WildernessDesigning a Base TownAwarding ExperienceTreasurePlacing TreasureTreasure TypesGems and JewelleryMagic Items (Note: Naturally, this section only covers the generalities of magic items.)Author's NotesOpen Game License