Necrotic Gnome OLD SCHOOL ESSENTIALS Black Box (Print + Pdf)
Boxed set of 5 hardcover books; shrink-wrapped; total of 296 pages; A5 (Digest) size; deluxe quality sewn binding; 8 pages of colour art plates in each book; endpapers printed with tables and rules summaries. Cover artwork by Andrew Walter.
A Complete Game All in One Box
The Black Box is a compilation of the Old-School Essentials core rules plus four rules modules, forming a complete game for Classic Fantasy adventures:
Core Rules: Rules for character creation and advancement, adventuring in dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea, magic and combat.
Classic Fantasy: Genre Rules: Seven classic classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), complete lists of weapons and adventuring gear, extensive lists of vehicles, mounts, and vessels, mercenaries and specialists for hire, rules for stronghold construction.
Classic Fantasy: Cleric and Magic-User Spells: The complete set of 34 cleric spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 magic-user spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players of cleric, elf, and magic-user characters.
Classic Fantasy: Monsters: A selection of over 200 classic monsters to challenge adventurers of all levels.
Classic Fantasy: Treasures: A hoard of over 150 wondrous magic items.
The material in this boxed set forms a complete clone of the classic Basic/Expert game, including all rules, classes, spells, monsters, and magic items.
“When I was about 13 yrs old I started playing role-playing games with a bunch of my school friends. First games we got into were D&D, Shadowrun, Das Schwarze Auge, and Vampire. As a teenager I missed many parties, because I preferred to stay in, chain smoking, and getting heavily drunk, rolling dice in my friend’s basement. Which is just half the truth. Other half is that I was “in-time”. Totally sober and at the same time high on adrenaline, exploring dungeons, casting spells, fighting evil creatures, talking to fairies, stuff like that. I enjoy spending my weekends like this until today. Much rarer, but still as much.
Many years passed by, and so many exciting new games emerged, and one I am very convinced of is Old-School Essentials. A game that I highly recommend to anyone into 70s flavoured fantasy, and offering high adventure on various levels. A game of exploration, danger, monsters, and magic. OSE is intentionally rules-light, putting the focus of play on imagination, improvisation, and fun. The rules are optimised for ease of use at the table, with meticulous attention to wording and layout clarity. What's more, Old-School Essentials is 100% compatible with the classic Basic/Expert game from 1981, meaning that decades of adventure are at your fingertips!”