I finally downloaded the ‘Old-School Essentials Basic Rules’ from DTRPG for free! You can too:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/272802/OldSchool-Essentials-Basic-Rules?affiliate_id=474082

As I read through the rules I became very nostalgic of the ‘good old days’ when I used to play old school D&D. It was great. At least that is what I remember. It was cheesy, but in a good way. At least that is what I remember. Most of all there was the ‘feel’ of playing at the table with other guys. We argued about the rules. We argued about everything. In my group we mostly laughed and enjoyed it all. Those were the days.

‘Old-School Essentials Basic Rules’ brings all that back. It is a faithful take upon D&D Basic/Expert (B/X) Ed., but cleaned up considerably. It is an elegant streamlined ‘alternative’ to the original. And as such it is actually better.

That said, I had forgotten some of the annoying aspects of early D&D. Primarily the THAC0… what on earth were they thinking about? The D20 System has rather spoiled us since it is so much more intuitive. The need to use a matrix table to determine outcomes is mind boggling. It is a reminder that D&D originated from wargaming which loves such dense and incomprehensible matrix tables! Thank God there are not more of them! I believe the basic D&D 3.* system is much better. It is for this reason that I am so fond of Microlite20 which strips the 3.* system down to the bare essentials.

But this is about ‘Old-School Essentials Basic Rules’. If you want to go back to B/X gaming I think this is a wonderful way to go!