Houses of the Blooded

The Anti-D&D Game
Houses of the Blooded (Houses) is an indie press RPG written by John Wick (Legends of the Five Rings and 7th Sea). It is set in the mythical antediluvian age before Atlantis sank and centers on a magic-using race called the ven. Mr. Wick cites the original RPG as an influence, but not in the usual manner. He states:

Almost everything that’s true about D&D is untrue in this game. In D&D, the most common kind of character is a wandering nomad who lives outside the law, an adventurer roaming the countryside, scouring dungeons, killing monsters, gaining treasure and weapons so he can kill bigger monsters. Cities are little more than outdoor dungeons and characters rarely—if ever—encounter the upper class or deal with politics.

In Houses, you play a noble. A character with a past. A character with a family, with

vassals, responsibilities and duties. The Law is an ever-present factor in your life. Because you are a noble, “treasure” really has no value for you and problems such as “wandering monsters” are problems for someone of lesser status to handle. Someone you can hire. Someone expendable. And rather than living in a bubble immune to the effects of political scheming, your character lives in a world that looks like a bastard child of Tanith Lee and Niccolò Machiavelli.

Expressing a desire to round out the fictional world of the adventurers, including an effort to fit them into a functioning society where intrigue, politics and tragedy all play a part in the game is not unique to Houses. Chivalry & Sorcery and Runequest were early RPGs that recognized White Box's emphasis on combat, acquiring treasure and leveling up and added guidelines for social standing in the case of C&S and tribal and cult membership in Runequest thereby rounding out the make-believe world of the PC somewhat.
Houses is multi-generational and like another multi-generational RPG, Pendragon, character aging, marriage, family and heirs are often of more in-game importance than developing skills in magic or combat. Unlike Pendragon where the PC is a knight of Arthur's realm, the PCs in Houses are ven nobility, decadent, self-serving and treacherous. Houses is strictly narrativist as written and PC success or failure determines who gets to describe the outcome, the player in the case of success or the narrator (referee) in the case of failure.
Of course there is no reason why White Box can't include a realistic, rich urban environment filled with upper class NPCs and PCs who deal with politics on a daily basis. There is no reason said upper class PCs can't have henchmen and hirelings to do their dirty business. A noble PC whose "adventures" are found dealing with family, land, office and lineage is certainly within the possibilities of White Box, modification of the basic game being an assumption. One of the main reasons I enjoy reading other games is finding inspiration for White Box and one of the reasons I love White Box is its inherent adaptability.