Box Musings

Box Musings

Digest sized paperback books in a small white box.  Original Dungeons and Dragons (ODD) first came in a woodgrain box with a sticker on front depicting a mounted warrior.  Later printings came in a white box with a picture of some orcs and an archway. The three little brown books inside had b&w drawings on the cover.  The only color was the title Dungeons and Dragons, which appeared in red, green or blue depending on the book.  This printing format was not unusual for the adventure/wargaming hobby in the era ODD was created.  The somewhat amateurish presentation of gaming products meant entry into the business of authoring and publishing gaming rules and supplements was open to nearly everyone.  As the phenomenon of games like ODD gained in popularity and larger amounts of money was to be made, the amateurish look was replaced by slick, high quality products which were much more expensive to produce and effectively barred many would-be authors from putting forth their creative efforts.  Today, we have seemingly come full circle, as desktop publishing and the internet have once again made it fairly easy for creative game authors to publish their work and get it into the hands of gamers who appreciate that aspect of the hobby.  To be sure the corporate giants still publish and sell some very professional game products, but the do-it-yourself approach seems easier than ever.  The white box encouraged a take-control-of-your-game, do-it-yourself approach and I think that was one of its appeals. White box encourages, no demands, each player and referee (as game masters were called) use their imagination to be creative.  It was, and is, an outlet for creativity as well as good fun.  Part of the buy-in was making the game your own.  It is exciting to see what each referee comes up with in the way of campaign setting and rules to improve the game in their eyes.  Other games have marketed themselves as a “tool-kit” to pick and choose from to build the game you want.  White box could be described as a “tool-kit”, but to me it’s an imagination inspiration kit. That’s what I get in the white box. It is almost a necessity to take the game in a personalized direction which sets white box apart from other forms of gaming in my opinion. In a very real way each referee creates their own white box.