Why "white box"?

Why “white box”? 

It all started with the white box.  Well, for some it was a wood grain box, but I never saw one of those until recent years at a con.  My understanding is that the little brown books inside the box were essentially the same.  There is a later “Original Collector’s Edition” white box and in it the contents of the little brown books is slightly altered. Maybe it was the work put into deciphering the secrets of play that went into those little brown books, maybe it was the evocative b&w artwork, and maybe it was the freedom of interpretation implied when the rules don’t cover nearly everything, but even after other less cryptic editions of the rules became available, the white box remained my favorite edition.  The white box encouraged, almost necessitated, creatively going beyond the rules to not only design a campaign setting and dungeon, but also with regards to rule mechanics to cover the many things a player could come up with for their character to try in game.  House-ruling was so common and so widespread that the game could vary considerably depending on the game/dungeon master. Some of those house-rules ended up being printed and sold as their own games.  In future posts I plan to talk about some of my favorite products that grew from this era of the game.  In many ways no edition of the game since has engendered creativity on the part of the players and game masters to such a large degree as has the white box.