Initiative

Why Bother with It?
The original Little Brown Books say nothing about initiative, but they do reference the Chainmail rules for medieval wargames by Gary Gygax and Jeff Peren as a combat resource. The Chainmail rules state that a die roll is made to determine who goes first in a turn and the winner chooses whether to go first or second (unless orders are pre-written and simultaneous movement is used). The Chainmail Man-to-Man rule section has a number of guidelines regarding who strikes first. Those rules include which miniature is moving into attack position, the weapon class/length, and relative position (higher ground) of the opponent. Longer weapons have attack priority in the first round, but shorter weapons gain initiative advantage in subsequent rounds.
The Advanced Game Dungeon Masters Guide initiative rule states that a d6 is to be rolled by each group each round with the side rolling the higher score going first that round unless surprise takes precedence. Tied scores result in simultaneous attacks. The initiative die may be adjusted by factors found in the Players Handbook's weapon "to hit" adjustment table. Later editions of the game introduce alternative methods for determining combat initiative such as individual initiative order based on a d10 or d20 score.
In the absence of explicit initiative rules, I have used various initiative systems with White Box. One of my favorites is to ignore the initiative order concept altogether and have each side roll for their attack and damage (if any) which is then applied to both sides as if the attacks are occurring simultaneously. Alternatively, I have allowed the adventurers to attack first, in effect they always get initiative unless surprised. At other times when acting as referee I have simply stated which side attacks first based on tactical considerations such as weapon length or height advantage. Yet another practice I have sometimes employed is for each player to roll a d6 and have their PC act in turn based on the die score, highest to lowest. A practice I recently adopted is to award combat initiative to all combatants (adventurers and monsters) based on their level or number of hit dice with the highest such value attacking first, lowest last.
I readily admit a preference for simultaneous combat. With 1 minute rounds and each attack roll consisting of the net result of numerous swings, parries, feints and blows which land on armor and shield, as well as those drawing occasional blood, the simultaneous approach seems more realistic (and a bit chaotic at times). It is after all the cumulative result of the entire round of actions which may produce a loss of hit points, and both sides may suffer. The mechanics of everyone rolling dice and scoring hits and damage (sometimes spoiling a spell casting attempt in the process) can give the impression of a fast and furiously fought melee. Just the effect I am looking for!

Variable Weapon Damage

Is Rolling a D6 Good Enough?
In Volume I, Men & Magic a successful attack deals 1-6 points of damage determined by the roll of a single d6. Supplement I, Greyhawk introduces variable weapon damage whereby different weapons cause different amounts of damage as determined by rolling different dice. The Advanced Game (and all subsequent editions) also uses the concept of variable weapon damage and introduces a weapon type "to hit" adjustment table including data  on weapon speed, reach and length and room required as well as a matrix of "to hit" adjustments based on weapon verses armor type. (Some gamers, including the group I mostly play with ignore this table.) Why is this?
In the absence of any specific comment by Gary Gygax, principle author of Supplement I and the Advanced Players Handbook, I venture to guess why this amendment to the combat mechanic may have occurred. Perhaps it was to give the impression the game is more crunchy, more data driven and realistic with the inclusion of variable weapon damage and the "to hit" adjustment table. The Original Game emphasizes speed of play using abstract combat mechanics. Much of the detail of what is happening during the 1 minute combat round is left to the players' imagination. In White Box both hit points and weapon damage are randomly determined by rolling the d6. If hit points represent mostly the character's ability to avoid the killing blow as some old grognards claim then all weapons, being deadly instruments, can chip away at this ability by threatening harm, coming very close to seriously wounding and causing the PC to use up their luck and bag of tricks to avoid serious contact with said weapon.
All editions of the World's Most Popular FRPG rely on abstraction and the use of imagination in their game mechanics. White Box is especially so and it is one of the reasons I enjoy it. Realism in a game is an illusion, perhaps even more so in a game based on the fantastic. Suspending disbelief helps us to become immersed in the fiction and push through the illusion in order to share in some of the adventure experience through the avatar of our character. Some of us find pacing and narrative description more important than crunch in that endeavor.
If damage represents the reduction of one's ability to avoid the telling blow, to avoid character death or a mortal wound, then it makes sense to me that all weapons, natural and man-made, have roughly equal potential for causing this effect. The many variables which remain unspecified, but effect the outcome of the attack, can be represented by the random score of the die roll. If hit points come in units of six, it rather makes sense that the reduction of hit points also be measured in units of 1-6.

Team Chaos

Why Use Alignment?
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson made many design choices while creating their Original Fantasy Adventure and Role-Playing Game. Many of those decisions included borrowing ideas inspired by their extensive reading. One concept, which has appeared in every edition of the World's Most Popular Fantasy Role-Playing Game is Alignment. Alignment has changed over the editions, starting out as Law, Neutrality and Chaos, later Good and Evil was added, and the suggestions for how character alignment might be used has changed, but it remains an identifying factor which sets the franchise apart from many later FRPGs.
In Volume I Men & Magic the author's write,

Character Alignment, Including Various Monsters and Creatures: Before the game begins it is not only necessary to select a role, but it is also necessary to determine what stance the character will take — Law, Neutrality, or Chaos.

I interpret this to mean what "team" does the character fight for? Men & Magic follows this statement with a table dividing the creatures found in the implicit milieu into those aligned with Law, Neutrality and Chaos. Having read the Elric novels (Michael Moorcock) and Three Hearts and Three Lions (Poul Anderson) in which a similar conflict exists in literary form, I feel comfortable interpreting White Box alignment in a somewhat similar manner. Law represents the society of men and certain other creatures who believe in laws and inalienable rights, goodness and mercy, the established order, etc. Chaos in many ways represents the opposite, lawlessness, overthrow of the established order, self interest and oppression, etc. Creatures who follow the values of Chaos are generally opposed to those who support Law. Neutrality is the in-between. Those who follow Neutrality don't necessarily side with either Law or Chaos and may reject the concepts altogether, or wish to maintain a balance between the two opposing forces. It makes for a nice three-way source of friction facilitating conflict which is of course interesting to say the least.
In The Strategic Review, Vol. II, No.1, Gary Gygax writes,

There is considerable confusion in that most dungeonmasters construe the terms “chaotic” and “evil” to mean the same thing, just as they define “lawful” and “good” to mean the same. This is scarcely surprising considering the wording of the three original volumes of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. When that was written they meant just about the same thing in my mind — notice I do not say they were synonymous in my thinking at, that time.

The referee or "dungeonmaster" may try to strictly follow Mr. Gygax's intent or may a free interpretation as to how alignment should be seen in their own campaign milieu. Taking the rules as written to be guidelines, I prefer to interpret alignment for my players who ask about it. Of course, they are free to state their character believes something different and act accordingly. To me this is a form of Neutral behavior and as referee I treat it as such.
The Advanced Game famously adds a separate axis of Good and Evil so that under that system we have Lawful Evil, Chaotic Good, True Neutral and six other alignment combinations. In the Advanced Game, alignment takes on the dimension of changing with the PC's behavior. In the Players Handboook, Gary Gygax writes this about Alignments,

The descriptions are generalizations only. A character can be basically good in its “true” neutrality, or tend towards evil. It is probable that your campaign referee will keep a graph of the drift of your character on the alignment chart. This is affected by the actions (and desires) of your character during the course of each adventure, and will be reflected on the graph. You may find that these actions are such as to cause the declared alignment to be shifted towards, or actually to, some other.

In the Advanced Dungeon Masters Guide, Mr. Gygax adds,

The overall behavior of the character (or creature) is delineated by alignment, or, in the case of player characters, behavior determines actual alignment. Therefore, besides defining the general tendencies of creatures, it also groups creatures into mutually acceptable or at least non-hostile divisions.

In the last line quoted above, I see a recognition of the team alignment concept I first saw in Men & Magic. As a game characteristic that encourages friction and produces conflict between player characters and competing forces within their milieu, Alignment is both useful and distinct. Alignment adds a faction or team concept based on world view that is a unique take on the kind of factionalism that has split societies along religious and ideological lines throughout human history. Simply put, it makes for an interesting narrative.
Alignment is seen as a code or ethos which both governs the individual's beliefs and behaviors and is an accumulated evaluation of one's deeds. This is probably the most common interpretation of Alignment and is understandable as such given the words written in the Advanced Game volumes. Alignment is one of the concepts frequently dropped by house ruling referees and designers of other fantasy adventure systems, but I have found a useful tool for organizing the factions which add depth and opportunity to the fictional world of adventure gaming.

The Broken Crossbow

Why I am Not a Fan of Feats
As a teen I built a crossbow. Not a powerful, armor piercing, man killing crossbow, just a simple bow mounted on a handle that was spanned by me pulling the string back to the simple latch and securing the bolt atop its track. It worked. I could hit a target. It mostly hang on the wall, a testament to my interest in medieval warfare. Then I went to college and found the White Box.
As a staple missile weapon of the European middle ages, the crossbow makes its appearance in most fantasy role-playing games. The crossbow has the advantage of being easy to learn to use, especially to aim, fire and hit a target. As every student of medieval military history knows, the disadvantage of the crossbow, when compared to the self bow or composite re-curve bow, is its slow reload time. This slower rate of fire is reflected in many of the more detailed FRPG systems which give the crossbow a longer reload time than other bows, or even slings. The more powerful (heavy) crossbow, which often requires mechanical assistance in order to draw the bowstring, is even slower to reload. All this is true, unless you take a feat. Some systems (I'm looking at you Pathfinder) offer feats that defy common sense. Feats that in effect rewrite the rules for certain characters who possess them, effectively rewriting the laws of physics.
It's always a bit awkward talking about physics and reality when discussing a "fantasy" topic such as role-playing game rules. It's a game based on magic and imagination. But having said that, I like to be immersed in the shared fiction of the game - to momentarily suspend disbelief and experience the game "in the moment" as if it were real. Suspension of disbelief is what author's of film and fiction try to accomplish in order for the audience to enjoy the "story". Most of us in the hobby get this concept and appreciate its fragility.
The character abilities imparted by such feats frequently break the imagined reality of what is possible, what is believable. I am fully aware that for many this isn't an issue as feat abilities are no more unbelievable than magic spells and super hero powers like flight. Call it a limit to my imagination, but the in-game fact that it takes one character two turns to reload a crossbow while another character with the appropriate feats can reload the same mechanical device almost instantaneously - and shoot through hard cover (such as a wall) as if it didn't exist, breaks the verisimilitude for me and therefore lessens my enjoyment of the game.
The point of this post? I am on record as a fan of the old school of role-playing game design. Some folks might wonder why? With so many fine new games available today, why would anyone prefer an older system with older mechanics? My answer is that for some of us the older game is more fun, more believable and more relevant to our interpretation of how things might work.

Forbidden Lands

Hex Crawl Adventure in a Cursed World
Forbidden Lands designers describe it as an old school hex crawl using modern mechanics. Free League (Fria Ligan) is a Swedish company with Mutant: Year Zero, Coriolis and Tales From The Loop among their publishing credits and recently released Forbidden Lands following a successful Kickstarter. The old school feel moniker caught my attention and I am glad it did. Rarely am I this excited about a game not directly based on White Box, but Forbidden Lands is set in an engaging, gritty world and uses mechanics that are intuitive and seem easily modified (if that is to your taste in gaming). The subtitle, "Rogues & Raiders in a Cursed World", rather sums up the appeal.
The Forbidden Lands (FL) setting draws me in. The races, referred to as "Kin" are traditional elves, dwarves, etc, but with a few twists. Orcs and goblins (along with wolf-people) can be player characters - the PCs are rogues and raiders, not "heroes"! The eight character classes (called "Professions") are also traditional, including two magic using types, druids and sorcerers. Looking at the well executed B&W "old school" illustrations, both seem familiar at first, but upon close reading the Forbidden Lands reveals it's darker nature. All the Kin seem to hate each other and each have their darker side. For example in sampling a passage describing FL halflings I read that,

"Everyone is happy and tubby in your family. They sing humorous songs in the inns, and drink and smoke, but when darkness falls they vomit in the flowerbeds and go home to beat their children. Your crazy aunt is locked up, and no one wants to acknowledge your even more twisted relatives even though everybody knows they are out there in the woods."

Those "twisted relatives", well it seems they are FL goblins. Character creation involves picking a "Dark Secret" and a "Pride", two character aspects that influence play and set FL apart from most other old school games.
Forbidden Lands is not a d20 system. It uses a roll and sort d6 dice pool for skills and combat and a slightly modified version of the same mechanic for magic. The dice pool is comprised of three different colored sets of d6s. The four ability scores (Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy) each contribute one color of dice for rolls connected to their area of expertise. Skills contribute dice of a second color and gear gives you dice of a third. The dice are rolled and sixes are counted as "success". A one rolled on the d6 is called a bane and if you "push the roll" can result in injury to the ability in play or damage to your gear. Consumables, like food and arrows use a die chain and rolling a result of one or two indicates a drop in supply (d10 goes to d8, etc.). Rolling a one or two on the d6 means you have used your last arrow!
Did I mention Forbidden Lands is a hex crawl? The rules for journeying mean players need to roll for watching for danger, finding their way, picking a good camp site, hunting and foraging for food, etc. while the referee is rolling for encounters. Exploration and survival are central themes in FL, but the mechanics seem simple and fast enough to avoid becoming a chore. This is old school, so dungeons mean treasure...and monsters.
Establishing a stronghold is covered in its own chapter and FL encourages the players to have their characters find a place to safely rest up, heal and stash their hard won wealth. The stronghold needs manned, so it is wise to hire reliable people and pay them regularly and well.
The core FL box comes with two nice leatherette bound volumes, one each labeled for Gamemaster and Players, a softcover chargen booklet, a nice hexmap of the Ravenland where the campaign takes place, and a set of stickers to place on the map to mark discoveries and the final resting places of lost characters. There is also a free 153 page "Quickstart" version available for download (that sold me on the Forbidden Lands), custom dice, cards and The Raven's Purge campaign book available separately.
The Ravenland (aka Forbidden Land) is an isolated valley that is emerging from a dark age of isolation caused by a demonic "Blood Mist" that until recently covered the land and killed anyone caught out-of-village after dark. The deadly mist has lifted and the raiders and rogues are starting to leave the confines of their villages to see what mischief and plunder can be gained in the "in between" wilderness areas.