The Wilderness

Adventure above the Dungeon
It is so much easier to understand White Box after almost 40 years experience with it. Of my original three Little Brown Books, vol. III The Underground & Wilderness Adventures shows the least wear. That is unfortunate because in many ways this is the volume that explains how to play the game. Vol. III details the underground or dungeon and the wilderness, which is about everything above the underground. On page 14 it is described:

The so-called Wilderness really consists of unexplored land, cities and castles, not
to mention the area immediately surrounding the castle (ruined or otherwise) which
housed the dungeons.

In order to take the game outside the dungeon, the referee must create a map of the area above and around the underground entrance. A town or village needs to be positioned nearby and a map drawn of it showing buildings and walls, if any, etc. The town or village then becomes a "home base" for the adventurers. And as vol. III suggests on page 15, "...players can have town adventures roaming around the bazaars, inns, taverns, shops, temples, and so on."
Vol. III suggests that "off-hand" wilderness adventures can be handled using Avalon Hill's Outdoor Survival map and gives useful suggestions for converting terrain on the published map into castles and villages. The authors note that journeys to find a legendary treasure or locate an area for planting a new castle should be handled differently, presumably by the referee drawing an area map and populating it appropriately.
Page 16 of vol. III gives specific guidance:

REFEREE’S MAP is a wilderness map unknown to the players. It should be for the territory around the dungeon location. When players venture into this area they should have a blank hexagon map, and as they move over each hex the referee will inform them as to what kind of terrain is in that hex. This form of exploring will eventually enable players to know the lay of the land in their immediate area and thus be able to select a site upon which to build their castles. (Castle building and its attendant requirements will be covered hereafter.) Exploratory adventures are likely to be the most exciting, and their incorporation into the campaign is most desirable. 

 Here we have an excellent description of the "hex-crawl" method of play and the end-game of castle building. For anyone with experience in wargames with miniature figures the idea that players would establish a strong hold or castle and begin to build an army of followers with which to "wargame" almost needs no explanation. It is with this "end game" in mind that vol. I page 6 refers to top level fighting men (Lords and above) building castles and becoming barons and clerics building castles and controlling territory similar to the "Barony" of fighters.
The securing of mercenaries and other hirelings, strongly implies role-playing. and regarding monsters taken into service, "Some reward must be offered to a monster in order to induce it into service" implies negotiation while players are in-character. I may be "implying" more than the authors originally intended, but it is the way I read the text these days. 

Dungeon Module B1

In Search of the Unknown
"How do we play this new game anyway?" "This isn't like anything else we have ever done." "How do I know I am doing it correctly?" B1 was written by Mike Carr (who designed Fight for the Skies when he was just 16), as an instructional module to help players figure out this revolutionary game and answer questions like these. The module is pure dungeon crawl and players will have to wait until B2 Keep on the Borderlands for their next lesson involving wilderness and a bit of urban adventure. B1 has a unique design approach where-in the referee must populate the dungeon with monsters and treasure drawn from a list of possibles. I suppose this technique gives the adventure some improved replayability as the monster and treasure locations can be switched around.
The map is designed to give players experience in mapping both easy tunnels and more difficult caverns. The Mr. Carr states the monsters are somewhat easier in B1 than would normally be encountered in a dungeon for levels 1-3, but should be challenging for novice players learning the system. A variety of challenges are presented within the dungeon so that more than combat ability is tested. Advice and suggestions for both referee and players are included in the module and I find the player advice particularly noteworthy.
The Tips for Players section includes advice to the player to be organized regarding the character sheet. Mr. Carr points out that in the game the referee makes the final decision and should be respected, and that cooperation is the way to fun and success. Further advice is given to pay attention to pace within the session, progressing neither too slowly, nor hastily through the dungeon and suggests avoid arguing - it attracts wandering monsters who carry little treasure and deplete party resources. Included is some advice on role-playing, to be on your guard as not everyone encountered is what they appear to be, to treat your hirelings and henchmen fairly as it pays off in their loyalty, and to have fun playing your character's role, immersing yourself in the game. Final advice is given to know your limits and when to run away. Mr. Carr adds, that many goals can be accomplished without resorting to combat; shrewd judgement and logical deduction are as much a part of the game as strength of arms and magic.
If I have played B1 as a player I don't recall it. I'm pretty sure I have not run it, but the module looks fun. I think it's real value is as a teaching tool and although I have been at this hobby some time, I find the player and referee advice good reminders. For a first-time player and referee, a product such as this would be very helpful. B1 was for a time packaged with the Basic Set and that seems a good choice. I believe it was replaced in that role by B2, which of course adds elements outside the dungeon and is effectively a starter campaign.

Michael Moorcock

ELRIC!
A hero bigger than life, yet flawed and doomed. His story is a bit backwards in some ways. A weakling who starts out as a king and with the girl and loses it all. Yet Elric is a hero in the pulp sense in many ways. His prowess seems to compare with Conan and Kane, yet he is also an anti-hero, and instrument of chaos who destroys his own kingdom and civilization and finally his world. I couldn't venture to guess the number of White Box PCs that have been inspired by thoughts of Elric.
The world of Elric termed "The Young Kingdoms" by Mr. Moorcock is a dark setting on the verge of annihilation. In one of the best stories of the genre, Elric leads an armada against his home and cousin resulting in the destruction of Elric's kingdom, his bride-to-be and the armada he leads. In other stories, Elric adventures across The Young Kingdom sowing sorrow with his demon-blade and visits the "multiverse" (a series of connected universes) through which Elric travels at times. At the end of it all is impending destruction, an inescapable fate in which Elric is doomed to usher in a new existence leaning more towards Law (our own world?) by destroying himself and his Chaotic world.
White Box was almost certainly inspired by books like Michael Moorcock's Elric series. The above compilation includes the stories written from 1961 to 1965, stories I am guessing which were read by White Box creators Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Elric and his countrymen, the Melniboneans, serve a chaos lord named Arioch from whom they derive certain sorcerous power. In the Elric novels Mr. Moorcock describes a world hanging in the balance between the forces of Law and Chaos. Various beasts and men serve Law and others serve Chaos in a manner not unlike the default alignment system described in White Box. Elric's magic sword, Stormbringer, is perhaps the iconic "magic sword" inspiring the intelligent, ego driven magic swords found (by lucky PCs) in White Box play.
Elric, as sorcerer and warrior, would be both a magic user and fighting man in terms of defining him as a White Box player character. This fits the elf race nicely. White Box allows the elf character to be played as a magic user or fighting man, freely switching class back and forth from adventure to adventure. The elf PC gains the benefits of both classes and may use both spells and weaponry. It certainly sounds like Elric, the Melnibonean, is an elf.
The ability to draw inspiration from literature and other sources and apply it to the game is I believe one of the lasting appeals to the role-playing game. The RPG is an extension of those tropes, drawn from popular culture, into a game environment where the players can imagine themselves in the roles of such heroes performing daring deeds in a fantastic setting. The "live out your dreams" appeal has probably motivated many to pursue the RPG hobby. In turn the RPG has inspired a number of game related novels, short stories, comics, etc. Imagination is much like a muscle, the more one uses it, the stronger it becomes.

Wormskin

A Place of Mystery
Wormskin is a print-on-demand fanzine for use with B/X, Labyrinth Lord and other old school type FRPGs. It is the work of Gavin Norman and Greg Gorgonmilk and friends and describes various aspects of the author's Dolmenwood campaign setting. Pictured above is issue 3 in which the surface ruins of the Abbey of St. Clewd are featured. I think of Dolmenwood much as I do my own Dreadmoor, as a place, a campaign and an idea. Dolmenwood has a map (issue 1), so it's a place. It is a unique creation of inspired imagination, a campaign playground for exploring various aspects of old school, fantasy role play and the setting of many tales yet to be told. Dolmenwood uses a variant to an existing ruleset with it's own unique races, classes, flora and fauna and traditions of magic to bring to life the vision of it's creators.
One of my pleasures in this hobby is to read about the wondrous worlds created by imaginative authors as settings for their game stories. Some settings are best suited to develop certain kinds of stories during gameplay, suggesting by their peculiar qualities certain themes and possibilities. I enjoy the imaginings such a setting description suggests to me and that it inspires my day-dreaming mind to elaborate upon.
Dolmen wood is small enough to be dropped into any existing campaign as an enchanted forest location. It is large enough for it to be it's own small setting as well. The map has a numbered hex overlay system and can be used for hex crawling or other types of exploration.  Issues 2 and 3 detail small areas of Dolmenwood in more detail, including detailed maps on the back cover of each issue. The art throughout is quite good and gives the reader a definite feel for the Dolmenwood.
Born of fairy and steeped in occult mysteries, myth and superstition, the Dolmenwood is home to the undead gloam, mogglewomps, intelligent scryke and a scrabey (all new monsters described in this issue). Alternate race-class options for PCs in Dolmenwood include the Moss Dwarf and Grimalkin (described in issue 1). Each issue gives more detail about the Dolmenwood, it's inhabitants and places of mystery, it's flora and fauna. A magical lake, the witching ring, and a ruined abbey (part 1) are all revealed in issue 3. Issue 2 contains information on Lankshorn and the evil goatmen. Other articles describe fungi found in Dolmenwood, psychedelic compounds, common tavern fare, languages and a brief history of the wood. A novel approach to the spooky wood containing some very real threats, the Dolmenwood as revealed in the pages of Wormskin is among my favorite places of mystery.

Adventures in Middle Earth

5E Tolkien
White Box seems influenced by the fantasy work of J.R.R. Tolkien despite Mr. Gygax's supposed dislike for Middle Earth. Hobbits, Ents, Balrogs, straight out of Middle Earth appear in early printings of White Box. According to gamer legend, the Tolkien estate lawyers thought White Box was infringing and forced the removal of those names, but the Middle Earth beings remained in the game with slightly changed names. Mr. Gygax was a fan of R.E. Howard's Conan from boyhood (according to biographer Michael Witwer) and his game may lend itself more to a play style similar to Howard and other favorite authors than Tolkien in many ways. Making White Box or the later Editions feel like Middle Earth has always been a challenge.
Cubicle 7 has had a pretty faithful Middle Earth game out for some time now titled The One Ring (TOR). It is more of a story-telling game than The World's Most Famous RPG, but seems to capture the flavor and feel of Tolkien quite well. The folks at Cubicle 7 have released a digital version of Adventures in Middle Earth, a player's sourcebook for gaming 5E (using the OGL) in Tolkien's Third Age. I have not played AiME, but have read the Players Guide and will share some of my thoughts about the book and how 5E can be adapted to a specific setting quite different from it's implied default (The Realms).
Adventures in Middle Earth (AiME) replaces the traditional game races with a classification termed cultures. Dwarves, hobbits and elves each have a culture and humans have several from which to choose. Each culture is associated with a virtue - virtues are either open and anyone can take them or cultural and limited. Virtues function similar to 5E feats except they are exclusive to some PCs. This is one way AiME maintains variety and niche protection.
The standard classes are replaced in AiME with Scholar, Slayer, Treasure Hunter, Wanderer, Warden and Warrior. Note: there are no 5E style spellcasters. The classes each have subclasses and give a nice mix of abilities and skill sets. Some classes have special abilities that trigger off Inspiration and not all classes are competent at combat. AiME is a campaign setting/game that balances combat with other challenges so all the classes contribute. Each class has a shadow weakness which can lead to corruption.
AiME presents the PCs with several Middle Earth backgrounds and I think this helps meld 5E to the setting. New traits include Hope and Despair which are carry-overs from TOR and seem full of Tolkien flavor. The alignment system is dropped and replaced with corruption. Shadow weakness, which is tied to class, can lead to madness and degeneration as can exposure to, or contact with, shadow forces. Simply fighting the bad guys can lead PCs into shadow effects making for a dangerous world.
Weapons, armor and equipment are customized to give a more Dark Ages/ Middle Earth flavor and the addition of a few new skills associated with the literature helps this felling along. AiME is about more than killing monsters and taking their stuff. Journeys play a large part in the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien and journeying is significant in AiME. During the journey phase of play each PC assumes a task such as guide, scout, hunter or lookout. AiME includes additional rules for perils, challenges, encounters, events and arrivals that make the journey feel like an important aspect of play (something like in the RPG Ryuutama). At the end of a journey players may have arrived at the residence of an important person and seek an Audience. The Audiences are an important part of AiME as forming relationships plays a significant part in the campaign. Rules for the Audience involve cultural attitudes and skills which favor some PCs who might be weaker in combat. It also allows for player to meet the movers and shakers (favorite characters from the fiction) of Middle Earth and do some role-playing.
The Fellowship Phase (again borrowed from The One Ring) covers rest and recovery from injuries and corruption and whatever else PCs do when not adventuring on the road. The time may be spent training, to gain a new talent, to meet a patron, to open a sanctuary, receive a title, or research lore.
At the time of this post only the Players Guide for AiME is available and it does not include any monsters or much information on the setting of Middle Earth. A Loremasters Guide is promised and will presumably cover the rest of the game rules and setting information. As it stands I believe AiME's Player Guide illustrates many of the aspects of customizing 5E for a specific setting and highlights 5E's ability to be modified for a setting quite different from The Realms.

Me & 5E

Referee Empowerment
It's been out for a while and I have been playing and running 5E enough now to say there is a lot to like about it. Wizards (WotC) listened to gamers who still find joy in the old game and 5E can be played much like an old school game. It also lends itself to a more 4E style of play, if that is your preference. No game can be all things to all players, but the folks at WotC have made a good attempt with 5E.
What I like about 5E the most can be summed-up as referee empowerment. The 5E books are set-up to give the referee choices - there is wide latitude in how 5E can be played from campaign to campaign. It supports different styles of combat, experience awards, leveling and magic. Chargen can be point-buy or rolled randomly. Combat can use the grid or not. Experience can vary greatly in how the referee awards it and therefore what PC behavior is reinforced. Leveling can include feats and multi-classing, or not.
Support is there for role-playing, but there are no real mechanics tied to role-playing as such (except Inspiration, maybe). Playing the role of one's PC is expected as part of the experience during the game rather than mechanically a part of the game system itself. This facet helps separate 5E from more story-telling games and was the way role-playing happened in older Editions.
Magic is one place where the referee has to be thinking about the specifics of the desired campaign feel. Who has magic? What energizes magic? How common is it's use? How are spells acquired? What is the common reaction to witnessing magic use? The default in 5E seems similar to the default in White Box and other Editions of the World's First RPG. But there is nothing that says one must play default.
Customizing magic, monsters, PC classes and races, deities, tech level, alignment, the balance of "good" and "evil", within the game are all classic ways to make a setting feel unique. The modular nature of 5E lends itself to modification and the referee is not likely to break the game by modification.
I will end this post near where I began, with referee empowerment. Some may wonder why I would be concerned with referee empowerment, after all don't referees have all the power? In White Box play when a referee creates a unique dungeon, world, etc. of their own it probably is obvious. In a hobby like today where games are likely to have more extensive rules and require few referee rulings; where published settings and organized play are the norm, it may not seem so obvious that referees have power. All too often the role of the referee is to read the box text and roll dice for the monsters. I have read many blogs about players and roll playing verses role playing. The roll playing referee is a less often discussed topic. Personally, I appreciate 5E's invitation to get the referee back into the game.

World Building

Referee as Creator
On page 5, of Vol. I the White Box sets the stage for the referee to begin the task of creating a fantastic world of imagination in the guise of the game milieu.

PREPARATION FOR THE CAMPAIGN:
The referee bears the entire burden here, but if care and thought are used, the
reward will more than repay him. First, the referee must draw out a minimum of
half a dozen maps of the levels of his “underworld,” people them with monsters of
various horrid aspect, distribute treasures accordingly, and note the location of the
latter two on keys, each corresponding to the appropriate level.

Advice is given in Vol. III regarding construction of dungeon levels, dungeon traps, puzzles and other challenges and the distribution of dungeon monsters and treasures.  Reading this material today I find it fairly comprehensive and I wonder at why it seemed so puzzling to my college freshman eyes when I first encountered White Box. I ask myself if many of the concepts that seemed so novel and mysterious in 1977 have become part of general knowledge or whether they would remain enigmatic to a fresh gamer reading them for the first time today? How much has the hobby changed our culture in 40 years?
According to gamer legend, Mr. Gygax believed this creation process would be something each referee would desire to do for themselves and that such creative activity would constitute a significant portion of the "fun" to be had with his new game. We all tend to assume others enjoy what we do and I am pretty sure he and Mr. Arneson derived a great deal of pleasure from imagining their respective dungeons and campaign worlds and sharing their creations through play. I get it.
White Box is much more than a dungeon crawler, however well it supports that style of play. Taking the role of an imaginary game persona in a fantastic setting has so much more potential than the dungeon offers. It doesn't take long to start to wonder what lies outside the caverns and tunnels? What does my PC do when not delving? Where do I spend found treasure? A referee might well jump at the opportunity these questions provide and get down to the business of creating even more fantastic settings to share with players. Turning now to Vol. III, page 14:

THE WILDERNESS:
The so-called Wilderness really consists of unexplored land, cities and castles, not
to mention the area immediately surrounding the castle (ruined or otherwise) which
housed the dungeons. The referee must do several things in order to conduct wilderness
adventure games. First, he must have a ground level map of his dungeons,
a map of the terrain immediately surrounding this, and finally a map of the town
or village closest to the dungeons (where adventurers will be most likely to base
themselves).

Maps are then followed by a detailed description of the locations depicted and an entire imaginary world starts taking shape. I imagine the authors envisioned each referee creating their own unique setting, drawing freely upon all their own experiences for inspiration. It is no wonder Mr. Gygax was so excited about sharing this new type of game/hobby with others. Many of the imaginary worlds so created make good reading entertainment as well as provide a setting for game play. Each imaginary world presents its author with the opportunity to express their preferences and favorite themes, bringing something of their own to share with others in the spirit of cooperative enjoyment. For those of us who have always enjoyed maps, the bits of unexplored territory beckon to our imagination. Here be dragons!