Review: Wight-Box

In recent years, while not posting here, I have been increasingly interested in OD&D and various retroclones. Many of these retroclones will be very well known to anybody likely to read this blog, and I do have a good many of them. There have been a couple which have come out recently which have particularly excited me, however, so much so that I was motivated to get back to posting here with a review. Wight-Box: Original Medieval Fantasy Adventure Campaigns is a retroclone by The Basic Expert, available both as pay-what-you-want as a PDF and in soft and hardcover in print from DriveThruRPG (affiliate links). I purchased my copy in softcover print.

I was drawn to Wight-Box because it advertises that it is based on Chainmail and the original 3 little brown books. I’m particularly interested in integrating Chainmail with OD&D, and I spent a good amount of time during the pandemic and subsequently working on my own “alternate evolution” of D&D, Mailed Fist, based on the combat system evolving more from Chainmail and less from the “alternative combat system” presented in OD&D Book I (i.e. the d20-based system). Wight-Box goes a different direction, sticking with the d20 mechanic, but adapting Chainmail‘s man-to-man combat system to the familiar d20, and doing a lot of other interesting work besides with a novel, well-organized presentation of OD&D. What emerges is a game which has both simple and familiar mechanics, but is also satisfyingly “crunchy” thanks to the extra bits from Chainmail which many retroclones forego.

The game has the same three character classes (Cleric, Fighting-Man, and Magic-User) as OD&D. Perhaps the name “Fighting-Man” is retained out of reverence for the original? All three classes are presented with their Chainmail Fighting Capability as they were presented in OD&D Book I (e.g. 2 Men, or Hero +1). In the combat rules, Wight-Box explains that Fighting Capability is used when fighting non-heroic level opponents (e.g. monsters with less than 4 hit die), when the attacker uses their Fighting Capability (or a Monster their HD) to determine how many attacks they can make against such opponents. These attacks are made at level 1 (i.e. without a higher attack bonus unless provided for by their Fighting Capability). When facing opponents of higher level, a single attack is made at the attacker’s character level per the attack matrices in the “usual” way familiar to the “alternative combat system”. This is one way Chainmail concepts are married with the alternative combat system.

Wight-Box also adapts Chainmail elements to the d20-based combat system by incorporating weapon class and different weapons being better or worse at attacking opponents with different armour. Some of this appears in other retroclones, and modifying the “to hit roll” required to hit a particular armour class based on the weapon being used made it into AD&D, although I’ve never played in a group which used the weapon type and armour class adjustments from the AD&D PHB. Weapon class also influences the ability to parry an opponent’s blow, and who attacks first. In this respect, Wight-Box is similar to my own game, although I think Wight-Box‘s presentation of the effects of weapon class is clearer than my own (at least in the current playtest version of Mailed Fist – maybe I can learn from that for the next release).

Beyond these mechanical “marriages” of Chainmail with the d20-based “alternative combat system”, Wight-Box also presents clear presentations of the different “subsystems” of OD&D and Chainmail, including air combat, naval combat, jousting (from Chainmail), and domain rules. In addition to this, there are appendices including novel subsystems/rules: dungeon generation, hex generation, oracles, NPC generation, room content generations, a thief class, and an adaptation of pole-arm rules from the Strategic Review. Collectively, it’s accessible, well-organized, and appealingly presented as a compact but “crunchy” ruleset.

Wight-Box is a well-put together retroclone of OD&D as presented in the 3LBBs and Chainmail. It’s based on the 5.1 SRD, not on Swords & Wizardry or Delving Deeper or another popular OD&D clone, and if you are looking for “yet another retroclone” of OD&D with some thoughtful incorporation of Chainmail concepts, Wight-Box is a worthy purchase.