This book rocks. Gorgeous I love it more than I can say.

EDIT 9/8/23: Thanks to Necrotic Gnome for responding to my reveiw! When the updated PDF is released I fully intend to update my reveiw to the five starts this game deserves!

EDIT 10/5/23: To the snowflake below me: great, now copy the rest of that paragraph.

I want to like this book. The rules are fun, it's well organized, etc., but I can't.

The game has an enemy stat block for "Dervish" (if you weren't aware, that is the name for a real-life Muslim religious order). They are described as "Fanatically religious, nomadic people who wander steppes and desert regions, living in tents," "Intolerant of other religious beliefs," and have a trait called "Holy War" that describes them invading, forcibly converting, and enslaving other religious communities. An image of a man in traditional Dervish clothes accompanies this stat block.

At best, this is an extremely loaded and questionable way to depict a minority culture. Maybe this is a holdover from White Box D&D? I'm not sure, but I can't recommend anyone support this game while it contains something this distasteful.

Five stars because the they/them below me is crying about identity politics.

The game has an enemy stat block for "Dervish" (if you weren't aware, that is the name for a real-life Muslim religious order).

Five Stars.

Figured I would finally write a review of this. Honestly, this has become my favore B/X retroclone. Great, concise writing. Good layout. Good art. Good play aids.

All around, a very well done game. Also takes the cake for my second longest running campaign (ended after two years) only seconded to AD&D 1e.

This is the finest evocation of B/X Dungeons and Dragons in the OSR movement! It is the best!! Bar none!!! This is due, in part, to the absolute cleanness of the rules, but mostly to the layout and presentation of said rules. The triumph of the two page layout makes it very easy on the eye and helps the newer players to be able to follow the flow of information. This game is a triumph and deserves your attention and investment!

The best rules for playing Dungeons and Dragons. Especially when it comes to exploration.

If you are looking for a product that is faithful to the B/X rules and presents them in a way that is easy to digest and read, then this product is a five star product.

However, if you want the feel of the B/X rules but some tweaks to improve them a little then you won't really get that here. For example, the RAW B/X rogue is kind of useless because the base percentages for the thieving skills are so low. It would have been easy for the designer to tweak those to make them actually useful. Of course as a GM it's not that hard to houserule, but I do like it when the designer takes time to do some of that work for me. That being said, I don't really think that was the goal of this product, so I can't really criticize it for that.

Rules for B/X games all in one easy to read manuscript. Faithful to the 1981 Edition, it's streamlined and layed out exceptionally well. Coupled with some necessary clarifications and fabulous illustrations, OSE has set the bar for OSR. After playing with the book in two homebrew adventures, I am not only satisfied, but also impressed! Highly recommended.

PDF and Hardcover, 296 pages

If you are a fan of the old "Rule Cyclopedia" version of the BECMI rules then this is going to be a treat for you. The Rules Tome combines all of the "Core" and "Classic Fantasy" rules into one large and gorgeous tome. There are three different cover versions. I have the foil JShields version, the Andrew Walter is the standard version and in many ways, I like it better! It is the same art on the Box Set, so I am happy to have both. This book includes:

Core Rules: Rules for character creation and advancement, adventuring in dungeons, the wilderness, and at sea, magic and combat. Classic Fantasy: Genre Rules: Seven classic classes (cleric, dwarf, elf, fighter, halfling, magic-user, thief), complete lists of weapons and adventuring gear, extensive lists of vehicles, mounts, and vessels, mercenaries and specialists for hire, rules for stronghold construction. Classic Fantasy: Cleric and Magic-User Spells: The complete set of 34 cleric spells (from 1st to 5th level) and 72 magic-user spells (from 1st to 6th level), for use by players or cleric, elf, and magic-user characters. Classic Fantasy: Monsters: A selection of over 200 classic monsters to challenge adventurers of all levels. Classic Fantasy: Treasures: A hoard of over 150 wondrous magic items.

So everything you need for a full fantasy game.

Should you get this one or the individual books? That is up to you. The combined volume is obviously cheaper. But all are enjoyable.
I have a Rules Tome for me, a set of books for the table and a couple extra players' books (Core Rules and Genre Rules).

This is pretty much perfect.

This is a really great and unique product. Both as a playing aid and a look into the early most basics of D&D rules. It's extremely elegantly laid out, very easy to navigate and the artwork is stunning and oozing of that good old school vibe 100% and sparking imagination instead of spelling it out. A supreme basis for your own home brew D&D ruleset or as a All-In-One guide to run a purist old school D&D game. Highly recommended!

Amazing. The layout and wording is the same great stuff we saw in B/X Essentials but with the EXTREMELY helpful addition of Ascending AC rules and some cool new art. If you play B/X you should be using this book. Can't wait to get the individual physical copies to pass around the game table. Also that alternative cover art is radical!

This tome collects Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy Core Rules, Genre Rules, Monsters, Cleric and Magic-User spells and Treasures books under one cover. This Tome is the apex of easy and beautiful layout AND is the difiniitive and faithful issue of the original B/X rules, even though the ability to use acending Armor Class is introduced. This addtiion is very well founded seeing as the vast majoirty of people playing today, including new players expects to see it. My ONLY gripe with this tome is that there are no higher spells. That though will be hopefully done in future serpreate book installments.

This is it, people, the wait is over! The OSE Rules Tome contains a complete and faithful re-statement of the 1981 Basic/Expert version of "the world's most successful roleplaying game". This book (and some dice, paper, and a pencil) is all you need to have literally decades of adventure. This book is truly a "deserted island" book, provided you strand there with a couple of friends. The author has done an incredible job researching, clarifying, organizing, and laying out the original game, and has assembled a team of stellar artists to illustrate the book. What the Rules Cyclopedia (RC) is to Mentzer's BECMI, this book is to Moldvay/Cook/Marsh's B/X. You'll regret not getting this, seriously!

I've been playing D&D for about 5 years. Started in 4e and have been playing 5e since its release. While I love the modern editions, something has always intrigued me about older versions of the game. But those old books are just page after page of walls of text and complicated rules and references. It's not digistible or easy to learn. Luckily, that's where Old School Essentials comes in. OSE presents the 1e D&D rules in a readable, digestible way that makes sense to the modern reader. This is something my friends and I can actually play at the table. Everything is organized super well and the mechanics are clear.

I backed the Kickstarter and received the Hole in the Oak adventure, which has been fun to play. I've also purchased the Advanced Fantasy Rules, which is equally great. I fully intend to buy the print versions of these books when they're made available, now that I know how awesome they are.

In the future, I'd love to see Necrotic Gnome tackle some additional classes (mystic, psionicist?) and add additional monsters or even different genre rules. I would also be interested in a 2e clone that makes that edition clearer for modern players. I know Necrotic Gnome does good work and I would be first in line to buy any and all of these!

Honestly, the two reviews "above" have covered how great this update of the classic BX material is. But I want to add that the Tome's layout (along with the individual books, should you purchase them as well) is exceptional in its simplicity. Each section is either one or two pages and layed out in such a way that one can always have the book laying open and the complete information for the section showing. The illustrations are wonderful in their old-schoolness (is that a word?) and really PoP with fun!

Overall, this is a great update to the classic BX information.