Originally posted here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/07/review-pacesetter-games-simulations-bx.html

112 pages. Color covers, black & white interior art.

One of the best features about the BX RPG is taking the base B/X game and redoing it all to split the Player's and Game Master's material into two books. Makes it great for when you have a group and can get extra Player's books.

The Dungeon guide covers the basic rules including adventuring, combat, poison and granting experience. These rules go into more detail than their B/X counterparts and more akin to the detail we see in BECMI. There are more examples given for situations as well. If you were a brand new player of Game Master for the B/X system then this set is a pretty good start to get you going.

Creatures

A large bulk of the book is dedicated to creatures. Here is a good mix of both the Basic and Expert sets with a few more thrown in for good measure. A lot of detail is given to the creatures. Additionally, the stat blocks are bit more robust than with other Basic-era games, but not quite the detail we see in the 2nd ed AD&D game. Monsters are grouped by type, Animals, Giants, Dinosaurs, Dragons, Undead, and so on. So if you are an old hand at this the monsters are easy to find, if you are new it might take longer. There are new monsters sprinkled around here and there. Some are new-to-B/X and some are new new. So it is nice to get a little more variety. Demons are mentioned and this is the first explicit notice to check out another product and to wait for future ones. It seems the universe is telling me that Demons are a good thing for Basic-era games.

Gods, Demons and the Planes

In the first bit of overt world-building, the BX RPG takes place in Pacesetter's Misty Isles setting (Print, PDF). There is note stating that more setting material will be available in Fall 2020. Some gods are mentioned and they seem to be practical "D&D" like gods. There is not a lot here, but enough for clerics to jot down a god on their sheets. Demons seem to be like the D&D standards so far. No stats or names are given here.

Treasure, Charts, and Appendicies

This section follows the monsters much like day follows night. The usual treasure is covered here with a lot of magic items. There are no intelligent swords. Monster to hit and save charts follow. Along with Cleric turning, and Object saving throws (nice to have).

A sample dungeon in next and it is an excerpt from the module BX2 the Haunter Tower which is included in the boxed set (print, pdf). It's a nice intro to be honest and I got a solid Basic Set vibe from this. That is intentional of course.

There are also random tables of monsters, dungeon settings/encounters, random treasure and even curses and monster summoning tables.

There is a bit on demi-humans using other classes. This book falls on the side of yes there are dwarf clerics and elf thieves, they just don't go on adventures. Though Game Masters have the ultimate say.

In my review for the Player's Book I ended with a note on the typos and layout issues. The same problem exists here. Though this time there were enough that a new version of the Dungeon Guide was sent to the backers of the Kickstarter.

The differences are about 12 pages and the older version of the Dungeon guide is stapled (like the Player's book and the original B/X books) the newer one is perfect bound. The PDF only has the newer content.