Nitpicking the differences between B/X and BECMI

First read my original post here:
https://farooqsgaming.blogspot.com/2019/03/an-actual-review-of-bx-and-becmi-d.html




Here are some more thoughts around the differences between the Mentzer and Moldvay/Cook/Marsh rules:

Moldvay has better organization. Mentzer has better rules (fite me bitches)

The OSR community has crystallized around Moldvay/Marsh/Cook B/X because it ends at level 14. The lack of content is the main appeal.

Frank Mentzer did not want to revise the rules of Basic when he wrote them, only to reorganize them into a format more friendly to absolute newbies (hence, "kiddie D&D"). Mentzer Basic/Expert is identical to Moldvay/Marsh/Cook except where it incorporates errata into the rules, such as encumbrance and weight limits, wizard and cleric spell progression, and the wordings of some spells and certain rules. The major flaw of Mentzer's errata is the Thief skill progression which got spread out to 36 levels in the later printings.

Mentzer basic is split up into a Player's Book and a DM's book, which sucks. There is no need for this and it splits certain rules over two books, which is where the complaints about organization come from. Mentzer basic also includes tutorial scenarios at the front of each book. Moldvay basic came with one rulebook and a copy of the module B2, which cleanly divides the rulebook and the adventure from each other.

These are nitpicks, and by and large both books are the same. Frank Mentzer had no desire to revise the rules created by Moldvay, since 1) he was told that they had to be absolutely compatible for customers that had already purchased Moldvay's books and 2) He didn't play Basic D&D and preferred AD&D anyway. The only reason he wrote them the way he did was because his friend and boss Gary Gygax wanted to cleanly separate D&D from AD&D as he was going through a lawsuit with Dave Arneson at the time over the rights to both games, and wanted D&D to be legally distinct from AD&D. In Mentzer's own words, D&D encourages roleplaying while AD&D with its strict, tournament style rules encourages wargaming.

Also the main difference between 0e OD&D and B/X/BECMI are the character options. OD&D had more race and class options especially if you incorporate the multiclassed options from Supplement I: Greyhawk. B/X uses more streamlined classes, and the spread of ability points is simpler as well. In B/X, ability scores grant modifiers in a range from -3 to +3 uniformly for all ability scores, while OD&D has unique bonuses for every score individually. B/X is the streamlined version of OD&D, with all the connotations that would imply, meaning it is easier to understand and run, but loses some of the unique quirks and breadth of options.