The Lost March vs White Box: FMAG

Compare The Lost March and White Box: FMAG side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.

	The Lost March	White Box: FMAG
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Tags	Classic Fantasy, Sandbox, Exploration, Hexcrawl, Dungeon Crawl, Faction Play, Domain Management, Random Character Creation, Vancian Casting, Inventory Management	Rules-Light, Classic Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Deadly, Hackable, Beginner-Friendly, Random Character Creation, Vancian Casting, Descending AC, Hexcrawl
Core Mechanic	A skill check rolls a pool of d6s equal to the skill level: one to five dice, plus a die for some class bonuses. Normally a 6 is a success and a 5 is a partial success. An Ability adjustment either widens the success range or adds a critical-failure range on the lowest faces. Settlement, wilderness and combat checks are opposed by the referee's dice, where equal results cancel and a partial success downgrades a full one. In combat, successes and partial successes are assigned to attack or defend. A hit deals the weapon's maximum damage on a success or its minimum on a partial success.	Roll d20 + modifiers against a target number derived from the defender's Armor Class (descending AC by default, ascending AC optional). Attribute modifiers are compressed to −1, 0, or +1. Each class has a single saving throw number that improves with level. Side-based initiative is rolled each round on d6.
Dice	d6 dice pool	d20
Complexity	Low	Very Low
Availability	Free core rules	Free core rules
Runnability	4 of 5 book tools	2 of 5 book tools
License	Proprietary	OGL 1.0a
Third-Party Publishing	No verified route found	Not yet researched
Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing.
Publisher	Fausto Botta	Seattle Hill Games
Year	2025	2016
Languages	English	English
Best For	Groups who want a long old-school sandbox campaign that turns treasure into faction rank, training and eventually conquered land.	Groups wanting the simplest possible version of original D&D: four classes, compressed modifiers, and intentional rules gaps that invite house rules and Referee creativity.
Highlights	There are no hit points: wounds lower Ability scores directly, so an injured character can carry less treasure home. The lawful factions sell ranks and months of training for gold, so treasure replaces experience as the advancement currency. Each exploration turn, the referee secretly rolls hazard dice sized by difficulty (1d6 on plains, 3d6 in swamps), and each 5 or 6 adds a complication or an encounter.	Attribute modifiers compressed to −1/0/+1 keeps math fast and reduces stat dependency. Complete game in 143 pages including monsters, treasure, spells, and wilderness/dungeon procedures. A free PDF and a low-cost print edition make it one of the most accessible OSR games. Intentional rules gaps and a blank House Rules page explicitly invite customization.
Considerations	Dice resolve only a set of defined checks, so players usually get past traps and puzzles by describing what their characters do rather than by rolling a skill. Wounds normally heal at one Ability point per day of rest, and ten or more days of healing cost a month of training. Characters begin as agents of a supremacist colonial reconquest, a premise the book states openly and asks the referee to expose through play.	Four classes (three without the optional Thief) limits character variety. No formal skill system: the Referee adjudicates all non-combat actions. Level tables cap at 10, requiring house rules for extended campaigns.