I was just trying to write a post about this.
"Something strange about my head forces me to wonder how can people play B/X as written if plate armor costs 12 garlic.
(And I love B/X, but I loathe this adherence to RAW when they are obviously wrong).
Damn it, I'm Going To Build My Own B/X with Blackjack and Hookers, as the saying goes."
Anyway.
Must be because even our favorites are not perfect. Or some kind of OCD that prevents me form enjoying B/X's typos. This is from OSE:
My favorite version of D&D is B/X. I don't know why, really - probably the simplicity is a big part of it. But there are many things I dislike. It is a matter of taste - most of the time. But, sometimes, B/X feels like it could de fixed. For example:
- Saving throws are unnecessarily fiddly.
- Same for XP tables, a single one would suffice (with small adjustments).
- Race-as-class is unnecessary and limiting.
- Same for thief skills. 1d20+level (DC 15) simply works better.
- Fighters are too boring, relying too much on magic items.
- Weapons are terrible, like in 5e, some of them are useless or redundant.
- Encumbrance should be modified by Strength somehow.
Anyway... each of those is easy to fix. Fixing all of them at once would almost create a new game. And this game might be better than B/X - better than my favorite D&D.
But - not strictly compatible with my favorite game. Is this a problem? I'm not sure. I like using old school (and OSR) monster manuals, and adventures, etc. These minimal changes are not stopping me from doing that.
I think I pretty much found the perfect game for my group, but I'm not sure anyone else is interested. If I write something meant to be fully compatible with existing rules, it seems to be a lot more interest.
If I found my perfect D&D tomorrow I'd probably stop writing rules. And, TBH, sometimes I wish someone else would do it so I could stop thinking about it (although I still really like my own clone published in 2017). But I haven't found the perfect one. And even a game that "fixes" everything will "fix" some stuff that I didn't want fixed... Thus sending everyone into an unending quest for the perfect system...