Reviews of newbie friendly old shool games

I just read this review of Swords & Wizardry, the white box edition. The idea to review games that really tries to bring in new gamers while touting the old school horn is interesting. I note that the reviewer mentions nothing of the bad production quality or the uneven cut, like my copy. Damn, how lucky I got the bad copy. :(

At that site is also a review of Tunnels & Trolls! Having thought a bit about the 7th ed box I think agree with the reviewer, for a newbie this box don't work as is. Some better adventures and maybe some more thoughts about what kind of setting it can be used for. It's a bit hard to place T&T. It's solidly old school, with no setting. But, there's an implied setting which is even mentioned by name, Trollworld. That makes it resemble the newer games with a over supported setting. It would be a good thing to either drop Trollworld or explain how it differs from ye old medieval game world.

Good reviews all!

Swashbuckling, whitebox style

Reading up on the rules for 7th Sea for our game tomorrow I found myself with the idea of a swashbuckler for S&W. My White Box showed up a while ago, and this is a new class for S&W-WB, my first attempt to do anything with WB.

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The following content is hereby designated as Open Game Content via the Open Game Licence.

The Swashbuckler Class

Character Advancement: The Swashbuckler uses the Magic-User advancement for Hit dice and Saves, and the Cleric advancement for Experience.

Weapons and Armour Restrictions: Having trained to strike quick and be light on the feet, Swashbucklers are limited to Leather armour, no shield. Also, no other weapons than swords (long, short) and a dagger may be used.

Saving Throw: Since the Swashbuckler is swift moving, and as such get +2 to attacks (like oil splashes) and spells with an area effect.

Swiftness: The Swashbuckler may roll a Saving Throw to once a round push one item or character in between himself and a foe, or to swiftly transport himself behind an enemy by swinging in low hanging chandeliers . This ability may be used as many times per day as the level of the Swashbuckler.

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A white box in the mail!

Today when I got home, my wife showed me a box that had came in the mail today. Not without some anticipation did I open it, and found a small white box, with multiple booklets inside!

Earlier I posted with some sinking feeling that my box never seemed to arrive. It turned out that when John Adams of Brave Halfling Press printed the address slips, PayPal silently in the background e-mail me saying the package had shipped! When it had, it didn't take that long for it to arrive. Sometimes you need a little faith and patience. 

Opening the box, the first impression is that the lower portion of the box is a bit flimsy. I think it's the same quality as the top, but on that have been glued the cover and edge illustration sheet, which keeps it together better than the thin strips on the edges on the bottom which which lacks illustration.

Some of the booklets had the signature extend a short bit from the cover, which was just slightly smaller. It should be easy enough to trim, if you have a cutter or an xacto knife or similar. I'd have to go to a print shop, though. On most of the booklets these small blemishes could be found.

That being said, I'm not dissatisfied or anything. This small box breathe enthusiasm, crammed as it is with booklets! You want to take them out, thumb through them and at once start world building, rolling up a characters and go out to explore the world.

Since I was one of those who got the second bunch of boxes, I got the extra module and it looks very creepy (in a good way!) and atmospheric.

Where I prone to reflection upon the hobby at large, I guess I could now talk about whether this is actually going to "expand the hobby" and all that. Me, I have more games than I need, and I suspect this have sold to more people like me. I don't care. This is a game that makes me want to play, which is all that matters.

No whitebox yet

With growing desperation I notice that more and more reports are coming in of arrivals of the Swords & Wizardry whitebox. It's not like I desperately need a new game, but still.

I keep watch by the mailbox.

A Swords & Wizardry experience richer

So, finally we managed to arrange for a session of S&W, and I even got to play. This last autumn I got the impression that everyone is ill all the time in this country. Even tonight one of our players couldn't show up, and one was ok but had a slight cold. Gaming prevailed.

It was interesting to have a group with so mixed experiences of D&D. Where one player was solidly a 3rd ed player, another have been playing since the seventies and are a regular 1st ed gamer who have also played 3rd and 4th. Then there was me who loves the old school, but have a solid knowledge and experience of 3rd & 4th and just disagree with it. It would be an experiment with old school to see how well it went over. Luckily we complemented each other and we had a good time.

While I had expecting roll 3d6 in order we actually had the generous option of 4d6 drop the worst. Those characters were good! I wanted to play a M-U and got the stats for it. Naturally, I started with Sleep prepared.

We got a background briefing, and it was clear that our DM had been working on the setting and the history. If I hadn't actually been talking to him about dungeons I might have become a bit worried there. Some haggling and in character interaction we positioned ourselves in our party roles and established some character traits. Since my fellow players rolled far worse than me for starting gold, I graciously offered to lend them some of my money. Naturally, I charged interest. Stiff interest. Miser? Me?

Then we set off for the ruined city. While the setting info had given me some sense of wonder about the olden days when the Empire was around I had already forgotten most of it. I always do that unless I take notes. I knew there was a ruined city, and we wanted to go there.

We scouted somewhat and got a good view of the city. Most of it was rubble, but some greater structures stood. Dice rolled on the table and we noticed some flying monsters taking off from some still standing tower. Lucky us. Taking cover we kept out of sight and nothing bad happened. Something bad did happen to a goblin skulking about in the city, he managed to get a throwing axe lodged in his back. Clumsy goblin.

Since it was late we had to find shelter, and did find just that in another tower. We had to fight a monster who poped out of a glass globe someone unfriendly tossed at us as soon we entered the tower. A seriously grumpy owlbear was dispatched and my poor mage missed with his darts five rounds in a row! The melee fighters was good to have around. After some negotiations we could enter the tower and managed to calm the crazy hermit living there. While everyone were busy talking to the hired hands I decided to kill the crazy hermit and take his library of glass globes as my own. For some strange reason it turned out my party was squeamish and after the deed expressed horror. At least he wouldn't slit their throats at night. We took possession of his camp and grabbed what valuables there were. That was the reason we wanted to seek adventure, right? Having counted the gold we decided this was enough for one session.

S&W was easy enough, with a very quick combat system. Much could be accomplished without being bogged down in rules, and I felt we got that thrill of exploration even though we hadn't even found the entrance to the catacombs under the city. Clearing out a building room by room is a special feeling. The only real discussion we had about the rules was about xp bonuses. One player felt they were unfair and undermined the idea of the party. I have been thinking that myself sometimes, since it's a reward given over and over again for someone being lucky with random generation of stats. A very good player might be punished even if he does everything right, while a player who lucked out and rolled 13 both for CHA and WIS suddenly advance quicker. I really hate the idea of a "balanced" system, but that rule is not one of my favourite. Letting go of it, without building a sense of player entitlement probably is on my wishlist. I've thought it before, but real play made it stand out.

Now I hope we can make this more than a one shot, and that there will be some regular S&W gaming. Our DM and his betrothed are expecting their first child pretty soon so we will see how that affect things. After some time at home with a newborn you probably want to meet some other adults, I hope. At least I now have had some S&W experience, and it was positive!

A lot of things cooking, slowly

Today I was thinking, with a newly arrived copy of Knockspell #3 in my hand and the memory of yesterday's news about Fight On! fresh in my mind. I thought about publishing your ideas. In the OSR publishing your ideas, and creating not only buzz on a blog but physical products, is a very important thing of the movement. Sadly I have not done much in that vein yet.

Recently when the publishing catastrophe that is Outlaw Press exploded in the face of Tunnels & Trolls fandom, I decided to do something myself instead of that mess. But, I have no group right now and frankly I play way to seldom to get that vital feedback and get the creative juices flowing. It felt like an uphill battle. But, now things are cooking, at last.

Me and a friends sat down this Monday and talked about things gaming, old school fun basically. The result was a scheduled session of S&W. That and me listening to metal on my mp3 player caused ideas for game books to gush out like a flood.

Oddly enough it feels like a dam that have collected water until it just bursts. Now I get new ideas for dungeons and weird traps faster than I can write them, to say nothing of combining them into something playable! My biggest problem now is that I wanted to do something that has never been done for T&T before (at least not that I know), and I would almost like the spring to calm down a bit so I can get some peace and quiet to work on that first idea before I go back down the dungeon. What a problem I've got.

So, "Something Different" for T&T is being written (including support materials), a dungeon of the weird Carcosa style fantasy is being invented (for S&W), a killer dungeon in the Tomb of Horrors vein (for T&T) and a sketch for a new megadungeon are also competing for attention. Guess if that gets all messed up in my head? With luck I will be able to show some of all this to the world, come 2010. Watch this space.

A Swords & Wizardry campaign on the horizon!

For some time now I have been feeling seriously deprived of my gaming fix. While I think role playing a hobby that can be enjoyed by playing solos, generating characters for fun, drawing maps and inventing new spells or building starships and other gear, I still miss playing.

My friends on this side of the pond all seem to be so very occupied it's almost silly! We played one session of a game, and the time for the next session had to be a date four weeks later, because everyone was doing so much else! Four? What the heck are people doing with their "free" time? Sometimes I think those cardiovascular diseases that kills us in the western world have more to do with stress than anything else. How much can you try to cram into your life anyway? It's kind of ironic as well that one things people do which stop them from gaming is probably playing World of Warcraft or something like that.

Anyway. Today I got a phone call from a friend who recently discovered Swords & Wizardry and immediately caught the bug. Like me, he is a big fan of Fritz Leiber, and he felt this was a game where that kind of fantasy stories could be gamed. Imagine my happiness when he told me he has been writing stuff and wanted to send me a inspirational recruitment flyer for the campaign! Wohoo! Maybe I will get the opportunity for some S&W gaming in the future after all!

Wish me luck, considering how it's been lately one of us or our friends will get swine flu and get quarantined from gaming...

Some thoughts about how to organise rpg rules

I was just reading the Swords & Wizardry forums and found a thread about how neat it is to be able to take the .doc format file of White Box edition and edit it to the rule hack you want. The reason it is so handy, according to one poster, is that you can make a booklet with just the rules for the players. Even though it's not always explicitly said, that do imply that there are rules just meant for the game master.

When I was younger, and was first introduced to this wonderful hobby of ours, everyone read all the rules. One boxed set with one or two booklets was the norm. But, in contrast with, say, D&D it wasn't clearly labelled for the Player and for the GM. I haven't asked anybody else about it, but I think most people did like we did, and bought the box if you played the game. That usually meant that in each group you had maybe half as many copies of the rules as there were players. It also meant that almost everyone had read everything in there, including the rules for casting and learning spells, the chance to catch gangrene or what modifier you'd get for trying to use your Listen skill in thick fog. I never saw a problem with that.

When I first actually opened a rule book for D&D, it was the 2nd ed era. Not only were there two books, they also had the weirdest layout with the same section in the two books saying slightly different and (in theory) complementary things. I was thoroughly confused. For some reason there were things which you got the impression you should hide from the players! With my background that seemed preposterous. What was there to hide?!

Now today I realized that this way of splitting up information have shaped me more than I've imagined. The idea of having a standard list of magic items which sooner or later everyone knew about, or a list of standard monsters, is just an alien concept where I'm coming from. Now, many years later I have kind of adapted and know that the way things are, can be different in different places. But, to put this in perspective I think a game were everyone knows how to play the game, but where magic and monsters are all unique creations by your GM/DM is really a more interesting way to play the game. The mystery and wonder of fantasy sure is easier to maintain that way, and for those interesting in the history of the hobby it is the way to experience how it was when Ken and the Phoenix circle, Dave and the Twin Cities players, and Gary with his Lake Geneva group played. Nothing was yet codified, and every piece of magic was new, and wonderful. Imagine that.