Tag Archives: Swords & Wizardry

News, Rants & Reviews

White Box Wednesday: Swords & Wizardry Continual Light

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How the hell did I not rant about this before? I thought I had but I hadn’t. Sure I have mentioned it before as a good edition to your White Box Library but I haven’t said much on it’s own merits. So here you go.

Continual Light takes the already easy mechanics of Swords & Wizardry White Box/Whit Box FMAG and distills them even more. Yes, It’s even simpler. It doesn’t go quite to the level of what I would call a rules light game. And while distilled down, is still compatible with any existing adventure.

I think some of the best parts is that instead of the just one Skill for the Thief, there’s four (Hear Noises, Climb, Unfamiliar Languages, and Traps/Locks/Stealth). The other really good part is the “other’ classes. You know the one’s; everything beyond the basic four. Instead of a building a whole new class for extra page count. It’s boiled down to a couple of sentences and swaps out one class ability for a “new” one or gain a whole new ability. Of course, these classes take longer level up but it’s a quick and easy way to do things.

Dare I also say that this makes a darn good starter game. And rumor is that a second edition is coming out. Well, last I heard. Not so much a revision of the rules but some clean up, new art, and edits.

It’s worth checking out on DrivethruRPG.

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Kickstarters, News, Rants & Reviews

Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised Kickstarter

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Ahh, yes. I’m shilling another Kickstarter. This is a good one because Swords & Wizardry has fallen off the radar and it’s my favorite of the retroclones.

Here’s Swords & Wizardry Complete in a nutshell. It’s based off the three little brown books of original D&D plus the supplements. Basically, all the stuff that lead up to the design of later earlier editions. Plus it does throw one extra tweak in there. A single Saving Throw. It’s easy to play and run. It’s easily house rules and hackable.

But isn’t Swords & Wizardry already out? Well, sort of. There’s a couple of things that happened that led to this. First, the rules have reverted back to Matt Finch of Mythmere Games. (BTW, Matt is an awesome guy. Back it for that reason.) Second, there have been some revisions from previous printings. And third, there was that whole OGL mess and drama. So new license time.

I do already have the third printing and the boxed set (which didn’t turn out that well). But I’m still in for this one. It’s a good set of rules that can easily mixed in with other old-school games. So I’m there. It’s a great one to back.

So go check this one out over at the Kickstarter.

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News, Rants & Reviews

Is it time for OSR 2.0?

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The last couple of weeks have been interesting to say the least. And it looks fans and creators have won for now. But the whole OGL drama and folks jumping to licenses and rewriting products got me thinking. Is it time for OSR 2.0?

I remember back in the hey day of the OSR. There wasn’t a week that went by that I didn’t see something that just made stop and say, “Wow! That’s so cool.” Sure. You couldn’t swing a stick without hitting yet another BX clone with some minor changes. But as time passed things got a little stale. It just seemed that really interesting and odd ball adventures and supplements didn’t have the same spark as they did earlier.

Let’s face it. This whole OGL mess, despite the current outcome, has thrown the hobby into chaos. Folks are looking for other games outside their corporate comfort zone. Publishers are looking at the products that they’ve already produced and ones that are in the works. Heck, even some Youtubers and bloggers started to reevaluate things. With all this going on, it’s the perfect to time to color outside the lines. Just go a little crazy. Make some cool stuff. Let’s rekindle that excitement from just a few years ago.

And yes. I’m following my own advice. You can follow my progress over on the Parteon and Locals on the top two projects that I’m working plus other updates.

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News, Rants & Reviews

Swords & Wizardry Moving Ahead

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Wow. It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged about Swords & Wizardry. Heck, I haven’t seen really much of anything elsewhere either. Well, things are moving.

Swords & Wizardry

First, let me get this out of the way. I don’t know what exactly happened. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to speculate. And I don’t want to start any drama nor any rumors. With that said, Swords & Wizardry is now independent of Frog God Games. Matt Finch will releasing material via the Mythmere Games.

Swords & Wizardry is my old-school rules of choice. It’s easily compatible with adventures and material that is technically released for other old-school games. The easy rules make it very easy to house rule and hack. And you know how much I love to do that. So yes. I do love the game. But to be honest, it felt like it had fallen to the wayside over the last couple of years. Sure Old School Essentials became the current old-school darling and 5E is the 800 pound gorilla. But still, I think there should still be more buzz about Swords & Wizardry.

With all that being said, check out Mythmere Games at the above link and Matt Finch has started up a new Facebook Group. Check those out for news and updates.

I’m excited about this. Heck, I’ve got an idea that’s been bouncing around my head that’s just looking for the right system. So just maybe…

News, Rants & Reviews

Building Your White Box Library

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It’s White Box Wednesday and since I just started doing this, I’m starting with basics so to speak.

White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game is pretty much the go to for a rules set. However, it owes much of lineage to Swords & Wizardry White Box. And speaking of Swords & Wizardry, a good place to start building your library to milk ideas and inspiration is to grab up Swords & Wizardry Light and/or Swords & Wizardry Continual Light.

Both are very fine games but White Box FMAG does add the Thief and a few little bits. While both rules set are very compact, DM’s and players may find that a few of the “standard” D&D type things are missing like certain classes or monsters. But there’s slew of great things to grab up to start your library.

First, there’s the White Box Omnibus. This is the biggest bang for your buck. More classes, races, monsters, magic items, rules variants plus a couple of adventures. It’s got a bit of everything so overall, it’s got the most usability.

Every DM loves monsters and it’s good to throw a variety at the party. So here’s some more monster books to add to your collection. First up, Swords & Wizardry 0e Reloaded Monster Book. While this one isn’t specifically designed for White Box, it does have easy conversion notes for the monsters. I didn’t physically count them all but according to the back blurb there’s about 460+ monsters in there.

Next up there’s Beasties and Beasties 2 by Night Owl Workshop. While these two are primarily monster books, they don’t stop there. There’s plenty of other bits for the DM to use like tricks & traps, random tables, and NPC’s.

And finally, grab up Delving Deeper. This is a stand alone game and is great on its own. But if you’re running WBFMAG then adding this your your library is only adding inspiration and options. So it’s still a good and useful thing.

I know there’s more supplements and adventures out there. Don’t worry. There will be more rants in the coming weeks.