Is Swords & Wizardry The One?

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Today is Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. RPG blogs across the Internet today will be exploring Swords & Wizardry the RPG. What makes Swords & Wizardry stick out amongst the other “retroclones” other there?

I was asking myself that same question when I first saw the formative plans of the S&W Appreciation Day over at Tenkar’s Tavern. In fact, two weeks ago I wasn’t even sure The Iron Tavern was going to participate. Then I remembered I had the ‘Swords & Wizardry Complete’ PDF I had received from the Reaper Kickstarter last year. Given I have been searching for a “default” system of choice for my fantasy games I decided to sign up and see what all the excitement was about.

While a lot of the blogs are going to be posting new content, house rules, and possibly even campaign settings for the S&W ruleset, I am going to look at Swords & Wizardry through the lense of a newcomer to the system. And how this S&W Appreciation Day may have led to the discovery of my new “default” system.

Swords & Wizardry – The Rules

Swords & Wizardry emulates the Original D&D game put out in the late 1970’s. The rules seek to stay true to that, though the organization of the rules is cleaned up to make them easier for consumption. My reading was based on the “Complete” version which also brings in some of the supplements to provide a pretty complete gaming experience without overwhelming you with rules.

Character sheets are simple, ability scores are rolled 3d6 in order. Though the rules do state if the game is to be a long-term game, the GM may let you assign your rolls to the ability scores you want. Any player of D&D will be quite familiar with the ability scores – Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

The “Complete” version of the rules include several character classes to help give players a good selection to choose from. With the Assassin, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Magic-User, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Thief all represented. Races are distinct from class, though not all character classes are available to all races.

The basics of gameplay is covered, though with large amounts of room for a GM to adjudicate decisions and play. Encumbrance, combat, turning undead, damage, death, magic, and more are all covered. Monsters are included in the “Complete” rule book to help populate those wildernesses and dungeons for your players.

The final item I want to highlight is that the rule system accommodates both ascending and descending armor classes. The original D&D rules used a descending AC as the method of making something harder to hit. After years of playing with ascending armor classes, going back to descending can sometimes be a difficult transition. S&W includes methods for both, which is great for people like me who might have difficulty going back to a descending AC.

Swords & Wizardry – The New Default?

As I noted earlier I have been looking for a new default system for the fantasy genre. I am a long time D&D player and greatly enjoyed my time with 3.5 and Pathfinder. I still enjoy a good Pathfinder game!

But as my free time grows shorter I keep leaning towards a rules-light system. Something I can pick up and go with when I find myself with an extra couple of hours. A system where we can gen up characters in 10 to 15 minutes instead of 30 minutes or more. A system where the adventures are minimal prep and a little easier to run on the fly.

During this process I have accumulated a large number of OSR systems in physical or electronic form. With all of them I have enjoyed the return to simple, the return to true creativity instead of rules dictating with authority what my characters can or cannot do.

With my recent delve into the Swords & Wizardry system I may have found my default. S&W takes everything back to the beginning. It gives you enough classes to get started without need to “homebrew” a lot more into the system yourself. And while I enjoy races as class, I am not sure I want that as my default system. So having that split out is a plus. Having the option for both ascending and descending armor class is also a positive.

As a friend of mine pointing out, one nice thing is that one can sort of mash different “retroclones” together to get exactly what you want. That idea appealed to me. S&W seems to give me the perfect base foundation to house rule bits and pieces from another “retroclone” in with ease. It starts with the basics, I can house rule in what I find interesting from the other systems I have been dabbling with with less fear of conflicting with the base system.

Something else that makes the system especially attractive is the d20swrd.com site. I found the D&D 3.5 SRD sites invaluable, as I did the Pathfinder SRD site. They were convenient to do quick rule lookups from places where I did not have access to my books or PDFs. More importantly, for players new to the game it provided just enough information to a new player before they committed to picking up the books.

Take a look at the d20swrd.com site. Everything a person needs at your fingertips in searchable form to play S&W. Having the rules available in this form online is a tremendous resource for current players of S&W and those just getting started.

S&W Is the One

At the moment it looks like Swords & Wizardry is what I plan to use as my default fantasy rule system. It starts simple and is rules-light. The “Complete” version is affordable, the d20swrd.com site makes it even more accessible. And the community is pretty active over on G+. Swords & Wizardry has a lot of things going for it. I do believe I have found my default system for fantasy RPGs!

Upcoming Swords & Wizardry Day

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Erik Tenkar over at Tenkar’s Tavern recently ran an appreciation day for the Basic Fantasy RPG. That event was quite successful and he has now organized a Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th.

What is an appreciation day? First he signs up a number of bloggers, 127 at last count, to blog about something related to the Swords and Wizardry RPG. This could be new content, new random tables, new creatures, magic items, or even just commentary on the S&W system. In either case, there is going to be lots of buzz on S&W this coming up Wednesday!

The Iron Tavern will be participating, though I have not decided what my post will be about just yet. I suspect it will be more of a commentary based article or maybe I will whip up a quick game with the kids and report on how that went with them. Something with a S&W focus will be posted here on Wednesday.

There are a number of prizes being thrown into the gift pool for participating blogs as well. RPGNow gift certifications, Moleskin Maps from Matt Jackson, and more.

In addition Frog God Games will be running a 25% off sale at their own online store and over at d20PFSRD.com. Codes will be released during the appreciation day. If reading all of the blogs and learning more about the S&W system, Frog God Games will be helping out with that special pricing.

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day looks to be a good time! Do not miss it!

Do I Need D&D Next?

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

D&D Next Playtest

When the D&D Next playtest first was released I was excited. Loyal readers of the blog know I skipped D&D 4e. My read through of the rules left me less than impressed and it went against the grain of what I thought D&D was in several ways. Reading play reports from other people seemed to confirm this. The era of D&D 4e was spent with me playing Pathfinder. I have no axe to grind against D&D 4e, I fully appreciate that many people enjoyed the system and anything that brings more people to RPGs in general is a good thing.

Back to the initial playtest release. I read the whole thing and I was quite enthused. It really seemed to get back to a rules-light feel. I was excited to get some playtests going. Scheduling issues got in the way about that time and soon the second iteration of the playtest was out. Terminology was starting to creep in that turned me off a bit to the direction things appeared to be heading. Healing sticks out to me as a big point of contention for me. There were certainly others.

As the playtests kept coming out I started to feel less and less like D&D Next was going to be for me. The complexity went up and it seemed to drift from what the first playtest was significantly. My eyes began to glaze over as I tried to read later iterations of the playtest.

The thing the D&D Next playtest taught me is that I wanted a rules-light ruleset. The first iteration if the playtest taught me that. This is what really led me to start looking at systems of the OSR variety.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG

First was Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. I bought DCC RPG because of the art. I stayed because of the craziness that is DCC RPG. I really enjoy DCC RPG because I think it throws those that are long time gamers off their game. The randomness makes us think again. We can’t assume things will work as expected. It makes things fresh, it makes things crazy.

And while I really like DCC RPG, I am not sure it is ready to be my default game. One, because my son who I tend to play RPGs with on the weekends is not that into it. He is not a big fan of the randomness, he wants his spells to work as he expects them. I get where he is coming from. I’ve cast magic missile as a wizard hundreds of times. DCC RPG makes magic missile fun again because I never know exactly how it is going to manifest itself in DCC RPG! But for my son, still new to RPGs, he wants magic missile to work the way the spell description says it will. He doesn’t need the randomness to that degree in his game.

OSR Rule Sets

That left me to finding a set that let me play a more traditional “D&D” game. This area is filled with excellent possibilities. Castles & Crusades, Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Blueholmes, Swords and Wizardry, and more. All of these rule sets are light in nature and have a classic D&D feel. I am still making my way through them to find my default rule set, but all of them give me the feeling I had when I first read the D&D Next playtest.

D&D Next?

Several folks have said if I liked the first iteration of the playtest then to be patient as that will exist in the core form of D&D Next. But why wait? I don’t *need* D&D Next to get the feel I want from a D&D game. There are many excellent options out there already!

There is no need to wait another year to see what is released as the next version of D&D. Between the OSR rule sets I mentioned above there are already many rules that hit the feel I want and at a very reasonable price (sometimes free).

The basic D&D Next is going to have to compete against these already released products. Products that are already excellent and available. Even if I wanted to play the D&D brand name, I could easily grab the Moldvay PDF from RPGNow and use it. It is out now and hits the feel I want in a fantasy genre game. D&D Next is irrelevant to me. The first playtest packet showed me the feel that I wanted. It also made me realize I do not need to wait for D&D Next to be released to get that feel.

I will take another look when D&D Next is finally released. For now though, I already have enough OSR systems that hit the target for the game I want to play. I am not sure what niche D&D Next would fill for me.

Random Table: Goblet Descriptions

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

This week’s table for Random Table Thursday brings us goblets! Goblets are everywhere – treasure hoards, at the local tavern, or at the King’s table. Today’s post includes 20 random goblet descriptions to liven up your descriptions. The King no longer drinks from a goblet, he drinks from a goblet of daggers!

As always The Iron Tavern welcome suggestions for next week’s random table. If you have suggestions for next week’s table feel free to leave a comment to this post or over on Google+!

Roll (d20)	Goblet Description
1	crafted from smooth black and red marble, the thick stem rises to an oversized bowl
2	slender and smooth pewter colored base rising to thin crystal glass
3	crafted from intricately carved wood the goblet depicts a cluster of feathers forming the stem holding a bowl appearing as a nest of twigs and straw
4	pewter colored metal form the base and stem, giving way to a crystal glass bowl clutched by a trio of crow’s claws
5	crafted of white bone, possibly human, the stem appears as three femurs intertwined, topped by a bowl embossed with dozens of human skulls
6	made of a blue-toned metal, the stem rises to a bowl depicting a great sailing ship on heavy seas
7	made of a blue-toned metal, the stem rises to a bowl depicting a great sailing ship on heavy seas
8	dark metal comprises this goblet, the stem is fashioned to look liked a dozen daggers point up balancing the smooth bowl
9	made of polished silver, the goblet is devoid of any engravings save for the initials ‘LZM’ at the base of the stem
10	green tinged copper depicts two serpents entwined at the stem of the goblet, spiraling upwards to form a coiled bowl
11	the base material of this goblet is gold, though the entire vessel is covered with gems of a myriad of colors obscuring the underlying material
12	made of blown glass, the base and stem fade from an orange hue to a deep black bowl
13	made from resin covered woven fabric, this goblet stands 6″ in height
14	silver goblet with wide bowl engraved with a repeating series of triangular shapes
15	crafted from a ram’s horn, the goblet follows the natural curve of the horn with white and black marbling
16	a thin skeletal hand rises as the stem, grasping an ivory bowl with carvings of carrion birds circling it
17	stem of goblet carved to look like a wolf howling upwards, bowl balanced on wolf’s open maw
18	faded to time, dulled gold forms the goblet, a series of rubies circle the center of the bowl, two of which are chipped
19	a wide base moves up into a slender stem and barely expanding bowl, made of polished purple-hued crystal, a silver band covers the lip of the bowl
20	a black metal forms the bulk of the goblet with a gold elk on either side of the oversized bowl

Awarding XP

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

I have seen several discussions on how people award experience points for their system of choice. Some dole out the experience points by their system’s guidelines. Some make tweaks to the system or do it in a manner completely their own.

When I got back into gaming after a decade long lapse, I came with with D&D 3.x. I followed the experience point system religiously. Calculating challenge ratings, encounter levels and then handing out the appropriate amount of experience. A decent portion of my prep time was being spent with an experience point calculator so I could hand out experience points “correctly”.

My comeback as GM ended after about 6 months thanks to a TPK at the hands of an arachnid mouther. One of the other guys, a long time GM, in the newly formed group took up the reins as GM. He didn’t assign XP. He just told you when it was time to level up. It took just a little bit of getting used to, after all we were so used to recording experience points and watching that progression from week to week. But once we got used to this level up when the GM says, it worked out just fine.

The next time I GM’ed I ran a Paizo Adventure Path. I did not award XP at the end of each session. This alone frees up a good amount of time from bookkeeping. Time that can be better spent in other weekly preparation tasks. Of course with an Adventure Path this is a very easy method to use. Each installment of the AP tells you what level the characters should be at the beginning and at the end. This makes it very easy to keep pace without all of the overhead of calculating XP from week to week.

I adopted this same method for the Dungeon Crawl Classics game I am running online. I do not track XP there either. Characters hit 1st level once the 0-level funnel was complete. From there they level when I say it is time to hit the next level. We’ve been playing since late July, early August and they are 3rd level at the moment.

This method seems to have worked well for this DCC RPG group as well. It saves me a lot of time that can now be spent prepping fun things for the sessions instead of accounting tasks.

The Future

As I continue my closer look at several other OSR type rule systems it appears I may need to change my ways. With character classes frequently reaching their level advancement points at different XP amounts it will be a little harder to tell everyone to level-up at the same time.

I suspect as I finally settle in on an OSR system (or my own unique blend of them) I will end up handing out XP once again. I do not see myself going back to the meticulous accounting I used back in D&D 3.x, but a quick eyeballing, counting of treasure, and roll from there in handing out XP.

Finding this happy medium between arbitrary leveling up and meticulous accounting of XP I think the blend will help give players a feeling of achievement while still keeping my overhead as GM down.

I would much rather spend my limited time prepping the fun parts of adventures than playing accountant via complicated XP systems!

Random Table: Helm Descriptions

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Art by Johnny Automatic

Helm descriptions. That is this week’s random table. The descriptions below can be used to give the Gamemaster a quick description for either a magical or non-magical helm. Maybe you just need an identifying feature about the castle guard to spice up your description. Or maybe the heroes have just found a great magical helm that needs some extra flavor.

Have suggestions for next week’s table? Feel free to leave some ideas in the comments of this post or over on Google+!

Roll (d20)	Helm Description
1	silver, open-faced helmet with engraved, spiraling design etched into the metal
2	thick metal helmet, nose protecting band, band around the base with carved dwarven runes
3	goldish-hued helm with caged visor.
4	bronze helmet open-faced helmet with layered waffle pattern
5	helmet made of elk’s skull minus antlers, brown with discoloration
6	dark gray helmet, conical in shape with gold trim around base edges
7	open-faced metal helmet, plume made of black horse hair
8	wooden helmet, iron band around base and across the top
9	black visored helmet, visor fashioned into shape of skull
10	bright, mirror-like metal helmet, full-faced
11	boiled leather helm, studded iron band around the base
12	full-faced helm with ornate engraving of an eagle on each side
13	pewter colored metal, open-faced with band to protect nose
14	chain helmet, drapes to shoulders
15	boiled leather helm, a snake has been engraved into the leather, wrapping around the helmet
16	black metal open-faced, helmet, reinforced banding with raised gold decoration around edges
17	full-faced pewter gray helmet, visor has horizontal slits for and edged with black leather
18	battered metal helm, detachable chain face covering
19	boiled leather helm, thick leather bands with low profile metal studs
20	blood red full-faced helm, metal studs dot the helmet

Map: Wishing Well Cave

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

I have several irons in the fire at the moment, so today’s post will be short! But, given this is Wednesday and Wednesday has become a semi-regular map day, I present a micromap!

This map was originally done on a Post-It note. I used Sharpie Pens for the inking. The Post-It was scanned in and subsequently manipulated in Gimp and Inkscape for the final result. I have a whole collection of these micromaps, but I have not quite decided what I am going to do with them yet.

We’ll call this one The Wishing Well Cave…

Review: Interludes – Brief Expeditions to Bluffside

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

The Iron Tavern received a copy of Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside (IBEtB) last week to review. This is a supplement for the Castles & Crusades system published by Samurai Sheepdog and written by Jeff Quinn and Peter Schroeder. This product is a conversion of the original supplement for the Bluffside setting which was d20 D&D 3.x compatible.

The PDF is 42 pages in length, including appendixes and OGL license information. The product is in black and white. The adventure is designed for 2nd level Castles & Crusades characters.

The product includes an extensive Table of Contents. Every major encounter area, NPC, and player handout is included in the table of contents. Each clickable to jump right to the correct location.

Next follows the adventure summary and background and then a course of the adventure section. These are quite handy for a CK to quickly see the flow of the adventure and make reading the rest of the adventure a little easier by having this overview in mind. The adventure centers around a kidnapping of a family from a small village named Kirkwood. The PCs will be investigating and tracking down just who orchestrated this kidnapping.

The rest of the book is broken up into three main sections. Kirkwood, The Holy Grove, and The Crossroads. Each area is well detailed with buildings, NPCs, and maps throughout. The level of detail makes the area feel more like a mini-campaign setting than a single adventure. The detail has both good and bad points, though the bad points can be easily turned into good depending on the CK’s approach the module.

After reading this adventure I felt like there was almost too much going on and this product would be better marketed as setting than an adventure. With the amount of detail and NPCs for even the village of Kirkwood a CK could easily use it as a base of operations and an instantly populated town with interesting people and rumors. The main adventure almost felt secondary.

The adventure arc was good, it just felt a little lost amongst the other detail. A kidnapping with a twist and one that ties a couple of power groups together. I felt the adventure was very solid and would be an enjoyable play.

The module strikes me as better if the CK goes into it with expectations of it being a mini-setting with an already provided adventure with several additional plot-hooks and suggestions for future adventuring in the area. Kirkwood could provide many, many sessions of adventuring between the as written adventure, rumors, and suggested adventure opportunities.

The product is lightly illustrated with a handful of graphics appearing within. There are numerous maps of the area, buildings, and such. The maps suffice, but I think they could have been of higher quality, the resolution seems a little low for several of them. It does not impact the usability of the map though, just the overall appearance.

Overall the product seemed a little rough around the edges, but given just a little bit of work and prep from the CK offers an excellent starting point for a campaign. The town of Kirkwood is wonderfully detailed. There are plot hooks sprinkled throughout via rumors and there are numerous NPCs for a CK to use to generate building their own. While it appears the PCs are meant to pass through the village, it seems like a good place for low-level PCs to call a base of operations.

If you are need of a lower level C&C adventure and possibly a place for your PCs to call home for a bit I think Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside is a good purchase. Just be aware that it needs just a little polish from the CK to really make it sing and make it your own.

Random Table: Ship Names

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

Art – Johnny Automatic

This week’s random table is a list of ship names. This is certainly not the first random table of ship names or even the biggest. But the ship names here should all drop easily into a campaign. So the next time your characters are looking for passage or simply strolling along the docks, you have some handy ship names at hand!

Roll a d20 on the below table and the ship in the harbor has a name!

Have suggestions for next week’s table? Feel free to leave some ideas in the comments of this post or over on Google+!

Roll (d20)	Ship Name
1	Wolf of the Waters
2	The Swimming Rat
3	The Oaken Cask
4	The Shimmering Sea
5	Green Emerald
6	The Three Mistresses
7	The Lillian McKursky
8	Angel’s Asylum
9	The Twilight Star
10	Fawnra’s Pride
11	The Plying Pauper
12	The Two-Hearted Mermaid
13	Wayward Siren
14	The Lucky Albatross
15	The Whispering Sail
16	Adelaide
17	The Tempest Tempter
18	The Trinity
19	Silver Sea Spider
20	The Raging Prophet

G+ Event Banners

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Jeffrey Tadlock

I started converting some of the maps I have drawn into G+ Event Banners for my own games. I think they came out looking pretty good and more banners for use in scheduling your RPG related events is always a good thing!

To use these banners for your own events right click and save the image to your own computer. When creating your G+ Event you can choose Change Theme and select the Upload option. Drag the uploaded image to the box or browse to the location you downloaded the map banners to.

Enjoy!