Savage World Setting Idea: The Veil

Last year, I was finishing up the last couple books of the Harry Potter series and started on the Dresden series after that. Just like what usually happens, whatever I'm reading at the time fuels what I want to write about gaming-wise. So I set about creating a modern-day fantasy setting set in the real world. I took the Harry Potter universe mixed it with Dresden and added in bits of D20 Modern's Urban Arcana setting. I used the Savage Worlds system for the base and made lots of use of the Horror Toolkit as well as some Harry Potter fan settings. Like a lot of projects, my interest waned after a while, and the idea was set aside. Not abandoned; just saved for later when the inspiration grabs me again.

My wife and I have been watching Grimm (good show, not great, but certainly better than watching another reality show or talent competition), so I got to thinking about this setting again and how the Wesen would be an interesting idea to add to the setting. Then I got to thinking about how I've got a pic of Savage Worlds on my favorite systems list, but I've never really written up anything about it. So, I figured now was as good of a time as any.

This is the first post about "The Veil" (stupid name I know, but I suck at giving settings a decent name). I'm not actively developing it anymore, but I just thought I'd toss it out there in case any Savage Worlds players might get some use out of it.

Theme: A “Harry Potter”-like world.  Modern day real world governments, but there is a secret world of magic and monsters hidden from view from the rest of the world.  Normal people are constantly interacting with fantastical creatures, but “the veil,” a powerful spell that obscures all things fantastical, keeps those that are not either from a fantastical race or a human without the Sight from seeing them as they truly are.  Bugbears may appear a s burly bikers, goblins as midgets or unruly children, dragons flying through the sky appear to be nothing more than a plane.  There are forces that want to tear down the veil and force humanity to see the world as it truly is.

Magic: Magic is very much real. Only a small few have any real ability with magic. This is referred to as having “The Sight” (new Background Edge).  Those born from parents (even just one parent) that have The Sight will also have The Sight (though some with The Sight have no talent with magic, known as “Squibs” or “the Removed”).  About 2-5% of each generation of children born to parents without The Sight are born with it.  These children are detected at birth and upon reaching a certain age (depending on what part of the world they are born in) the parents and child are approached for the child to be sent to a special school for training.  Those with the Sight also see the world for how it truly is.  They see dwarves instead of little people, dragons instead of jets, and magic instead of fireworks. 

               

Muggles can be opened to the wizarding world as well.  Sometimes, even though they wish they had not seen something, a magical or fantastical event will open a Muggle’s eyes.  Most times, the Council of Magi will remove the memory of these events from the muggle’s mind so they can go back to their mundane lives, but there are some muggles whose minds are more resilient to change and are forever opened to the wizarding world.  These people cannot cast spells, essentially being the same as Squibs.  Sadly, many cannot handle the realization that their world is not how they have perceived it to be all of their lives.  The knowledge that magic and monsters do exist is simply too much for their psyches to handle and they go insane.  The Council of Magi tries to help these people as much as possible with counseling and such, and some have gone on to be liaisons between the Council and the muggle world.  These Muggles are often referred to as “the Awakened” or as being “Clued-In.”

               

There are many different magical schools throughout the world, and although each has a very similar curriculum, they each have a distinct regional flair. Hogwarts in the UK, Durmstrang in Russia, Salem Witches Institute and the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts in the US, Beauxbatons in France, Brazilian Wizarding School in Brazil, The Dragon Academy in China, Calcutta School of Magic in India, and the Celestial College in Japan are just a few of the more well known magical schools in the world. Each country also has differing ideas on how mages are utilized. 

               

There are some types of magic that are considered forbidden.  Magic dealing with time travel, mind control, and raising the dead have all been declared as forbidden by the Council of Magi.  That said there are always wizards searching for forbidden magics. 

Wizards and Government: In most areas of the world, wizards govern themselves.  There is a sort of a UN for wizards known as the Council of Magi that not only deals with matters in the wizarding world (such as determining what magic is and is not allowed), but also deals with Muggle (non-Sighted) governments.  There are laws against wizards openly using magic or enchanted items in front of those without the Sight, as well as for fantastical creatures revealing their natures to Muggles (such as a Gorgon petrifying people in Times Square, for instance).  Each nations’ wizards has their own governing body (in most cases) that deals with policing their own areas, with the Council stepping in only the most extreme cases. 

               

Many governments also have a secret liaison, always someone with The Sight but rarely a wizard, which works with the wizards in their country.  Some are fairly hands-off (such as in the UK and the US), while other governments want control of their wizards (such as in China) or are openly hostile (most Islamic countries, as well as parts of the US and Europe).

Wizards and Religion: The faith of a wizard is just as varied as that of normal people.  Some are Wiccans, some are Christians, others are Hindu, Confucian, or Taoist.  While the faith of a wizard matters little, the Muggles of a faith are usually the issue.  Christians have a very sordid past with the wizarding world.  The Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials have left a black mark on relations that have lasted to this day.  Thanks to interference from the Vatican, wizards are forbidden to make unsolicited contact with Sighted children in Italy and much of the Mediterranean, leading to very few wizards coming from that part of the world.  In the US, evangelical groups still talk of the dangers of witchcraft, even if they don’t fully understand what they are talking about.  However, the greatest source of intolerance is in the Middle East.  Fanatical Islamic counties have their own teams that identify, kidnap, and ultimately eliminate not only children with The Sight, but also the families out of fear that they will bear more heretical offspring.

Council of Magi: The Council of Magi, as mentioned above, governs the wizarding world.  They set the Great Laws (see below) a millennia ago, and continue to protect and oversee wizards and all things fantastical to this day.  Not only do they oversee the education of young apprentices through the setting up of magical schools, but also police wizards and protect muggles from those that would use their magic to harm the world.  There are several Departments that oversee a different aspect of wizarding life (see the list below). The Council is lead by the Minister of Magic.  Wizards the world over are allowed to vote every seven years on a new minister (or sooner should the Minister be declared unfit to serve).  He presides over the Wizengamot, a sort of representative court selected by the wizards of various nations, and casts the tie-breaking vote in deadlocked issues.  The Minister of Magic is also the face of the Council not only in the Real, but in the Cosmos as well. 

Department of Muggle Affairs: This department coordinates efforts between the Council and the nations of the world. 

Department of Mysteries: This is sort of the “X-Files” of the wizarding world.  This department is made up of mostly scholarly wizards studying various mysteries from strange magical artifacts, to important prophecies. 

Department of Aurors: Aurors are wizards tasked with tracking down and brining in wizards who break the Grand Laws.  They are not only skilled wizards, but also trained in combat.  Their magic is more combative than most wizards.  They are considered the best of the best. 

The Wardens: The Wardens are a group of Squibs and Awakened muggles that are trained to deal with fantastical threats ranging from taking out ghouls to the slaying of rogue vampires.  They are highly trained and skilled, and even assist the Aurors in the capture of rogue magi.  Wardens are the only Awakened muggles that are allowed to openly wield magical items (enchanted vests, weapons, etc…).  They all wield silvered, runed swords that are also their badge of office. 

Order of St. Mungo: Mungo was a hedge wizard active during the Black Plague in Europe.  While he wasn’t considered a powerful wizard, he tirelessly used his magics to heal those battling the plague and also made hedge magic and potion brewing a respected area of magic.  The Order of St. Mungo is the healthcare department of the Council of Magi, they oversee the various hospitals and asylums throughout the world devoted to curing magical maladies and offering aid to those that are affected by curses, jinxes, and hexes of a permanent nature (lycanthropy, mummy rot, etc.).

Department of Fantastical Creature Control: This department acts as a sort of conservation agency specializing in non-sapient fantastical creatures.  They make sure that creatures like griffins, mandrakes, and the lesser dragons are kept safe and securely away from muggles. 

Department of Inter-Species Communication: This department handles affairs with non-human, intelligent species like goblins, dwarves, elves, and the like.  Most non-humans in the world have never dealt with and will never deal with this department.  They simply live their lives among humans as a human (at least while out in public).  However, there are some species, like centaurs and giants, that cannot hide behind the Veil to fit into muggle society.  Also, there are groups that arise every so often that demand certain rights or demand changes in policies that restrict non-humans in certain ways; these are the problems this department deals with.  This department also handles contact with the Sanguine Council of the vampires. 

The Grand Laws: Simply stated, the Grand Laws are:

·         No killing mortals with magic.

·         No use of the Unforgivable Curses (Avada Kadavra, Cruciatus, and Imperius)

·         No mind-reading.

·         No necromancy.

·         No time travel.

·         No seeking knowledge and/or power from Outsiders.

The Worlds Beyond: There are other realities beyond our world.  These are places that exemplify ideals or aspects of our world to mind-shattering heights.  Travel to these places is extremely difficult, and once there survival is slim.  Even if someone survives the journey to one of these other realms, returning to the real world is just as difficult as the trip there and returning with any sanity is in many cases doubtful at best. 

Faerie: The Faerie is split into two distinct realms: The Green and The Withering.  The Green is home to Oberon and the Seelie Court while the Withering is home to Queen Mab and the Unseelie Court.  While the Unseelie Court is vicious and evil, do not make the mistake in thinking the Seelie Court is benign.  Both realms feature the extremes of vibrant and dying plant and animal life.  The Green being more dazzling, beautiful, and powerful than anything seen on Earth.  The Withering being more diseased and pestilent that any area on Earth. 

Heaven: No one really knows what this realm is like beyond what is said by the Seraphim (the realm’s only verified residents).  Many religions consider it a place of rest for those who are loyal/pious/penitent enough in their lives.  The actions of the Seraphim don’t really speak to this though. 

The Hells: Known by many names in many religions, the Hells are the homes of the Fallen and the demonic hosts. The Hells consist of many different realms, and not all are lakes of hellfire filled with the screaming souls of the damned. Some are frigid, others are vast, seemingly unending cities, while a couple are rumored to be quite pleasant...at least by the description of demons, and they are less than trustworthy.

The Far Realm: A place of chaos and madness.  This is supposedly where the Elder Gods, and the first whispers of Creation, came from.  Just catching a glimpse of the gibbering undulating horrors that call this place home are enough to drive most mortals insane.  Beings from this place are known as Elders. 

The Real: Also known as Creation and our world. 

The Catholic Church: The Catholic Church is the oldest Christian faith in the world.  They have battled time and again with the forces of darkness.  They have also battled with the wizarding world over the centuries as well.  The Spanish Inquisition sent to death many innocent wizards and fantastical creatures.  While there is an uneasy peace between the Council of Magi and the Vatican, splinter groups on both sides keep the heat turned up. 

The Knights of the Cross: This group of priests and devout warriors that battle demonic forces were born out of the Spanish Inquisition.  They are no longer officially sanctioned by the Vatican to carry out their war on the paranormal, but it is rumored that they are not completely unconnected to the Church either.  Their members are vicious and single-minded in their devotion to their cause.  While they tend to focus their ire on demonic entities, they still strike out at witches and wizards who they consider to be in concert with demons. 

The Exorcists: The Catholic Church has always trained some priests in the rites and tactics of exorcism.  These priests are chosen from the most psychologically and physically tough of those who wish to pursue this course.  Exorcists do not deal with wizards much at all, but there have been some disastrous exorcisms performed on people that were not possessed by demons but were in fact under the effects of a curse. 

Vampires: The culture of vampires is quite complex.  On the surface, there is the Sanguine Council that controls and monitors vampires in much the same way as the Council of Magi oversees wizards. However, their only real goal is the control of the vampire population in the world. Without the Sanguine Council, vampires would have overrun humanity ages ago.  The Sanguine Council is a group of the oldest and therefore most powerful vampires in the world, with the most powerful overall sitting as the Count.  The current count is Orlov Trantesque.

               

There are many different varieties of vampires in the world, and there are many different factions in vampire culture.  Some wish to keep the peace between the living and vampires (vampires can come from just about any living sentient species), while others want to rule over the other species.  Some factions are made up of various vampire types; while others take a more “pro-strain” viewpoint (the powerful Vampire Houses are of this variety).

Western Vampires: These are the typical vampires that most people think of.  They feed on blood, are burned by holy water, can’t tolerate the smell of garlic, are turned away by religious icons, and so on. 

Eastern Vampires: These vampires are also known as Hopping Vampires.  They look more corpse-like than Western Vampires, and their bodies are very rigid.  While they don't look nearly as dangerous as western vampires, they can leap great distances and their claws can tear through armor and people with ease. They still have a seat on the Sanguine Council, but it has been centuries since any of their number have bothered to take part. 

Nosferatu: These vampires are an off-shoot of Western Vampires.  The nosferatu were born out of Karl Vargus, who refused to feed on sentient species after being turned.  His subsistence of living on rats and other animals warped his appearance into a more ghastly, corpse-like visage with claw-like fingers and large, pointed ears.  These vampires tend to stay in the shadows and wish for peace with the living.  They are called “the Weak” and “Rat-Feeders” by other vampires. 

Psychic Vampires: These vampires do not feed on blood, but on the minds of their victims.  They can psionically drain the spirit from a victim, leaving them as a husk of their former selves.

Lycanthropes: There are two varieties of lycanthropes, those who are created and those who are born naturally, sadly both are cursed. Naturally born lycanthropes have at least one parent who is also a lycanthrope.  They can control when they change, and are unaffected by the phases of the moon, but they still carry the curse.  Cursed or created lycanthropes are those that have contracted the curse from another lycanthrope (cursed or natural, it doesn’t matter).  They typically only transform into their hybrid forms during the full moon, but some have learned to change whenever they like, and few even learn how to change into their fully animal forms.  During the full moon, however, cursed lycanthropes lose all sense of self and become murderous savages.  The Department of Inter-Species Communication tries very hard to keep tabs on all cursed and natural lycanthropes.  Many cursed are taken to one of the hospitals or asylums ran by the Order of St. Mungo, for counseling, and many become permanent residents as they either become insane or find they are unable to make the necessary life changes needed during the full moon each month to keep from hurting others. 

               

Natural lycanthropes generally live among humans as humans. The curse that they carry was given to them by an ancient pagan shaman thousands of years ago for some slight that has long been forgotten. Some of these natural lycanthropes work closely with the Order of St. Mungo searching for a counter-curse that will finally remove the curse from their species.

Next up: Races!

1,510 and why I tend to keep my toys to myself...

So, I've been so busy on the work and home fronts that I haven't really had time to devote to much of anything. Since I feel like I need to be "in the zone" to get much setting writing done, I've balked on sitting down and chipping away at that. However, I have been building a master catalog of creatures (something I can sit down and work on a bit at a time and not worry about losing my focus). Between Monstrosities, Tome of Horrors, and various other outlets like Knockspell and Hex Crawl Chronicles (of which I still have a few to buy) and my own conversions and creations, I've built up 1,510 creatures for use with S&W!

I've still got a few other S&W related products to add to my Monster Codex (which, once printed and bound, will sit beside my copy of Tome of Horrors and used in conjunction with my pdf copy of Monstrosities). Plus, there are thousands of great creatures out there ripe for conversion from other sources. I've already converted the Basic D&D Creature Catalog and a handful of creatures from the 2nd edition Monstrous Manual. I have tons of creatures in the various MC Appendixes, OSR monster books, 3E monster books and so on. This is an ongoing project that will grow and grow over the years.

I doubt I'll ever post these because I'm terrible at keep track of my sources and I'm just as bad at writing the legalese for OGL. While I am tremendously thankful to the Gods of Gaming for the OGL, I'm not really comfortable with sticking my neck out to post my collections of things converted from other sources. Plus, I know that if some creation of mine was used in another's product I would like to get credit for it. Collecting sources is something I'm getting better at, but I'm still using material I downloaded back from the old AD&D-L mailing lists, and I didn't have the foresight back then to make a note of who wrote everything that I use. Not to mention the fact that I'm terrible at making sure that something is "open content" before I use it. So while I'd love to post my Monster Codices and my version of the Swords & Wizardry rules, I doubt I ever will. There will always be bit and pieces that will get posted like my conversion of Mass Effect foes, but that's likely about it.

I just can't seem to leave well enough alone...

I was watching some Star Trek: TNG this weekend and it got me thinking about my house system for sci-fi again. During the development of the system I've found myself falling into the trap of adding too much to the system. I'm not really happy with certain aspects of the system when playtesting. It's one of those things that certain aspects sound good, but when implemented don't turn out quite right. Plus, with my recent work with the Swords & Wizardry rules, I've got to thinking about how I can change things around to make certain aspects easier to run.

First off, I'm taking a play out of the S&W rules and changing saves to a single save column.

Skills are going to be implemented in the same way as is presented in Basic D&D. Characters stat play with 4 skill selections (humans start with 6). Skill rolls are simply a d20 roll against the character's attribute score. A roll under the score succeeds, with a roll of 20 always failing. Skills don't increase other than using additional skill selections on the same skill. Each additional skill selection applied to a trained grants a -1 bonus to the skill roll. Class skill lists are still used with Cross Class skills requiring 2 selections to gain training. Classes are granted the chance to become proficient with weapons, which will now have a "Proficiency Rating" that is a bonus to attack rolls. Each class, however, will have a set list of weapon and armor proficiencies. Some classes, like Diplomat, may not be proficient with any weapons. Requiring them to spend a skill selection if they want to gain the proficiency rating bonus. For armor, each skill spent in armor allows the character to wear the next category of armor (Light/Medium/Heavy/Power), but all characters can wear light armor.

I'm removing all of the career builds for characters. It's a neat idea, but it really doesn't add that much to the ease of the character creation process. Plus, I find that builds such as that tend to get players to see them as really the only such option for that type of characters. Better to just get rid of them.

Psionics...I'm waffling a bit on this. I may go the standard SWN route, but the idea of scrapping the Psion class altogether in lieu of characters having a chance of having a psionic power, a single power, has some appeal.

Much of the rest of the work I've done will still be usable, but as I go through the changes more things may crop up.

I've been laid low...

I've been battling a sick baby and a sinus infection this week, so that's why everything has been pretty quiet so for here at Worlds Galore. Go firgure, the weather is finally nice for more than a couple days and my head feels like its full of concrete a sick nearly 1 year old doesn't help matters either.

Needless to say, I haven't put in much work on the S&W setting this week. What little time I've either had for writing or felt like writing has been spent updating the rulebook. Here's my most recent changes:

Added a Shaman class based largely off the class of the same name from GAZ12, but combined with bits and flavour from GAZ14 as well. Shaman deal in totem animal spirits and the spirit world from which they draw their power. They are a cleric-like class who are the holy men of nomadic tribes primarily found in Ethengar and the plains of the Atruaghin tribes.

Added in the Magic Item Creation rules from the Rules Cyclopedia.

I'm starting to rethink my use of Drow over Shadow Elves. I may relegate the Drow back to NPC/Monster status and use Shadow Elves instead, complete with their own additional spell list akin to that of the Wood Elves, but with spells that are more of use in underground settings.

Added a lot of spells from the various GAZ books.

I hope to start work on the world map this weekend, but we'll see. Hopefully, I'll have something to share soon.

Rest in Peace, Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen is on a short list of people that have spurred my imagination more than any others. I got my first taste of his work in the original Clash of the Titans and seeing the mythical creatures from my storybooks come to life was nothing short of magical. I've since devoured the various Sinbad movies, and his other works.

While the movies and TV show of today can seamlessly blend FX and live action in ways that few would have ever dreamed possible back when Mr. Harryhausen started, I still look back fondly on his stop-motion creations. It's because of Mr. Harryhausen that I'm still so involved in gaming today. It's funny, whenever I use creatures like skeletons, medusas, or iron golems, I still envision them as I saw them in him movies.

Thank you, Mr. Harryhausen. Thank you so very much. I'm going to introduce my sons to Clash of the Titans tonight in your honor.

So this is my 100th post. I can't think of a better way to mark it than by honoring a man that helped get me to a place where I wanted to create worlds and creatures like what he brought to us in his movies.

S&W Setting Musings: Religions

I've always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with how faith is handled in lots of D&D editions. Basic, which is serving as the foundation to the setting, had Immortals: adventurers that have grown in power to the point that they are deified. AD&D through 4E (and well, D&D Next as well it appears) have gods that are worshiped and may take an active role in the setting. These pantheons are typically set and most races at least acknowledge the existence of these gods. The barbaric humans and demi-humans may worship other, lesser, gods, but these are typically seen as false gods, or more "cthulhuesque" old ones. Neither option really feels right to me.

I've never really liked the idea of the gods playing an active role in the world. Some of the worst things to happen to two of D&D more popular settings have been due to the activeness of deities in the world. It's an easy way to re-set a setting for a new edition of the rules, but it's always struck me as a bit lazy. After all, if the gods are going to come down and mess everything up, what's the point of adventuring in the first place? I don't know why I never liked the idea of the players becoming gods in their own right. It seems like a logical conclusion to an epic run. The players have become more powerful than anything else in the world, why shouldn't they become gods in every sense of the word? Meh. Maybe it's because I never really got to those dizzingly high levels (and therefore never got to use the Immortals rules), so I just don't fully understand the fun of playing a god-like being? Possibly.

The set pantheons of many settings, where all the races worship the same gods or at least know that the gods of other races exists alongside their own is just as boring to me. I've fallen into this as well over the years as well. This also leads to the same gods being used over and over, just with a new name. There's a god of Justice, a god of Death, a god of Nature, the chief gods of the elves and dwarves and orcs ad nauseum.

For this setting, I'm taking some hints from the Basic D&D Gazeteers and running with them. Religions are going to be plentiful, but localized. There are only a few widespread faiths (like the Eternal Truth of the Emirates), but many are still hero worship (like the Cult of Halay in Karameikos) or the worship of spirits and ancestors. Even the more contemporary churches may not be tied to any specific god, but to moral ideas (like the Church of Karameikos and the Church of Traladara). How will this affect clerics? Very little. They will still need to meditate on their spells to gain their suite of castable spells like normal. Even if a cleric's faith isn't tied to any particular god, but more to an ideal they still get to cast spells as the cleric that worships a specific deity or demon. There will still be pantheons and families of gods like those found in Greek and Roman myth, but they will be tied to cultures where is makes more sense to have them.

I think this more natural (for lack of a better word) track of using faith will better fit the setting and the various cultures. I can see it being more work, but since religion rarely comes up in game unless the party has a cleric who is prone to proselytizing their faith I won't need a ton of detail on each and every faith. Much like the real world, where there are numerous religious beliefs, it is interesting to see how many un-connected cultures have faiths that are very similar to one another. I can detail a cult, and those details can work for a couple other cults as well with just a little tweaking of the flavor text.

How will such an approach affect the cosmology? Well, I'm tossing out any ideas of an orderly planar wheel like what was found in AD&D and expanded in Planescape. I use the simple Law/Neutral/Chaos alignments, and even then I'm not overly slavish to them (unless a character's class or background demands that I pay close attention to their in-game decisions), so having an alignment-based cosmology doesn't make much sense. There are planes in the setting. Ethereal, Astral, and the Elemental Planes are a given. Other planes of existence will be largely based on the faiths. A lot of faiths that have a "hell or hells" in them will all be tied essentially to the same group of torturous planes that are the home of demons. (I don't make any distinction between demons and devils in my games. They are all just infinitely evil, horrific beings.) Many "heavens" may all be tied to essentially the same place as well, especially if the faiths are more tied to moral ideals than to any specific god. "The Green" will be a place in which the Faerie Court will be located, which will tie heavily into the elven myth and legends. Pantheons will still have their own planes...possibly. Some of the ideas I'm toying around with on how faith and cleric spellcasting actually work would make the need for pantheonic planes.

There you have it, some general ideas on how I'm going to handle religions in my S&W setting.

Next post is #100...I don't know that I'll do anything overly special or not to mark hitting the century mark or not.

Setting Update and Closing in on 100...

I've been hammering away at both the campaign setting and adding to/modifiying my hack of the S&W rules. Here's the latest:

I've come to the realization that I'm going to have to essentially re-draw the map of Mystara. The outside material I'm adding in is enough that I can't just squeeze in places here and there and still use the map as is. It sounds like a big task, and I guess it is to a point, but I've already got a rough sketch down of much of the main continent which really is the big part of the task.

As far as backstory goes, I'm going with a "world is darkening" vibe. The wilds are encroaching. While life in the Thyatian and Alphatian Empires is still civilized (well, as civilized as it ever is), the border nations are seeing more creatures, more raids by the savage tribes, and it's getting harder and harder to maintain the status quo. Some of the smaller baronies are falling, or rebelling against the Empires. All the while, the need for expansion is fueling the headlong rush into very possible destruction in many areas. I'm still working out many of the finer details, but it's coming along. Not much that I can really share just yet, but I hope to before long.

I've stated several times that one of the main things that I love about Swords & Wizardry is that I can utilize basically everything in my collection from Basic D&D through D&D 3.5/Pathfinder without a bunch of complex conversions and such. As I'm making notes of places and things I want to have in the setting, I'm converting spells, items, creatures from the materials. I've added a lot of spells from the various Gazeteers, the skill system from the Basic D&D Rules Cyclopedia, and the Shaman class from GAZ12. In my rulebook, I've got conversions from the Wizard's Spell Compendium from 2nd edition AD&D, races from 3E/Pathfinder, and monsters from all over the place. Most of these items didn't take much real conversion at all. Thanks to S&W (and a compulsion to write these days), I'm utilizing more of my collection now than I have at any other point in my gaming history!

One final note, I'm closing in on post #100. I almost feel like I should post something special, but I haven't figured out what yet. I hadn't really done much with this blog until last December, but it's exploded since then. Not sure why I've gotten into the blogging swing of things again, but I'm glad I have. By getting involved in the blogging community, my desire to write is back in full swing, and I've discovered a ton of great blogs. Now if I could just get a regular game going....

The Marvel RPG "Curse" Strikes Again

In case you haven't heard, tomorrow, April 30th is the last day that you'll be able to purchase the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game and its sourcebooks in pdf form. Margaret Weis Productions has lost the license and Marvel wants product pulled off of ebook catalogs. It's a shame really, I didn't much care for the system because of the muddy rules and lack of real character creation (though the fans have sorted those aspects out), but it was getting good press and it seemed like it was selling well, and even though the system didn't suit me I still liked the books; they were gorgeous and fluff was well put together. Evidently it wasn't selling up to Marvel's expectations however.

I don't know what the deal was that MWP struck with Marvel, only Marvel and MWP know that, but it seems like the string of Marvel RPG failures since the end of the original Marvel Super Heroes RPG from TSR have one thing in common: Marvel has really high expectations for any licensing deal they make. There's nothing wrong with that, but they should temper their expectations with a nice garnish of knowledge of the medium. RPG's aren't the big sellers they were in the pre-internet days. We're not likely to ever see another RPG boom like we did when D20 burst onto the scene (then again, stranger things have happened). Even in the days before the net and MMORPG's it wasn't like D&D was outselling all other forms of entertainment, y'know the days when MSH was on the market and running strong...

Plus, I can't help but notice that Marvel RPG seem to always be attached to some "experimental" product. The color chart of MSH, card-based roleplaying in SAGA, and then awful resource management of the Marvel Universe RPG. Marvel Heroic wasn't really experimental, but Cortex is hardly a "mainstream" rpg. If they wanted higher sales, go with the current big dog in the supers RPG market: Green Ronin and their well done Mutants & Masterminds. Sure, they'd have their characters stated up in the same system as their competitor DC, but so what? No matter the system, gamers are going to stat up their favorite characters, and I don't know anyone that only does Marvel or only does DC out of some sense of purity or what-have-you. Heck, they could have even licensed it to Steve Kenson to work with his excellent ICONS system (yeah, I realize that Steve didn't have control of ICONS when MWP struck their deal with Marvel). ICONS may not be the M&M juggernaut, but it's still a damn fine system written by the same guy that made M&M what it is.

All in all, I see the only "curse" with Marvel is, well, themselves. They expect too much from a niche market in a niche market in a down economy. There's plenty there in the Marvel Universe to put out a library of books, and great material to keep gamers that love supers to keep coming back for more, but that's never going to happen if Marvel expects RPG's to sell anything like toys and/or video games. Plus its just as likely not to happen if they keep going with untried system. Sure there's that chance they'll hit onto something that will resonate with gamers that's beyond the norm, but the chances of that are rare. If sales are the main concern they need to go with someone that's tried and tested, be it an author like Steve Kenson, or by licensing the universe for use with a popular system.

It's sad to see Marvel Heroic leave the e-shelves of e-bookstores through they net, and here's hoping that someone else it willing to give it another shot.

Razor Coast

The Razor Coast setting for Sword and Wizardry is out in pdf form. (You can purchase it from RPGnow or from Frog God Games.) I've been waiting for this for a while now, but I ended up settling on the Freebooter's Guide to the Razor Coast for now. The Freebooter's Guide gives players all the base information they need to create characters and get a general understanding of the various factions and what life is like in the Razor Coast. There are three new races (though one is the native humans of the region), new spells, new gods, new weapons/armor/items, and three new monsters. All in all, I'm happy with the purchase. The setting is well-written and therefore interesting. It's a must buy for anyone wanting to play in the Razor Coast.

I mentioned that I settled on just the Freebooter's Guide for now. That's because the main setting book is $40 for a pdf. That's a bit steep for an ebook, in my opinion. Now, I don't have any idea of the costs involved with putting this book together, so don't mistake me when mention the cost. For me, that price is too steep, but I don't expect anyone to change the cost to please me. It costs what it costs. That said, I do eventually intend on picking up the setting book, when it better fits into the budget to do so...though I'll still likely flinch visibly when hitting the confirm payment button...

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...

...or so they say.

I've been neglecting the blog this week in lieu of working on my S&W setting...which turned into another rules tweak, which turned into a proofreading session, which has taken much of my free time this week. I've got a couple of updates to the race list I need to get written up, and I want to go into the various human races that live in the setting as well.

As I'm going through the D&D Gazeteers mining the heck out of them for ideas, I've come across the forgotten (at least by me) Shaman class. I've got several animal atavistic-centered societies and thought it may make a good additon to the classes I have for the players in my hack of the S&W rules. Which brings me to my next idea...

I understand the reasoning behind the differing XP Progressions. (For those of you on the G+ Swords & Wizardry community, +Brett Slocum brought up this very topic today.) I've been batting around the idea of having a 3E style single progression table for all classes. I've always taken a very free and loose attitude towards XP. I hand it out as I see fit, and not necessarily because the rules say how XP should be handled. Magic-Users are fairly weak in the early levels, but they quickly grow into very powerful characters. However, that power is finite, being tied to the number of spells they can memorize. Plus, a fighter (or even a ranger, barbarian, or paladin) can "bring their A game" to bear in combat at all times (unless they are subject to some spell or curse that is). They are wholly viable on the battlefield no matter how long the battle laasts, no matter how badly they've been pounded, so the power level issues may actually come out in the wash. I haven't crunched any numbers on this, just eyeballing it. Has anyone done this in early editions? How did it go? Was the party wholly out of whack, or was it even noticed?

Races Part 2

Here's Part 2 of my continuing series of brief ideas on the races that will be found in my S&W setting.

Half-Breeds: Like Giantkin, these other half-races live lives where they never feel at home. Shunned, hated, and abused, it's little wonder many half-races live tragically short lives either turning to lawlessness or to the dangerous lives of adventurers.

Half-Elves are one half-race that may be able to find acceptance in the civilized world, as human-elf pairings are those that are more likely to be those based on love and affection. Still, such relationships are typically never accepted by either human or elf communities. The parents are often times shunned and degraded, and their children even moreso. It is this descrimination that drives many half-elves to become forces of change in their communities, while others will leave home as soon as they are of age (even before so) to become travelers, bandits, beggars, and adventurers. Many half-elves will try to hide their heritage, posing as either a human or an elf, but these ploys never stand up to instense scrutiny.

Half-Ogres are rare. Ogres value strength and ferocity above all other qualities and these qualities are taught at a very young age, so few half-ogres live very long. Among humans, half-ogres are a constant reminder of the violence that oftentimes brings them into the world. Half-Ogres who are particularly cunning can use their wits to lead small bands of ogres, or play up their more brutish looks to become hired guards and sellswords to wealthy merchants. Still, a half-ogre needs to live long enough to be able to take advantage of these opportunities and very, very few do.

Half-Orcs live lives similar to that of half-ogres. They are seen as weak by their orc families, and are seen as abominations by thier human families. Orcs are more intelligent and ever so slightly more cultured than ogres, so half-orcs do tend to have a better chance of living among orc tribes. Their lives tend to be miserable, as orcs see half-breeds as being little better than a goblin. If there isn't a goblin to abuse, then the next best thing is to kick a half-orc. Among humans, half-orcs suffer racism and even outright violence directed to them for simply existing. Life for half-orcs among humans is even sometimes worse than the lives of half-ogres since orc attacks on human villages are much more common, so there is a greater sense of animosity.

Halflings: Halflings primarily call the Five Shires home. They are a peaceful, agrarian people who prefer to stay out of the world of the big folk. Still, there are those that desire a life of adventure far from their quaint shires. One wouldn't think to look at them, but halflings are just as well suited to adventure as humans, dwarves, lupin, and other races. They may not be front-line troops (though more than a few invaders that have attempted to raid the Five Shires have discovered the ferocity of halfling warriors), but they are naturally stealthy and agile; perfect for thieves, scouts, and spies.

Humans: I'm not going to go into a lot of detail here, since I'm still researching and compiling information on the various human cultures available to players. Still, humans are the most populous race in the Known World. Few places in the world have not hosted this race in one form or another. They are the most diverse and adaptable race in world, so it should come as no surprise that they can be found virtually everywhere.

Minotaur: There are essentially two races of minotaur in the Known World: civlized (Taladasian) and uncivilized. The minotaurs from the island of Taladas are still a warrior race, but unlike the vast majority of minotaurs do not worship the standard minotaur gods of slaughter. They have come to worship gods of strength and justice (more informaiton on the various dieties of the campaign will come later). Taladasian minotaurs are sailors and merchants, but their most valuable commodity is their sword-arms. They may not be as massive and powerful as the bestial minotaurs, but they are still quite naturally strong.

Lupin: The dogfolk are a common sight in the Savage Coast region and are generally well-recieved by the most cultures in the Known World. They hail mostly from Renardy, where lupins make up the entirety of the government. The lupin ability to detect werewolves has made them highly sought after in parts of the world were the dread creatures are known to tread. (I'm going to modify the Dragon articles on Lupin and Rakasta sub-races for use in generating them as PC's.)

Rakasta: The catfolk of Bellayne are a common sight in the Savage Coast region. While not as well liked as lupins, rakasta are still a generally accepted race. They do not have the lupin reputation for loyalty and honor, but rakasta are known for being cunning warriors and nigh undetectable sneakthieves.

Ratfolk: The Ratfolk, or Ratanna as they call themselves, are a hated and reviled race, but many cities have found them to be a necesarry evil. They can be found throughout much of the Known World, but they are rarely seen. They live primarily below larger cities, especially those with advanced drainage systems. They build their warrens in these complexes. The Ratfolk have struck bargains with some cities to keep their sewers clear of creatures and spies for the price of clean food, clothing, and the like. Most refuse to deal with the ratfolk, however, and some city leaders even go so far to send the city watch or even bands of hired adventurers to rout out the creatures. Truth be told, Ratfolk are sneaky and dangerous not by any cultural goal to subvert other races, but out of necessity. They know what their reputation is, but many warrens attempt to change that perception. Sadly, most end up having to fight it out with their neighbors, which only solidifies the prejudices against them.

Sisters of Sword: The Sisters of the Sword are members of an ancient order of warrior women devoted to the gods of Light. The order takes in orphaned or otherwise unwanted girls, usually human, elven, or half-elven, and through a series of rituals the girls are transformed into a sister. All sisters retain their skin, hair, and eye color, but their bodies are transformed into tall, athletic, and beautiful women. They are trained in combat, mostly as fighters, but some become rangers, paladins, clerics, and spellswords. Sisters of the Sword are a rare sight in the world today, many of their cloisters have fallen over the years, and their numbers have dwindled as a result.

Spellborn: Spellborn are living constructs that were created during the First War. Long thought lost, they have only recently emerged from the ruins of their masters' former empire in the Anauroch Desert to become part of the greater world. It is unknown how the spellborn attained sentience, and if their sentience is a recent development. While most appear to be as honorable as any other race, their appearance is unnerving to many, leading many spellborn to be distrusted at best and attacked as monsters at worst.

Surasti: When Avalon was at the height of power, the kingdom of Surast was at it's darkest. Like a mirror image of Avalon, Surast was as dark and depraved as Avalon was cultured and blessed. The Mage-Kings of Surast had long conspired with demonic forces to concrete and expand their power. This constant use of foul magic tainted the land and the people. The Surasti, what few there are left in scattered, isolated pockets throughout the Known World, have the look of demons. Even though they overthrew the Mage-Kings and put their lands to the cleansing flame, their bodies are forever marked as having been tainted by foul magic. Their appearance has largely relegated the Surasti to the fringes of society. Even though they are no more prone to fall to the forces of darkness, most other races think the Surasti are always on the verge of succumbing to some demonic urge.

Tortles: Tortles are a gentle race of fishermen that can be found in many warm coastal regions in the Known World. They don't have any nation of their own, and largely live under the juridiction of other kingdoms, but as long as they are able to fish and largely keep to themselves they don't mind. Tortles have been targets of raiders before, but many have learned that the seemingly slow and over-kind creautres have fire in their bellies when threatened.

Wyrmblooded: Were the Draconians are born through the sorcerous tainting of dragon eggs, the Wyrmblooded were born by the blessing of the dragons gods Bahamut and Tiamat. Wyrmblooded are dragon-like humanoids that live in remote mountain regions, usually not far from an actual dragon lair. Some wander into the realms of other races in search of trade or adventure. While the first encounters with these beings were wrought in violence and fear, many villages and towns near wyrmblooded settlements have grown accustomed to the dragonkin.

Those are the races that players will be able to play at the start of the campaign, at least for now, the list may change a bit as I get to fleshing out the setting more. Plus, further deatils will be put out the further along I get with this process.

Fleshing Out Ideas for my S&W Setting: Races Part 1

I've mentioned a few time the setting that I'm slowly making progress on for S&W. It's using a lot of Basic D&D material, mainly the GAZ series, which to this day I still consider to be some of the best setting material ever put out for any edition of D&D. I'm also adding bits and pieces from other D&D settings like Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, and other D20 sources like Iron Kingdoms and Freeport.

Anyway, I've got a few things I'm trying to sort out as far of the history of the world and what races I'm going to allow and what their place in the world will be. This post (and likely the next two after) are going to deal with some really basic ideas behind the races in the world.

Playable Races

Avalonian (Aasimar): The last vestiges of an acient race that ruled the First Kingdom.

Cyclopskin: Civilized brutes that are allies of convenience with Dwarves of Rockhome.

Dwarves: There are two playable races of dwarf: Mountain and Red. Mountain Dwarves are the more common variety that are found throughout the known world.
       
The Red Dwarves are the descendants of the lost hall of Dhar Korvon, who became shipwrights, sailors, and pirates after being taken in by a fishing village.
       
Elves: There are two playable varieties of elf: Drow and Wood elves. The Drow are once recently becoming part of the world. Long have they been the enemies of all that stood in their way. Xenophobic and fanatical in their devotion to their spider goddess, a "cataclysm" has sent them scurrying into the light to live among their foes. What this disaster is, is still unknown.
       
Wood elves are the common elves that seen throughout much of the world. Their primary nation is that of Alfheim, but there are other scattered areas where they hold sway.
       
Giantkin: These hulking brutes are the offspring of humans and giants. Typically found wherever giants and men come into contact, they are still very rare. Giants see them as weak and readily kill them, while humans see them as a prime example of the cruelty of the giant races. In some areas, where the giant races are not hated invaders, giantkin can find love and acceptance, but these areas are rare.

Gnomes: Gnomes are a short race that look like a curious mixture of dwarf, halfling, and elf. They are an inventive and magically-focused species. They are the chief creators of the airships that can be found traversing the skies, though rarely these days as the world has grown darker.

Goblins: A more maligned and misunderstood race you are not likely to find. Yes, they are brutish, largely uncivilized and have a long history of warring against many of the civilized races of the world alongside orcs, hobgoblins, and various other nefarious characters. Goblins however, are not vicious little monsters, but due to their small size and relative weakness are easily coerced and bullied into serving others. Their natural culture is that of gypsy-like nomads. Contrary to popular opinion, goblins are not a stupid race. They are quite inventive, and well adapted to using the refuse of other cultures to build their machines. Goblins troupes have made strides in dispelling the stereotypes among others in borderland areas, but most kingdoms still see them as a threat to be exterminated.

Next up (hopefully tomorrow): Half-breeds, Halflings, Humans, Minotaurs, Lupins, and maybe a few others.

The Day After...

I'm still trying to get caught up on all the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day posts. I think I'm about halfway through them now. There's a lot of great stuff that the community of bloggers put out yesterday. A LOT.

The best part is discovering all whole host of new blogs that I didn't know existed. I added at least 25+ yesterday to my Feedly reading list, which was already pretty long.

A Word of Thanks

As I get ready to head home and dive into the veritable bounty of Swords & Wizardry goodness on display today, I want to give my thanks to +Matt Finch, +Erik Tenkar, the crew at +Frog God Games, and everyone else that is pitching in prizes or otherwise helped get the word out for this first (of hopefully many) Swords & Wizardry Appreciation day.

It's likely going to take me a few days to get through all the S&WAD posts, so I've got a lot to look forward to!

Thanks a bunch folks! You all are awesome!

On the Issue of Balance...

Making sure that all characters are essentially balanced with one another has been a consideration from the beginning. If early editions of D&D, this was done through differing Experience Point totals needed to level up along with the rules that casters forgetting spells once they were cast, which added an additional element of resource management to the game and therefore a bit of balancing of such character against Fighters. In later editions, a single XP table was added (with XP bonuses for playing certain race/class combinations), feats and skills were added with different progressions. It gave characters across the board more options for things to do, and the progression of special abilities being different for each class hoped to bring the idea of character balance to true fruition. Arguments on whether or not this class or that race or this feat combination and so forth still raged on just as the arguments on magic-users being the most powerful characters in later level raged in the early days of the game.

This has lead me to come to the conclusion that balance is a myth, or at least a fool’s errand.

Balance is going to come down to the players (DM included). A knowledgeable player can make a seemingly weak character sing while a player that’s not nearly as savvy can take a supposedly over-powered character and have a rough go of just keeping him/her alive. Plus, a DM who isn’t paying attention or worse yet, playing favorites, can greatly skew the game to make some character vastly more useful than others.

That’s not to say that DM’s should just let anything go. They need to be aware of the situations, of PC stats and abilities, and the ability of the players to play those characters. I remember one fight in a Night Below campaign I ran in college where a simple answer on the weather turned what should have been a very difficult battle into a cakewalk because I told a player playing a druid that the weather was drizzling and overcast. That opened the door for the player to cast Call Lightning on the river brigands which allowed the party a far easier victory than they ever would have had. The player knew his spells very well, but a couple other players started talking about either the druid or the spell being far too powerful or both. Now, once the party got into the Underdark portion of the campaign (the vast majority of the mid and upper levels of the campaign) that tune changed dramatically.

When I go about adding classes to a game, I try to keep them all on a relatively even keep power-wise. I don’t crunch a lot of numbers, just eyeball it until I feel I found the right “sweet spot.” In my experience, the lighter the rules, the easier it is to do this. I don’t know if that’s an issue of more of the rules being up to the DM to come up with on the fly, or the mentality of players coming into a game with a more open set of rules keeps their focus more on the game rather than trying to “game the game.” This largely speaks to what I was talking about in an earlier post about more rules not really equaling more enjoyment (in fact quite the opposite, especially if I’m running the game). While arguments over power and balance were/are had when talking about early editions of D&D and their OSR clones and inspired-by games, they don’t appear to be the norm. There are entire sections of many message boards devoted to later editions of D&D and their OGL offspring devoted to crunching the numbers to prove that balance has been destroyed by the addition of a race, or class, or feat, or spell. I find that to be tiresome minutiae that distracts from the real fun of the game: building a collective story, even if that story is as simple as killing things and taking their stuff.

I’ll admit that when I first got into 3^rd Edition, I fell wholeheartedly into the balance trap. I had arguments with others in my group and on message boards about the effects on balance of certain aspects of the game(s). Discovering Swords & Wizardry with it’s simple and elegant design inspired by “0E” reminded me how much more fun it is to just play the damn game instead of focusing on making sure everyone’s’ character were on as level surface as possible.

This wall of text is essentially my way of pre-facing (long-windedly, sorry) some of the things I’ve added to S&W that may not seem quite so copacetic to others as I continue to post about my journey with S&W.

Elf Spells

In many games and campaign settings, elves are written to be these magical creatures, but the mechanics often fit more of a ranger than magic-user. As a inspired by Basic D&D where the elf "class" could cast spells, I decided to add in a special spell list that only elves can access. Any elf magic-user can learn any of these spells along with the normal magic-user spell list. A lot of these spells are druidic in nature, which I liked the idea of tying together elven magic with their love and stewardship of nature. Some of these spells are from Basic D&D and other sources, so some conversion may be required for home use.

Elf Spells

Level 1

Command Word

Faerie Fire

Faerie Lights

Fellowship

Locate Animals

Longstride

Precipitation

Resist Cold

Watcher

Level 2

Detect Danger

Know Alignment *

Predict Weather

Produce Flame

Purify Food and Water

Resist Fire

Silence, 15’ Radius

Warp Wood

Level 3

Call Lightning

Cure Disease

Cure Light Wounds

Heat Metal

Hold Animal

Obscuring Mist

Protection from Poison

Speak with Animals

  

Level 4

Animal Growth

Animal Summoning I

Enchanted Weapon

Remove Curse

Level 5

Control Winds

Dissolve

Insect Plague

Neutralize Poison

Plant Door

Protection from Lightning

Temperature Change 10 feet

Level 6

Anti-Animal Shell

Cure Serious Wounds

Pass Plant

Level 7

Create Normal Animals

Rock

Teleport Object

Transport Via Plant

Truesight

Turn Wood

Level 8

Creeping Doom

Transmute Metal to Wood

Wind Walk

Swords & Wizardry, or How I Fell in Back in Love with Old School

I started playing D&D with the 1981 Moldvay edition of D&D. It was borrowed from a friend's dad. I didn't have a full grasp of the rules or even what the creatures were. (I sent against my brother's heroes a horde of Halflings, for instance.) Until that point, my only "roleplaying" experience was either through video games like The Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy, or through the classic dungeon crawler boardgame: Hero Quest. We made up a lot of things as we went along, especially when the game took us in a direction that the rules weren't clear about. At the time, in our feverish young minds, not having a rule set in stone was cause for argument and likely fighting, so it didn't take long to move to my friend's father's version of AD&D 1st edition, which had a lot more rules, and from there onto 2nd edition and to 3rd and so on. Each edition added to the rules base. Sometimes the rules made sense, other times, not so much. It wasn't until shortly after the release of 3.5 that I realized that I wasn't really having any fun. All these rules and special circumstances had become a drag on not only the game, but my desire to play it. Eventually, I wandered away from fantasy gaming in general, heading off to the fertile fields of pulp and sci-fi gaming with lighter systems that fit not only the play-style I preferred but also allowed me to focus less on the prep (prepping even mid-level games in 3.5 was a nightmarish chore) and more on enjoying the game.

Although I had left D&D several times in the past, there's something familiar about fantasy gaming that keeps me coming back. D&D especially draws me in. I've tried running other fantasy systems or multi-genre systems in a fantasy world from GURPS to Savage Worlds, none really drew me in they way that D&D's tried and true class-based system has. However, the thought of running D&D...bleh. Once I discovered the OSR games, I was being drawn in, first on a wave of nostalgia, but then I became entranced by the changes made to the classic games. Still, even though I enjoy Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Basic Fantasy Roleplay, it wasn't until I found Swords & Wizardry that it really struck home how awesome old school could be.

Swords & Wizardry struck the right chord between the old and the new. Support for Ascending AC first caught my eye. Then I noticed the single save. Even though the rules were based on of the little books from D&D initial beginnings, races and classes were split up. The rules were slim and left many things open to the interpretation of each individual GM. The support of the Tome of Horrors converted for use with Swords & Wizardry didn't hurt in the least either. By the time I finished reading the rules, I was hooked and new this was the fantasy game for me.

Anyone reading this blog should know that I won't leave a system unchanged. Matt Finch even supported the hacking up of the rules by releasing a text version for those of us that want to hack into the game to really make it our own. Excellent! (I've covered some of the changes I've made to S&W in the past here.) I've modified classes from various OSR sources, like Classes of the Far East for Labyrinth Lord, to add to the game. I changed races from having to roll specific benchmarks to simple bonuses and penalties to stats, and expanded the selection. I added in skills like those found in the D&D  Rules Cyclopedia. Elven magic-users have additional spells they can choose spells from in addition to the normal magic-user list (a carry over from Basic D&D, but one that reinforced the supposed Elven tie to magic that never seems to be very evident in the rules). Spells that were easily converted from various Basic, 1st, and 2nd edition sources were added to the lists. I've bloated the rulebook, but didn't add many rules, that's the great thing.

Swords & Wizardry has given me what I've wanted, one that is inspired by the old, but takes mods from the new; a system that's written very much with the idea that the system will be tore into and made into a wholly new beast.

Enough pumping up S&W. My next post will start to outline the setting I'll be working on as a semi-regular feature along with my sci-fi setting and (hopefully) the MSH setting to boot. (Yes, I am that much of a glutton for punishment, and no I really don't have all that much free time.)

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day sale Tomorrow!

The other day I mentioned that Frog God Games is going to have a 25% off sale on S&W products in honor of the first Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. Well, that's tomorrow, but I have the code that you need if you want to take advantage of the sale: SWApprDay.

Plus, if you go to the D20srd.com shop, use this code to get 25% off S&W products (listed in the link below) there: SWAD252013

It applies to everything listed here: http://shop.d20pfsrd.com/collections/swords-wizardry-appreciation-day

Enjoy!

Sword & Wizardry Appreciation Day Tomorrow

I'm looking forward to Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see all the different things that bloggers all over are using the S&W rules.

I hope to get a chance tonight to really work on what I'm going to post tomorrow. It may very well be a multi-post day as different things come to mind. I'll likley go into further detail of what I've done to make S&W my ultimate version of D&D-style gaming for starters and then we'll see from there.

It promises to be a very interesting day in the blogosphere!

Crumbling Blocks

While I'm still languishing under a bit of writer's block (frustrating as heck), it has been easing somewhat. I'm formulating what my contribution to the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is going to be. To help get me further into the fantasy mindset, I've been watching Game of Thrones (excellent show, by the way), reading through various D&D books like the Volo's Guide series, the Ravenloft boxed set, and other Forgotten Realms, and Mystara/Known World material. Once I finish the last story in The New Space Opera, I'm going to start reading George RR Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series. I've switched into fatnasy mode in video games as well, setting aside the Mass Effect series in lieu of playing Torchlight II and Diablo III.

I'm still in the preliminary stages of planning the world for my S&W games. I know that it will be a sandbox-style game. It's still going to use a lot of elements from classic D&D settings like Mystara, Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, and Blackmoor, but it will also have bits tossed in from other settings like Iron Kingdoms, Freeport, Wilderlands, and Scarred Lands. What I'm trying to achieve here is setting up a world with a lot of possibilites and stating off points. As my sons get older, I have hope that they will interested in gaming, and the idea of having a world set up and ready is appealing, largely because we could just jump right in and get started. Time is short now, and I don't expect that to improve much in the years to come, so I'm working on the setting now to be prepared for that time. If nothing else, if even if I end up running the setting for a group of established gamers, I'll still have the setting ready to use.

I'm not going to be ignoring Sci-Fi wholecloth, however. In light of my writer's block, I've been re-evaluating my "perfect" system. I've played through some test combats, and it's really damned deadly. Low level characters have a frighteningly high mortality rate even against "weaker" foes. It doesn't improve much with higher level characters. I don't mind character death, it's part of playing RPG's, but if there's little chance of survival no matter how many precautions the players take, then it saps a lot of the fun of playing. After all, what's the point in devising plots and story hooks, if the characters are going to die so readily and regularly? It's forcing me to look at what I'm doing wrong, and the possibility that maybe another system might even be more to my playstyle's liking. Thankfully, there are plenty of sci-fi games out there that can be used: SWN (which I already have a "just the rules" version written up), Alternity, Rogue Space, Star Frontiers, Traveller (in a mind boggingly array of versions), Hulks and Horrors, Starships and Spacemen, and so forth. I do have to admit that in my house system I fell into the trap of trying to use everything. Trying to cover every possible base and eventuality. While playable, it's still a bloody monster.