White Box Cyclopedia

I finally had a chance to sit down and take a closer look at James Spahn's White Box Cyclopedia.  I haven't done a thorough read through yet but I did do a serious perusal.  And as I thought, what I saw made me excited.

The White Box Cyclopedia is the Swords & Wizardry White Box rules with all of the extra trimmings. 

The PDF comes in at around 290 pages.  And it has a lot!  It has the entirety of the White Box rules plus many extras and options to choose from. 

It covers the four usual races.  Here called heritages.  It also has 10 optional heritages, such as gnome, half-orc and shadow elf.  It also includes five heritage-as-class options.

The WBC offers the original three classes:  cleric, fighter and magic-user as well as 18 optional classes.  Some of the optional heritages and classes were developed by Mr. Spahn years ago.  It's nice to have them consolidated in one place though.

Much of the rest of the book is taken up with the usual.  Combat rules, equipment, travel, magic, treasure, etc.  It does include seafaring and naval combat as well. This is all to be expected.  What I really like, in addition to the extra heritages and classes, is all of the other additions.

For example, there is a section on reputation, knighthood and chivalry.  According to these rules, any character can become a knight.  Of course, some have a greater chance than others but everyone has some chance.  If you are brave and heroic, you might be able to do it.  There are guidelines on how to achieve knighthood, reputation, being knighted, maintaining your standing.  And it's all an add-on system you can layer on if you want.

The combat section contains options, some that I have seen elsewhere as house rules, to add variety to combat.  Including one of my favorites, Splintered Shields.  You can add none, some or all to tune combat to your taste.

There is a section that discusses setting up campaigns. It also briefly describes four different campaign settings and how to tune the rules and options to make WBC work optimally for the settings. This includes which classes and heritages would work best, how to tune magic for the setting and other modifications and options that might help.  The settings are called City of Thieves, Fairy Land, Gothic Horror and a sword & sorcery setting, Riddle of Steel.

I think the campaign section sums up best what I like about WBC.  WBC has the basic game but it is also a toolbox.  A toolbox that allows you to take the solid foundation of S&W WB and turn it into exactly the game you want it to be.  I know many good GMs can do this themselves but there are others, like me, who can use help when doing so.  With this toolbox, I am much more confident I can tune basic White Box to run any of the settings I have running around in my mind.

 

A Hobbit Inspired Campaign V: System

I was debating whether to talk about system or the setting first.  I've decided to tentatively select a system because I believe it will help focus the setting creation.  And I can always change the system later if I'm not satisfied with the outcome.

For this exercise I am going to use White Box: FMAG with a few modifications.  This was a difficult choice.  I was sorely tempted by both B/X and The Hero's Journey.  But for simplicities sake I am going to go with White Box for now.  For the most part the changes will be plug-and-play.

Starting with base SW: FMAG I would make the following changes and additions.

From James Spahn' White Box Omnibus and Compendium I would add:

• Greenleaf Elf - Although elves are magical, some are more magical than others.  Greenleaf Elves do not command magic but are very attuned to the forest and have forest related skills.

• The Ranger - The Ranger would not use the magic option.  This class, as well as the Fighter, would represent the Woodmen.  I was also considering the Barbarian for this but went with the Ranger instead.

Other changes I would make:

• Remove Cleric.

• Elves would use the variant rules if they are not Greenleaf Elves.  They would use Clerical magic. I still need to decide whether they would use the Elf Variant spell progression or the Cleric Spell progression.  And I would lower the XP needed to reach second level to 4000.  Since Elves are not fading and disappearing into the west, I may let elves progress to the 10th level.  This is were White Box maxes out.

• Half-Elf - Though I can't quite figure out how to do it.  The one Half-Elf mentioned is Elrond and he seems like any other elf.  The Half-Elf classes I've seen aren't satisfactory.  They usually give the half-elf a single first level spell and some of the Elf abilities.  I might just make Half-Elves the same as elves.

• Berserker - If I can find a Berserker class that I like I will include it to represent the skin-changing Beornings.

• Experience Points - Ultimately, The Hobbit is a treasure hunt. And the characters get their hands on two hoards during their travels, the trolls' and the dragon's.  However, gold as XP doesn't necessarily feel right for a game based on the book.  I could either substitute or supplement the traditional system with one that rewards reaching goals, completing quests or being heroic or something like that.  The Hero's Journey has an experience system like this.

And a couple of house rules off the top of my head:

• Shields Shall Be Splintered! and Helms Shall Be Dented! (Also known as Helmets shall be sundered.)

• Though there is no mention of Plate Armor that I recall it will exist but will be rare and VERY expensive.

• Add Scale Armor -3 [+3]

• Max HP at 1st level.

This is what I have so far.  I may add more or change my mind on system completely.

Lawful Doesn't Mean Good

This is from the blog Treasure Hunters HQ.  It is an excellent example of lawful not being good drawn from history.

https://treasurehuntershq.blogspot.com/2019/08/lawful-doesnt-mean-good.html

The Hero's Journey 2nd Edition

James Spahn is going to do a second edition of The Hero's Journey.  The interesting and fun changes the made to S&W White Box really hit a sweet spot for me.  I can't wait to see what he does with the new edition.  You can read about it at his blog Halfling's Luck.  Oh, and he has the cover art posted.  I really like it.

Helms Will Be Dented!

I was thinking about helmets in White Box and other OSR games and how, for the most part, they are treated as window dressing.  Then it struck me.  I really like the Shields Shall Be Splintered houserule so why not apply it to helmets!  I hadn't run across it before.  

I thought I had come up with something original but of course I hadn't.

My thought was that characters could negate the damage from a single blow by sacrificing their helmet.  The helmet would be rendered useless and the character would be dazed for 1d6 turns, being able to only take defensive actions during that time.

I was excited until I started doing searches.  Of course others had thought of the idea.  Oh, well.  I like it and I think I will incorporate it.  It will make helmets useful and give characters a reason to purchase them is they so choose.

Lunch Games

Long time no post.

The big news in my gaming life is that I've been playing a sporadic one-on-one game of White Box with a coworker during my lunch time.  Our session lengths are necessarily limited to about 45 minutes so they are usually short and sharp.  We've been enjoying ourselves particularly since it is strictly our game and we can do whatever we choose with it.  So, for example, the character my player runs isn't strictly by the book but hey, it's just us so who cares.  I posted about the background back in July and you can read about it here.  So far my player T's character Shael, an elf ranger, has left her home forest, helped an old farming couple by killing a wild boar that was ravaging their farm, fought some bandits on a road and is in the process of clearing them from their lair.  She just defeated their 4th level leader and sent him packing.  She is about to reap the benefits of her efforts with a surprisingly large amount of loot.

We've been trying various venues for our game which has lead to at least one amusing situation.  We met at a local Starbucks to play and we had one lady throw us several odd looks in the midst of describing a battle that involved axes and some gratuitous bloodshed.  I mean when my player rolls a 20 and one-shots a bandit I need to give his death a proper description, right?

Each brief session has been fun and stress free and both of us have look forward to our next game.

One-on-One Campaign Background

I have mentioned elsewhere that my co-worker T and I have been planning a one-on-one White Box campaign during lunch hours at work.  Here is the background and the character T created.  In order to add flexibility and avoid her character’s early and untimely death we we’ll be using Black Streams: Solo Heroes by Kevin Crawford.

First the setting background. Or, in other word, another derivitive setting for your consideration.

The Sidhe have ruled the land for nearly 1,000 years.  The seemingly immortal fey creatures appeared suddenly and quickly conquered the petty kingdoms of Humans and Dwarves using force, guile and eldritch sorcery.  Orcs and Goblins joined the Sidhe and provided armies for the conquerors.  The High Elves willingly joined the Sidhe becoming commanders in the armies.  With the conquest began a reign of tyranny that ruthlessly exploited the peoples of the world.

The world is inhabited by many humanoid races.

The humanoid family tree has two branches that separated long ago.  One branch consists of elves, humans, dwarves and halflings.  The second of orcs and goblins.  The two branches have drifted apart so much that they can no longer interbreed successfully.

There are three elf-like peoples.  The Sidhe are brilliantly beautiful fey who are arrogant and aloof and rarely seen by ordinary people.  Over the centuries the Sidhe have grown tired of their empire and have given themselves over to indolence, debauchery and the study of black magics.  In fact none have deigned to leave their capital Aris the City of Crystal Dreams in the last century. This has led to the borderlands breaking away from the Empire, daring to declare their independence.  Fractious petty kingdoms have arose to fill the power vacuum.  It is a time of chaos in the Empire and the Sidhe don’t even seem to notice.  No one seems to know why the Sidhe came to this world to conquer it in the first place, only abandon it for their pleasures.

The High Elves, feeling a kinship with the Sidhe (though it is not reciprocated), have become willing collaborators of the Sidhe.  They enjoy the wealth of the Empire and have a prestige second only to the Sidhe.  They hold high offices and governorships and lead the Empire’s armies and since the Sidhe have withdrawn from worldly affairs they are the actual masters of what is left of the crumbling empire.

The Wood Elves withdrew to the deep forests when the Sidhe arrived and avoid outsiders as much as possible.  They are still subjects of the Sidhe but are largely left alone.  There are a few adventurous Wood Elves but but for the most part they stick to the their forests.

(My mental image of the elves of this world can be illustrated by the movie version of The Lord of the Rings.  The Wood Elves are typified by Legolas, the High Elves by Galadriel and the Sidhe by Galadriel as the White Queen she would have become if she had taken the One Ring.)

Humans are the most populous and varied group of people in the land and are the most versatile and adaptable.  They can turn their hand to almost any profession and can live in most climates successfully.  The Sidhe have enslaved the humans, taking their land, their wealth and their dignity.  They are forced to work at whatever tasks given them and have been exploited ruthlessly over the centuries.  However, humans have a strong spirit and secretly yearn for freedom.  They immediately took advantage of the slackening grip of the Sidhe and have set up a series of small kingdoms in the borderlands.  They are grinding away at the Empire and are slowing gaining back the land that was once theirs.  Unfortunately though, humans have the propensity to fight amongst themselves as often as they fight the Empire.  There is a theory among the more open-minded of elf scholars that elves are the result of the union of humans and Sidhe at some time in the incalculable past.  High Elves display more Sidhe traits while Wood Elves favor their human ancestors.  So far this is just a theory though but it does explain why elves and humans can procreate successfully.

Dwarves are as oppressed as humans.  Their clans are mostly confined to their mines and underground kingdoms.  They are master smiths and crafters and are forced to produce luxury goods made of gems, gold and silver for the delight of the Sidhe.  They produce the finest weapons of bronze, iron and steel in the world.  Though elves and humans can craft fine weapons, even magical ones, nothing can touch the quality of the dwarves.  Their finest weapons are reserved for the Sidhe and are made from the rare element thimril.  The Sidhe, being true fey, cannot use iron or steel.  It is poison to them.  So, they long ago began using thimril .  Thimril is a silver colored metal that is extremely strong, yet light and enchants well.  Thus, most magic weapons are made from thimril though iron and steel weapons can also be enchanted.  Because of the scarcity of thimril and its ability to take enchantment, the Sidhe have outlawed the use of thimril by any other than themselves.  The problem for the Sidhe, however, is that only the dwarves know how to work thimril and despite all of their efforts they are unable to pry the secret from them.

Halflings are said to exist but are considered a myth by many.  Legend has it that with the coming of the Sidhe they withdrew to remote valleys and dales and live their lives in seclusion and peace.  The Sidhe could probably find them if they wanted to but have never bothered.

Orcs and goblins are brutish creatures that have little regard for others and live in a state of almost constant conflict when not under the direct control of the Empire.  They live in tribes and are constantly quarreling with the other races.  When they don't have other races to attack they fight each other.  The union of orcs and goblins produced the hobgoblins.

Last, and definitely least, is the gnome.  A gnome is the unfortunate offspring of a dwarf and a halfling.  They are hairy of feet and hairy of face and are neither fish nor fowl and thus accepted by neither group. They seem to inherit the worst traits of both parents.  They are grumpy, gluttonous and greedy.  They live underground like their forebears but to quote Tolkien the typical gnome lives in "a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell".  As a result they are grubby and extremely malodorous.  In fact the easiest way to find a gnome hole is to follow the reek.  To top it off, gnomes are infertile and often their genitals are nonfunctional.  They dislike the world and everyone in it but, luckily, they are solitary creatures.  Fortunately, there are very, very few of them.

The playable races are the standard four:  Human, Elf, Dwarf and Halfling.

The class choices are:  Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, Thief, Barbarian, Druid and Ranger.

T chose to play an elf ranger.  Since White Box doesn’t cover this combo explicitly we kind of mashed them together.  This is her character and the backstory she came up with. I particularly like the bit about the Tree of Legend. There is so much we could do with this down the line.

Shael Cloudburst- Elf Ranger Level 1Player: TAlignment:NAC: 14HP:7 HD:1+1Str: 13 Dex:11 Con:11 Int:10 Wis:11 Cha:7 (all mods at 0)Saving Throw:16 (+2 vs. poison)Spells/Abilities: Forestry 2, Giant Slayer, Hereditary Foes, Two Weapon Fighting (2 longswords), Keen DetectionLanguages: Common, Wood Elf (can also speak with gnolls, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins)Chain Mail +4

Shael was born deep in the forest, in a small village of wood elves. The moment of her birth was marked by a sudden opening of the skies in unexpected downpour. The elves took this to be a good omen, and they believe Shael is destined for greatness. Coming from a long line of heroes and rangers, Shael grew up hearing stories of travel and adventure, stories of a time before the Sidhe, before their inglorious reign. Her favorite story is a tale told among the wood elves of a legendary tree. A tree that witnessed the arrival of the Sidhe. The stories say it knows their secrets. Shael is tired of her boring life in the forest. She wants to bring glory to her family. She wants them to rise once again as heroes. She believes this is her destiny, and her first step is to leave her forest in search of the tree of legends.

I have a home-base village and a couple of beginning adventures selected.  I have an idea of what the area all this will happen in will be like. And the beauty of Solo Heroes is that I can use any level appropriate adventure.  We are about ready to begin.

Gnomes

I don't think about gnomes much.  In fact I don't think about them at all unless I'm somehow forced to.  However, I am currently planning a 1-on-1 campaign with a co-worker to play during lunch breaks.  She always plays gnomes in her other games.  It apparently stems from an incident years ago when she inadvertently allowed a large number of gnomes to starve to death in a pit.  She chose to not open one last door before turning back towards civilization because she heard noises on the other side.  R.I.P. gnomes.

In my campaign (which I may detail later) there are no gnome PCs so she chose to play an elf.  I was going to leave gnomes out entirely but then I thought, hey, why not, I will include gnomes as NPCs but they will be...different.

So, here they are:


A gnome is the unfortunate offspring of a dwarf and a halfling.  They are hairy of feet and hairy of face and are neither fish nor fowl and thus accepted by neither group. They seem to inherit the worst traits of both parents.  They are grumpy, gluttonous and greedy.  They live underground like their forebears but to quote Tolkien the typical gnome lives in "a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell".  As a result they are grubby and extremely malodorous.  In fact the easiest way to find a gnome hole is to follow the reek.  To top it off, gnomes are infertile and often their genitals are nonfunctional.  They dislike the world and everyone in it but, luckily, they are solitary creatures.  Fortunately, there are very, very few of them.

Here are the stats for White Box:

Armor Class: 7 [12]
Base Hit Bonus: +1
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: Short Bow or Club (1d6−1)
Move: 9
HDE/XP: 1/15

The Kingdom of Richard

The Kingdom of Richard is a setting by +David Okum of Okumarts Games.  Here is my brief take on it.

Likes:

• Inexpensive.
• Statted for Swords & Wizardry White Box.
• Slim, only about 35 pages long.
• Comprehensive.  Covers the highlights of the titular kingdom including history, significant places and people as well as religion and politics.  Heck, it even has a brief section on local colloquialisms.
• Religion is significant.  There is even classes based on religious orders included.
• Relations between humans and demi-humans can be and are poor and prejudice exists.  It always bugs me a bit when everyone is living cheek to jowl, happy happy.  Humans can't get along with each other very well a lot of the times.  Why would distinct species?  I mean they not only look different but have different cultures, beliefs, outlooks, tastes and they probably even smell different.
• A distinct external threat exists.  Love to hate those gublins and orcs.
• Mystery and adventure seeds are strewn liberally about.
• Cool, slightly cartoony pen and ink artwork inside with an artificially aged looking cover piece.  The campaign world is apparently based on the authors D&D campaign from the early '80s.

Dislikes:

• Not much.

I really like The Kingdom of Richard.  It pushes many of the right buttons for me.

Okumarts already has an adventure out set in The Kingdom of Richard called The Ghosts Woods Adventure.  I hope Okumarts will produce further expansions of this line to further detail the world's lands and kingdoms.

Campaign Plan Changes

I've been slowly putting together a sandbox-ish campaign for The Hero's Journey.  Slow going chiefly because of my large capacity for self-doubt.  However, it all may be a moot.  I introduced one of my co-workers to Beyond the Wall.  We spent a lunch hour making two characters and a village.  She loved the playbooks.  I mean loved them.  And really liked creating the village too.  I lent her the rule book and she took it home and went through the character creation process with her husband.  He really enjoyed it.  He's big into world building so he particularly like building the village.  She likes the magic system too.  She really wants to play Beyond the Wall and experience character/village creation with a larger group.  Since she is kind of the key to the nascent group, I believe we will be using Beyond the Wall for the campaign.  I made sure that she was cool with ultimately having only three actual classes.  After all, she was the one excited to play an acrobat and looked forward to founding a carnival.  And, since I have Further Afield, after the first adventure we will be making a shared sandbox for the setting so at least some of the setting pressure will be lifted.

My only have two hangups with this.  The first is that I really like The Hero's Journey and Swords & Wizardry Whitebox as a rule-sets.  I like that you essentially just use d6s and d20s.  I like the unified savings-throw.  So I'm thinking I will somewhat hybridize Beyond the Wall.  Beyond the Wall and The Hero's Journey/ S&W WB are not too different so it shouldn't be too hard even for me.  Beyond the Wall only lists 10 levels so I will stick with that.  It also has ascending AC and a To Hit Bonus system, which is my preference.  It will be easy enough to unify the savings-throw.  But classes have different hit-dice and weapons do different dice damage.

So, it's advice asking time.  With BtW having different hit dice for each class, should I stick with BtW rules-as-written?  Or should I use THJ/WB stats?  Weapons do variable dice damage so changing that depends on the hit-dice used.  Or vice-versa.  I've really been wanting to try The Hero's Journey rules for armor damage reduction value.  That's one of my favorite parts along with the increase in the utility of the shield when it comes to armor class.  So should I fold that in?

My second hangup is whether or not I have the improvisation shills to handle a setting not completely in my control but unless someone has advice about that I'll have to deal with it on my own.

Oh, I guess I should ask.  Has anyone mashed up THJ/WB and BtW?

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day 2017

Here is my small contribution to Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day.  

My current favorite of the Swords & Wizardry family is The Hero Journey Fantasy Roleplaying by James Spahn.  It is an offspring of S&W White Box and is flavored with a bit of The Lord of the Rings.  In THJ, Magic weapons are not only forged but can be created in a special way.  They can become infused with the magic of the heroic actions of their owners.  And sometimes they take on an aspect of a heroic deed.  So, a weapon that becomes magic when it is used to slay the orc chief may become particularly effective against orcs and gain the moniker “Orc-Bane”.  But what about weapons that are used by villainous non-humans? Do they absorb the essence of the vile actions of their owners?  I say yes!

Here is a d4 table of magic weapons that became magic through the actions of their horrible owners:

1:  Crotchsplitter (Shortsword +1/+2 against opponents more than two feet taller than its owner.)  This sword was used by the famed goblin king Gobsmack who led his goblin horde against the humans and fought the Battle of Snakeskin Pass.

2:  Spear of Morphos (Spear +2.  Allows its wielder to cast the Sleep spell once a day.)  Used by the hobgoblin warrior Grindtooth during his battles against the Cult of the Morphos, god of sleep and dreams.  It gained the power of sleep when Grindtooth spitted the high priest of Morphos at the altar of the largest Temple of Morphos in the world.

3:  Brainspatter (Mace +1)  Used by Grunzen the orc warrior to repeatedly, well, spatter brains.

4:  Backbiter (Dagger +1 Humanbane)  The favorite weapon of Bocaraton, the wererat, Scourge of the Eastern Cities.  Bocaraton embeded his dagger in the back of countless victims during his infamous career.

The Children of Galdren 2

In the beginning, Tuharis, the Lady of Light, formed the Land from primordial chaos.  She then brought forth the first people to inhabit the land.  She created the first elf, Elion, from the wood of the trees and the first dwarf, Galdren, from the stone of the mountains.  Elion lived in the Great Forest with her children, learning the way of plants and nature, sky and water and about all, magic.  Meanwhile, Galdren founded the first dwarf home and delved into the secrets of the earth, creating wondrous artifacts and grand structures from the stones and metals, minerals and gems.  The Land was harmonious and all were happy.

All were happy, that is, except for Ahtarr, the Lord of Darkness and the twin brother of Tuharis.  Ahtarr loved chaos and strife.  He reveled in the primordial chaos and resented Tuharis for changing it and taming it, even a part of it.  Thus Ahtarr began to scheme.  Afraid to confront Tuharis directly, he began to introduce bits of chaos to the world in order to ruin the happy Land.  He brought forth monsters to prey on the people and to bring them fear.  He fashioned Dark Magic from chaos to warp and twist the unwary users' minds and souls.  And he created the goblins to kill the first inhabitants and to ravage the Land.  The quickly reproducing goblins were a particular threat to the long-lived but less prolific elves and dwarves.

Thus, Tuharis created humans to counter the threat of the goblins.  Humans had neither the great knowledge and magic of the elves nor the endurance and industriousness of the dwarves.  And they short-lived compared to both.  But the humans were supremely adaptable and reproduced much more quickly and were therefore very successful.

The human/elf/dwarf alliance eventually won the great Goblin Wars and drove the goblins to the far north beyond the Northlands.  But the alliance paid a great price.  The Land was ravaged and the forests were burnt and many died.  Without a common threat the alliance dissolved as each people looked to their own needs.  And Ahtarr took advantage of the situation to sow discord between the three.  And thus, though the Land has recovered, when Flametongue flew out of the north, the dwarves could find none to aid them (even their southern brethren it turns out.)

Today, the Land faces its greatest peril since the advent of the goblins.  Disunited and fragmented in the face of Firetongue in the Northlands and the goblins throughout the mountains, the three peoples and the Land itself may be destroyed.

Will heroes rise to face the challenge?

Next up, a bit about the inhabitants of the Land, their beliefs and customs and their view of the world.

The Children of Galdren

I have been pondering another setting/campaign/adventure, this one specifically for The Hero's Journey.  In fact, it was inspired by its cover and...well, you'll see.

Two hundred years ago the wyrm Flametongue descended from the North and attacked Goldhome, the great dwarven hold in the Northlands.  The dread dragon killed many and drove the few survivors from their halls and into the wilderness.  Many of the homeless dwarves tried to join Stoneheim, the remaining dwarf kingdom to the south.  However, their insular kin would not admit them.  With no support and little hope the survivors scattered to the points of the compass to find work and sustenance amongst the human kingdoms.  Dwarven metalwork was highly sought after and expatriates found good work in the smithies and foundries of man.  Though the dwarves found acceptance and work that they liked, few were ever truly happy.  No matter where they lived or how respected they were it was not and never would be their home.

Meanwhile, Firetongue settled onto his new hoard and rested.  With the bulwark of the dwarven kingdom removed and the dragon slumbering, goblins began to infiltrate southward through the mountains.  The trickle became a torrent when the goblins met no resistance and soon the mountains were filled with the wicked creatures.  Their eyes soon turned to the lowlands and they began raiding the petty human kingdoms and have managed to carve out small enclaves for themselves.  A few of the boldest have even ventured into the great forest of the elves.

This is how things stand today.  The human kingdoms, though threatened from without,  are too busy fighting amongst themselves to notice the plight of the border kingdoms, the elves turned their mournful backs on the world after the Goblin War of long ago and the remaining dwarf kingdom looks inward and downward, ignoring humans, elves and the goblin threat alike.  And, to make matters worse, there are rumors from the Northlands that the dragon is stirring.

All is not lost though.  A few astute humans, including one of the greatest wizards in the land, are attempting to raise awareness of the threat.  The elves have even sent an ambassador into the world to speak with humans on the matter.

And, some of the children of the exiled dwarves, raised on the stories of the glories of Goldhome, have started talking about taking "their" kingdom back.  Some even seek the advice and aid of the great wizard while trying to obtain the service human mercenaries and adventurers.  These young dwarves call themselves the Children of Galdren after the semi-mythical founder of Goldhome.

Adventure awaits.

Next time more history and a little cosmology.

Sword & Wizardry GeekList

For some reason I made a geeklist on RPGGeek.com that lists as many of the Swords & Wizardry variants that I could think of.  I know it isn't complete so feel free to add to it.  You can find it here.

Thoughts on a Grimmsgate Campaign

I showed my previous blog post about a Grimmsgate Campaign to a coworker who is also a gamer.  She read it over and had some questions and suggestions for me.  Here are her questions and my replies.  The following may contain spoilers for Grimmsgate.

Who is the "big bad"?  The Dark Lord?
 It's funny that she asked the question this way because I don't usually use the term "big bad" but in my notes this is exactly the term I used.  I thought the main antagonist would actually be one of the most powerful minions of the Dark Lord.  When the forces of Law destroyed the Dark Lord's citadel during the last battle the minion was trapped inside when it collapsed and was entombed.  The minion's powerful magic put him into suspended animation and kept him alive for centuries.  About 200 years ago greedy goblins finally mustered up the courage to loot the ruined remnants of the Dark Lord's holdings.  Well, they got more than they bargained for.  The newly released minion gathered his strength for a couple of decades while he built his own stronghold with the newly enslaved goblins.  Then he began using his powers to disrupt the borderlands in order to weaken the kingdoms in preparation of attacking them.  One of his first acts was to compel a certain acolyte to touch a certain jar containing a trapped demon.

Do all races still co-exist in the shattered kingdoms?  Will they cooperate?  Will they help fight the darkness again?
My thoughts are that after the final battle the elves and dwarves withdrew to grieve their losses and rebuild.  They became reclusive and isolationist, particularly the elves.  I find it particularly tragic when elves die for some reason.  Maybe because they are effectively immortal and don't have to die unless they put themselves in harm's way.  On top of this they are slow to reproduce.  I think that death would hit elves particularly hard and make it harder for them to recover psychologically than it is for humans.  The one scene in the movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers that particularly saddened me was the death of the elf commander, Haldir, at the Battle of Helm's Deep.

So I think that the dwarves and elves would be reluctant to join a new war.  Particularly because the elves would've been participants in the first one.  I think it would be interesting if later in the story-arc the characters are tasked with heading up a diplomatic mission charged with persuading them to join the battle again.

 The isolationist tendencies would also make dwarves and elves rare in the wider world and thus the object of curiosity and some fear.  Also, as is traditional, the dwarves and elves would be distrustful of one another, adding to the difficulty of any diplomatic mission.

I want to know more about Lord Wulfric's role.
I haven't put much thought into Lord Wulfric's role yet.  I see him as being self-interested but ultimately being on the side of Law.  But at first he will be a hindrance to the PCs because of his self-interest and his distrust of adventurers running around his lands potentially causing trouble.

Grimmsgate Campaign

So, here is my latest scheme to kick off a campaign with my boys.  It will be centered around the Swords & Wizardry module Grimmsgate and have sandbox elements.

The background will be that 1000 years ago, the combined forces of humans, elves and dwarves defeated the Dark Lord™ and his minions.  In the process, however, the kingdoms were shattered, barbarians invaded, chaos reigned and the world fell into a Dark Age™.  The world pulling itself out darkness but, unbeknownst to most, new threats have appeared and chaos is once again encroaching upon the newly re-civilized lands.

One who can see the new darkness is the mysterious wizard Eduran.  He will ask the characters to meet him at Grimmhold, the village near Grimmhold Keep.  Grimmhold Keep is the base of Lord Wulfric Grimmson, whose barony is the closest to Grimmsgate.  Eduran will tell the players he wants to speak with them for two reasons.  The first is that one of them has inherited a house in Grimmsgate from a previously unknown great uncle.  His second reason will be the encroaching darkness as explained in the beginning of the module.  This will be writ large however.  He will ask the characters to act as his agents and to fight the darkness and push it back.  The kings and rulers of the land are blind to the threats so until he can convince them otherwise he needs to work through freelancers, mercenaries and adventurers.  If the characters are successful they can then use a reviving Grimmsgate as a base of operations for other adventures I will plug into the surrounding area.  Eduran will also say he will send along other adventurers in a few days to supplement the party (as there will only be two players.)  He will send one of his apprentices to assist them also.  It will turn out, though, that this apprentice is an agent of chaos and will at some dramatically appropriate point betray the party.  This will be further down the line though.

So, that's my idea.  Once again riddled with cliches.

The first decision I need to make is which version of Swords & Wizardry to use.  Unfortunately, I think S&W White Box is out.  My players will want more choices, particularly for classes.  So that leaves S&W Core or S&W Complete.  However, I've really been grooving on the The Heroes Journey Fantasy Roleplaying by +James Spahn and would like to use that.  I'm going to do a mini-review of it soon but succinctly put it is a greatly modified version of S&W White Box intended for, well, heroic role-playing à la The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.  The drawback to The Heroes Journey in this context is that I would have to do some conversion work.  And frankly I'm lazy.

So, any feedback on the setting idea or on which system to run would be appreciated.

White Box

I have recently become enamored with the Swords & Wizardry White Box rules-set due to a nifty little game called White Star.  White Star led me to the White Box rules-set which introduced me to a plethora of White Box derivatives, offspring and cousins.  Over the next several weeks (hopefully) I plan on taking a look at at least three White Box based games and giving a brief overview of each, pointing out similarities and, particularly, differences from the base rules-set.  Also, if a game has a stated goal, I plan on looking at if, in my opinion, the rules fulfill that goal.  These will not be comprehensive reviews but just highlights and thoughts.

First up is White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game authored by +Charlie Mason  of Seattle Hill Games.  To be frank, I bought this game because of the cover.  I don't buy hard copies of games frequently but I loved the Red Dragon cover by Eric Lofgren so much and the price point was so low that I did in this case.  If you don't want to buy a copy you can still get the rules because the PDF is free through DriveThru and LULU.  Hard copies are available through LULU and Amazon.

Of the derivatives I have perused, White Box hews closest to the source material.  It is not a straight copy of Swords & Wizardry White Box but it takes the base rules and then adds modifications and clarifications.  For example, it has the same unified Saving Throw and Base Hit Bonus for ascending armor class as S&WWB, both of which I like for their simplicity.

The first noticeable addition is the inclusion of the Thief class.  The Thief caps at 10th level as the other base classes do and has a single Thievery ability for all thief-like actions.  Everything from filching items to disarming traps is resolved with  a single d6 roll equal to or under a number ranging from 2 to 5, which is determined by the thief's level.

Prices for goods and services appear to be the same as in S&WWB.  I still think armor is woefully under priced, particularly plate.  (Can you guess what one of my house-rules will be?)

Expansions include a page long discussion of dungeon doors and the difficulties one may face finding them and  trying to open them.  This section also includes a discussion of traps.  I particularly like the paragraph later in the book concisely detailing how magic is prepared and used without being overly technical.  Additions like these are helpful to the new gamer in a way the bare-bones nature of S&WWB isn't.

I like the physical book itself.  It is 6"x9" and the text is single column and, unlike some other books I have in this format, the text is large and thus easier for my aging eyes to read.  The internal artwork is black and white and to me very reminiscent of the artwork I have seen from the early days of RPGs.  One thing I particularly like about the PDF is that the margin on the side of the page that is bound is larger.  I often print PDFs and bind them with a comb-binding machine and this means I don't lose any text to the binding.

Viking White Box Question

So, as some of you may know, I want to turn Swords & Wizardry White Box into what I've been calling my Viking Hack.  I'm taking the White Box rules and adding classes and ideas from various sources around the web, cutting things out and planning own "original" setting.  Throw in a handful of cliches, stir well, and voila!  Fun is had by all.  I'm doing this for private, not commercial, use and may post it for any of you who might be interested.  I've also considered tearing apart The Black Hack and doing the same thing.

But what if I surprise myself and actually finish the thing and it turns out to be decent?  What if I want to put it on DriveThru, even if it is just PWYW?  How does one do that?  Can someone explain to me in very simplistic terms how to do this?  Or, perhaps, point me in the direction of a website that can do the same?  What can I use from the rules set?  What can't I?  What items must be attributed?  What is OGL and Open Game Content and what does it all mean?   I know there are various games based on White Box such as White Star, The Hero's Journey (both by Spaaaaahhn!) and the upcoming WWII: Operation White Box by Pete Spahn.  (What?!?  Another Spahn!  Hurm....)  How does one go about this?

Any help would be appreciated.

I Blame James Spahn

I blame +James Spahn.  James Spahn and his nifty little game White Star.  It's all his fault.  See, I picked up White Star in March.  I read through it and really liked it.  It did science fiction in the simple way that I have grown to appreciate as I've grown older.  Yeah, it has classes and levels and such but I'm ok with that.  I like that it has ascending armor class and the base hit bonus.  That makes the game even easier.  No need to look up numbers on a chart.  Unified savings throw with bonuses under certain circumstances?  Nice.  And it is easy to play around with and to modify it.  For example, White Star has a very Star Wars vibe built right into it.  Star Wars not your thing?  That's cool.  Various supplements can steer you in a different direction.  Like Star Trek?  Pick up Five Year Mission and you are off and running with, dare I say it, years of gaming goodness.  How about pulp sci-fi based in the Solar System?  Have Death Ray, Will Travel is your supplement.

Great.  Cool game.  Flexible.  No problem.

So time passes and I decide to take a look at the game White Star is based on, Swords & Wizardry White Box rules.  I looked it over and thought it was neat how James modified the base rules and turned them into a science fiction game.  What a flexible set of rules!  Now here's where the problem starts.  You see, I have gamer ADD.  A serious case.  I was just looking at my order history for DriveThru.  I have placed 597 orders since 2008.  I kid you not.  Granted, the vast majority of the items I've acquired are freebies but I've still dropped a goodly amount of cash there.  Way too much if you ask my wife.  And that doesn't count the smaller number of games from LULU or the free ones I've grabbed from the internet.

So what's the problem?  White Box is made to be modified and tinkered with.  So now I want to modify and tinker with it.  You see, I was happy with B/X supplemented by Labyrinth Lord material.  A nice simple game that covered my D&D needs without any fuss or muss or extra complexity. I had been essentially ignoring Swords & Wizardry because I didn't need it.  B/X had me covered.  But then I started thinking about running a Viking campaign.  Well, Savage Worlds can do that easily.  But what if I wanted to use a D&D type game?  B/X could do it with a bunch of modifications.  Then I ran across a site that had already modified both Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry for Vikings.  You can find both at the Sword +1 blog in the links section to the right the page.  This and White Star made me realize just what a superb toolbox White Box is.

Now all I want to do is tear it down and rebuild it to meet my own vision and specifications.  Vikings?  I want subtle, low level magic that is out of the hands of the average PC.   Perhaps illusion based stuff.  So, in goes the npc Illusionist class.  I need to research magic in Norse culture more but I further modify things if I want to.  Demi-human PCs?  Nope.  Gone.  Elves and dwarves are things of legend and characters will be lucky to see them once or twice in their life.  Mike at Sword +1 has Berserker, Warrior and Thane classes.  I want a Skald class too.  Like a Bard but with no magic.  The music will work like a charm spell.  I'm sure I can find that somewhere or make my own.  And so on.

Now, I could take Barbarians of Lemuria and remove or tweak a few careers and change the setting.  Easy peasy.  Or I could put in a bit more work and use Savage Worlds.  No, not me.  I essentially want to make my own neo/retroclone based on White Box.  A project that if I get started I surely will not finish.  A project that will suck up what little free time I have.  A project that will probably leave me frustrated in the end.  And half way through I'll have another idea and want to work on THAT one.

So,  I blame James Spahn.  He showed me what was possible with Swords & Wizardry White Box and now my life is going to be very complicated..

So, imagine me standing on a rocky outcropping high above the land, raising my fist to the the heavens and shouting:  "SPAAAAAAAAHN!!!!"