Monthly Archives: January 2019

A Quick Look at White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game

27 Sunday Jan 2019

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Note: Some of my Essential Adventuring Rules for Swords & Wizardry White Box (WB) made it into White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (WB:FMAG).

In the summer of 2016, Charlie Mason decided to give WB a fresh coat of paint. To those of us who played WB from its inception, it was much-needed after the game had been left “to the fans” by Matt Finch, the creator of Swords & Wizardry.

wb-fmag-dragon-cover

What were the issues that led Charlie to create a new version? Basically, the 3rd and final official printing had layout issues, uncorrected errata and gaps in the rules. Charlie took the text of that edition, added new art, new layout, a few new rules sections, and corrected the errors. For example, the turn undead table was fixed so that the hit dice match the monster descriptions. A few new monsters were added. He also added my aforementioned adventuring rules, new jousting rules, overland travel rates, wandering monster tables, and a simplified thief class. You can see some of the history and motivations in a forum thread from August of 2016, and also at Charlie’s blog. Since then a second edition has come out with an even nicer layout, and there are a few choices of cover art.

wb-fmag-spells

The cover art is amazing, with pieces by Eric Lofgren, Stefan Poag, and Michael Clarke. The interior art is stock art from William McAusland, which as much as it might be overused in the small publisher OSR market, it seems to fit WB:FMAG perfectly. The character sheet is by James V. West. All this is free in PDF and POD copies are sold at cost on Lulu or Amazon, making it one of the more affordable OSR games to play.

wb-fmag

To me, the original WB was a game suitable for experienced referees or lapsed old-school gamers who wanted something simple and fun to play. It fit this mold nicely. WB:FMAG continues this tradition, but with the added bits and fixes, it is now much more suitable for those with minimal experience. It is more of a complete game.

So what is missing? Not much, but I’d love to see the adventure design and campaign sections expanded by a few pages, with a short introductory dungeon akin to the Tower of Zenopus in Holmes basic – not overly detailed, but with a few tips given as sidebars. This would be a great way for inexperienced game masters to get started, and would serve as a primer for the imagination. I’d also include Matt Finch’s ‘A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming’ as an appendix, the French version of WB does this and I think it’s a great idea. I would also bring back the sample play session that is in the original rules, augmented a bit to show some more examples of referee rulings during play. In total this might add another 10 pages, and would really make the game usable as an “OSR starter set”.

If you take a look at Seattle Hill Games’ DTRPG page, you’ll see some other goodies available for download at no cost, including several character sheets and a referee screen.

Ten Years of Swords & Wizardry White Box

25 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in OSR

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I missed it by a few days, but my first edition Swords & Wizardry White Box print is dated January 22, 2009. Hard to believe it’s 10 years old already! It’s been one of my favorite, go-to RPGs since I got it and started playing with my kids that same year.

snw-wb-cover-large

So what made it so special? At the time it was the only legal way to get an OD&D-like experience if you did not own the original 1974 booklets (Labyrinth Lord OEC came out about a year later, in early 2010). It differed in a few ways from the original rules – use of the base hit bonus (BHB), the single saving throw, and universal attribute bonuses. And unlike later editions, this first edition did not try to appeal to everyone by de-emphasizing the BHB or providing alternate saving throw tables or descending AC charts. With the benefit of hindsight and now having seen and played all of the subsequent editions, I can say it was a much more honest creative work. There were lots of house rule suggestions, and some rule omissions (most notably the material from OD&D vol. III) – but clearly you were meant to make the game your own and in this way it was just like the original. Marv “Finarvyn” Breig said this in his editor’s comments to the first edition:

These rules are designed to maintain the spirit and philosophy of the oldest gaming models, back in the days where the rules weren’t supposed to be ‘complete’ because half of the fun was making up your own rules to cover new situations.

For me, a quintessential “lapsed gamer”, it was just what I needed to re-ignite my passion for old-school RPGs after many years away. I appreciated it as a rules framework, and became comfortable making rulings, rather than relying on rules for every situation.

That first edition has a great legacy. It has spawned many supplements, derivatives, house-ruled versions and offshoots. So while it’s a shame that Matt Finch and team stopped supporting it, it certainly lives on and is still actively played in many forms. And White Box FMAG has taken over the mantle of a supported edition quite nicely. Here’s to another 10 years, thanks Matt and Marv!

You can download a copy of the first edition of Swords & Wizardry White Box in doc or pdf formats from my forum.

Simplified Encumbrance for OD&D and Clones

17 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by in DM Resources, Player Resources

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In the 1974 D&D rules, encumbrance was tracked in coins. The PC’s miscellaneous equipment was assumed to always weigh 80 coins. To that, one added armor and weapon weights (in coin equivalents), and the actual number of coins carried to come up with a total, which could be mapped to a movement rate. Ostensibly 10 coins weighed one pound, but you did not need to know this fact to calculate encumbrance. In that system, 3000 coins is the maximum a PC can carry.

This is an elegant system, because it did not force the player to track individual equipment weights. I think one of the biggest mistakes later systems and various old school D&D clones made was discarding this system and providing a weight in pounds (or kilograms, stone etc.) for every single bit of equipment. I’ve noted before that tracking encumbrance this way is a fun-sucking exercise, and I have never used it when I run games. Using it as written slows down character creation to a crawl.

bx-encumbrance

The system I’ve settled on is an even simpler one, and in the finest old-school tradition is a mix of rules from OD&D, Pits & Perils, and Holmes Basic. A PC can carry a reasonable amount of gear, armor, and weapons, plus 1200 coins – no more. In the original game, strength does not directly affect attack or damage rolls, or give any direct bonuses or penalties at all. What I do is give PCs with a STR of 15 or more an added 600 coin carrying capacity (so 1800 coins). With a STR of six or less, they can carry only 600 coins. 20 coins of any type weigh one pound, but again this fact is not needed to calculate encumbrance. I think this directs the player attention away from miscellaneous equipment weights back to coins, where it should be. After all, when 1GP = 1XP, treasure becomes more important than defeating monsters, and is the end goal of any dungeon or overland expedition – to gain XP and advance levels. But what is “reasonable”? Here we can take a tip from Holmes and have players note on their character sheets where their equipment lives. To do this quickly the character sheet can be sectioned by container – so one heading would be “backpack”, another would be “large sack”, and then maybe “belt”. Then the players just list the items in each section.

How does this tie in with movement? In line with the original rules, there are three movement rates, corresponding with armor worn.

None/Leather/Magic or Elven chain: 12″
Chain/Magic plate: 9″
Plate: 6″

You can see that magic armor in this system is treated as the next higher category to reflect its lower encumbrance.

A character can carry up to their maximum allotted coin weight with no change – but once they hit 1200 coins, they drop 3″ to the next lower rate. So, for example, if Drizzle the M-U has a STR of 9 and carries 1,200 coins, his move rate is 9″ and he can carry no more. To make things even easier, a large sack holds (you guessed it) 1200 coins.

Apart from keeping track of coins, which players do anyway, and being aware of armor worn, there is nothing more to do as far as figuring out movement rate. You might also like to figure coin-equivalent weights for other common items of treasure, like gems or jewelry. But it’s not strictly necessary unless your players stumble onto a dragon’s hoard.

Original D&D Reference Sheets

14 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in DM Resources

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I came across these Original Dungeons & Dragons reference sheets a few years ago. I don’t remember where they came from, and the PDF properties don’t list an author (if anyone knows who put them together, let me know so I can give proper credit – thanks to the commenter below –  they are from the Fear No Darkness blog). I keep them at my side while I’m running my Nolenor OD&D sessions, and I find them extremely useful. They have just what you need for a 3LBB game on three landscape pages, including common rolls, missile weapon ranges (taken from Chainmail), monster reaction, and the usual attack tables, turn undead and wandering charts. All with some great, classic pieces of art. Click on the image to download. Discussion here.

odnd-refsheets

The Chronicles of Nolenor Play Report #16 – Damned Ghouls!

14 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in Play Reports

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Real date: 7/7/18 In-game date: October 24th, EY632

PCs:

Ambrose (Hero – Fighter L4)
Zort (Vicar – Cleric L4)
Roger (Wanderer – Warden L3)

Hirelings:

Vol (porter)
Sundarr (porter)
Kell (meatshield) – RIP

NPCs:

Kilmox (Veteran – Fighter L1 – Zort’s retainer) – RIP

Link to prior sessions
Discussion here

Upon returning to Frostmark, Ambrose and Zort made a visit to the
Temple of Soldra with Imric’s body in tow. Father Sunamel was only too
happy to assist, for a suitably large donation. 1,200gp later, Imric
was revived but was feeling under the weather, so he decided to stay
in town and rest for a few weeks while his companions readied
themselves for the next adventure. After some discussion they decided
to head back to the Chaotic Caves, so Ambrose, Roger and Zort procured
seven light horses, a mule, and six javelins (those last to be handed
out to the hirelings). Ambrose paid Ajax a visit and convinced a
warrior named Kell to join the expedition.

A few days later the party headed out to the caves. The two-day
journey north and west was uneventful, if a bit cold. After scouting
the caves they decided to investigate an open area to the south, where
they could see a raised stone patio, leading through large archway and
then into the depths of the hill. The party cautiously approached, led
by Roger. They climbed onto the patio and could see scattered broken
rock and bones. Vol and Sundarr lit torches, and they cautiously
entered what they could now see was a long, pillared hall. The floor
here was also littered with bones, some human.

facing-undead

Almost immediately the party was beset upon by a horde of undead – a
dozen skeletons and 3 ghouls, who emerged from alcoves in the
walls. Roger fired his bow and fled back to the group, and Zort
stepped forward, presenting his holy symbol. Two ghouls fled from the
power of Odin away into the darkness, and five skeletons crumbled to
dust. The one remaining ghoul clawed at Zort, who felt his limbs
stiffen as he toppled over, helplessly paralyzed! Seven skeletons
advanced on the rest of the party, and in the ensuing battle all seven
were destroyed, but the price was high. Kilmox, Zell and Roger were
run through by skeleton swords – the hirelings were dead, and Roger
barely clung to life (Ref. note – Roger went to -4 HP and made his CON
save versus death). Ambrose saved Zort from certain death as the one
remaining ghoul tried to feast on Zort’s paralyzed form. Only the two
porters, who had hung back from the melee, were unscathed. With two
dead and three wounded, the party decided it was best to return to
town. They placed the hirelings’ bodies on the mule and headed back to
Frostmark, with not a single gold coin to show for their trouble.

Swords & Wizardry Forum and Blog Update

14 Monday Jan 2019

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I had recently tried to move operations to a new blog, but I had some issues with it so I’m resuming posting here. Sorry if that has caused anyone following the blog any problems.

The Swords & Wizardry forum I created over two years ago has been a bit light on activity lately. This is partly my fault for not posting there more, but it also may be a reflection of the Swords & Wizardry community itself, which has coalesced around other venues, including G+ (and now MeWe) and Eric Tenkar’s blog and associated media outlets. No sour grapes, I created the forum for the Swords & Wizardry community and would love for it to be used as a community hub, but I don’t think it’s in the cards.

That said I have no plans to take down the forum, but I am morphing it into something a bit more general, a place for OSR games discussion and play-by-post. There are now dedicated sub-forums for Swords & Wizardry and it’s associated games, and all the old content is preserved there. But I also have another motive. I’d like to experiment with using the forum to have more in-depth discussion of posts. In my opinion forums are a much better place to discuss gaming than blogs, or social media. For me and a lot of other privacy-conscious users, blog commenting seldom works due to our use of ad and third-party content blockers. Social media like MeWe is convenient but is a walled-garden – even in “public” communities, content is hidden from non-members and not searchable by the greater internet.

The forum, on the other hand, is open for anyone to read. To take part in discussions you just have to register once. It’s secured with https, and it has a mobile interface, and it’s searchable. I also administer the forum, meaning it will be around as long as I am, and even after that, it will at least readable at archive.org. The registration method I use has been very effective at preventing spam posts – I have not had a single spam post since I switched to that system two years ago.

I’d also like to offer the following to OSR blog authors who don’t want to deal with comment spam – I can give you a sub-forum for your own blog that you moderate and curate discussion on. I would encourage other forum owners to do the same with their own forums. If you want a sub-forum of your own, let me know by email, or post to the forum.