There's a Thing in My Crypt
As Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day (4/17/13) draws closer, I've been brainstorming about what to write as my contribution. Luckily my copy of Crypts & Things finally arrived in the mail to assist me in this process. It's a handsome book, much better looking in hardcopy than in PDF—even if some of the monster art didn't survive the printing process (there are some panels that have essentially gone black in my copy).
I've read this over and like what I see. It's the best implementation of Swords & Wizardry/D&D that I've seen so far. For some reason I think magic could be handled a bit differently but I like the corrupting aspect of the black magic.
ReplyDeleteStill like BoL the best though.
BoL and C&T are pretty neck and neck from where I sit. BoL is probably still the better take on S&S, but I think C&T characters have a bit more room to grow over the long-term.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right about the growth.
DeleteI'm building a S&S game out of S&W.... More of an amalgam of things really: H.P. Lovecraft, R.E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, w/ some gritty real world myth (fae = danger) type stuff. And maybe a dash of gonzo / weird science tossed in from time to time.
ReplyDeleteA mish mash if you will. But the root of the game is pure and simple swords and sorcery. I'm basing it in the Xoth setting, but as you probably already know, that's all 3E stuff.
All this leads up to a question: I've read a good portion of C&T (have it in PDF), but what's BoL? Thanks!
BoL is Barbarians of Lemuria, Simon Washbourne's love-letter to Lin Carter's 1970s sword-and-sorcery pastiches. The game also doubles as an amazing S&S ruleset for any setting. Characters have 4 attributes, 4 combat skills, and 4 careers that cover all skill possibilities/potentialities. If you click on my Barbarians of Lemuria label, you'll see lots of sample characters. One of my favorite things about the game is that it handles Fafhrd, Conan, Mouser, Aragorn, and the like right out of the box.
DeleteErr... I need to edit that previous post:
ReplyDeleteI meant to say I'm building a campaign. Not "game"...as in system.
Thanks.
This is a great book, the art was kinda messed up in my copy also. I think if I run it, I'd tweak the Grey magic to not have a limit of number of times per day a spell can be cast.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean tweaking White Magic? That's the color of magic that works like traditional D&D magic with spell slots and all.
DeleteHey Rob, I don't have my book in front of me, but I'm pretty sure I was meaning Grey Magic, in C&T don't Grey mages have number of spell slots per day & take hit point damage?
ReplyDeleteLooking back over pp. 14-15, the Magician has X spell slots per level that can be occupied by any combination of white, grey, or black magic spells.
DeleteWhite spells are memorized and cast as per regular S&W rules.
Grey spells are memorized as per regular S&W rules. Casting them uses up the spell slot AND does 2 x Spell Level HP damage.
Memorizing Black magic spells requires the sacrifice of a living being or taking Spell Level CON damage. Casting them uses up the spell slot and requires a Saving Throw; failing the throw eats up Spell Level Sanity points. (The sidebar on p. 16 adds the detail that a natural 1 on the Throw nukes a permanent point of Sanity. It's not clear if that's in addition to or in place of the regular Sanity loss for a failed roll.
So it looks like memorization is a factor for all three colors of magic.
DeleteOK, checked out Akrasia's original version of the three colors of magic rules. He makes it clear there that any permanent loss of Wisdom on a corruption roll is in addition to the temporary loss.
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