Swords & Wizardry Complete: Review

A few days ago, Frog God Games released the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebook. While I was initially underwhelmed at the idea of another version of the S&W rules (“who needs more than S&W:CR and S&W:WB?”) I bought the PDF as soon as it was available in Paizo’s store and was so impressed that I subsequently ordered both the soft- and hard-cover rulebooks.

Swords & Wizardry is written to emulate the original Dungeons & Dragons game; whereas WhiteBox emulates the first three books and Core Rules emulates the first three books and “some” of the supplements, the Complete Rulebook attempts to emulate the first three books and all of the supplements. In that respect, it strikes me as something of an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1e “light”, which is supremely cool in my book.

Essentially attributes in the Complete Rulebook remain the same; they’re rolled on 3d6 with a -1 penalty for scores under 9 and a +1 bonus for scores above 12, except for Strength, Intelligence, and Charisma which all have expanded tables. Enhanced Strength bonuses are allowed only for the Fighter class, which is a nice benefit for that class; basically, if you wish to play a Strength 18 Cleric you’re more than welcome to do so, but you’re not going to get that +3 damage modifier.

Classes have been significantly expanded.  The Complete Rulebook includes the Assassin, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Magic-user, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Thief classes.  Races remain largely the same (Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Human) although Dwarves can now be Fighter/Thieves, Elves can be Thieves or Fighter/Magic-user/Thieves, and Halflings can be Thieves in addition to their normal classes. Also, the Half-Elf has been added and they can be Fighter/Magic-users or Fighter/Magic-user/Clerics. Of course, expanded rules covering dual- and multi-classing are included.

Surprisingly, alignment is covered with the three basic choices (Law, Chaos, Neutral) given as options. This, I think, is an improvement as it gives a base-line from which to begin houseruling, as opposed to being told something like, “if you want to use alignment, great… if not, well, that’s great too.”

Equipment and combat remain largely the same, although both have been clarified and explained to much greater detail.  Three different combat sequencing methods are included, as are rules for specific situations which were relegated to the realms of “DM adjudication” in S&W:CR and S&W:WB.

Spell lists go up to Level 9 for Magic-users and Level 7 for Clerics and Druids. The spell lists look to have been expanded but I have not yet had the opportunity to compare the Complete Rulebook spell lists to those of the Core Rules.

The “For the Referee” chapter, however, is where I think that the Complete Rulebook really starts to shine. In this this you’ll find complete and comprehensive sections on designing dungeon and wilderness adventures, siege combat, arial combat, ship combat, monsters, and treasure.  While the monster and treasure sections have been expanded, the sections on designing adventures and special combats are both new and well-written.

Finally, there is the layout and artwork. I must be honest, here, it was the layout and the artwork in the PDF which really grabbed my interest. Were it not for the layout and artwork, I probably would not have taken the time to delve into the Complete Rulebook to discover all the expansions and improvements over the previous Swords & Wizardry releases, and that would have been a shame.

So. In summary, if you’re a fan of Swords & Wizardry, old-school D&D, old-school RPGs, or RPGs in general, get the Complete Rulebook. Really. Now. Why are you still reading this when you could be heading over to Frog God Games and ordering the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebook? Sheesh.

Swords & Wizardry: the Commoner

My favorite “fantasy” scenarios are those where the protagonists come from humble beginnings and, through many trials and tribulations, rise to the level of well-known and powerful heroes. I once played in a D&D 3E game which simulated this concept – quite well, I thought – by starting each PC in an NPC class. The NPC class was considered a “favored class” for purposes of multi-classing and, when the time was right, the PCs switched to a different class.

With that in mind I present the Commoner, a new Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox PC class for starting characters.

The remainder of this post is designated Open Game Content as outlined in section 1(d) of the Open Game License.

The Commoner
Commoners are those people in your campaign who have the potential to become something more than they are, and teeter on the precipice of doing exactly that.  They work the fields, ply their trade, and go about their normal day-to-day routine until something happens which ignites the spark that slumbers deep within them and sends them spiraling off into wild heroics.

Commoner Advancement
Level	Exp. Points	Hit Dice (d6)	Saving Throw
1	0	1	15
2	1,000	1	15
3	2,000	2	14

Commoner Class Abilities
Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Because commoners are not trained to fight, they are proficient in one simple weapon only (axe, club, spear, or dagger). Further, being completely untrained in the finer points of heavy armor, commoners may only wear leather armor and may not use shields.
Level Limit: Commoners may never rise above the third level of experience.

Class Switching: Upon reaching second or third level, a commoner is able to switch to either the Fighting-man, Magic-user, or Cleric class. The commoner keeps his current hit points (unless the roll for hit points in his new class exceeds his current hit points), but is otherwise identical to a first level character of his new class.

Kismet: Once per game session, a commoner may use a single, minor class ability of another class as if he or she were a first level member of that class. This ability should come from the class to which the commoner is likely to switch.  This could be a saving throw bonus, use of a weapon or magic item not normally allowed, or the like.

Experience Bonus: The commoner receives no experience point bonuses.

Sample Commoner
Bill the Blacksmith
Strength: 11
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 11
Constitution: 10
Dexterity: 12
Charisma: 9

Race: human
Class:  commoner
Level/Current XP: 1/90
XP Bonus: 0%
Saving Throw: 15
Hit Points: 4
Weapon: hammer (1d6-1)
Armor Class: 8 [10] (leather apron)
Gold: 131

For most of Bill’s younger years, his entire village thought he would grow up to take over his father’s trade, find a willing woman to marry, and rear lots of children.  Bill seemed on-track to do exactly that until a trio of goblins began terrorizing the village.  The young apprentice smith took it upon himself to go after the goblins and much to everyone’s surprise, he systematically isolated and killed each of the goblins.

What the villagers didn’t know, however, was that the goblins had done this before and had collected up quite a bit of treasure, somewhere in the area of 60 gold pieces in value; almost double that of Bill’s life’s savings.  Bill hid the loot and has not spoken of it to this.

The days of Bill’s heroics have passed and life in the village has largely returned to normal, but Bill’s thoughts often return to his goblin-slaying excursion and his just rewards, and he secretly longs for another adventure to come his way.