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.