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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Thoughts on the New Swords & Wizardry Rulebook

During the mad rush the other day when Frog Gods opened the gates, I failed to get a hardcover.  Ah well.  I was able to land a soft cover and get the PDF for free for only $23 after S&H.  An excellent deal.  Now I haven't read the whole rulebook.  I can't do that reading the PDF, just bits and pieces and sections.  Normally I would print it out, but since the book is coming, umm I don't know when, I only printed a few sections.

The biggest thing is the new S&W felt more like AD&D than white box.  The biggest difference is the availability of more classes, those available in the original PHB.  There are a larger range of attribute bonuses, different from AD&D but again farther away from the white box.  Races are not a class.  All of these I am in favor of, but was wondering what others thought.

A few things about the layout though, some of the text parts are difficult to read because they text is so close together.  Also in some section I was very interested in like high level adventuring, hiring henchmen and developing an adventure I wanted more.  I'm a sucker for reading those kind of things and I would have like to have seen a little more space dedicated to those sections. 

I'm not sure when the shipping dates are for the books.  I hope its soon.  Anyway, those of you who have read through the PDF more thoroughly than me, what do you think?

7 comments:

  1. I'm enjoying reading through it, but waiting to get the printed version in hand to really read it with a reviewer's eye.

    I'm very happy about the all the new monster tables though!

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  2. I've just given the PDF a quick glance but haven't had a chance to really dig in. I'll wait for the hard copy to do that. It looks awesome though.

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  3. I'm skipping it. If I wanted AD&D style, I'd get OSRIC. That and the limited hardcover doesn't help. If the hardcover was available as a normal option, I'd reconsider.

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  4. I didn't like the idea of the limited HC myself, as signed limited editions are for collecting, not reading or actually using at a game-table.

    I picked up the PDF the other day and while I've only glanced through it, a lot of things look really nice. I noticed a couple of odd design decisions, like Paladins and Ranger not getting the bonuses for high strength, but that's not something I consider an "issue." After a year's worth of immersion in the OSR, I'll never again see a rule as anything other than a potentially useful ruling for my houserules, anyway.

    The only other thing I could mention so far, is that the succubus in an old school game should be naked.:)

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  5. Al: You and your monster tables!

    Johnathan: Pretty much what I am doing. Would like to take a couple hours one day and read it through.

    Dan: Yeah, I would have preferred to get a hardback version of it also.

    James: If I got a limited hardback version I'd still use at the table and a regular book. I like to collect things, but only if I can use them. As for the succubus, you will find no argument here.

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  6. I think I'm with Dan on this. I prefer S&W:Whitebox to core anyway so if core has moved nearer to AD&D I'm less interested. Besides, between WB, LL, my orginal B/X books and LotFP it's not like I'm short on rules.

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  7. I'm with Dan and Redwald. I just started playing B/X and I have a S&W:Whitebox that I am planning to use for my next PBEM game. I think if I was to go more toward AD&D from the classic I would probably pick up a copy of LL,AEC since that could be integrated really easily with my copy of B/X or LL. I will probably end up picking up a copy of this game eventually, but for the moment I'm skipping.

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