Spes Magna Games

But the third and latest arrow
Swiftest flew, and wounded sorest,
And the mighty Megissogwon
Saw the fiery eyes of Pauguk,
Saw the eyes of Death glare at him,
Heard his voice call in the darkness;
At the feet of Hiawatha
Lifeless lay the great Pearl-Feather,
Lay the mightiest of Magicians.

Pauguk, emaciated and with translucent skin and glowing eyes of flame, serves Death itself. When important or powerful beings fall in battle, Pauguk arrives, visible only to its victim. It calls its victim’s name, and then takes the victim’s soul to whatever afterlife awaits, leaving behind the lifeless body.

Pauguk
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 0 [19]
Attacks: warclub (1d8+2)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Call soul, invisibility
Move: 15/24 flying
Alignment: Law
Challenge Level/XP: 14/2,600

Pauguk seldom has to fight. It arrives to claim the soul of its victim, invisible to everyone but the victim, who is often already on death’s door when Pauguk arrives. Death’s lackey then calls the victim’s soul, an action which has the same effect as power word kill. Pauguk can call a creature’s soul once per day. Should a victim somehow avoid Pauguk, the creature simply flies away to wait for the next time Death sends it on an errand.

It is widely believed that there is only one Pauguk, or least only one Pauguk in existence at any given time. Legends speak of heroes who manage to defeat Pauguk, bringing death to Death’s minion. If these legends are true, Pauguk’s demise hasn’t stopped Pauguk from further activity.

Tags: A to Z 2013, monsters, Swords & Wizardry, The Song of Hiawatha

It’s Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day! So, here goes: I appreciate Swords & Wizardry. Seriously. In a moment, I’m going to tell you why, but before I do, let me try to make something clear. I’m going to say things about Swords & Wizardry, Matt Finch, and Mythmere Games, and Frog God Games. These things might be true about other games, people, and companies. In fact, these things are true about other games, people, and companies. If I say I appreciate Thing X about Swords & Wizardry, I’m not saying that no other game includes Thing X. In other words, I’m not dissing the games, people, and companies you appreciate.

You might be thinking, “Why the explanation, Mark?”

Well, in doing what passed as research for this blogpost, I came across a whole bunch of snippy bloviation about all things Old School Renaissance, including Swords & Wizardry and Matt Finch, specifically Matt’s “A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming” (for example). High-horse riding seems endemic in many discussions of Old School gaming, and I now avoid them. I’ve got better things to do with my time than listen to some “expert” tell me I’m playing badwrongfun, or that I’m not really Old School, or that what I’m talking about isn’t even a real role-playing game.

But enough snippy bloviation! Let’s do some appreciation!

Why I Appreciate Swords & Wizardry

Let me count the ways!

1. It’s free. There’s even an RTF version available for house-ruling.

2. It has an SRD, which means I don’t even need the book to play.

3. I don’t need the book to play, even if there wasn’t an SRD. Seriously. Not too long ago I GMed a Swords & Wizardry/Stars Without Number mash-up. I didn’t have to refer to the rulebooks once throughout the four-or-so hours of game time. I didn’t even have the rulebooks with me. Everything I needed for the game that night fit on about a dozen or so sheets of paper, mostly character sheets for the players. I’ve been playing (and writing) for Pathfinder almost exclusively for about five years. Pathfinder is a great game that I cannot run for four hours without referring to the rules.

Why I Appreciate Matt Finch

With more counting, or course:

1. Matt’s a fellow Texan.

2. Matt has demonstrated himself to be an approachable game designer who’s willing to take a personal hand in representing his product in a positive manner for consumers.

3. Did I mention that Swords & Wizardry is free?

4. Matt wrote this:

“Most of the time in old-style gaming, you don’t use a rule; you make a ruling. It’s easy to understand that sentence, but it takes a flash of insight to really ‘get it.’ The players can describe any action, without needing to look at a character sheet to see if they ‘can’ do it. The referee, in turn, uses common sense to decide what happens or rolls a die if he thinks there’s some random element involved, and then the game moves on. This is why characters have so few numbers on the character sheet, and why they have so few specified abilities.”

For me, this almost perfectly sums up one of the big attractions of “old-style gaming”. Why only almost perfect? Well, I demur a bit from the third sentence. I think it’s quite acceptable for players to have a bigger share in the common sense decisions and dice rolling than stated above. (And, yes, this thinking is one of my thoughts that has been sometimes vociferously condemned as not truly Old School or, terror of terrors!, not even actual role-playing.)

Why I Appreciate Mythmere Games and Frog God Games

1. Did I mention that Swords & Wizardry is free?

2. Both companies exemplify the sort of friendly professionalism that I cannot help but admire. Search around the Interwebz to see that Frog God Games has put right the Razor Coast debacle. I’ve seen numerous examples of company reps responding quickly to problems voiced on social media sites, such as Google+.

3. If the free version of Swords & Wizardry isn’t your cup of tea, you can purchase the rules in lovely book form. Most reviews I’ve seen praise the quality of the books being published by Frog God Games. Check out this review, for example.

4. There’s an impressive amount of product support out there for Swords & Wizardry, and a whole bunch of it, including the core rules themselves, has been released via the Open Gaming License.

Whew! That’s 11 different items I appreciate about Swords & Wizardry. Well, sort of. I mentioned the free thing more than once. If you’ve not experienced the Old School, give it a try. You might like it. You might even like it better than what you’re playing now.

Tags: A to Z 2013, Swords & Wizardry, Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day

Well, here’s another week gone by, and I’m working on my post for the day kind of late. I didn’t home ’til a bit after midnight last night, and I was up early this morning to go help a local non-profit write curriculum material for math. After that, it was naptime, and I still hadn’t figured out what I was going to write about. On top of that, the XBox Live wasn’t working. Horrors!

So, I pulled up Netflix on my laptop, and I started to watch Hypothermia, a modest little film starring Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Walking Dead) about two ice-fishing families and a gill-man (see also this Hypothermia trailer and this fair-minded review of the film). After being interrupted by dinner, I finished watching the movie, and I had my topic for today.

Arctic Gill-man
Hit Dice: 3
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4), or fin slash (1d6 + infection)
Saving Throw: 14
Special: Feel vibrations, infection, surprise opponents on a 1-4
Move: 12/15 swimming
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 5/240

The arctic gill-man is a monstrous hybrid of fish, reptile, and humanoid that dwells in some lakes of arctic regions. It breathes both water and air, and it can survive on land for a several hours without discomfort. This monster is territorial and intelligent, and it will seek to defend its territory against trespassers, especially those that fish the lake or hunt along its banks. When submerged, it can feel the vibrations caused by creatures in the water or moving on the lake ice. The arctic gill-man is quite stealthy, attacking by surprise against even alert opponents with a roll of 1–4 on a d6. In combat, it attacks with either its claws or else by slashing with one of the spiny fins growing along its forearms.

The gill-man’s fin slash carries a potent toxin. A living creature struck by a fin slash must make a saving throw. Failure means the injury caused by the fin slash cannot be healed by natural means. The failed save also means a fever sets in after 1d4+6 minutes. A feverish creature suffers a -1 penalty to both attack rolls and Armor Class. Magical healing is required to overcome the injury and infection. Furthermore, as long as a creature is affected by gill-man infection, the monster and its victim have a psychic link. The gill-man can infallibly track the infected victim and can communicate with the victim via telepathy as long as the gill-man can see the victim.

Tags: A to Z 2013, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

This week, after wheedling for more than a year, I’m finally getting to teach Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha to my 5th graders. At the same time, as part of Latin class, we’re studying Penelope Lively’s In Search of a Homeland, a retelling of Virgil’s The Aeneid. We are so epic! Today I take a break from Tiamat’s Throne to provide quick Swords & Wizardry stats for two of Hiawatha’s friends.

Two good friends had Hiawatha,
Singled out from all the others,
Bound to him in closet union,
And to whom he gave the right hand
Of his heart, in joy and sorrow;
Chibiabos, the musician,
And the very strong man, Kwasind.

Chibiabos
Hit Dice: 7+7
Armor Class: 5 [14] (9 [10] unarmored)
Attacks: By weapon
Saving Throw: 9
Special: Amazing powers of song
Move: 12
Alignment: Law
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1,400

Chibiabos possesses amazing powers of song. When he sings, even normal animals — both domestic and wild — will stop what they’re doing in order to listen to his beautiful music. Of course, this desire to hear Chibiabos’s pleasing melodies won’t cause an animal to endanger itself or passively tolerate hostile action. With a happy song, Chibiabos can cause all humanoids who hear him to feel at peace. With a sad song, he causes the same to become sorrowful. Again, these feelings cannot cause anyone to endanger themselves or ignore obvious threats. As if these powers aren’t enough, Chibiabos can “cast” these spells, one at a time, once per day each, through his music: charm monster, charm plants, and mass charm.

Kwasind
Hit Dice: 8+14
Armor Class: 3 [16] (7 [12] unarmored)
Attacks: By weapon (double damage)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: Amazing strength
Move: 15
Alignment: Law
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1,400

Kwasind possesses amazing strength. His melee and thrown weapons inflict double normal damage, and even his unarmed attacks inflict 1d6 points of damage. He can hurl boulders as a stone giant (3d6 points of damage). Kwasind is powerful enough to tear apart stone structures with his bare hands as a half-strength earth elemental.

Tags: A to Z 2013, NPCs, Swords & Wizardry, The Song of Hiawatha

Matt Jackson over at Lapsus Calumni is running a monster-making contest focusing on the fellow in the picture to the right. The best entry receives a March to June subscription to Monsters By Email. Since I love contests and monsters, how could I pass this one up?

Syrlōps
Hit Dice: 6+6
Armor Class: 3 [16]
Attacks: 2 fists (1d6), 1 tail (1d8+2)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Half-damage from blunt and piercing weapons, magical chords
Move: 12
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 8/800

A syrlōps (plural syrlōpes) is a bizarre mixture of humanoid and plant. It stands taller and broader than even the largest human, although it tends to lurch about in a near crouch, moving sometimes on all fours. Its body is covered with a conglomeration of bark, knotted roots, leaves, hair-like moss, and corded muscles. This tough composite of tissues is particularly resistant to weapons that pierce or crush (such as arrows and maces). In combat, a syrlōps fights with punishing blows from its powerful fists and tail.

The most outstanding feature of a syrlōps’s body are the twin rows of tube-like structures that grow from its hunched shoulders down its back. After a prodigious inhalation, a syrlōps can force air through these structures to create musical tones over a range of three octaves and in an impressive array of combinations, producing harmonies to rival those a woodwind virtuoso. What’s more, once per round at will, a syrlōps can pipe magical chords to produce any of the following effects: charm monster, fear, sleep, or speak with plants.

Syrlōpes dwell only in the most primeval of forests and jungles. They are private, territorial creatures who resent intruders, except for non-evil fey creatures, whom the syrlōpes count as allies. Syrlōpes live in well-camouflaged villages in areas that provide exposure to sunlight and access to fresh water. Nixies, pixies, and sprites often dwell in or near these villages, helping protect the dwellings from marauders and trespassers. Syrlōpes have male and female genders, and they marry and raise offspring, which are hatched from large, nut-like pods. Both male and female syrlōpes nurse the young with a sap exuded by their root-like fingers. Weaned syrlōpes feed on sunlight, water, and a variety of roots, tubers, and flowers. Syrlōpes live for centuries, and they speak the language of the fey. They may also communicate with each other over great distances by means of songs loudly played.

Tags: Lapsus Calumni, monsters, Monsters by Email, Swords & Wizardry