Spes Magna Games

So, it’s a new year, and, to quote Bilbo Baggins, “I’m going on an adventure!”

The Borderlands

I started a ShadowDark campaign. We’re five sessions in using Gary Gygax’s The Keep on the Borderlands as the setting. Each session is on-line via my Discord for audio and my Foundry for virtual table top. I’ve got nine players, only a third of them being people I’ve met in person. The campaign is an open table game. I schedule the sessions when I’m available. Anyone who can show up for the session shows up for the session. Only one of the five adventures started with a mandatory DM plot hook. Otherwise, the players decide based on previous sessions, current rumors, et cetera, where their PCs go and what they want to accomplish when they get there.

I’m having so much fun with The Borderlands that I started up campaign site via a Scabard. Check it out if you want.

The picture below is a graph view of The Borderlands on Scabard with “The Heroes” in the center. This view shows many of the PCs (living and dead) and their connections to people, places, and events. Clicking the link in the Group box takes you to the displayed page. Clicking a picture circle on the graph shifts that picture circle to the center and displays relationships from the new perspective.

Good times!

Middangeard

with the help of my very own The Hero’s Journal (via www.TheHerosJournal.co), I’ve started an ambitious project. The Middangeard campaign setting has lurked around the peripheries of my gaming for decades. The earliest iterations used AD&D (first and second editions) back in the late 1980s to early 1990s. It popped up briefly with Third Edition. Elements of it have made cameos in other games with other systems.

The simple elegance of ShadowDark and Old-School Essentials have pushed me to break out several of my favorite non-D&D and D&D-adjacent games to mine for inspiration while writing my own old Old-School system set in Middangeard. Since 1 January, the very rough draft player’s guide has grown from 0 words and pages to just over 1,000 words stretched unevenly across seven pages. Another document discussing Middangeard’s theogony and history (influenced heavily by philosophy and theology largely Catholic in sensibility) includes a lot of previously blogged material. It’s about 5,800 words across 12 pages. Much of this will end up in the player’s guide.

My initial goal is to have enough of Middangeard completed so that I can start playtesting it by September 2025. After that will come more editing followed by formatting for publication via print on demand. If successful, Middangeard will be second actual book (the first being my superhero RPG The Four Color Hack).

Also!

If you’ve not backed James M. Spahn’s White Box Cyclopedia, you should. Check it out on Kickstarter. Two of James’s books are pictured above among my inspirational (and aspirational) materials. White Box Omnibus is an excellent expansion of Swords & Wizardy White Box(/strong> and The Hero’s Journey RPG is a masterpiece of writing and game design.

Tags: James M. Spahn, Old School Essentials, Shadowdark, WhiteBox

(See what I did there?)

Took advantage of some extra time this morning while my students were in computer to start writing Unenägu. First step: Start to clarify how these new rules differ from that on which they are based. Here’s a sample:

Unenägu, like Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox, requires two sets of players who differ in kind. The first is the Referee, and the second are the Players. The bulk of the first part of what follows aims primarily at the Players, who each must create a Player Character (PC), who becomes one of the characters in the shared story played out at the table during a game session.

What’s the Same?
If you’re reading these words, I’m assuming you have your own copy of Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox. You’ll need to refer to it. Unenägu doesn’t repeat information from Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox any more than necessary. For example, you’ll not find much in the way of items and equipment in what follows. Those guidelines are in Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox, and I didn’t feel the need to retype them. Still, I do want to point out briefly what Unenägu doesn’t change, so here goes.

Rule Number One is still rule number one. This is your game now. Feel free to change it, add to it, subtract from it, et cetera. One of the beautiful things about old-school games is that they are about rulings not rules. This is especially important for the Referee. When something happens in the game that the rules don’t cover, make a ruling and move on.

Unenägu also uses all the same dice as Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox. Attribute scores remain the same, and experience point (XP) calculations are unchanged. Likewise, hit points, starting gold, and alignment remain the same (unless, of course, you want to change them).

What’s more, the three basic character classes — the Cleric, the Fighter, and the Magic-User — work in Unenägu just like they do in Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox. So, too, do Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings.

What’s Different?
Unenägu adds new class options related to PCs who are Visitors, those special children who have left behind the real world and entered the Realm of Dream. As Visitors, these children are aware that they now live in a dream, and they can manipulate reality, which, in game terms, is reflected in the use of Oneiric Points.

In addition to Humans, Dwaves, Elves, and Halflings, PCs who are not Visitors may be Talking Animals. The fables and fairy tales from which Unenägu draws inspiration often include animals with human intelligence and characteristics. Some Talking Animals appear very much like normal animals, while others are more anthropomorphic (such as Puss-in-Boots).

Lastly, a few non-Visitors PCs who have exceptionally high ability scores (14+) may perform Legendary Feats. A Fighter with an exceptional Strength might be able to twist iron chains asunder, whereas a Halfling with an exceptional Dexterity may be able to race up a wall.

Tags: A to Z 2015, Swords & Wizardry, Unenägu, WhiteBox