Tenkar's Tavern: Games From the Basement - Shadows on the Borderland (RuneQuest 3 Adventure)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Games From the Basement - Shadows on the Borderland (RuneQuest 3 Adventure)

I really really liked RuneQuest back in the day. I certainly liked it a lot more than my players did. Maybe it's because I bought Dragon Pass before I even got my first RuneQuest game (not that anyone ever played Dragon Pass with me - ah well).

I found RQ3 (the Avalon Hill Deluxe Edition) before I found RQ2 (Chaosium). So, I didn't dwell too much on the differences between the systems. I used RQ2's Pavis and Big Rubble with RQ3, converting on the fly. I really dug the setting more than the system in the end I think.

Shadows on the Borderland is one of the few RQ3 setting books (or boxes, most were boxes) that I really dug (one day I'll post about Monster Coliseum and how that manuscript should have been burned instead of printed) , but I bought it long after we moved back to AD&D and RIFTS and Space Master and such. Which is a shame, because there is much goodness here.

Maybe I should brings some Broos to my ACKS campaign and convert some of the scenarios within. Between this and WFRP, they'll be confused to all shit ;)

1 comment:

賈尼June 14, 2012 at 2:15 AM
I love the art on the cover.
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Games From the Basement - Shadows on the Borderland (RuneQuest 3 Adventure)

1 comment:

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