Tenkar's Tavern: Quick Thoughts on SWN'ing the OSR Thief Skills

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Quick Thoughts on SWN'ing the OSR Thief Skills

I'm just throwing these out there as random thoughts 15 minutes after waking up - they may no longer make sense to me this afternoon ;)

Start all thief skills at a base difficulty of 8 - except Climb walls, which would start at a difficulty of 5.

Two skill points to distribute at odd levels (including first), one point to distribute at even levels (this is totally just woke up guess work - I suspect that would need tweaking).

This would allow for the DM to actually set difficulties for the different tasks depending on the situation.

Lets see if this still makes sense when I am fully awake ;)

3 comments:

McWiegAugust 5, 2012 at 2:02 PM
I am an enormous fan of SWN, skill system included. I really like this idea. I had been tinkering around with SWN-style Backgrounds and Training Packages to simulate the various sub-classes (ranger, barbarian, etc.) in B/X.
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James C.August 5, 2012 at 4:08 PM
Brilliant! I am also a fan of SWN and I have never thought about using it for Fantasy. Makes me want to write up an Dwarf Class for the system.
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Erik TenkarAugust 5, 2012 at 4:23 PM
I'll have some more coherent thoughts to make this a proper write up later today or tomorrow i hope
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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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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Quick Thoughts on SWN'ing the OSR Thief Skills

3 comments:

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