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Saturday, March 4, 2017

A Peek at Some Optional Rules Included in the Swords & Wizardry Continual Light Beta



What follows are some optional rules that will be included with the Swords & Wizardry Continual Light Beta Release.

These are OPTIONAL - use or not as you see fit as a GM. Add your own or none at all.

We'll see if we can get a public release of the Swords & Wizardry Continual Light Beta PDF in the next few weeks. There are various iterations of the SWCL rules currently in playtest as well as being used as reference by creators of SWL content. We want to lock down the rules before moving on to the rest of the release.

As I've stated before, the full release will add 16 to 20 pages of adventures and setting to the 16 pages of actual rules. So, complete game and campaign material in 32 to 36 pages.

On a side note - we just commissioned a logo for the Torchlight zine. Things are progressing well ;)



Optional Rules for Swords & Wizardry Continual Light

-Start all characters with maximum Hit Points for their class at 1st Level. Helps with low level survivability.

-Allow humans to swap their lowest ability score with a 15. Answers the “Why play a human? “ question.

-Treat 1st Level Clerics as having “Zero” 1st level spells and allow them their bonus spell for high wisdom if they have one.

Perks:

Here's how Perks work. After attaining 7th level, PCs can still accumulate game session  / adventure "credit" for playing and they can spend this "credit" as follows:

1 Credit - Add 1 HP to their HP total.  This perk can be bought a maximum of 10 times. Note, these are not HD and a Constitution Bonus does not apply. Also, see below.

2 Credits - Lower Saving Throw by 1 point. This perk can be bought a maximum of 5 times.

2 Credits - Cleric and Magic-user only - Add 1 First Level spell slot – This perk can be bought a maximum of 3 times.

3 Credits - Fighter only - + 1 to BAB - This perk can be bought a maximum of 5 times.

4 Credits - Cleric and Thief Only - + 1 BAB. This perk may only be bought a maximum of 2 times.

4 Credits – Cleric and Magic-user only - Add 1 Second Level spell slot. This perk can be bought a maximum of 2 times.

5 Credits - Thief Only - Add a 1 in 6 chance to Thief Skills. This Perk may only be bought once.

5 Credits – Add 1 HP to their HP total. There is no maximum number of times this perk can be bought. Note, these are not HD and a Constitution Bonus does not apply.

6 Credits – Cleric and Magic-user only. Add 1 Third Level spell slot. This perk can only be bought once.

8 Credits – Magic-user only. Add 1 Fourth Level spell slot. This perk can only be bought once.

9 comments:

  1. Dunno if it's an option, but I like the yellow/gold line art better than the blue background posted earlier. It says "light" more than the blue does to me. And it has the sepia, antique feel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sepia may work for the PDF, but the initial print will be on my laser printer - Black is the only color it prints in ;)

      Delete
  2. I'm not trying to be dense, but I don't understand the difference between the 1 credit and 5 credit +1 Hit Point option, other than the 5 credit version not having a limit.

    I also don't fully grok the cleric having zero 1st level spell option.

    'Splain?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (This may be a limitation in my experience with earlier versions of D&D and the associated house rules and whatnot.)

      Delete
    2. Once you have used up the cheap HP option you can opt for the much more expensive option.

      Clerics default to no spells at 1st level. If you treat that as Zero / 0 spells,0 + 1 is 1.

      Delete
    3. Oh, that's right, no spells until 2nd level. Wow, that's going back a ways.

      Delete
  3. What about perks (plus materials and time) being used for magical item creation? 2 perks = scroll, 3 perks = potion, etc. This would work for magic users, clerics, and elves (and only elves can make Elven boots, cloaks, etc.).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I like the ideas presented here, but here's something I should have thought of sooner but never asked about:

    It looks like S&W Light (and by extension Continual Light) uses the same class features as traditional S&W but gives everybody the same XP progression (based on sessions played). Have any issues with game balance showed up in playtesting? After all, having different XP charts was one of the ways old-school D&D kept classes balanced.

    ReplyDelete

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