Tenkar's Tavern: games i won

Showing posts with label games i won. Show all posts

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Games I Own, But Have Never Played - West End Games Star Wars

To be fully honest, I own the core rules to each version of the Star Wars RPGs, and have yet to play any of them. That being said, WEG's D6 Star Wars is the one that I really wanted to play.

The system was easy enough to understand, the books were really evocative of the first three Star Wars movies (not to be confused with Chapters I-III of the Star Wars Saga). I could read the rules and have a pretty good idea of how it would play out in my head.

It's just that no one else wanted to play Star Wars. Heck, they would choose Star Ace before Star Wars, and I did run a decent 3 player campaign using the Space Master rules. Sci-Fi wasn't the issue, I think it was a fear of the Star Wars canon. Sometimes its easier to be the hero where the setting wasn't already decided on the major plot line.

Maybe one day I can use the now Open D6 rules for a decent Sci-Fi campaign, without the light sabers and the Jedi Mind Tricks ;)

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 ;)

Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

RPGNow

Friday, January 14, 2011

The Games I Own, But Have Never Played - West End Games Star Wars

Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition