And the Winner of Razor Coast and its Companion Books, in Print for Swords & Wizardry is...

I do love giving stuff away. Rach loves it too, as my gaming collection keeps growing and I am loath to downsize it. Giving away some of the duplicates I've collected over the years doesn't hurt and keeps the collection from growing too fast ;)

So, who gets the Razor Coast, along with its companion books, Heart of the Razor and the Freebooter's Guide, in Print, for Swords & Wizardry.

John Miskimen, step forward! Email me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing. Let me know if you want it inscribed "From the Tenkar Games Collection, 2016" ;) (please tell me you live in the states ;)

I'll need a valid US mailing address. Shipping won't happen until next week as I have a few more things to give away and would like to make as few trips as possible to the post office.

Remember, by backing the current Swords & Wizardry Complete KS for a buck you are in line to get some sweet loot in PDF ;)

13 Hours - Flash Giveaway - Razor Coast 3 Book Set - Swords & Wizardry

Today we're giving away Razor Coast, along with its companion books, Heart of the Razor and the Freebooter's Guide, in Print, for Swords & Wizardry. I have duplicates. Go Figure.

Its time to be a pirate :)

Here are the rules:

1 - I'm only shipping to the US, but anyone can enter. If the winner is randomly picked from outside the states, they will get a $10 RPGNow Gift Certificate and the physical prize gets bumped to the 12 Days of OSR Christmas or something.

2 - You need to leave a comment below to enter. Thats pretty much it.

   2a - You could go to last night's post and give some feedback for art choices for Swords & Wizardry Light. edit - We're in layout

   2b - You could go to the Swords & Wizardry Complete 3rd Printing KS and back for a buck, which gives you the rules in PDF and all the stretch goals in PDF (currently Strange Bedfellows, the new cover as an art poster and Deck of Treasure) This also allows you to choose in Print add ons. If you do back, add a comment to the KS page stating to the effect that The Tavern sent you ;)

3 - Your comment must be made prior to 10 PM Eastern Time, Thursday, October 13th, 2016 - Yes, only 13 hours.

Good luck :)

edit - obviously 2a and 2b are completely optional ;)

THIS IS THE POST TO COMMENT ON ;)

50% Off All Razor Coast Titles! Talk Like a Pirate Day! Arrrrrrr! (Frog God Games)

Frog God is offering 50% off it's Razor Coast titles through 9/19.

While I haven't had a chance to run it, I've read the core adventure and it has months of gaming potential within.

Disclosure: Although I worked on Swords & Wizardry Light for Frog God Games, it was a labor of love for the community. I do not receive a salary or any other sort of compensation from Frog God Games. I just happen to like their shit :)

Talk Like a Pirate - Razor Coast Titles 50% Off Today Only

Damn. Never ending day of sales today. Good thing I already have everything thus far or I'd be going broke ;)

Frog God is offering all of their Razor Coast titles at 50% off, today only. Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder flavors.

Use the coupon code: PIRATE-DAY

Alright, nap time before tonight's shift ;)

The ENnies are Announced - FATE and Numenera Run Off and Have Babies

Yep, the 2014 ENnies have been announced. The Razor Coast from Frog God Games won a Silver for Best Adventure.

For nearly every other category, your winner is either FATE, Numenera or the occasional Pathfinder release. Well, a few others did slip through, and Gnomestew did win for best blog (huge congrats to +Martin Ralya and the rest of the gnomes) and Roll20 for Best Software.

I do find it interesting that the judge list for 2015 will be nearly identical to the 2014 list:

 So, with the exception of Annah, expect more of the same next year.

Razor Coast - FINALLY in Hand!

This would have been in the list of things to review that was voted on if only it had shipped on time.

It is a beauty to behold. Sure, the pages have the annoying artwork behind the text, but at least it looks readable.

I had gotten about a 1/4 of the way through the PDF earlier this summer before deciding to wait on my dead tree copy to arrive. Looks like I'll be waiting a bit longer with the review pile I have in hand already ;)

When is "Talk Like a Pirate Day"?

The Winner of the Razor Coast PDF For Swords & Wizardry Is...

The votes are in. I'm glad the final decision wasn't in my hands, as it wasn't an easy vote by far.

(the winners need to contact me at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom so i can get their gifts to them)

The random winner voter of a $5 RPGNow Gift Certificate is:

+Timothy Brannan 


Coming in at third place in the voting, qualifying for a $5 RPGNow Gift Certificate is:


Capheind for his entry The Mad Priest of Shebaba, and his vessel, the sepulcher of Shebaba.


Coming in at second place in the voting, qualifying for a $10 RPGNow Gift Certificate is:


+Tim Shorts for his entry The Ghost and it's Captain Cleaver Blackshaw.


Coming in at first place, winning a free PDF copt of the Razor Coast for Swords & Wizardry is:


+David Brawley 

Along the shipwrecked shores of the Razor Coast
Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain
Under red-dark skies and Pele’s eyes
Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

For he’s faced the worst the waves can bring
Wreck and ruin and hurricane
Pitch black flag and scarlet sails
Sink their hearts and lips a’ wail

With orkish blood and a pirates ire
Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain
Cults and Curse of ancient times
Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

He’ll take your silver, gold, n’ magic things
If you get in his way, you’ll be a blood stain
from the isle of Haht to the great Port Shaw
Ruthless Jack’s will plunder them all

Rum and gold and a wind steady
Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain
Treasure or tempest upon the sea
Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

The Bloody Haar is a two masted schooner, with a red stripe running the length of her black hull. Her sails are a sun and salt faded scarlet, and she flies a pitch black pennant. While a relatively small ship, she’s one of the nimblest and fastest that prowls the Razor Coast.

(listen to the above here)

The Bloody Haar’s crew consists of the following:
SkarJak “Ruthless Jack” Urzok (Captain, Black Orc male fighter)
Lady d’Rath (1st Officer, blond human female fighter)
Masked Mage (quartermaster, ??)
Reed & Finnan (riggers and knifers, halfling brothers)
4-8 other pirates (Crew, varies - orcs and humans)

Prior to a raid, the Masked Mage will wreath the area in fog, allowing the Blood Haar to close upon her prey unseen. The rest of the crew will then board their target, eliminating any resistance with extreme prejudice, but not needlessly slaughtering anyone who doesn't get in their way. Their goal is always the loot.

“Ruthless Jack” is a large, broad shouldered bald orc with sun darkened olive green skin and a wiry black beard. He is covered with bright tattoos across his chest and down his arms, and fights with a magical harpoon in one hand, and a hand ax in the other. He’s been a pirate nearly his whole life, sailed the length and breadth of the Razor Coast, and when the Masked Mage offered him command of the Bloody Haar, he lept at the chance. The last 5 years have proven the wisdom of the Masked Mage’s choice.

The Lady d’Rath was the 1st officer under the Bloody Haar’s previous captain, and was initially pissed that the Masked Mage passed her up for the position. SkarJak’s success only infuriated her more. Eventually she challenged him to a duel, and lost, though it was a close thing. SkarJak asked her to remain on the ship as his first officer. Their relationship remains tense.

The Masked Mage is an unknown to all. Clad from head to toe in flowing embroidered robes, with an elaborate facemask that lacks any holes, his voice is low and raspy. Over his robes he wears The Medallion of the 9 Winds, the item which allows him to both call forth the fog, but also to influence the wind, further assisting the Bloody Haar in being one of the fastest vessels upon the sea.

Beginning in the Razor Coast - Looking at "Mysteries of the Razor" (Swords & Wizardry)

The deeper I look into the Razor Coast PDF for Swords & Wizardry (in all of it's 426 pages of glory) the more hidden gems I find.

I was under the impression there weren't any adventures or hooks included for beginning adventurers, and lo and behold I find "Mysteries of the Razor" tucked in starting at page 325.

I think it does a fine job of setting the tone for the Razor Coast setting (repetitious writing on my part, I know). The players start at sea and encounter, for lack of a better phrase, a ghost ship. If they had any doubt that they would be spending a significant amount of time on the sea, this should open their eyes.

There's a bit of plot heavy handedness to it as written, but there is also some well presented options to lessen the weight of it. It is a good adventure as written (as a one shot I'd even say excellent) but following the advice given it should work out as a great campaign starter.

One thing I would suggest, and I think I will plan to do in all games I run, is to ask for 10 "saving throws" thrown in advance for each PC. Record them in order, then roll a D10 to determine the starting point when needed. Cross them out as used. It prevents the need for the DM to roll saves for the PCs in secret, which I never liked as a player and try to avoid as a DM.

There is also a Frank Mentzer adventure included in the mix - "Dark Waters" - which is for 3rd or higher level characters. Although it doesn't take place directly in the Razor Coast area but it's outer boundaries, I'd like to see if it's suitable for use when I kick off the Razor Coast campaign sometime this summer. I still need to work on a follow up to "Mysteries of the Razor", but that shouldn't be too hard so long as I make it more "plot" and less "structure", so the payers have a decent amount of wiggle room.

See, it's a good thing I finally allowed myself to bounce around the Razor Coast PDF for a bit ;)

Help Pick the Winner of the "Detail a Pirate Captain For Use in the Razor Coast"!

There were some amazing entries. I found myself severely aggravated that I limited my selection of finalists to only three choices, as it could have easily surpassed a half dozen. Lads and ladies, y'all fucking rock! You know what it takes to make a great pirate :)

In any case, I was limited to three choices and these are them. It certainly wasn't an easy task to whittle down the list to three, and now, my dear readers, I'm putting the task on you to chose "The One".

The first place vote getter receives a copy of the Swords & Wizardry version of the Razor Coast in PDF thanks to the generosity of the fine folks over at Frog God Games.

The two runner ups get gift certificates to RPGNow, curtesy of the fine blog readers that use my affiliate links and put cash in the kitty for events like this. 2nd place gets a $10 GC and third place gets a $5 credit.

One random voter will also get a $5 RPGNow gift certificate, as my way of thanking you for participating in this difficult but rewarding endeavor.

You may pick up to two of the finalists to vote for, a first place vote (3 points) and a second place vote (1 point). I'll tally up the points at the end of the voting and award the prizes.

Voting commences immediately and will end on Tuesday, May 21st at 7pm NYC time.

You cast you vote by commenting on this post.

Here are the finalists:

Finalist "A" +David Brawley 

Along the shipwrecked shores of the Razor Coast

Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

Under red-dark skies and Pele’s eyes

Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

For he’s faced the worst the waves can bring

Wreck and ruin and hurricane

Pitch black flag and scarlet sails

Sink their hearts and lips a’ wail

With orkish blood and a pirates ire

Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

Cults and Curse of ancient times

Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

He’ll take your silver, gold, n’ magic things

If you get in his way, you’ll be a blood stain

from the isle of Haht to the great Port Shaw

Ruthless Jack’s will plunder them all

Rum and gold and a wind steady

Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

Treasure or tempest upon the sea

Sails the Bloody Haar and her dread captain

The Bloody Haar is a two masted schooner, with a red stripe running the length of her black hull. Her sails are a sun and salt faded scarlet, and she flies a pitch black pennant. While a relatively small ship, she’s one of the nimblest and fastest that prowls the Razor Coast.

(listen to the above here)

The Bloody Haar’s crew consists of the following:

SkarJak “Ruthless Jack” Urzok (Captain, Black Orc male fighter)

Lady d’Rath (1st Officer, blond human female fighter)

Masked Mage (quartermaster, ??)

Reed & Finnan (riggers and knifers, halfling brothers)

4-8 other pirates (Crew, varies - orcs and humans)

Prior to a raid, the Masked Mage will wreath the area in fog, allowing the Blood Haar to close upon her prey unseen. The rest of the crew will then board their target, eliminating any resistance with extreme prejudice, but not needlessly slaughtering anyone who doesn't get in their way. Their goal is always the loot.

“Ruthless Jack” is a large, broad shouldered bald orc with sun darkened olive green skin and a wiry black beard. He is covered with bright tattoos across his chest and down his arms, and fights with a magical harpoon in one hand, and a hand ax in the other. He’s been a pirate nearly his whole life, sailed the length and breadth of the Razor Coast, and when the Masked Mage offered him command of the Bloody Haar, he lept at the chance. The last 5 years have proven the wisdom of the Masked Mage’s choice.

The Lady d’Rath was the 1st officer under the Bloody Haar’s previous captain, and was initially pissed that the Masked Mage passed her up for the position. SkarJak’s success only infuriated her more. Eventually she challenged him to a duel, and lost, though it was a close thing. SkarJak asked her to remain on the ship as his first officer. Their relationship remains tense.

The Masked Mage is an unknown to all. Clad from head to toe in flowing embroidered robes, with an elaborate facemask that lacks any holes, his voice is low and raspy. Over his robes he wears The Medallion of the 9 Winds, the item which allows him to both call forth the fog, but also to influence the wind, further assisting the Bloody Haar in being one of the fastest vessels upon the sea.

Finalist "B" Capheind

The Mad Priest of Shebaba, and his vessel, the sepulcher of Shebaba. 

The mad priest was once a totally sane priest of another religion entirely, until Shebaba washed ashore, a sea monster of sorts which happened to look an awful lot like the creature of his most recent nightmares. The priest (once named Ulful, now simply known as the mad priest) became obsessed with the rotting mass he'd dubbed a she. 

As his mental illness took hold, and he was being held in his quarters, the subjects of his abandoned parish made plans to cast Shebaba into the sea. Driven mad with what he calls "The essential cleansing of soul and sanity" Ulful had the strength of a hundred men, and earned his new name slaying the majority of his former flock. Enslaved by The Mad Priest the people of the small port city built a craft of strong wood and stronger sea monster bones and ichor and took to the sea with their subjugator/church father, riding the very mausoleum of their goddess. 

The Sepulchre of Shebaba sets to port often, she is given wide berth by other vessels, and the port villages and cities seal their doors so as not to be taken to crew the vessel. The vessel is crewed by the enslaved, the mad, or the half demon spawn of those creatures the Priest summons to breed with the insane and the slaves. 

The Mad Priest is a 8th level chaotic cleric, Shebaba is dead but her Ichor seems to have the stuff of sapience infused into its essence and her torment bleeds through into the psychic plane, leading to madness if a daily save against her forces isn't made successfully. 

Finalist "C" +Tim Shorts 


The Ghost is the ship. Captain Cleaver Blackshaw rules his ship with two black pistols gifted to him from the Siren, Suleela. He'd captured her family during a raid upon the fey lands and she swore to be with him if he released her family. He was given the black pistols on their wedding night and to consummate their marriage he killed four of his crewmen who dared to speak against the union. The pistols are linked with the ship, each death is captured within the the soul of the ship and a strange rune appears on its boards. When attacked these captured spirits defend the ship and assist it in defense and healing itself. When the spirit is depleted of energy the run fades.

Cleaver Blackshaw was always the leader of men. He was raised on the streets within the largest city. He led a gang of boys that soon gained the attention of guards and guilds alike. They were able to capture and disrupt, spend and kill because of the uncanny ability of Cleaver. It wasn't until he encounter an upstart noble, son of the Overlord, did he question his luck. Killing the boy had been a simple matter. He'd been trained by the best, but had never been in a real fight. It was the backlash that wiped out his entire gang. He stowed away on a ship. Was found. Before the crewman could wrangle him and present him before the captain, Cleaver strangle then man then sliced off his head with a dull knife and presented it before the captain himself and said "I'll take his job".

It was on this ship that he learned of the spirit world and of magic. Cleaver found it fascinating and imagined what a weapon it would be if he could ever harness both.

With The Ghost and his black pistols he has ruled the seas for over two decades. Taking as he pleased. Most ships would dump their cargo overboard than battle him. But it is Suleela, who stands at the bow and sings to the ships that draws them to their inevitable doom.

Update: Win a PDF Copy of the Razor Coast PDF for Swords & Wizardry Now With More Booty!

You can enter to win a PDF copy of the Razor Coast for Swords & Wizardry by entering a pirate ship, it's captain and a short description here.

Now, if you also post it at the Genius Loci blog, the three finalists over here at The Tavern will also be eligible to win copies of the Razor Coast Freebooter's Guide for Swords & Wizardry. That combo is priceless.

So, what are you waiting for? Go!

Win a PDF Copy of the Razor Coast PDF for Swords & Wizardry

As I mentioned earlier this week, the Frog Gods were generous and have placed a PDF copy of the Razor Coast for Swords & Wizardry (PDF) into my hands so that one of my readers could land a copy.

How sweet is that?

So, what do you have to do to win the prize?

Name a pirate ship, it's captain and tell us a bit about the captain (and the ship if you would like). You can stat him out or not, but if you do stat him out, it should be via the S&W rules. Bonus points if you also write a small sea ditty. Extra bonus points if you sing the sea ditty and post it to Youtube or some similar site where all can hear you in your glory. I'll need the link ;)

I will decide on the top three entries and then we'll have a vote by the blog readers on those top three.

Entries will be accepted through 8PM NYC time Saturday, May 18th, 2013. Sunday afternoon I'll post the top three entries and there will be 48 hours to vote for your favorite.

The 2nd and 3rd place votes, as well as a random voter, will all get $5 RPGNow gift certificates. 1st place gets the Razor Coast PDF.

So, add your entries as a comment to this post. Ler's get 'er on!

I'll Be Running a Contest For a Free PDF Copy of Razor Coast for Swords & Wizardry on Thursday - Any Ideas on What the Contest Should Be?

First things first - there is a current contest going on here at The Tavern where you can win a print AND PDF copy of the Teratic Tome, a most awesome OSR manual of monsters. This contest will be taking entries until 8am Thursday morning NYC time - 5/16/13.

Thursday evening I'll be running a contest to give away a free PDF copy of the Razor Coast for S&W curtesy of Frog God Games. All hail the Frawgs!

I'm looking for a good idea for the contest theme. I've run lots of these, and sometimes I could use help with the ideas. Can't offer a prize for helping, just my undying gratitude ;)

So, drop your thoughts and ideas as a comment to this post and I thank you in advance

Contest Week Kicks Off At the Tavern Monday Morning - Teratic Tome, Roll XX and Razor Coast!

Monday morning (tomorrow), probably around 7 am NYC time or so, I'll be putting up the post for +Rafael Chandler 's "Best Character Death" Contest to celebrate his latest release, SlaughterGrid.

Look at the pretty picture please!

Here's the instructions directly from +Rafael Chandler :

What you'll do on Monday morning is, you'll mosey over (to this here blog), and you'll post your nastiest character death (on the contest post, which will go up Monday Morning) -- tell us how he/she died! I'm looking for brutality, grotesquerie, humor, or preferably some combination of the three. 

Three winners will get free books -- just pick a book from the list below and I'll mail you a copy. (I'll also email you the PDF.)
* Teratic Tome
* Roll XX
* Roll XX: Double Damage
* Spite
* ViewScream 

Three other winners will be chosen at random! Same deal, you'll get a free print book (and PDF). 

Not only that, but everyone else who participates will get a free PDF copy of Roll XX or Roll XX: Double Damage (your choice). Just for posting about the unpleasant death of one of your RPG characters, you get a free PDF! 

Finally, I'll be knocking $2.16 off the price of Teratic Tome (which is currently $6.66 for the PDF). That'll bring it down to $4.50. And for every person who participates in this contest, I'll knock another two cents off the cover price. So if 100 people post at Tenkar's Tavern, that'll bring the price of Teratic Tome down to $2.50, which is a steal. 

I'll also discount the print version by the same amount. 

Who's in?

Easy enough, right? So, post on tomorrow morning's post to qualify to win. I'm not sure how long Rafael want's to leave the contest open, but I suspect 24 hrs will be the minimum. It might also be the maximum I know now, 72 hrs, so don't wait forever to post!

Later on in the week I'll be giving away a copy of the Swords & Wizardry version of the Razor Coast PDF curtesy of the fine folks over at Frog God Games. That will go up sometime after the first contest closes. No details yet, but I am personally dying to run this (still need to finish reading this sucker) and I expect there are others that would love a copy.

Damn full week of contests and free stuff this week at the Tavern. Exciting times!

(This is NOT the post to post your character deaths!)

What's Going on With Tenkar's Landing?

Talk about getting sidetracked, I haven't touched Tenkar's Landing for ages it seems (actually, nearly 6 weeks)

Consider this placed on a back burner for now, at least as far as anything beyond what I need for my irregular Sunday Morning Crypts & Things / S&W game.

Why, you may ask?

I've been dragged into the far depths of the Razor Coast. I'm only about 10% into the main book (plus having read the Freebooter's Guide) and I'm already thinking of ways to kick off a party of newbs into the campaign instead of moving established characters there at levels 3 or 4.

So yeah, the shark bit me.

Actually, I think the Bard Class I'm working on would do very well in the Razor Coast setting. Information can be more valuable than gold, especially in Port Shaw.

I'm still working on Tenkar's Landing as a swords & sorcery type setting, but as I said above - just what I need for the game, at least for now.

Walking Along the Razor Coast - A Look at Port Shaw and a Shammie

Did I mention that I find myself getting totally immersed in the Razor Coast setting material? I've moved from the Freebooter's Guide to the Introduction to the Razor Coast  in the main RC book. The backstories of the NPCs are incredibly in depth. They have real motivations that have definitely roots in their backstories. Razor Coast is full of roleplay possibilities and I've barely scratched the surface. Yep, just 30 pages into the 426 page book.

Now, I have a question. It's mostly aimed at you, my dear readers. There is a member of a broken adventuring party that is a Half-Orc Shaman of no small ability. So, it's his class, but it's not given a level, but based upon the spells he has memorized, he can advance fairly far in the profession.

Would we like a Shaman class for Swords & Wizardry? (of course, if there already is one floating around, the point may be moot - or not, as variation is the spice of life)

I have 21 days left in my personal Month of May Swords & Wizardry Posting a Day and it might be a fun thing to pull together.

I see it limited to humans, half-orcs and humanoid NPC races (unless you allow humanoid races ;) Weapons more primitive by nature (club, dagger, staff, spear, bow, dart) and limited to leather armor.

Map out the first 10 levels maybe.

So, what say you? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Any other thoughts / ideas?

Coral Golem - Swords & Wizardry Monster (Razor Coast)

Golem, Coral

Hit Dice: 8 (38 HP)
Armor Class: 4 [15]
Attacks: 2 claws (1d8 each)
Saving Throw: 6
Special: Piercing and Slashing does 1/2 damage. Blunt Weapons
do full damage but each successful blow causes 1D6 shrapnel
damage in 10' radius (save for 1/2)
Move: 9
Alignment: Neutrality
Number Encountered: 1
Challenge Level/XP: 12/2,000

Coral Golems are occasionally found as servants of priests of various sea gods and high level mages headquartered in costal cities. They are huge, human like statues standing 8' tall composed of sea coral. Their intelligence in minimal, and they are able to follow the commands of their masters to the letter of the instruction, not necessarily the intent.

Combat with Coral Golems often leaves the attackers bleeding from numerous coral splinters due to the impact of blunt weapons on the coral.

(This should fit fairly well into the Razor Coast)

Mini Review - Razor Coast Freebooter's Guide (Swords & Wizardry)

Strangely enough, I picked up the Razor Coast Freebooter's Guide for S&W before I picked up the Razor Coast itself. In a way, it was a no brainer, as the Freebooter's Guide is 10 bucks in PDF and Razor Coast is $40 ($99 for HC plus PDF). Go for the smaller risk and work your way up kind of thing.

After flipping through the virtual pages of the Freebooter's Guide and running my weekly session of Rappan Athuk on Saturday Night, I plopped down my cash for the Razor Coast HC plus PDF. Oh, and 3 beers post game, but I swear I wasn't buzzed ;)

The RC Freebooter's Guide is full of flavor. Enough flavor for me to want to see more. From what I've read so far, I'd love to run a campaign in this setting. Sandboxie with a huge amount of plot elements.

From the back to the front (more or less).

I like the idea of magical tattoos - heck, i could see myself carrying this over to my Crypts & Things / S&W campaign.

The new magic items are flavorful. If you follow this blog on a regular basis, you've probably noticed my occasional focus on unique and new magic items. Again, even if you never run the campaign, there's a nice assortment of magic to borrow for your other campaigns. Same for spells - they have a nice flavor and don't need to be genre specific.

There are new weapons including pistols. I'm not sure if I'd use the enclosed pistol rules or substitute Dak's for the S&W Appreciation Day Blogfest. Still, nice selection of new, nautical flavored weaponry - again, easy to steal for your other campaign if so desired.

Gods. I don't recall seeing gods in other S&W products. It's nice to see how they are handled and written up. I'd allow their clerics to use their favored weapon.

Organizations. Kinda like "friends with benefits". Interesting way to give PCs some in game benefits, I just wish there were a few more organizations to choose from. Again, something easily yoked for a different campaign.

The Port Shaw write up is a nice piece to put in your players hands prior to the campaign kicking off, especially if you are going to have the players create "native" characters. There really aren't any included plot hooks / encounters / adventures suitable for the new character in Razor Coast - it assumes you'll start or arrive at level 3 or so, but I think I can plot a few out over the next month or two (hopefully). If so, I'll put them up here on the blog.
                                                                                              (sample art for +Joe D ;)
Under "Races" we get the usual humans, dwarves, elves and halflings (including sample name
lists for the humans and others) and we also get some new races. Tulita are basically the native humans, who have suffered at the hands of the humans (colonists). Dajobasu are mutant Tulita (with some nice abilities thrown into the mix). Mehehune are similar to halflings with a natural affinity to fire magic. Lastly we get half-orcs, who would fit in well in any S&W campaign. Unlimited advancement in the Thief and Assassin class. Nice!

Did I mention the Gazetteer? No? Necessary reading for both DM and players. Heck, players may find their own plot hooks from what they read, turning this into a true sandbox campaign.

Is there anything missing? Not really, but as the Pathfinder edition apparently has new core classes, it would have been interesting to see how one or two of them transitioned over to the S&W versions. Not a huge loss, but it would have been fun.

Now I need to spend some time delving into the Razor Coast PDF itself...

Frog God Games to Publish "The Lost Lands" Campaign Setting

I just stumbled across an interesting tidbit while bouncing around the Swords & Wizardry Razor Coast PDF - The Frogs are working on an in house setting. Hopefully the Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry versions are worked on concurrently and play to the strengths of each system.

Here's the piece in question:

As will be revealed in the upcoming Frog God Games
campaign setting The Lost Lands, Port Shaw and the
Razor Coast exist upon the world known as Lloegyr. The
coastland that comprises the Razor Coast and its environs
lies due south of the primary continent, Akados. To the
east of Akados, across the Irkainian Isthmus, lies the
continent of Libynos. Between and south of them sits
Great Oceanus in whose southern reaches is the stretch
of water known as the Razor Sea. The Razor Sea’s western
extremity is the Razor Coast, from which the sea takes its
name (and vice versa). Many islands dot the Razor Sea as
one sails due east. 

To the north, as one approaches the sea’s eastern
extremity, float the Aizanes Islands introduced in the
Frank Mentzer adventure, Deep Waters. These mark the
northeastern portion of the Razor Sea and have long
served as a destination and waystop for traders from
Libynos. Many consider the Aizanes, as they are called,
the last point of civilization upon the Razor Sea until Port
Shaw, because to the south of them lies the infamous
Pirate Confederacy, a loosely organized group of island
chains given over by the navies of Akados and Libynos to
the freebooters that call them home and who prey upon
the shipping lanes whenever naval vigilance grows lax.

Good stuff!

Taking the Plunge into the Razor Coast for Swords & Wizardry

Let me preface this with the following statement: I was not a supporter of the Razor Coast Kickstarter. The Kickstarter seemed geared towards the Pathfinder version (as the third party PDFs would attest to) and I was neck deep in supporting other Kickstarters at the time. Funds were short and something had to give.

Fast forward to last week when I got my hands of reviewer copies of the Razor Coast Freebooter's Guide and Heart of the Razor in PDF. One of the first things I thought I noticed was that the conversion work from Pathfinder to Swords & Wizardry wasn't just some simple stat swapping - it seemed more like a rebuilding or reworking.

After last night's Rappan Athuk session, I decided to plop my hard earned cash down on the pre-order of the Swords & Wizardry version of the Razor Coast Hardcover (and accompanying PDF). At over 400 pages, I've barely scratched the suface of the PDF, but what I've seen so far has me excited. On one level, I was expecting an "adventure path" as is so popular with the Pathfinder RPG, and instead I find this forward by Matt Finch (edited for length):

Razor Coast was originally written for the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game by Nick Logue, and was edited and
produced by Lou Agresta. For better or worse, I have made
some very significant changes to the setting/campaign, so
Lou’s original introduction, which is to be found here in
the Pathfinder version, no longer fits the subsequent pages
particularly well. 

One of the signal differences between the two
introductions is that Lou introduces the Razor Coast as
a pure sandbox campaign, which, in the language of the
so-called “old schoolers” is not entirely correct. It’s true for
Pathfinder—don’t get me wrong—but over the years, the
definitions of the words “sandbox” and “campaign” have
evolved to have a very different meaning than many Swords
& Wizardry players might use... 

In the case of the Swords & Wizardry version, we had
in addition to myself a tremendously talented team of
adapters: Skeeter Green, James Redmon, and Jeff Harkness.
Our goal was to supplement the double-barreled adventure
sequence that weaves through the Razor Coast with
sandbox tools, such as the random encounter chart, and
also to downplay some of the elements that were originally
designed to move the adventure sequences forward, thereby
making it easier for the players to go on side-adventures
without causing undue grief to the hardworking Referee.
By doing so, I think we have successfully navigated – if the
gentle reader will pardon me the nautical analogy – a safe
channel between the shoals of “paralysis-by-too-manychoices”
on the one hand, and the sharp rocks of “tooscripted”
on the other hand. Some readers will no doubt
feel that the balance we have struck is neither the finest
nor the fittest that could have been achieved, for this is the
nature of a balancing act. However, there are many pure
sandboxes, and many pure adventure-sequences, but not so
many books that weave the two together. The book you are
about to read is something extremely appropriate to its own
subject matter—a hybrid form. 

From this point onward in the introduction, you
are reading a highly-edited version of Lou Agresta’s
introduction to the Pathfinder version, adapted to
the nature of the Swords & Wizardry version. I have
removed his signature from the bottom, because I have so
dramatically altered the details of what he wrote.
Good Gaming in the Demesnes of the Pirates! 

— Matt Finch

Now I'm really excited to dive into this, maybe as a side diversion during the summer months, when it's hard to get the weekly group together... weekly ;)

I do wish that the Frogs would change the descriptions of the Razor Coast's S&W versions at the RPGNow store - they are a copy and paste of the Pathfinder versions and only serve to confuse potential buyers in my opinion.

Fun stuff in store for me and my group.

As I get through sections I'll post reviews.

Razor Coast Releases for Swords & Wizardry!

Have you followed the history of the Razor Coast getting published? No? Google it ;)

In all seriousness, if Frog God hadn't picked up the ball and run with it, this probably never would have happened and folks that had preordered years ago would still be SOL.

Now, the Razor Coast was written for Pathfinder and we certainly wouldn't have a Swords & Wizardry version if it wasn't for the Frogs. Their habit of producing a Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry version of pretty much all that they do is pretty damn awesome.

I didn't support the Kickstarter, as the added third party goodies were almost universally for Pathfinder, so the S&W version wasn't as good a deal. Sad but true. The PDFs, however, just released over at RPGNow last night.

Razor Coast is a 400+ page swashbuckling campaign for Swords and Wizardry.

Heart of the Razor adds four more adventures and the Freebooter's Guide adds races, spells, a gazetteer and more.

I just downloaded Heart of the Razor and the Freebooter's Guide. I'll try to say more about them after I give them a closer look but a quick glance at the Freebooter's Guide gives me the impression of a lot of campaign goodness for 10 bucks.