Swords Against Systems
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition: Finally, a D&D that does Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser right. Give me the jug, and I’ll give you the builds. Read More …
Tag: J.R.R. Tolkien
What does a wizard look like?
When Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition came out, there was a great deal of argument over its “dungeonpunk” aesthetic and, particularly, the way wizards didn’t look like they were “supposed” to. The pointy-hatted old men familiar from Dragon magazine covers or Will McLean cartoons had been replaced by a confusingly-dressed elf lady and a bare-chested Read More …
Class Construction in early Tunnels & Trolls
The early editions of Tunnels & Trolls are a good example of two class design schema: Classes to fill holes Classes on a spectrum The two base classes are warrior and wizard. The warrior is a straightforward arms and armor type, noted in the game’s fifth-and-a-half edition as being based on Conan. Wizards have a mix of Read More …
Dangerous Archaeology
I often refer to Dungeons & Dragons as a game of dangerous archaeology. In their classic tomb-robbing mode, the party enters an underworld with its own history, meaning, and ecology.* The process of exploring a dungeon is much like the process of excavating a tomb… except eighty times faster and with more blood and looting. Read More …
What makes a thief?
(In which, as a remedy for an unquiet mind, I begin designing a thief class for my Swords & Wizardry/Labyrinth Lord/Rules Cyclopedia game.) The thief is my favorite fantasy character class. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are my favorite fantasy heroes. My definitive edition of Dungeons & Dragons is the Rules Cyclopedia, which prominently features Read More …
This is an easy one
An ordinary suburban man is entangled in a revenge plot when a family friend persuades him to pass himself off as a career criminal. Thus begins a saga of lies, kidnapping and murder that will leave him rich… or dead.