Spellcraft & Swordplay is what author Jason Vey calls a "nostalgia" game because Spellcraft & Swordplay (S&S) does not seek to emulate an older edition of the world's most popular role-playing game, but rather to envision how the game might look today had its development followed a different path, that of the two d6 added together (2-12) mechanic rather than the d20 system.
Rolling two six-sided dice and adding them together results in the number 7 being the most rolled result in terms of probabilities, with the numbers 2 and 12 being less probable results. If not a true "bell curve", the random number distribution is at least triangular. Rolling two d6 seems less "swingy" and more "normal" to me and I am increasingly drawn to this mechanic as an alternative to rolling a d20 or percentile dice (d100), both associated with the flat distribution of outcomes.
Other aspects of S&S that I particularly favor, also drawn from Mr. Gygax's Fantasy supplement include rolling for magic and the general empowerment of the referee or gamemaster. Mr. Vey refers to his "Golden Rule" which states, "The Referee is the final word on any interpretation of the rules in the game." He goes on to emphasize, "It is up to the Referee how (or indeed, if) these rules are applied in game, altered, or ignored entirely." He goes a step further explaining that, "The rules in Spellcraft & Swordplay are deliberately minimalist, allowing a lot of room for development, interpretation and customization."
Spellcraft & Swordplay uses a spell casting system that combines elements of Chainmail and D&D. Memorization of spells is a thing in S&S, but so is rolling to execute the magic. Spell casters must roll 2d6 when attempting to cast a magic spell. The difficulty increases as the spells become more complex. Depending on the result of the dice, the spell may go off during the current turn, be delayed until the following turn, or fail and be lost from memory. It is a simple system that involves a lot of variability and I enjoy that.
The spell lists in S&S are tailored to each class and elite path with necromancers having a different list than wizards and druids a different list from priests, thus providing a nice distinction for each spell casting class. I find the descriptions of several spells to contain interesting new takes on traditional tropes. For example: Detect Evil allows the caster to sense the presence of supernatural evil, such as undead, but not evil characters of less than 8th level. Evil is one of three alignments in S&S and together with Good and Neutral (choose unaligned or balance) comprises the S&S alignment system. The author states that most folks are Neutral (unaligned) and mostly act in ways that are self serving, even when exhibiting so-called good behavior.
Like the world's first fantasy role-playing game designed and released in 1974 by Gary Gygax and David Arneson, Spellcraft & Swordplay uses the character class concept. Elite paths (Paladin and Ranger for Warriors) allow characters with exceptional abilities to be mechanically different from the standard class while retaining the basic four fantasy archetypes - Warrior, Wizard, Priest, and Thief. Character races in S&S seem more traditional (i.e. Tolkienesque) and include humans, dwarves, elves and halflings - only dwarves can see in total darkness. This is all just as I prefer my fantasy milieu, but if you prefer, the author invites you, as Referee, to invent additional character races and other content. The design philosophy of each referee making this game their own comes through loud and clear in Spellcraft & Swordplay.
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