Sword & Sorcery Old School

Crypts & Things
Around 1970, back when the authors of White Box were reading books that may have inspired them to add elements borrowed from fantasy/science fiction to their medieval wargaming, sword & sorcery titles including the works of Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Lin Carter, Fritz Leiber, Gardner F. Fox and others which could be found in drug stores and locally owned bookstores alongside hard-science fiction, detective novels, comic books and magazines provided much of the inspiration. The cover illustrations often feature a warrior facing enormous odds, either in terms of numbers or the size of the monster foe. As in the above cover illustration, there is often a female "sidekick". Genre figures are generally scantily clad, suggesting a warm climate and swords outnumber guns. The main protagonist rarely uses magic, although the "sidekick" sometimes does.
Many of the adventure stories found in sword & sorcery tomes involve discovery of ancient tombs, crypts, ruins or other artifacts - evidence that the history of intelligent life is far older than we generally believe. Humans play a prominent role (no elves, dwarves, or hobbits), although "things" certainly exist which seem strange, fantastic or mind-wrenching, utterly horrible. The sword & sorcery tale, together with the more recent fantasy of Professor Tolkien and his imitators, together  combined with elements drawn from other adventure stories set in our own world, all came together in the White Box adventure game written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974. The authors brought together things they liked from history, fiction, cinema, and other popular media of their day to create a game that included something of them all, but was not just like anything else.

Swords & Wizardry is one of the more popular OSR tributes to the original game rules (White Box). Swords & Wizardry (S&W) Complete includes a lot of the material from the 1st edition of the Advanced game, although the core mechanics may hold more true to the LBBs plus Supplement I. S&W is its own beast, veering away from a strict copying of any single previous game in ways like having a single Saving Throw rather than several "Save verses..."  S&W, like the Original Game and the Advanced Game includes enough of swords & sorcery, enough of Tolkienesque fantasy, enough of fairy tales and the legendary and mythical history of popular culture for the referee to arguably modify the game to fit almost any style of play or setting. It is open-ended. S&W is a bit "generic" in terms of fantasy role-play gaming. (Although one could make an argument that by default D&D creates a unique setting of its own by its inherent inclusions and exclusions, and therefor S&W shares that implied/default setting.)
Crypts & Things takes the basic game engine of S&W and modifies it to produce a system specifically tailored to its sword & sorcery setting, Zarth: The Continent of Terror. Crypts & Things is both core rulebook and setting sourcebook for The Continent of Terror. By adjusting the available character classes, alignment and especially magic (White, Grey, and Black) and by adding in sanity and corruption and some dark deities, and by populating the wilderness and underground with a unique set of monsters (including snakemen sorcerers), Crypts & Things feels a bit more like the pulpy swords & sorcery genre than does S&W or older, original versions of the game.

Character Role-Playing Inspiration

The Ladies of Mandrigyn, etc.
I saw this book, The Ladies of Mandrigyn by Barbara Hambly listed on the Recommended Reading list at the back of RuneQuest 6 and hunted it down at a local second hand book shop. The copy I have says First Edition 1984. I recall seeing the eye-catching cover on book shelves before, but Ms. Hambly has not been one of the authors I have read before and I always passed it by...until now. I find books that appear in the Recommended Reading, or whatever the author calls it, books which have obviously made the short list with the author of the game in which they appear, are often good reads, especially if the game book is one I enjoy. Like minds and all that...
The Ladies of Madrigyn is good inspirational reading for any referee or RPG enthusiast. It is choked full of great characters and memorable settings. The plot is somewhat unique and I won't spoil it other than to say it involves "the ladies of Mandrigyn" and a certain "gifted" mercenary captain. Caught your attention? Good! Read the book.
The Ladies of Mandrigyn is notable for a specific reason a bit beyond being a good fantastic tale in the number of strong female characters which make up the cast. Certainly one way to role-play in our hobby is to loosely base one's character concept on a person from a work of fiction, a character in a book, play or movie, someone we can ask ourselves, "What would that character do in this situation?" and have some background material to draw from.
In my earliest days of playing White Box, I had a lot of characters with names of characters from such books, such as "Conan", "Kull", "Corwyn", Lythande, etc. My actual "role-playing" of the character was rather weak and the name association and possibly the "portrait" I drew was the only real connection the character had with the original source. Gradually, however, I started to talk for my character and wonder occasionally what the "real Conan" might do in a given situation?

By the end of 1981 I was reading the excellent Thieves' World short-story anthologies written by a talented team of authors using a common setting and shared characters, characters who also appear in Chaosium's adventure supplement by the same title released that year which includes character stats for NPC/PC use. My group each chose a favorite or two from the stories to occasionally play as our characters in the City of Sanctuary prompting at least a few discussions of whether certain in-game actions were in keeping with the character from the stories. Looking back, I see that as an exercise in role-playing.
About 1986 I ran across an RPG titled The Hidden Kingdom by New Rules Inc. in which the players take on the role of various literary personalities from the legends of King Arthur and role-play scenarios as presented by the referee (there is a digital reprint currently available). The characters are usually known entities such as Arthur himself, or Morgan LeFey, Lancelot, Parsifal, etc. The players are given the character's beliefs and values indicating how they are guided in thought and action. The scenarios include various political, romantic and religious situations and presents players with a much different game experience than the typical combat oriented game of the era. At the time I was greatly drawn by the King Arthur theme, but found the system challenging...not because it was difficult, but because it was so different from the early wargaming RPGs.
The Hidden Kingdom did get me thinking. Call of Cthulhu also had me thinking about what other kinds of stories our group could explore other than discovering monsters, killing monsters and taking their stuff (not saying that I have ever completely tired of that game ). As we struggled to "master" the game, character development gradually became something more than "leveling up". My PCs started to have "personalities" distinct from my own and among our group the chant of "play your character not yourself" was often heard.
"What would King Arthur do?" we asked.

The Fantastic Underworld

Place of Mystery and Adventure
If the world, as seen through the characters' eyes, seems mundane and predictable - the world of the tavern where they while away their days drinking slightly sour ale and listening to the stories of old-timers and would-be bards, with perhaps a diversionary bit o' gambling for excitement and a little flirting with the hired help to break the monotony - where does a party of stout adventuring types go for something unpredictable? Where can an adventurous character find fame and fortune? Perhaps the underworld, where mystery abounds and adventure awaits.
This is the classic adventure game scenario, one played out so many times around the world with so many groups and yet it remains a good start to a session (or more) of fun and entertainment. The binary nature of the world with above ground (civilization) being fairly safe and predictable and the below ground (underworld) being anything but safe and predictable balances nicely, providing players both tension and relaxation. It is this ability to freely move between the two that gives starting players agency while the referee maintains a manageable game with boundaries. The underworld, or dungeon as it typically manifests, and where the action generally happens, is designed to provide a venue for adventure, and a means to improve characters both in terms of ability and finances, yet not over-tax the referee's resources of time and creativity.
So, back to the tavern, where the characters can meet any number of ex-adventurers, wily wizards cooking up a scheme and looking for muscle, or devout clerics with a holy mission to lead. Each of these are tried and true means of introducing an "adventure hook", that bit of information that sets the adventurers off to save the world, or just gain fame and fortune in the underground. The tavern and associated inn, and store represent the safe haven to which the PCs can return time and again to recover wounds and magic spells and re-equip themselves, hear about new opportunities and as resources allow to hire the occasional men-at-arms, or even a specialist of some sort to augment the party's strength.
As a place of wonder and adventure it seems possible, even probable that the rules by which the normal world operates may not apply once the underworld is entered. Things may get a little weird, magic and chaos may seem to be everywhere and the laws of nature may be different in the underground. Drawing on various sources of inspiration including various dreamscapes, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, or any place of topsy-turvy craziness, the referee is free to alter reality while underground. How else to explain the presence of various fantastic creatures and wondrous treasures.
As the campaign progresses and both players and referee become more familiar with the developing milieu, the wilderness or above ground adventure locale might be added to the adventure mix. This is the classic formula - dungeon, then wilderness, finally stronghold. Wilderness adventure is more open ended and potentially even more dangerous than the underground. Presumably by the time the game moves outdoors, both players and referee are in agreement regarding the kind of game they can enjoy together and the referee can tailor the wilderness to accommodate that style (such as risk factor, balance, combat or role-play). There is even more flexibility and potential for hazardous adventure in wilderness design than the underworld and it helps to have a degree of player/referee trust established prior to venturing into that environment whether such wilderness is the rough and tumble undeveloped or an urban setting.
what is the enduring attraction of the Original Game...why did its popularity spread so quickly and eventually influence so much of present popular culture? White Box D&D, including the "old school" style of play in currently practiced, pits the forces of Law against the forces of Chaos as the natural state of things. Civilized areas are the realm of law. The underground and the hostile wildernesses are the realms of chaos where things are unpredictable, frightening and hostile. They are largely unknown, unmapped and full of surprises - "chaos", in other words - often including treasures. And there is the draw!

The Story of Vincent

...and the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity

By today's standards, one could easily view the Original Game materials as sexist and possibly insensitive. They were written in 1974/'75, which for you folks who don't recall those days, let me say that it was a very different world in many ways. The fantasy tropes and art of the LBBs draws heavily from its swords & sorcery sources, many dating back to the 1920s, '30s and '40s pulp magazines which have sometimes been described as sexist, racist...etc.
I try to maintain a very positive tone on this blog, mostly because I really love this hobby and the fun it provides many, many people. In that spirit, I want to share the story of Vincent the paladin who has brought a lot of fun and laughter to many a table (and apologize in advance if this seems insensitive or offends anyone). Vincent is a character I have played again and again over the years (having re-created the PC in many editions and systems) and Vincent is one of my favorite PCs to role-play.

Introduction: Standing before you is a leggy female human in shiny plate armor. She has long blonde hair, fashionably pulled back from a fair-skinned face of classical beauty. Turning to you, she sets her mug of ale down, belches, smiles and wipes her mouth on her sleeve. Extending her other hand, in a clearly masculine voice she barks, "Hullo, my name's Vincent - will you join us for a drink?"

I role-play Vincent as the most stereotype, working class, tough-guy I can manage, using my lowest pitched voice. Vincent started "life" as a male paladin character many decades ago and thanks to the magic of a Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity (the description for this item can be found in Supplement I Greyhawk) is physically transformed into a woman. The Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity presents as a Girdle of Giant Strength, thereby fooling the player/PC into wanting to wear it. The item then changes the sex (gender) of the character and can only be removed by use of a wish. So it is a "cursed" item. Or is it?
I don't recall my initial reaction to the first "Vincent" (if that was even his name) becoming female as a result of donning the magic Girdle (wide belt), but over the decades I have had great fun playing the character. The reactions of others at the table is often hilarious as they go along with the shared fiction of this character whose appearance is at odds with her/his behavior. The character concept totally depends on gender stereotypes and could potentially be offensive to some, although I have not run across that reaction at the game table to date.
So is the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity a cursed magic item or not? I have little doubt that it was seen that way by many, including folks who worked at TSR back in the day, but taking the concept and running with it, I think it has been rather fun.

It was Never a Kid's Game to Me

An Adult's Perspective
It was as a college freshman just turning 19 that I came to discover White Box D&D. Sometimes I wonder how this makes my perspective on the game different from the numbers of people who have started playing as children. I think in some ways this difference is as important to my understanding and attitudes regarding the game as which edition of system I started with. Starting play as an adult, I have never seen the game through a kid's eyes...it has always been an adult game with all the limitations and advantages that may imply.
Kids accept a lot of things as they come "just because". They are used to going along with things without necessarily understanding them. As a young adult my college friends and I were questioning everything at the time, so almost from the beginning I was discussing what abstract game concepts like "hit points", "levels" "alignment" and "saving throws" are really about. "What was the thinking behind such concepts?", we asked ourselves. We sought to understand the game on a level that went beyond just having fun playing make-believe.
OK, I over analysed the thing. That's probably a good starting point. It is what I did with religion, relationships, politics, everything in those heady days of academia. I recall asking myself why Magic Users are limited to use only daggers as weapons? And yet why do they have as good a chance to hit an opponent as fighting men - at least starting out? Asking myself why all weapons do 1d6 damage? What do hit points represent? What really happens when PCs and monsters take damage? And later, why my favorite version of the game gave all classes d6 hit point dice when other versions, starting with Greyhawk gave some classes a bigger die. I was once full of questions about why the game did certain things the way it did and why some things seem to matter so much and yet other things were left out entirely.
For example: Why the middle ages? Inferring rather quickly that co-author Gary Gygax liked castles and crusaders, was that the whole reason for the medieval in the subtitle? MR. Gygax obviously also relied heavily on mythology with its classical Greco-Roman tropes in designing the game as evidenced by the number of classical creatures included. The sword & sorcery stories from which he admittedly drew inspiration seem more classical in their institutions and religion, although medieval/renaissance trappings in the form of arms and armor are common. I thought about imposing a strict feudal social system, complete with a heavy handed church institution, and it seems at odds both with the spirit of the inspirational material (sword & sorcery stories) and with modern (1970s) sensibilities, which players inevitably bring to the table despite their best efforts to roleplay their character. The medieval world was very different from our own in the way people thought about religion, the environment, their relationship to other human beings.
Inevitably other adults at the time would have some of the same questions I had when they started playing the new game designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Many game designers would attempt to expand the game in areas they thought important to do so. Chivalry & Sorcery (C&S) was one such response to the questions - a game written to set things aright in the minds of its designers Edward Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus.

C&S takes a serious look at the middle ages and the authors try to include additional rules to make the game seem more real in terms of its medieval setting. Rules regarding social standing, for instance. Players begin as the offspring of someone holding a certain position in society. Some are free, some noble, many are beholden to others. The PC shares this social standing with their parent and social mobility is practically non-existent. Your deeds are separate from who you are which is determined by birth. You may make discoveries, have adventures, accumulate wealth, but you are still limited by the conditions of your birth and parentage. Unlike a typical sword & sorcery story, there are no simple barbarians who become king during the middle ages...that fantasy belongs to the classical world in terms of history.
As an adult gamer, this appeal to something more real, gave me answers to a lot of my questions. I instantly fell for the promise of my make-believe all making sense and becoming believable. Just add the right rules to make it all just so...this seemed an easy promise, once upon a time. I have grown up some since then and now understand the wisdom of accepting things as they are "just because".