The croak-tastic celebration of Frog God Games turning 15 is still hopping right along! That’s right; we're throwing a party, and you're invited. From April 15–21, 2025, we’re slashing prices on The World of the Lost Lands, our official campaign setting, by a whopping 50% across all formats.

Three books on sale are:

Stoneheart Valley is worth getting just for The Tomb of Abysthor, great mid-level adventure. Very challenging one!

The above are discounted for 50% until April 21st.

#Sale #FGG #OSR #SW

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Sale: Northlands Saga flash sale

March 28, 2025

The Northlands Saga Complete is a compilation of ten adventures set in stereotypical cold north. Probably enough for several years of gaming. Tenfootpole has reviewed first four adventures back in the day (NS1, NS2, NS3, NS4). Swords & Wizardry versions were collated in 2015 and published in the big omnibus titled Northlands Saga Complete:

Almost a decade later few more adventures were published, one for Swords & Wizardry, and two plus player's guide for Old-School Essentials:

The above are currently discounted for 75%, and the sale lasts until March 31st. Great deal if you need Scandinavian themed adventures and locales!

P.S. Just a few days before DTRPG massively increases its print cost, which in turn will be reflected on POD products. Make your orders in time.

#Sale #FGG #OSR #SW #OSE

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News: Majestic Fantasy Realms update

March 2, 2025

Robert Conley shared some great news about Majestic Fantasy Realms, the spiritual successor to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy:

I am halfway through the first draft of my upcoming project, Into the Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northern Marches.

It will be divided into two sections. The first half focuses on the Northern Marches, which combines and expands Blackmarsh, Southland, and the Wild North into four 12” by 18” maps. ... The second half provides a brief overview of the larger Majestic Fantasy Realms. It will be formatted like the old Greyhawk Folio booklet and detail some history, important terrain, and various regions. ... The Kickstarter to fund editing and the art pieces is slated to begin late April. I hope to see many of you there. In the meantime, I will post various excerpts over the upcoming weeks to help folks to better understand the final product.

Read Rob's announcement to learn more about The Wild North, Blackmarsh, The Southlands, Vasa, Northport, and The Grey Sea.

#News #OSR #SW #MFRPG

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Sale: Lost City of Barakus and Heart of St. Bathus

February 16, 2025

Another great sale I stumbled upon, this time by Frog God Games / Necromancer Games. They are celebrating 25 years so every month few books go on sale. This month The Lost City of Barakus (d20 and Swords & Wizardry) is 75% off and Heart of St. Bathus (OSE) is 60% off. Both are by W.D.B. Kenower who is one of my favourite authors. The Lost City of Barakus is a great module that has everything you need for a campaign. Heart of St. Bathus I haven't had the chance to run yet, but it is a gem that needs polishing since FGG dropped the ball on editing, laying it out, and presenting the information in acessible manner.

#Sale #FGG #NG #OSR #SW #OSE

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Swords & Wizardry: Class and ancestry combinations from Book of Options

December 5, 2024

Mythmere Games recently published Book of Options for Swords & Wizardry. The book, as you might have guessed from its name, includes a number of optional rules for extending your Swords & Wizardry game. Among other things it includes 12 new classes (barbarian, bard, chivalric knight, demon hunter, dwarven priest, elf blade, illusionist, necromancer, troubadour, warlock, wrath-chanter, and feycaster) and two new ancestries (gnomes and stygians).

With new Character Creation Challenge looming from around the corner (it's 2025 already?! where did 2024 go?!), one of the ideas I had is to create first level player characters for each class and ancestry combination, like I did earlier this year.

First step towards that is to map all the class and ancestry combinations in Book of Options:

Class / Ancestry	Human	Dwarf	Elf	Half-elf	Halfling	Gnome	Stygian
Barbarian	✓
Bard	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	*	*
Chivalric Knight	✓			✓
Demon Hunter	✓			✓
Dwarven Priest		✓
Elf Blade			✓	✓
Illusionist	✓		✓	✓		✓
Necromancer	✓						✓
Troubadour	✓		✓	✓	✓
Warlock	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
Wrath-Chanter	✓	✓
Fighter						✓	✓
Thief						✓	✓
Fighter/Thief						✓
Fighter/Illusionist						✓
Illusionist/Thief						✓
Feycaster						✓
Assassin							✓
Cleric							✓
Magic-User							✓

Asterisk on Gnome and Stygian Bard: under class description bard is described as allowed to any ancestry, but neither of the new ancestries lists Bard as allowed class. Matt Finch confirmed to me that allowing bard class to either of those new ancestries should be considered as optional rule. Gnome would have the same level limitation as dwarf, elf, and halfling, while stygian would have no level limitation, like human and half-elf.

First thing I notice is that there is a whopping 42 combinations (44 if we include optional bard extension)! That is more than twice as much from Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised, which has 19 combinations (20 if we include optional fighter-cleric dwarf):

Class / Ancestry	Human	Dwarf	Elf	Half-elf	Halfling
Assassin	✓
Cleric	✓
Druid	✓
Fighter	✓	✓			✓
Magic-User	✓
Monk	✓
Paladin	✓
Ranger	✓
Thief	✓		✓	✓	✓
Fighter-Cleric		*
Fighter-Thief		✓
Fighter-Magic-User			✓	✓
Fighter-Magic-User-Thief			✓
Fighter-Magic-User-Cleric				✓

Given that it took me several months to create 400 player characters (and their equipment packs), I think I'll have to chunk characters for Book of Options. I'll start with humans and work my way from there.

Since I already made all the tables, why not bring them together?

Below is a combined table of all class and ancestry combinations from Swords & Wizardry Complete Revised and Swords & Wizardry Book of Options:

Class / Ancestry	Human	Dwarf	Elf	Half-elf	Halfling	Gnome	Stygian
Assassin	✓						✓
Barbarian	✓
Bard	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	*	*
Chivalric Knight	✓			✓
Cleric	✓						✓
Demon Hunter	✓			✓
Druid	✓
Dwarven Priest		✓
Elf Blade			✓	✓
Feycaster						✓
Fighter	✓	✓			✓	✓	✓
Illusionist	✓		✓	✓		✓
Magic-User	✓						✓
Monk	✓
Necromancer	✓						✓
Paladin	✓
Ranger	✓
Thief	✓		✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Troubadour	✓		✓	✓	✓
Warlock	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓		✓
Wrath-Chanter	✓	✓
Fighter-Cleric		*
Fighter-Illusionist						✓
Fighter-Magic-User			✓	✓
Fighter-Magic-User-Cleric				✓
Fighter-Magic-User-Thief			✓
Fighter-Thief		✓				✓
Illusionist-Thief						✓

As you can see, that is a massive 64—sixty-four—legal class and ancestry combinations. Throw that on a new player and see that cope with analysis paralysis. That's why it is so important that the Judge selects options most relevant to their game. But that is topic for another post.

#Resource #SW #OSR

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Fresh From Postbox: Swords & Wizardry rulebooks and adventures

November 16, 2024

Swords & Wizardry Book of Options and Swords & Wizardry Fiends & Foes:

Swords & Wizardry Deluxe Referee Screen:

Tomb of the Iron God and Domain of Heryngard:

#Postbox #OSR #SW

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Arduin: Ten Magik Weapons

September 16, 2024

This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

Arduin Grimoires by Dave Hargrave were notorious supplements for OD&D published in 1977 and onwards. They were filled with crazy tables that definitely were not everyones cup of tea.

But I certainly love some of them—like his Special Ability Charts that we used in our game for years—and even when I didn't use them, I certainly was inspired to make something of my own.

This week I decided to use the “Random Chance Chart For Magik Weapons” from The Arduin Grimoire Volume (scroll down for legend and explanation of the chart):

Alrika's Cleaver: Battleaxe +1 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Lawful; INT 4; EGO 17; COM none; MOT renown; POW none. An elegant dwarven battleaxe made of finest dwarven steel. Forged for famed dwarven battle-priestess, Alrika Frigasniz. Although it lacks communicative abilities, it will become noticeably dull and darker if it isn't flattered and praised regularly. It will attempt to assert control over the owner whenever they take a swing against any dwarf.
Blackblade: Hand and a Half Broadsword +5 to hit, +2 to damage; AL Neutral Good; INT 9; EGO 13; COM empathy; MOT renown; POW none. Wicked looking bastard sword made of blackened mithril. It has an obsession with sheaths made of exotic leather. It will demand at least dozen of sheaths to be taken on every adventure. It will be very unhappy unless it is told a gory bed time story every night.
Deepthrust: Rapier +1 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Neutral Evil; INT 18; EGO 16; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks one language; MOT renown; POW Clairvoyance, Detect Life, Flight, Frost Giant Strength. Diamond studded thin blade with gilded guard and exquisite sheath (worth 4 000 gp). Deepthrust enjoys duels and will refuse its powers to anyone whom it deems cowardly or unfit in any way. It will always demand a full share of treasure, which is to be spent on sheaths, oils, and bards. It hates clumsiness and will refuse to serve any such person (with DEX less than 12)—in fact it will viciously mock them, hoping to incite a duel. Deepthrust is not stupid, so it will see through insincere flattery and react accordingly. Deepthrust allows the wielder to fight with strength of a Frost Giant, meaning it attacks as 10+1 HD monster and hits for 2d6+1 damage.
Hellfire: Sling +2 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Chaotic Evil; INT 18; EGO 18; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks one language; MOT renown; POW +1 versus Undead, Paralysis, and Life Drain attacks, Detect Life, Haste, Fire Giant Strength, Treat all armor classes hit as AC 9. This hateful weapon has been forged in the very core of the planet by Ammonuz, a fire giant cleric, to wage ware on Overlanders. It is a simple Y-shaped sling, with body made of black rock. The sling itself is of unknown material. Hellfire cares for nothing but destruction, and will instantly attempt to dominate anyone who dares touch it. And destructive it is: not only does the wielder strike with power of a fire giant (as 11+3 HD monster for 2d6+2 damage), but any living target counts as if it had AC of 9. That means that they are automatically struck, unless they have means of reducing the attacker's attack probability. Hellfire might be sufficiently impressed by new “owner” if the latter destroys everything and everyone, including its allies, upon picking it up. But its appetite for destruction is endless, and no owner has survived it.
Moonlight: Light Crossbow +1 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Lawful Evil; INT 9; EGO 17; COM empathy; MOT renown; POW none. Ultralight crossbow with mechanism that doesn't require any maintenance nor oiling. It is so perfect it can be fired and reloaded with a single hand. Used to be a favourite weapon of notorious assassin Mateis Fluoniope. Moonlight will refuse to shoot “shoddily” made quarrels, which it is very particular about (roll a d4, on 1 it refuses to shoot a bolt). It will happily spend hours inspecting bolts for use, and will occasionally demand special-made bolts.
Nedbryn: Shortbow +2 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Lawful Evil; INT 20; EGO 1; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks four languages; MOT renown; POW Detect Alignment (like cleric spell Detect Evil but at double range and can detect any alignment), Flight, Haste (Cursed). Made from hangman tree hardened in blood of one hundred demi-humans. Bowstring is enchanted spidersilk. Nedbryn possesses alien-like intelligence, and revels in causing prolonged suffering. She will introduce herself to any adventurer within range and seek help, playing to their ego. Although she can impeccably detect alignment, she will hide her own. Only clerics of name level and higher can correctly detect her alignment—and only if they spend number of months equal to the difference between her intelligence and their wisdom. Nedbryn will adjust to her wielder. Her patience is endless. She can tolerate abuse. She will learn everything there is to learn about her owner. She will give out genuinely helpful advice, but always in the service of her agenda. There is nothing she enjoys more than building up an aspiring adventurer into respected ruler and then slowly ruining them. If she gets bored she will malfunction at the most inappropriate time, e.g. when flying over a precipice or running away from a horde of monsters.
Princekiller: Lance +3 to hit, +2 to damage; AL Neutral; INT 8; EGO 16; COM empathy; MOT renown; POW none. By all account a mundane lance, indistinguishable from others. Forged by vengeful wizard Cullen Leeper whom was slighted by a local king. He planted the lance for tournament organised by the king, in which king's son was participating as well. Leeper ensured the lance ended in a dull man's hands, and son was “accidentally” killed. Princekiller has a sizeable ego, and will demand tournaments organised in its favour at least bimonthly. It will also demand the best of horses and the best of challengers.
Red Sun: Two Handed Battleaxe +3 to hit, +3 to damage; AL Neutral Good; INT 5; EGO 16; COM none; MOT renown; POW none. Large two-handed double-bitted battleaxe with ironwood shaft and bright red blades. It hates prolonged exposure to darkness, and thoroughly enjoys sunbathing. When happy, the blades look as if sun rays are bouncing within them. When unhappy, the blades look like dimmed sun.
Sarioin: Halberd +3 to hit, +1 to damage; AL Neutral; INT 10; EGO 16; COM speaks two languages; MOT renown; POW none. A halberd with iron shaft and tempered steel blade. Sarioin will introduce himself as “warrior's finest weapon, but strategist's true weapon!” It is quite spendthrifty, and will always look for reasons why something else should be bought too, e.g. “quality costs!”, “buy thrice, cry once!”, “are you sure we don't need another one?” Sarioin will not demand anything be spent on it, but will greatly appreciate that. What it will demand every single time is to be consulted on battle plans and course of action. It will speak out of order and let anyone know if it disagrees with the approach, plans, or ideas. Sarioin is the prototypical armchair general, and will always have something to say.
Volmago the Vampire Vanquisher: Spear +4 to hit, +2 to damage; AL Neutral; INT 18; EGO 8; COM telepathy within 12”, speaks two languages; MOT renown; POW Detect Distance, Detect Undead, +2 versus Undead, Paralysis, and Life Drain attacks. A silver tipped spear with shaft of cold iron. Volmago is still grieving its former owner, great paladin Cladus Eacham, whom was betrayed by his party and slain by a mated pair of vampires. Volmago desires only to be left to grieve and will refuse cooperation. If the new to-be owner is able to get it to open up and avenge Cladus, then Volmago will serve that person with undying loyalty. Volmago knows a lot about undead and will share that information.

Legend: AL: alignment; INT: sword's intelligence; EGO: sword's ego; COM: sword's means of communication; POW sword's power(s).

As I wrote, for this article I decided to use the “Random Chance Chart For Magik Weapons” from The Arduin Grimoire Volume 1 (1977):

Even if you are familiar with OD&D some of the table entries might leave you a bit puzzled. There are no explanations or details beyond above table. Spell that don't appear in OD&D are also not detailed in the grimoires. For example Detect Alignment. I just assume it works the same as Detect Evil/Good in OD&D.

Weapon “character and alignment” is interesting as well. In the grimoires Dave explicated his views on alignment, which are kind of summarised in the following table:

Weapon intelligence and ego scores can be much higher than in OD&D, meaning much higher probability a player character might have really bad time. In fact, imagine rolling a chaotic evil weapon with high intelligence and ego. Yes, it might end up with many special powers, but since it would easily dominate even the strongest characters, it almost acts as a cursed weapon.

How many powers gets assigned is a bit ambiguous, especially regarding special powers. Number of “normal powers” depends on the weapon's intelligence:

INT	Normal Powers
14–15	1
16–17	2
18–19	3
20–21	4
22	5

Number of “special attributes” depends on the weapon's intelligence and ego:

INT	EGO	Special Attributes
15–17	15–17	1
18–20	18–20	2
21–23	21–23	3
24	24	4

Finally, I interpret Dave's table as supplemental to procedures in the OD&D. I used those to determine weapon's purpose (1:10 for it to be special), communication abilities, and number of languages spoken. All three original Arduin Grimoires have been reprinted in the Arduin Trilogy.

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #Arduin #ODnD #SW #OSR

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Swords & Wizardry: Twenty Magical Swords

September 2, 2024

This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

Twenty magical swords for Swords & Wizardry, sorted alphabetically (see bottom of the post for explanation of sword attributes):

Blackblade: Two-handed Sword +1/+2 versus dragon types; AL Lawful; INT 7; EGO 6; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT kill dragon types (dragons, basilisks, hydras, etc.); POW control one animal at a time. Obsidian blade with bronze grip. Forged by dracophobes from the future.
Bloomrose: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 6; EGO 2; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with copper grip adorned with rose motifs. Forged by Gottra Bigkind to feel more feminine during Goblin Wars.
Bronseblad: Long Sword +1, AL Lawful. Bronze blade with bronze grip. Forged by technomancers of a lost continent.
Foolsblade: Cursed Short Sword -1, for traps with a chance to trigger or not (e.g. pit traps spring on 2 in 6), the wielder always triggers the trap. Flint blade with copper grip. Forged by Tsoozethld, an arauk demon.
Giantslayer: Long Sword +2/+3 versus giant types; AL Lawful; INT 10; EGO 8; COM telepathic with wielder and speaks three language out loud; MOT kill giant types (goblins, trolls, giants, etc.); POW (1) wielder immune from level/energy drain, (2) can project brief auditory illusions up to 60'. Steel blade with ruby grip. Forged by visitors from the future to fight undead giants.
Iron Spider: Long Sword +1; AL Neutral; INT 7; EGO 3; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT renown; POW 4 in 6 chance to chop down a missile in mid flight. Steel blade with bronze grip. Forged by ancient aliens who got annoyed by humans shooting them.
Lightsabre: Long Sword +1, AL Lawful. Energy blade with emerald grip. Forged by a mad wizard Attalostas Cloudpacer to serve as a showpiece (distraction) for adventurers of lesser intellect.
Logazor's Scorned: Long Sword +1, AL Chaotic. Steel blade with bone grip. Forged by Logazor Keenplate, a dwarf blacksmith of some renown, who discarded the blade in disgust.
Magedoom: Long Sword +1/+2 versus Magic-Users; AL Lawful; INT 8; EGO 4; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT kill Magic-Users; POW wielder need never rest. Steel blade with ruby grip. Forged by an envious wizard Tapis Sereem, who was promptly murdered by the henchman he commanded to test the sword.
My First Magic Sword: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 5; EGO 3; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with wood grip. Forged by wizard Dullinan for practice.
Ribtorch: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 6; EGO 3; COM empathic; MOT renown. Energy blade with bone grip (actually a bear's rib). Forged by technomancers of Atlantis as joke weapon for those to be executed by trial in the arena.
Rightway: Two-handed Sword +2; AL Neutral; INT 10; EGO 12; COM telepathic with wielder and speaks three languages out loud; MOT renown; POW (1) never get lost in the wilderness, (2) detect opposite alignment within 30'. Steel blade with ram horn grip. Forged for Marllana Terarel, an elf whou couldn't find her way out of a jungle.
Sawsword: Long Sword +1; AL Chaotic; INT 6; EGO 1; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel serrated blade with bronze grip. Forged by Svkivzinilnaaki, a pathetic demon hoping to enslave a mighty warrior to do deeds in its name.
Sealseeker: Long Sword +1; AL Chaotic; INT 7; EGO 6; COM telepathic with wielder; MOT renown; POW place sword on the ground for 1 turn, and it will point in the direction of the nearest secret door. Steel blade with ruby grip. Forged by Anika Bacchus, hailing from the future.
Skag's Skål: Long Sword +1; AL Lawful; INT 5; EGO 1; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with horn grip. Forged by dwarf Skag Glumtower who wanted a sword that would allow him to kill and drink in rapid succession.
The Hound: Long Sword +1; AL Neutral; INT 9; EGO 1; COM telepathic with wielder and speaks one language out loud; MOT renown; POW detect invisibility within 30'. Steel blade with copper grip. Forged by Ragni Ragnisson, a dwarven hero who hated deep elves with great passion.
The Plank: Two-handed Sword +2/+3 versus flyer types; AL Lawful; INT 11; EGO 9; COM telepathic with wielder, speaks three languages out loud, and reads magic as per the spell; MOT kill flyer types (rocs, maticores, balrogs, etc.); POW (1) any living thing cut apart by this blade (beheading, limb lopped off, trunk bisected, etc.) will grow into an auto-homocidal clone/doppelganger of the original in d6 days, (2) 4 in 6 chance to chop down a missile in mid flight, (3) emits Light on command, as per magic-user spell. 2” x 2” seven feet long plank with bronze grip on one end. Forged by technomancers of a lost continent to fight a rust batmonster infestation.
Toothpick: Long Sword +1, AL Lawful. Wood blade with bone grip. Carved by a Titan in a time of need.
Unrequited Love: Long Sword +1; AL Neutral; INT 6; EGO 3; COM empathic; MOT renown. Steel blade with copper grip. Forged by mad wizard Inele as a gift for Fighter she was wooing.
Valindel: Short Sword +3; AL Lawful; INT 12; EGO 3; COM telepathic with anyone within 30', speaks three languages out loud, and reads magic as per the spell; MOT kill dragon types (dragons, basilisks, hydras, etc.); POW (1) wielder can “fly” (leap) up to 20', over the heads of up to two ranks of enemies, those enemies can't attack the leaping wielder, unless armed with missile weapons or long polearms, (2) sword bats out of the air any (non-magical) missiles aimed at the wielder, (3) never accidentally dropped (during surprise, for example), (4) warns against cursed magic items (for items already identified as magical by Detect Magic or similar means). Steel blade with copper grip. Forged for Ullialanel Valindel Yavarond, a famed elf dragon slayer.

Legend: AL: alignment; INT: sword's intelligence; EGO: sword's ego; COM: sword's means of communication; MOT sword's motivation; POW sword's power(s).

I made the above with the help of Paul Gorman's excellent free supplement Magic Swords for Swords & Wizardry. First I generated sword abilities using his tables, and then I refined them until I was satisfied.

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #SW #OSR

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