Swords & Wizardry: Great Design

The more I read Swords & Wizardry Revised, the more I like it. There is this fascinating use of "negative space" in some ways modifiers are applied, in that not everyone gets every modifier. D&D and B/X have been too generous with ability score modifiers for too long, and the inflation of hit points, character stats, and the overall numeric range of the game has suffered.

It is like someone making a mod for Monopoly and giving the car a +2 movement to all dice rolls. Okay, fine, as long as the other pieces have equal benefits. Well, in the game's next version, that bonus is the car rolling 3d6 for movement instead of 2d6, and, well, since dogs can be fast, the dog gets the +2 movement modifier. After a few game versions, all the pieces roll 6d6 for movement, different properties have different "movement point" costs for various pieces, and people still wonder why the game takes so long to play and why movement phases are terrible.

This didn't improve the game at all. This was a "shell game" with the math, which worsened the game.

In Swords & Wizardry, the to-hit and damage bonuses from a high STR score are exclusive to the fighter class, maintaining a balance in the game. All classes get a missile-fire to-hit bonus from a high DEX, which further stacks with the STR bonus for fighters. This means the only positive to-hit modifier for every other class comes from leveling, ensuring a fair playing field. You mostly roll an unmodified d20 versus AC for all to-hits, except for magic weapons and attacks from behind (or elevation, which can give up to another +/-2 for to-hits, p41).

The modifiers in Swords & Wizardry are straightforward and not universal, split into different categories. The highest to-hit modifier for STR is a +2 (17-18), and for DEX, it is a +1 (13+). An 18 STR gives a +3 damage modifier. CON modifiers to hit points are capped at a +1 per HD for a 13+.

The modifiers are far less than B/X, AD&D, 3.5E, and 5E.

AD&D started the "ability score stat inflation" by making ability score bonuses too good, and the 4d6 and drop the lowest ability score generation method. B/X and BECMI simplified modifiers to appeal to a younger market and simplify math. They gave bonuses to everyone since that was "fair," and that was a mistake.

In other words, zero-edition had "bounded accuracy" long before 5E did, and using the term "bounded accuracy" is just a polite way of saying, "We got the math wrong since 3rd Edition, and we still can't get it right." The original math was perfect. There was no reason to change it in AD&D other than to break compatibility for royalties, and it has been downhill ever since.

If you keep overall to-hit modifiers low, there is little reason for AC values to surpass 20. Suddenly, all armors work better now! Also, the to-hit bonuses from leveling and magic items mean much more. Letting fighters have this massive buff makes them the "lords of battle," which is how it should be.

If damage modifiers are kept low, a d4 damage dagger still means something. When 5E characters do d4+4 damage, there is little point in keeping that die around. A die roll modifier equal to or larger than the die means your design is broken, and the point where it reaches half the die is a warning sign.

Will players complain about rolling flat d20 versus AC to hit? This is how it will be for most classes until level three, when the first +1 kicks in. Yes. This is a more demanding game. Just because you are getting a +5 to-hit in 5E versus that AC 15 goblin does not mean you are getting that modifier in S&W, which is a +0 versus AC 13.

Notice the goblin's AC bump in 5E? Remember the Monopoly example?

The ancient red dragon in 5E has an AC of 22. In S&W, it is 17.

There is a curve in S&W where a 20th-level fighter gets a +13 to-hit, so assuming an STR bonus of +2 and a +2 magic weapon, this is a total +17 to-hit versus that dragon. You are not doing multi-attacks, and your highest damage modifier possible with that +2 weapon is a +5, so your damage will not be in the hundreds of hit points per turn, it will average ten points of damage per hit. 5E, we will probably have a +12 to +14 to hit modifier, so they are on par with each other, but the AC values in S&W are lower.

This is how it was in the older editions. The low levels are tricky. But the higher levels start getting better and better. Damage output in 5E is artificially scaled, with high hit points and a flat to-hit curve, combined with a logarithmic damage curve. In S&W, damage output stays flat, but your ability to hit increases, thus increasing damage output.

The difference is that a d4 dagger versus an adult red dragon with 44 hit points in S&W is still a threat. In 5E, there are 256 hit points for that adult red dragon. Who cares about a dagger? You need a +8 damage modifier and multi-attacks to even be noticed. More die rolls, rules references, attacks, long turns, and certain classes limited to smaller weapons become worthless. Lower hit points mean the weapons and attacks you make stay powerful and mean something, and the original die shapes hold value longer. Higher hit points only mean more time spent in the rules (and during your turn) figuring out how to nullify Wizard's hit point scaling.

Remember the Monopoly example?

I would rather be a thief in S&W backstabbing that dragon than a thief in 5E doing the same thing. Even if I am "doing more damage in 5E," the amount of character building, rules references, stacking bonuses, and special subclass powers needed to get there means I spent "more time in the rules" than the S&W thief.

The S&W character, by comparison, is more powerful.

And players spend far less time in the rules.

Off the Shelf: Basic Fantasy

The Basic Fantasy RPG, a standout open-source RPG project, offers free PDFs and books printed at cost, making it accessible to players worldwide. Its simplicity, far from being underwhelming, is a comforting feature that makes it a hacker's game, the Linux of pen-and-paper gaming. This democratization of roleplaying, with no profit motive and a spirit of sharing, sets it apart.

For a mere eight dollars, you can access the core rulebook of the Basic Fantasy RPG on Amazon, a stark contrast to the typical eighty-dollar price tag of other games' core rulebooks.

But don't be misled by the low cost; the Basic Fantasy RPG is anything but ordinary. The community's unwavering dedication is palpable in the 4th Edition, a testament to their unity and the power of a shared passion for roleplaying.

Basic Fantasy RPG offers a wealth of adventures published, surpassing many other games. With rules, class, race, equipment, and other expansions available, the game is a canvas for your imagination. Want special conditions, rules, abilities, or anything else to apply to a PC? Just say it happens and make a ruling. This level of customization is what makes this game truly unique.

Did a PC touch a magic statue and gain a 2-in-6 chance to speak to animals? Just say it happened, add it to the character sheet, and keep playing. It is a one-off, a magic effect that will never happen again, unique to your game, and only affects balance in your game (but so what?). I can hear 5E players screaming; make it use a feat slot! Replace a subclass ability! This must be balanced, or it will break all of 5E for the community! One of the huge problems in 5E is people feel like the game needs to be constantly balanced, like developing a computer program.

In the old days, we didn't care. If a unique character had a special ability, they had it.

What I love about this game is the community, that spirit of sharing for the love of the game, and keeping the game accessible for everybody. You can play this by the rules or hack it to do anything.

The adventures keep me coming back. Other campaign settings and adventure series feel too big, ambitious, and unusable due to the size and amount of information presented, while these keep things simple. They are that ideal "town plus dungeon" in many cases, the perfect starting point for any campaign, and they let you take things in any direction you can dream of. I love these "micro settings" very much, and you often don't need a campaign world to start in.

In fact, starting with a campaign world book can be very intimidating and cause you to never begin playing since every choice on where to start is wrong. Each one of these adventures is a perfect start to an entire world.

Why not Old School Essentials? OSE has a lot in it, many more options and choices, but the game is more expensive and more challenging to get your hands on. BFRPG works on the lowest level; it is the most accessible, has the least cost to entry, and has free PDFs for everyone. OSE is still on OGL (last I checked), while the BFRPG community pulled together and eliminated that license dependency.

BFRPG has more, all PDFs are free, there are low-cost physical copies, and everyone can play and create to their heart's delight.

Great Exploration Rules

One problem with complaining that a game doesn't have "great exploration rules" is the blind men and an elephant problem. Nobody can define exploration rules, and opinions on what makes them "great" change constantly.

The hex-crawl system, a versatile approach that covers survival, random encounters, weather, terrain, movement, mapping, points of interest, supplies, fatigue, and the thrill of getting lost, is a comprehensive system that draws inspiration from the Avalon Hill Outdoor Survival game, as seen in the Kobold Press Book of Hexcrawl. Its character-threatening nature adds an element of excitement. I'm eagerly anticipating the completion and compilation of this series into a hardcover, and this book is also great for games other than 5E.

I have watched others on YouTube say exploration is a system for creating "random memorable moments" in a story context. This is 100% the opposite of the above system and feels more like a narrative game interpretation of exploration - but in that creator's mind, this is what exploration brings to their games.

Others don't want space wasted in the book for exploration rules since they DIY or use an external book to run the exploration game. This is the Tales of the Valiant game's modular development model, where the base game is just that, and you add systems onto the game as you need them.

And the options are plentiful! With a wide array of books available, you can always find a system that suits your preferences, even if it's different from what one might consider as having 'great exploration rules.' You can make up the rest of the game, which has basic survival rules for supply, survival, and resting.

Some versions of 5E are woefully inadequate in survival rules, so you may need to expand your game to fit your needs. The 5.1 SRD (under Adventuring, The Environment) and ToV (p220, Players Guide) have basic food and water requirements. Also, note that the description of what the survival skill does in the SRD and in ToV is very brief. If I were playing, I would require a survival skill roll (and supplies, disadvantage without) to prepare a camp for long rests. Otherwise, you will need an inn or other safe place.

Think about it if it were you. Could you "long rest" by walking in the middle of the woods and sitting in one place for eight hours? Would you want a tent and a sleeping bag? A fire? Food and water? Snacks? A lantern? Something to keep the bugs off you? A chair? A book to read or a game to play? Medical supplies for bug bites and minor cuts? Clothes for sleeping? A pillow or blanket? A tarp to keep the rain off you and the fire, or for sitting on?

Now, imagine this being a dangerous world filled with monsters and magic.

These "real-world rulings" are critical to bringing "exploration" to your game. Rules as written, 5E leaves a lot up to the referee, and most groups ignore these common-sense rulings and assume "if it is not written in the game, it doesn't apply to us" - which is wrong.

Too many people equate the 5E rules with rules for games like "Magic: The Gathering" and say, "If it is not mentioned in the book, I don't need it, and it doesn't apply to me!" They "go stupid" and ignore reality.

And remember, the 5E character heals like the comic book character Wolverine. In eight hours, they can recover all hit points from an ax blow to the head, massive burns all over the body, broken legs and arms, and a deep sword thrust to the gut! As a referee, getting this "long rest heroic benefit" should come with a heavy price, and disallowing it because the ranger blew their survival skill roll making a camp because nobody remembered to buy camping gear is a good enough reason for me.

Hexcrawl generators are not automatically survival rules.

Tracking supplies, especially food and water, is critical.

And common-sense and real-world rulings can fill in many of the gaps.

If you want a plug-in book covering 5E survival, the Cinematic Environs: Survival book is one of the best-in-class books on the subject, covering the topic in fantastic detail. This one is highly recommended if you want gritty, realistic survival in your game. Since ToV is modular and keeps the core rules simple, this makes an excellent set of rules options for a "hardcore survival game" for 5E, with a few different "realism levels" for survival and healing.

D&D tends to "print books" and then "require you to have them all," so the game and design are not modular. While you can plug in a book like the above, it gets harder and harder the more books you are required to have. Eventually, it becomes impossible to sort everything out (and they ship a new edition).

If ToV had rules like this, it would be an incredibly detailed, gritty, and realistic game. But it doesn't need to since the base, core rules are modular and do not make assumptions like this - letting you pick survival-focused rules add-ons or just making rulings as you see fit for your group's preferences.

You will always be able to find hex-crawl generators, and they even come in hardcovers. Some are short and generic, but this is all you need and want sometimes. The Sandbox Generator is a small book, but the tables are handy, allowing you to make the most of it, with the charts providing guidance.

They range from the simple to the complex. Some are hundreds of pages long, which some groups will enjoy immensely; this is simply too much detail for others. The Hexcrawl Toolkit will tell you everything about a hex, down to the smallest detail. Combining this with a solo-questing book creates a procedural world with random quests and dungeons appearing anywhere.

What is overkill for one group is suitable for another, which is why the modular approach works best.

To play to the strengths of 5E, you need to begin with a core, modular rule system. Many OSR games tend to overdo it and provide every system in one book. With 5E, with the core rules, you can find the books that fit the needs of your group and choose add-on books to craft your campaign.

Some in the community feel that 5E is "too easy" and "you can't die," but this is more a problem of monolithic D&D, a less modular system, than Tales of the Valiant, a modular game where you can pull in any extra systems you want.

The trick is that you don't need them for every game.

Tales of the Valiant: More Backgrounds!

Tales of the Valiant is a hungry game, and I need more lineages and heritages. It comes with a great "basic set" of standards, but I always need more. In the base book, we get:

• Beastkin (Animal-kin)
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Human
• Kobold
• Orc
• Syderean (Tiefling & Aasimaar)
• Smallfolk (Halfling & Gnome)

What a great list we have, but you know what? I'm hungry for more! Let's expand the world of Tales of the Valiant with even more lineages and heritages!

We got one "official" supplement with many more, which is good to see. We got the following in this book:

• Dhampir
• Dryad
• Eonic
• Gnoll
• Goblin
• Lizardfolk

I am surprised the Gearforged are nowhere in ToV or the first lineage supplement. These are Midgard-specific, so many of them are coming in a Midgard-focused ToV book soon.

Also note, no dragonkin or eladrin.

But we need more! We need to start raiding Kobold Press' older race guides for other lineages and heritages. When we convert these in, remember to drop all ability score modifiers! Tales of the Valiant does not use racial stat mods, just the special abilities since stat mods are factored into ability score creation.

The next stop is the Midgard Heroes Handbook, and we must be careful to avoid repeating some of the topics already covered or ones covered by options in the ToV lineages. This book includes bearfolk, ratfolk, ravenfolk (all are covered by beastkin). We see repeats here like gnomes, dwarves, and elves - so we can ignore those. The ones worth using here are:

• Centaurs
• Gearforged
• Minotaurs
• Trollkin

The Unlikely Heroes book has a few more and a few more repeats. Some of these are more suited for the Southlands part of Midgard. Worth keeping from this book are the following:

• Derro
• Jinnborn
• Kijani
• Lamia
• Sahuagin

The Kobold Press Southlands Players Guide has more, again, focused on the Southlands area.

• Catfolk
• Tosculi
• Subek

The Tales of the Margreve Players guide has three suited for this area:

• Alseid (deerfolk centaurs)
• Erina (hedgehog folk)
• Piney (trenatfolk)

We can go underground and find the Underworld Players Guide for some classics (plus another dhampir, which is in almost every book):

• Darakul (ghoulfolk)
• Dark Trollkin
• Drow
• Mushroomfolk
• Satarre
• Shade

That is a lot of lineages! And we have not even left Kobold Press books. Converting anything else is as easy as dropping the racial stat modifiers and only using the special powers.

Tome of Heroes is up next, and this is an excellent book since you also get class options. There are a lot of practical backgrounds, many of which are repeated in other books, but this is a one-stop shop of the best, plus it comes in a hardcover. This book is the best source of "extra subclasses" you can buy for ToV now, and you get a lot. Highly recommended if you feel ToV needs more character options.

The Tales of Arcana 5E Race Guide is also an excellent inspirational source of lineages. Be forewarned; there are many goofy ones here, but there are also some real gems. Some of the races include a +4 ability score modifier here, and I would knock that down to a +2 if you use it at all. If it is a +2 or lower, ignore it. Also, some of the races here are very OP, so adjust them if you feel they will blow out your game. Some of these are professions or classes. All that said, this is an excellent book for inspiration and unique NPCs. Some good ones (among many) found here are:

• Android, Cyborg
• Angel, Demon, Devil, Devilkin, Icari, Imp, Painbringer
• Behemoth
• Cthuul
• Djinn, Efreet
• Draconic, Demidragon
• Elementals
• Fairy, Leprechaun, Satyr, Seelie
• Flora
• Gargoyle
• Ghost, Skeleton, Vampire, Zombie
• Giant, Ogre. Porg, Troll
• Golems
• Griffin, Manticore
• Hoyhnhnm
• Pandnaros
• Tortan
• Vashnai
• Walrusk

And it is easy enough to pull in any other 5E lineage from any book you own.

Also, don't forget the Roll for Combat books! Many of these have progression paths in your lineage, and give you far more in terms of improvement and development, and customization than any of the other books here.

Off the Shelf: Swords & Wizardry

I put Swords & Wizardry aside, thinking the OGL-free update was a fun game. I had moved beyond this and started exploring other old-school games. It was a mistake to shelve this game.

Shadowdark is cool, and it is a tight, almost board game-like version of 5E that many thousands of players love. Old School Essentials is the pinnacle of small-book B/X and an expensive set of books to get your hands on. There are many OSR games these days, and they all repeat each other endlessly, with minor changes here and there.

I wrote an article looking for a "treasure system" for Dungeon Crawl Classics since the book explicitly states, "Take a treasure system from another game." So, I went on a quest looking for the ideal "treasure system book" to use with DCC. My best-of-the-best were OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry.

OSRIC was very good, and the magic-item charts in that game are some of the best ever written. OSRIC is the "better AD&D" these days since the AD&D reprint books on DTRPG are so full of errors they are laughable. Don't use your original copies of AD&D; play OSRIC and save those as collector's items. OSRIC and DCC work very well together, the only issue being OSRIC and descending AC conversions to DCC for the monsters.

I found that 90% of Swords & Wizardry can be used as an expansion book for DCC. The monsters import right in, as-is. The single-save number of monsters works better than the 3.5E style saves of DCC, especially for monsters then who cares about 3 saves for a creature? The treasure system and horde generation work perfectly with the game. All the generation charts work perfectly. The only things you don't use are classes and spells.

Swords & Wizardry and DCC are so tight they are almost like sister games.

Do you want classic zero-edition monsters and treasures in DCC? Get this book. S&W is the best "stuff book" ever written for DCC. It has all the missing monsters and treasures.

Once you see S&W in that light, the next step is to consider playing it standalone. The single-save mechanic is a genius-level simplification of the pedantic B/X save system, and if you need to modify it for a single monster, like bats having a +4 to all "reflex" saves, then you just make that ruling and move on. They are bats. If the save is used for a dodge, then bats are good at dodging, and I give the bats a +4. I am done. The game gives me the power to make a ruling.

Swords & Wizardry released an options book this year that fills in all the "missing classes" in newer games. They did an amazing job of "backporting" these classes to zero-edition. You get bards (druids) and troubadours (illusionists) here, so you get both flavors of the class. You get barbarians, warlocks, demon-hunters, illusionists, necromancers, and much more. The barbarian is more of a Conan class and amazingly fun. If you felt S&W was missing the "fun parts" of the newer games, this is your book.

This is the missing expansion. Swords & Wizardry needs this to be on par with modern OSR games. You get all the fun classes of 5E with none of the power gaming, bloat, or overdesign. This is the OSR game most like 5E in terms of classes, but it keeps power levels under control.

Thank you.

They also massively expanded the monsters in a "Foes" book, another fantastic hardcover with over 300 new monsters for the game. Swords & Wizardry is a massive game now, in a three-volume set. It is still a compact game, very streamlined, with excellent presentation and a tight format that packs a lot into its space. The art is consistently outstanding.

Unlike OSE, this game has plenty of demons, and the whole concept of good versus evil is baked into the design. Adding chaos-aligned warlocks and necromancers in the options book adds the evil classes to the game. The options here exceed both Shadowdark and OSE, and the classes feel great. Also, only fighters (and only fighters; not paladins, rangers, barbarians, or any others) get the STR bonus to attack and damage in S&W (to melee and ranged attacks), which is another genius design decision.

The tamping down of die roll modifiers speeds gameplay makes AC numbers meaningful and controls hit-point inflation. Any game that seriously gives all classes the same STR to hit and damage bonuses needs to rethink its design. You also get the lower-than-1-HD multi-attack ability here. You play a fighter because you want to be a lord of war and combat. Other fighter classes get all sorts of special abilities to compensate for the lack of bonuses, so it is fair to everyone. These zero-edition fighters rock, man. They feel like Death Metal should play when your turn comes up.

This is the one change I wish OSE had made, as the OSE fighters feel plain and uninteresting in comparison. All the classes have these fun abilities baked in, and they are far more detailed and versatile than OSE classes. OSE feels too simple compared to S&W, and in other ways, S&W is more streamlined than OSE. The single-save is a genius mechanic.

Compared to Castles & Crusades, S&W is the more straightforward system. I know this is heresy! I love C&C! But Swords & Wizardry does more in fewer pages and leaves much more up to you. This is the best pre-AD&D system, roleplaying at its finest in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It still has the AD&D feeling, though, without all the charts and bloat.

Swords & Wizardry is the game AD&D should have been. I know, more heresy! S&W sticks close to the B/X framework, eliminates all the fiddly bits, and makes every class awesome with signature abilities and party roles. The game is tight and streamlined. It has an ascending AC system, and the math is easy. Modifiers and hit points are under control. The new, OGL-free version is a clean, tight, effortless design with zero baggage.

This is the perfect game to graduate to after Shadowdark when you want a streamlined zero-edition game with many options and that classic pre-AD&D feeling with all the AD&D-isms you love about that game. It is the best reinterpretation of the zero-edition rules, is endlessly expandible, and has those streamlining features we love about Shadowdark. Encumbrance is simplified. Thieves are the only class to get the +4 backstab bonus from behind (other classes get a +2). You get a lot of re-sorting of the benefits newer games tend to "give everybody," and they get parsed out to classes to make those classes unique and meaningful in play and to a party.

As a "stuff book" for DCC, this is the one to go with since the monsters are trivial ports. This gives you a solid treasure system, treasure horde generation, encounter tables, gear lists, and all sorts of missing pieces DCC does not come with. Even the expansions are highly usable. If you have DCC, pick up S&W and thank me later, and you will have all the classic AD&D creatures at your fingertips and a treasure system that works amazingly well with DCC.

Your DCC characters can finally thrash that cloud giant fortress with the white dragon, and get appropriate treasure for each monster there. Finally!

But the two new volumes in the game are game-changers. These take the game from an "oh, this is a cool game" to a must-play standalone system. Swords & Wizardry Revised is my new go-to OSR system, and it has eclipsed many of the standard bearers I have grown used to. Give each class here another look, and compare them to OSE and Shadowdark; you will see a lot of "extra fun" built into each class, with plenty of the best "problem-solving tools" provided.

This game is up there with DCC in terms of fun and design. Where DCC is the gonzo, wild, often very swingy, and hilarious epic experience, S&W is the serious, focused, clean, tightly-tuned, and streamlined design that delivers classic dungeon crawling with minimal fuss and chart references.

Off the Shelf: Twilight: 2000

I picked up the mail and got the boxed set for Twilight: 2000 on the same day the Ukraine War started. In some ways, it feels like we are living in a delayed timeline of this game, and what is here awaits us all. The game hits close to home.

My brother and I were big Twilight players when the first edition came out, and the concept and execution of the premise were second to none for a roleplaying wargame. When this came out, AD&D 1st Edition was dying, Car Wars was starting to fade, BattleTech was taking over, Rifts was doing well, and people were getting tired of the fantasy genre. People wanted something more than "level-based games with dwarves and elves."

We were into Aftermath and Gamma World, so the post-apocalyptic genre was familiar. It hadn't been done like this, though. This was the 1980s-fueled Cold War, with the Soviets as the ultimate bad guys sort of roleplaying. It was D&D meets Rambo to us, and we had a blast surviving, scrounging ammo and parts, navigating the map, and eventually stopping to call a place home. And, of course, taking the war back to the Soviets and chasing the Red Army out of Poland.

There are no drones or cell phones in this world. There is no Internet.

It was more of a peasant army with siege weapons, low-tech and high-tech gear, daring raids, alliances, food shortages, building fortifications, and negotiating with different sources of army supply in exchange for food and resources. It was an excellent post-apocalyptic "kingdom-building game" in this world. The units were scarce modern, mostly archaic weapons, with plenty of soldiers with crossbows, muskets, and melee weapons.

My players were brilliant. They used every source of supply they could find and augmented that with primitive units to hold back areas and keep the peace. It reminded me of how we played Mutant Future, a low-tech world with high-tech treasure. This was a Middle Ages world with limited access to tech, and having modern military gear was like super science stuff. Ammo was scarce and hoarded like gold. Some units used muskets. Everything your enemy had, you took.

But when you walked the streets of a settlement, it was all Middle Ages farming, food storage, churches, brewing, leatherworking, ranching, foresting, blacksmithing, gunsmithing, and mustering the local men to defend the settlement. Any decent populated town had walls, outposts, watch towers, and defenses. Refugees huddled outside the walls in squalor, with the church giving what they could.

Forget communications and electricity. Animals and carts provided transportation.

The world was a dark place.

Like some places in this world today.

As time passed, ammo and spare parts became scarcer, and the slow realization of 'what have we done' settled into the entire game. The world, month after month, felt like it was sliding back into the Middle Ages. The last battles were hard fought but had real meaning and sacrifice. Some questioned, 'Why do we keep fighting?' Alliances were made and broken, and it was some great Game of Thrones-level stuff when a warlord or baron threw in with the Soviets and betrayed our heroes in a surprise turn. Heroes were captured, rescues were made, and revenge was had.

Is that last piece of land, or that previous ideal, worth driving the world further into the grave? It turns out it was. Like a great Western, there are times when what is right defines who you are. We either fight for this, or nothing we did means anything. The game ran its course, and we moved on. 

The Free League version brings back good memories, and I like this game for the "sim" and solo gaming elements it offers. The rules are more abstract, but I understand why you are tracking many variables, and the dice need to take some of the work off of the group with a few layers of abstraction. It is not the same game, but one more than worthy of picking up the torch.

So, off the shelf, it came, and I am thinking of games to play.

Off the Shelf: Dragonbane

Dragonbane, a game I've been eagerly anticipating, is a d20-style, simplified fork of Runequest. What truly sets it apart and piques my interest is its innovative solo-playable mechanics, particularly the use of initiative cards. The game's 'solo play' rules and grim-fantasy aesthetic, reminiscent of classic Warhammer Fantasy and folklore, further enhance its appeal.

Dragonbane, much like Shadowdark, is a rules-light adventure game with a comprehensive skill system and intricate combat mechanics. However, it distinguishes itself by offering a different experience, one that is less resource-focused and more about the exhilaration of prewritten adventures. This departure from the hex-crawl style of Forbidden Lands adds a unique thrill to the game.

The balance is flatter, again, on the level of a Runequest or other d100 game. Experience comes from skills, and combat is deadly. The game also feels like a "sandbox," like you have a map, and your story is how your character (or party) navigates through this place and all the trouble they find along the way. There are also card elements to the game, like treasure cards, which provide a source of power and "leveling up."

I like the monsters and how their turn actions are randomized. There is also a "random action table" for NPCs in the solo rules, so you can play this solo and manage to have the monsters and enemies surprise you. Very few games do this, and it is a fantastic solo-play mechanic, along with a tool for referees to "run" monsters effectively.

I get most any 5E monster manual, and monsters above a certain CR are always homework assignments to learn how to use effectively. Every D&D-like game post-year 2000 has this problem, from D&D 3.0 on through Pathfinder 1e, and even 5E has these complex "homework monsters" that are a pain to run if the dungeon contains more than a handful of different types. You get an adventure for 12th-level characters and have a weekend of research to effectively run a dozen high-level foes.

Part of why high-level play in 5E seems like the characters are invincible is likely because very few game masters can run those monster stat blocks effectively. Dragonbane solves the problem, eliminating GM bias and aversion to complex magic and condition-based attacks.

You can also randomly create a hero, wholly randomized in kin, class, age, gear, and background. You can play Dragonbane like a rouge-like game, solo, with your character advancing, finding treasures, and completing missions as you go.

The game's solo missions are more abstract than the Shadowdark map-based style; in Dragonbane, you create a dungeon by stringing together waypoints, and you can do a rough map like a connected bubble graph. Once you solve or clear a waypoint, you move on to the next one.

Dungeons in Dragonbane are smaller; encounter sites have from 1-4 locations, medium ones have 4-10 areas, while the larger dungeons have 12-20 rooms. Most places have just 1-2 locations of note and a story point that happens there. I would keep most dungeons in the 6-9 "bubble" range for solo play. You aren't mapping and exploring as much as solving problems, fighting, and using your skills in these places.

I see a lot of similarities to Forbidden Lands here. Still, Dragonbane feels like a simplified system focused on the "situation and character sheet" dungeon and fight gameplay loop. Forbidden Lands feels like a Civilization-style game, where you are simulating a grand and epic quest of exploration, where the action feels a step away, and you are exploring hexes, building strongholds, and discovering ancient places of wonder. The broad sweeps of narrative action, timekeeping, and resource management while in dangerous lands make Forbidden Lands compelling from a "sim" perspective and dip a little into fantasy wargaming.

Forbidden Lands feels more like a "fantasy novel simulator" than a "dungeon game." Characters die frequently here; there are even stickers to mark where your heroes met at the end of their tales. If Gorm the dwarf died on this hill protecting his friends from skeletons two years ago, we mark this map spot with a sticker (and perhaps, in-game, a small memorial of stones) and call it "Gorm's Hill" in his honor.

Forbidden Lands is a "sim" style game.

Everything you do in Forbidden Lands is worldbuilding. There is a map where everything happens during play and is generated organically. It is a "Legacy" style game, where the map and "game board" change each time you play, and a fresh start is called for. You can keep one map going for years over dozens of parties and adventures, with new generations picking up the sword for adventure.

Forbidden Lands is also more complex in mechanics. There are a lot of special rules and dice with symbols, each of which has a special meaning. The book has "subsection rules" that make sense of the results, what can happen when, and how to take the abstract dice results and make those work in the game. You must keep an "operating system layer" in your head when playing; much like Savage Worlds, the game relies on a translation layer framework between the die results and your character.

Dragonbane feels more "play from the character sheet" than Forbidden Lands.

Dragonbane focuses on the "here and now dungeon game" and succeeds wildly. It is more character-focused, with more skills and character details than Forbidden Lands. It is less "Lord of the Rings" and more "Conan" in a novel perspective. The action and mystery are immediate. Characters have three times the depth. The fights are visceral and detailed. You have thirty skills that define your character, plus unique heroic traits, spells, and other abilities. This is a "zoomed-in" fantasy with the character in tight focus.

Dragonbane is an action RPG.

Dragonbane has a map and campaign setting; the first adventure focuses on that valley. You can ignore it and create your own setting, like a hew-crawl or dark fantasy style. Dragonbane has a cartoonish, gritty, dark fantasy vibe, almost as if Darkwing Duck were a mature graphic novel for adults and published in Heavy Metal, with plenty of blood, violence, and classic Batman Animated Series character designs out of the 1990s. Forbidden Lands feels like Larry Elmore Dragonlance art, by comparison.

Dragonbane is a good game. It is simple, fast, playable, and fun, and its art style inspires daring, dark, gritty, pulp adventure.