Thief Battle!

Let's look at a few popular OSR games today and compare thieves! Why? Well, I was reading the new Swords & Wizardry Boxed Set and saw that quadruple damage modifier at level 9+ and asked myself, how many other OSR games do that? And if you see a rule you like in one system but don't have it in yours, guess what? House rule it in; this is B/X. I am approaching this in a "what if I have to pick one game" way.

And since we are talking thieves, that d4 picture is appropriate since we will be rolling many of them today.

Old School Essentials

This is your pretty standard B/X thief class. I have seen a few YouTube videos mentioning people thought the OSE thief class felt weak, but from what I see, this is your pretty middle-of-the-road thief class compared to most of the popular B/X games.

Why is the lack of magic resistance important? If casters can't land spells, it is up to martial classes to make up the difference in damage output, and a well-placed backstab could be the deciding factor in a fight. Magic resistance in a game is a huge buff to martial character viability and keeps the game from being too caster-dominated.

• Hit dice: d4, +2 hp after 10th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage
• Read Languages: 4th level, 80%
• Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, no shields
• Weapons: Any
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have no magic resistance

Swords & Wizardry

S&W does the backstab damage scaling at higher levels, which is why I think people feel the standard OSE thief feels weak. We get a save bonus here as well. Note the hit points go up at +1 after the 10th level, and S&W tends to keep hit point inflation down in every area to preserve balance. Also, note only the fighter class gets hit and damage bonuses for STR, which I feel is a solid rule for that game.

This has to be my favorite B/X OSR "avoid combat" style d4 thief, just because the payoff from backstabs is so great at higher levels. I do not mind the loss of STR damage and hit bonuses since this fighter buff in the game and magic weapons still usually work.

I also like the tighter hit point balance in S&W a lot. They keep a lot of modifiers down, and they specifically buff fighters to be excellent. Whenever they added a modifier or class feature, they carefully considered it and returned to the original rules, and I feel S&W has the best design balance in this list.

Quad damage to a magic-resistant creature on a backstab? Yes, we are talking about a significant party-saving moment sort of attack when the casters run out of spells and things look dire. This is what you are paid for.

• Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 10th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage
• +2 to save against devices, traps, wands, staves, and all magical devices.
• Read Languages: 3rd level, 80%
• Read Magical Writings: 9th level, 90%
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, no shields
• Weapons: Any (magical weapons, daggers, and swords only)
• STR bonus to damage disallowed
• Monsters have magic resistance

Basic Fantasy

More of the standard thief here, but we do not have the read languages or scrolls powers. I am sure you could house rule those in; this is Basic Fantasy, after all. Note the lower hit points after the 9th level, like S&W.

This is my least favorite OSR thief, but then again, easily house-ruled, so not a huge problem.

• Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 9th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, no metal armor, no shields
• Weapons: Any
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have no magic resistance

Iron Falcon

This is a new game, the spiritual successor to Basic Fantasy, written by the same author. This is very close to Swords & Wizardry in that STR bonuses are only for fighters, and it is nice to see another game adopt this rule. The game's damage multiplier goes up to an astonishing seven times at the 21st level! Wow. Otherwise, this is a race + class style game, much like Basic Fantasy, and a fantastic option to that set of rules.

I have not played enough of this game to rank it, and I would love to know how that super-high damage multiplier works in play. Otherwise, this compares with S&W just fine but lacks the magic resistance of that game.

• Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 10th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage; 13+ quintuple damage; 17+ 6x damage; 21+ 7x damage.
• Read Languages: 3rd level, 80%
• Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, no shields
• Weapons: Any
• STR bonus to hit and damage disallowed
• Monsters have no magic resistance

Labyrinth Lord

The standard B/X thief is here again, and the only real difference from OSE is the high-level hit points. Again, sort of middle of the road for me.

• Hit dice: d4, +1 hp after 9th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, double damage
• Read Languages: 4th level, 80%
• Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, no shields
• Weapons: Any
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have no magic resistance

ACKS

At the 13th level and higher, you get five times damage. We see the AD&D-like 2 hp per level modifier and a no 2H weapons rule. I see a pattern here if the game is more like AD&D, +2 hp a level at high levels, and if it is more like B/X, +1 hp a level at high levels. Also not, some games give 10 total hit dice (AD&D) versus nine maximum (D&D).

The five times damage seems high for d4 hit die thief games, and I feel this fits better with an AD&D 2e hit point scale, and a d6 thief hit die. This feels really high-risk to reward and feels "extreme," but it is my second favorite OSR thief.

• Hit dice: d4, +2 hp after 9th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage; 13+ quintuple damage.
• Read Languages: 4th level, 80%
• Scroll Use: 10th level, 90%
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, no shields
• Weapons: Any, but no, 2H melee weapons.
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have magic resistance

OSRIC

We see the first AD&D-style d6 hit die here and the 5x backstab damage. A fighting-oriented thief compared to the other games. With that d6 hit-die, your thief is not avoiding combat all the time, and your group behavior changes to more of an off-tank role.

We see the d6 hit die here, so five times damage feels right for the increased AD&D hit points. Probably my third favorite on this comparison, and above the middle-of-the-road ones. But this is clearly a "combat style" thief compared to the others.

• Hit dice: d6, +2 hp after 10th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage; 13+ quintuple damage.
• Read Languages: on chart
• Scroll Use: 10th level, INT roll %
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather or studded leather, no shields
• Weapons: Club, dagger, dart, oil, sling, single-handed swords (except bastard swords)
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have magic resistance

Castles & Crusades (Rogue)

It feels bizarre to put C&C in here since C&C is more of a 5E-style game (developed more than a decade before 5E). We get the fighting-oriented thief of AD&D, the scaling damage multipliers, read languages and scroll use at level one, and then several modern "class abilities" that activate as you level. The high levels feel especially interesting as the "superpowers" start to activate, so this should be considered a modern game design - and the most B/X of 5E-style rules (if that makes any sense).

Note the small shield use and a lack of a five times modifier. There is a "back attack" damage bonus for situations where the target is aware of the thief but not expecting an attack (like flanking or rear attacks), so overall combat damage is higher. This is the best "fighting thief" on the list.

I love C&C, so this is my top choice for a modern-style game. The high levels are exciting compared to everything else on this list when those class powers come online. But again, it feels unfair to put this on the list since we have a lot of modern design mechanics that were copied by Pathfinder 1e and 2e and D&D 5.

This is tied for 1st place, but with a huge difference. If I want the sneaky, avoid combat d4 thief, then S&W. If I desire a swashbuckling modern d6 thief, C&C is my choice. If the campaign goes past the 10th level, C&C wins easily because new powers are constantly activated.

• Hit dice: d6, +2 hp after 10th level
• Backstab: +4 to hit, +4 to hit, 1-4: double damage; 5-8: triple damage; 9+ quadruple damage
• Read Languages: 1st level, SIEGE check
• Scroll Use: 1sh level, SIEGE check, -10
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Armor: Leather, leather coat, and padded. Small shields are allowed.
• Weapons: Blowpipe, broadsword, cat-o-nine-tails, cestus, club, dagger, dart, light hammer, hand ax, hand crossbow, javelin, knife, light crossbow, longsword, mace, main gauche, quarterstaff, rapier, sap, shortbow, short sword, sickle, sleeve tangler, spiked gauntlet, sling, whip
• Class Abilities: Back Attack, Sneak Attack, Detect Secret Doors, Dex Bonus, Sixth Sense, Hide/Move Silently, Quick Reaction, Evasive Maneuver
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have magic resistance

Dungeon Crawl Classics

This is another odd game on the list, but the thief here is sort of a thief-assassin mix, with the d6 fighting hit die. This is a solid thief in the AD&D style and is probably tied for my second favorite thief overall (but one of my favorite games).

• Hit dice: d6
• Backstab: +4 to hit, automatic critical table roll
• Thief Skills: As normal
• Bonus skills: forgery, poison use, disguise
• Read Languages: 1st level, skill roll
• Scroll Use: 1st level, skill roll
• Armor: Any but increasing check penalties apply.
• Weapons: blackjack, blowgun, crossbow, dagger, dart, garrote, longsword, short sword, sling, and staff
• STR bonus to hit and damage allowed
• Monsters have no magic resistance (but this varies wildly by module)

Wrapping Up...

Whew! What a lot of research, and I hope I got everything right. This is not to say one game is better than another, but many design choices go into these games, and they vary wildly at times. Comparisons like this are also meaningful when you house rule, which further affects balance.

What I love about Swords & Wizardry and Iron Falcon is they go against the "well it would be fairer if..." feeling for strength hit and damage modifiers. Yes, giving everyone the modifiers is "fair," but is it balanced, and are we taking something away from fighters? Are we raising overall damage too high?

Ultimately, what you like matters the most, and your preferences in a game. You may have a  different idea of what a thief is than the game presents, like a thief's ability to fight. You may love the d4 hit die sneaky avoid combat thief, or you may want to participate in the fighting as a second-rank fighter. You may want to play a game with tighter balance in the numbers to make that d4 dagger more worthwhile. You may wish to have a party where the fighter is fantastic at fighting, and you are free to sneak around and cause trouble and backstab.

You may love the unlocks and superpowers at high levels and have more to look forward to past the 10th level than just marginally better numbers. This is where I am now; I like C&C's progression and old-school compatibility. If I were playing straight B/X and wanted that d4 thief, I would do Swords & Wizardry. OSE has a lot of variety, but it comes at the cost of some classes not having enough, so they play and are balanced versus other classes well. S&W also has many AD&D rules I like, such as magic resistance and that sweet damage multiplier.

Finding the game that matches your preferences is what matters the most.

B/X is Forever

I always keep coming back to B/X and open systems.

I buy gimmick game systems but they don't last. I buy mainstream "supported" rules and they pull new editions on me, play games with the PDFs, and force me to spend money on the next book to keep up with the rules. I buy non-open content games and they go out of print, and the community support is lacking. I buy nostalgia games based on movies and TV shows, but they are rarely good for anything else.

Some games I feel are just ever-evolving sets of rules that force you to keep up, and the only moment they are complete is when they release a new edition and invalidate everything. But with B/X and other open systems, the game just keeps getting better. I can find a set of rules that fits how I like to play, from traditional to modern, and it all works together. People are always creating new dungeons, systems, monsters, spells, and content for B/X, and the market will never stop. I can always find something new to try or publish something myself.

I had a choice recently to buy a mega-dungeon (Rappan Athuk) for a choice of systems, Pathfinder 1e, Swords & Wizardry, or 5E. I chose the OSR game, Swords & Wizardry because it is easier to convert a B/X system into another B/X system, Pathfinder 1e, or 5E than it is to go the other way. And someday both 5E and Pathfinder 1e will be out-of-print, and my OSR copy will still be supported. And if 6E comes out in a few years the B/X version of the book will convert to that too, while still being able to be played with any OSR game out then - or the classics.

Just as a consumer B/X is a wonderful place to be. There are plenty of free sets of rules, like Basic Fantasy, that play wonderfully and have low-cost print options.

Every B/X book I ever bought, from Labyrinth Lord to Old School Essentials is still able to be used. Every module, every adventure, every monster, and most everything works with another game. Whatever game I choose just works. A company making my B/X system of choice could go out of business and the system will not disappear with it. My books are usable with other games.

I can buy new B/X games and use them as standalone games, or supplements for my existing games. My B/X adjacent and compatible games, like Castles & Crusades and Dungeon Crawl Classics, happily ride along with the fun.

B/X is sort of like the "Steam" of gaming, an ever-expanding marketplace of classics, new games, and interesting add-ons to what I already have. New editions for classics come out and those are fun to have as well.

I have never seen anything like this market and it is cool and amazing to be a part of.

Books for Games, The Renaissance

Okay, most of this is dark stuff. A book about colonialism and the brutality of conquering native populations, and the start of the slave trade. An art book showing architecture, clothing, and the feeling of a Renaissance setting. The Great Plague. A book about the decline of magic and witch trials. If you put any of this on your typical "roleplaying PDF store," you would get an adult content warning. Yes, even for the art book because it has artistic nudity.

No warnings on Amazon, where the grown-ups shop.

Bleh, we are way too protected from ourselves and our dark pasts. What game are we considering these for? Why can there only be one...

Yes, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and this is the signature game of fantasy horror where you know you are screwed from character creation. You are all guilty by default of being a part of the wealthy, exploitative, decadent, callously cruel, wasteful, environment destroying, slave-taking, rich, and colonial power that just messed with something they should not have, and all fall like cast members of a Friday the 13th movie.

I can't play dark horror in D&D. In Pathfinder 2e, some of these concepts are banned.

This is fantasy horror at its best.

And I love shopping for this game because I am diving through some of the most twisted and horrible history books ever written. I don't have to buy game books or adventure modules; I got tons of content just for this concept alone, reading history. Want more books?

Forcing native cultures to learn a language and to change their beliefs at the point of a sword? Taking them for slaves? Needless wars to make the rich richer? Stealing wealth from primitive cultures to enrich the wealthy back home? Books on the nature of Hell and how it changed as a tool of societal control? A history of death? Climate change? Oh, we have it all here. I might as well have "works with LotFP roleplaying game" stickers made and stick them all over these books.

I seriously think some of the history books from this era are better than the printed adventures for the game. In fact, many of them are worse and could never be published as "adventures."

And it all happened for real.

If you ever wanted to know why Renaissance society was one of the evilest and heartless this planet has ever seen, just open a book. And yet we romanticize this era with modern high fantasy and rewrite it to be more inclusive. This is like taking some of the worse genocides of the 20th Century and rewriting them to be more inclusive and family-friendly and putting them in roleplaying games.

I know, I know.

We need our escape; this world is horrible enough today to be constantly reminded of how awful it was in the past.

But to "get" LotFP, the way I play it, you need to know why the characters in that game deserve all the terrible things that happen to them. Great horror has that puritanical notion of punishment for sins, like the original Friday the 13th. And great horror has a deeper meaning to the events of the time it was created. The paranoia and mistrust of John Carpenter's The Thing can be seen as an AIDS metaphor of the early 80s. We shy away from these things because they make us uncomfortable.

But when we can experience them in a safe environment, we learn more about ourselves and our fears. And we may know why these things done at this time were so horrible.

And maybe we reflect a little and try to make up for all the awful things back then.

Or we could keep forgetting.

Hundreds of years after our rose-colored Renaissance, the default setting of all of our popular fantasy games, we are still living with the disastrous effects of that time. And yet we continue to put the time on a pedestal and rewrite it instead of facing what that moment in Earth's history did to us.

We will never make it right by ignoring it or painting it over with varied and colorful hues.

Or by banning them in stores because they upset a few people. If I were a part of a culture that was wiped off the planet by colonialism, I think I would want people to be a little upset.

When you consider this, LotFP goes from being "that silly B/X game that uses shock value to sell books" to an actual top-tier roleplaying game. There are times I see LotFP adventures doing what Dungeon Crawl Classics does better, and I feel those are a bit misguided. This is more like Mork Borg to me, but with a sense of impending doom and punishment for all characters in the game for "what they did."

Very few games inspire me to go out and educate myself like this.

And yes, I know about the referee's guide's advice about "not using the real world" as a setting. A lot had changed between when that was first written and now, and there are great B/X and OSR options that did not exist back then. But all of them are in the high fantasy genre, and where LotFP shines is in that unhinged Renaissance horror in a slightly realistic and non-fantastical world. 

I choose a semi-realistic version of the natural world, slightly fantastic with the presence of magic but still rooted in reality. I am not using elves, halflings, or dwarves since they put too much Tolkien in the setting and break the unspoken rule of the familiar that horror requires. I play overseas and the New World not-on-Earth canon, as trips to these places should be fraught with strange, unexplained, and supernatural. A coast or island could appear in the middle of a charted ocean, and the ship is off in some nether-realm nobody knew about.

And the reasons for inflicting horror on the classic colonial powers and their seven-sins wrought followers are way too tempting to resist. I do feel, at least for me, that the shock value of LotFP has worn off and it does not sell me on the game anymore. What does sell me on the game is the message of unholy retribution on the sinful colonial powers that brought so much conflict, war, and injustice to the world and the same issues we still deal with today.

And dealing with these quite modern themes is the key to a great horror story.

A massive part of it is using that "shock value" to set you up for the things you learn - which actually happened - that will be even more shocking. A genital with teeth is one thing, but wiping out an entire civilization for their gold and land is entirely different. Popes who do all sorts of horrible things when put in a position of trust are part and parcel of this era.

And all of this is much more horrible.

Swords & Wizardry: Fighter Damage

Swords & Wizardry only allows STR to hit and damage bonuses for fighters.

Not rangers, monks, or paladins - only fighters.

Those are not fighters; get the AD&D fighter sub-classes out of your mind. They have other powers.

The DEX to-hit bonus for missile weapons for all classes. And the fighter STR bonuses for to-hit and damage apply to missile weapons. An 18 STR fighter with a DEX above 13 will be +3 to hit and damage with melee and missile weapons.

Wow.

Now I want to play a fighter.

This is a strange concept coming from B/X, where the default assumption is everyone gets to hit and damage bonuses for everything. Taking it away feels strange. But what about my thief? What about my ranger? We always had those bonuses! This is unfair! Find a magic weapon if you want a non-fighter class to get a hit and damage bonus.

But I get it; this is how it was in the old days.

And a part of me likes fighters being incredible again.

In many cases, your damage modifier matters more than the die of damage you are rolling because now you have guaranteed minimum damage. And fighters with magic weapons rock like Conan. Put a girdle of giant strength on your fighter, and you are a severe damage dealer.

Even with a bow.

Synonym Classes

We do not need a barbarian class in this game; fighters have it covered. In fact, needing a barbarian class feels like the fighter class in the game wasn't working right, and you are not forcing players to choose between two similar options only with a slightly different job or attitude. I could say this for any fighter-synonym class, such as knight, cavalier, archer, champion, guardian, or any other word you can pull from a thesaurus.

There is a difference between a class and the jobs that the class can do.

Paladins, rangers, and monks all feel different enough that they should have a class. Paladins have magic powers. Rangers have a unique skill package, almost like a thief. Monks fight differently.

Original Game Had It Right

This is an excellent example of returning to the original rules and finding the original intent of why the rules "were how they were" and bringing that back. Giving everyone hit and damage bonuses for a high strength sounded "fair" in later versions of the game, but it ultimately made fighters weaker and less enjoyable to play. Fighters are trained to use a high STR to maximum effect; other classes are not.

I get the feeling legions of house rules flooded in after the original D&D, and since "everyone played that way," the designers changed the rule to give everyone the bonus. Maybe they should not have. Many Monopoly players have house rules, and some traditions mess with the game's balance.

Part of me feels TSR tried to put the cat back in the bag with the "percentile strength" for fighters only in AD&D. When they realized giving everyone STR hit and bonus damage took something cool away from fighters, they tried to patch the issue with the 18/01-18/00 strength system for fighters only.

What this ended up doing is requiring every fighter to have an 18 strength, killed 3d6 generation, and inflated all of the hit and damage numbers incredibly. Doing 1d8 with a longsword is very heroic in itself, but letting fighters have the training to maximize strength into battle prowess is honestly what their class should be about.

And then you see what happened as the editions went on. Next, fighters needed to be buffed to make them interesting and worth playing again. The hit point scale inflated, and the base weapon damages started to mean less and less. To do serious damage you needed multi-attacks or special class abilities. We go down the road of weapon proficiencies, fighter feats, fighter power, class abilities, and all sort of other buffs stacked on the game - which invited other classes to get similar buffs - and you wonder if any of this would have happened had they left the "fighter only STR bonus" as the rules in the game.

Asymmetric Balance

And if this makes rangers, monks, and paladins weak - revisit their powers without giving them the bonus and see what can be done. Looking at them in the rulebook, I can say the other classes have plenty of extraordinary must-have abilities, even at low-level. Monks? Always on damage bonus. Rangers? Party is rarely surprised and tracking. Paladins? Impressive saves, disease immunity, and lay-on hands.

Clerics? Be patient. And turn a lot of undead. Have faith.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess does something similar by only letting fighters have a meaningful attack bonus progression, and every other class is capped at a +1, no matter their level. Again you see the asymmetric design, which is not unfair; it is a design decision and how the game works. Sometimes I look at some B/X games and see them not being brave enough on design asymmetry, and I feel some classes are lacking, and others are overpowered.

Swords & Wizardry makes some bold design choices, and they feel right. I also need to mention the excellent Iron Falcon, which provides this as an option too.

Let the Conan character be Conan.

Let the front-line fighter be incredible.

Swords & Wizardry Boxed Set

I go to Amazon and discover this gem of a book is out of print! What happened? Given the current drama around Labyrinth Lord shutting down its social media and websites (but keeping things for sale, please keep the support up for an OG OGL game) I could not stand to see another stalwart in the B/X community having troubles.

But, no, this is something much, much better...

We are getting a brand-new Swords & Wizardry Boxed Set!

https://www.froggodgames.com/product/swords-wizardry-complete-rules-box-set/

This is a very cool, multi-book boxed set for a nice price, and it does not change much about the rules we love, but it completely revises the art and presentation. We get split books for players, referees, and monsters. There do not seem to be any rule changes here, and that is a good thing.

Oh, this is nice to see. With Old School Essentials out there and plenty of other B/X choices, it is very cool to see Swords & Wizardry step up and say, "We are a player too." And there are tons of modules and adventures in print on the Frog Gods Games website.

Swords & Wizardry is one of my favorite AD&D-like games since it keeps the demons and devils of the original game, and it keeps the magic resistance mechanic to balance caster power. There are no bards either, which I originally thought was a huge problem, but coming back after seeing bards become a tired cliché in modern games I am not so unhappy about this anymore. I love bards, but too much is too much, and I feel they have become this do-everything meta-class.

That said, Swords & Wizardry has a strict "do not roll for RP" rule. If a player wanted to be a "bard on the side" of a normal class (thief, magic user, druid, etc) I would not stop them - just give their character a lute, and if they RP a great performance, let it influence the situation as the referee sees fit. Have the player sing a song, and make the sounds of their song themselves - at the table - live in front of everyone. 

Actually, when I think about it, this bard-on-the-side just may be my favorite implementation of a bard class yet. Not only does the character have a bread-and-butter class to fall back on (of their choice), but the player also needs to write songs, sing them for everyone, rhyme, make songs up on the spot, prepare things ahead of time, and hold a tune. A player will need real musical talent to earn the RP benefits, and no dice or rules are needed.

Wow. This is amazing news, and I have this on order. And they keep the genius "one saving throw number" rule, which is purely amazing.

I still like C&C's simplified presentation, but if I wanted to enjoy an AD&D-lite game with all the best features, S&W is a great choice and one I will be looking at as time goes on. They do a lot of the 1e-style rules right here, and it feels like the real thing - while simplifying the numbers and putting some needed limits on die modifiers to keep the numbers and dice under control. The B/X market is very cool, and there is a game for everybody here. Do you like one edition more than another? Do you like horror? Do you want simple or complex? Do you want a particular theme or flavor to the game?

You can't really go wrong with anything you choose.

And all of this works with my other B/X books, so a win-win.

Books for Games, The Middle Ages

One of the great things about playing roleplaying games with a strong historical context is you get to buy books outside the hobby to support your creativity. I got the above three books to support the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS), and they are wonderful reference guides on how the era is supposed to look, feel, and act. While I am not playing in Middle Ages Europe for my game, the conflicts, people, and struggles of the time directly translate into in-game inspiration and background. I could flip to any page of these books and instantly have an adventure seed.

There are also conflicts baked into these books, like the Magic in the Middle Ages book discussing the history of magic, the church, and the early laws against witchcraft. If you have a civilization where the power lies solely with the church and not the state, this stuff is important. A monastery is established in a remote region, and the church moves settlers in. A town grows in the area, and the land begins to be tamed. And then mages move in, or magical artifacts are found.

If this were D&D, oh, that is another character class, someone hire an arcane caster, please? Character classes don't have reasons to mistrust each other! What is this? Somebody remind everyone of party unity please and play nice with each other. That "modern fantasy" feeling hits and people start behaving as the rules tell them to.

In a more grounded and historical game, the church may keep a close eye on mages and limit the practice of magic. They may ban it, or even hunt practitioners, depending on the faith. Of course, as characters get higher levels and begin to start their own kingdoms, they can set any rules they want. My reading of this book gives me ideas for the game outside the game's library of sources.

And of course, you get the novels and game worlds of the official game, and if you tried to bring in ideas from history into "a fantasy world" you may be called out for breaking what one book said, changing the lore of the world, or stepping on someone's expectations. You can't make druids distrusted! I play a druid! That would never happen in the Forgotten Realms! There are too many powerful mages in this world for that to happen!

The fact a lot of "in-game lore" and the rules themselves contradict history and have to be argued for is a very strange thing. It is as if somehow we worship this idolatry of a "generic fantasy world" so strongly that actual things that happened in history are somehow invalid ideas.

And this "generic fantasy world" becomes a Wonderland of silly rules and contradictions, things that can and cannot happen, words that can and cannot be said, codes of conduct and manners of dress, and concepts and injustices being brushed away and everyone being told to forget about them because they didn't happen.

Back in the Middle Ages, peasants and serfs were practically owned by the lord of the land and needed to be given permission to travel. There was no modern cosmopolitan society, no colleges, few organized guilds, no merchant class, no wealthy class, no intellectuals, no suburban life, and governments were weak compared to the almighty church. Families gave children to the church for blessings and benefits. This is the starting point, if players want to change this they are free to do so.

If I started with D&D, C&C, B/X, or any other game that feels more "modern fantasy" I am not getting these concepts. The books feel strange. A lot of what is in these books is out of place in the D&D cosmology or Pathfinder world, and parts of them are banned outright in the lore.

And I like collecting books. I do not have to rely on a game company's release schedule to find inspiration on my favorite topic or style of the game world. I have all of Amazon at my fingertips. I am not limited to one source, company, view, content guideline, or pigeonholed into the "fantasy world" box when I am shopping for my library. I am also not tied to web portals or having my library taken away by policy changes, business closings, or license invalidation.

The company can stop printing the game and I will still have near-infinite sources of content. This is one of the strengths of B/X and the OSR as well, none of my B/X purchases are invalidated by a new version of the game, switching from Labyrinth Lord to OSE, playing ACKS or C&C, doing LotFP or AD&D (or ADD&D), S&W or any other B/X game.

I have the freedom to choose.

Off the Shelf: Adventurer Conqueror King

I had the Adventurer Conqueror King System and the sourcebooks on a back shelf and forgot about it for a while. To me, it didn't do anything special, it was an AD&D-style mod of a game, and what it did could be done easier by a game like Castles & Crusades (C&C). ACKS totes around some of the legacy cruft, like saving throw tables, thief skills, and proficiencies - so it isn't too different than a B/X-style game. ACKS is also focused on end-game kingdom management, so there are changes in how some of the classes and many of the spells work, so I did not really feel it was worth the time learning all the differences and spending the time to really dive deep into this game and world.

So I put it away for a while. I had better things to read and play. C&C became my go-to B/X style game since it simplified the experience to a smooth and fast core mechanic. ACKS is a traditional AD&D-style game, a lot is left up to you. There is no "ability score roll" system, and the game has a proficiency system with "per skill" throws, modifiers, or other loose guidelines for how to use them.

So why come back?

C&C does it all, right? Or B/X, if that is your game.

Modern High Fantasy

There is very little difference between a high fantasy game published today and the modern world.

I get the feeling Pathfinder 2e and D&D 5 are way too modern for my tastes. One of the current adventure paths from Paizo has guns and robots everywhere, and D&D has coffee shops and colleges. We have robots, trains, airships, and anachronisms everywhere - even in social constructs.

Yes, you can pull this all out, but it is a lot of work. Part of why I like B/X is that it models the early era of roleplaying when I felt like I was entering another world and I had to learn how things worked and how the people of the time got things done.

I was immersed in a new world, not a fantasy-themed version of this one.

To enjoy fantasy is to enjoy escapism, which means putting yourself in an unfamiliar situation and world, in the shoes of another person entirely, and experiencing something new.

Not a repainted version of the familiar.

Middle Ages Fantasy

ACKS is a Middle Ages game that can dip into high fantasy with an optional book, but it stays grounded in a pre-Renaissance world. Why is this important?

https://pediaa.com/what-is-the-difference-between-middle-ages-and-renaissance/

The Renaissance is the birth of the modern era, and this is when a lot of the "bad things" began to take root, like colonialism, slavery, exploitative capital markets, industrialization, wars of the state, and the extreme divide between rich and poor. The world is explored and divided up by colonial powers. Native societies are being subdued and killed en masse to seed the birth of nations. Industrialization is blooming, with bodies being thrown into wars and the environment stripped of beauty and resources. This is why I love Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) for this era since every one of these colonialist "heroes" participates in a corrupt society based on the suffering and exploitation of others, the only way to play Renaissance and get this puritanical "all sinners must die" sort of satisfaction is as a horror game.

A Middle Ages world is a lot like beginning a Civilization VI game. The old empire has fallen and ruins of the Imperial age are everywhere. The world is unexplored and forgotten. The land is being discovered and settled by those who live there. Tribes, families, and local cultures are stronger. Travel is dangerous, but those who can establish trade routes and commerce will find great wealth. Not everything is done, there are no large merchant classes, and the structure of society falls under a powerful church - and the church is more powerful than the state.

You may wonder about that point and not prefer to have the dominant church. But I say if your players want to change things and build their own "ideal society" you have a cleaner starting point here than in a Renaissance Era where you not only have to deal with empowered states, a wealthy class, often armed merchant classes, and so many other factions. This is why ACKS does an incredible job, it picks a starting point that gives players a clean slate for building a dynasty, and it opens the door for them to create the type of society they dream of.

And honestly, having the church be the default power gives you something to either fight against, work with, or shape the power of in your world. Freedoms are limited, and even serfdom puts every peasant in an area under the thumb of a lord. But this power structure is a very simple one and it is an ideal blank slate, to begin with.

Do you want a society that tolerates all gods, even evil ones? How about just good ones? One god of many? A few? How powerful is the church in your kingdom? Are there limits to divine power over society? How does your government enforce that? How does your kingdom treat native peoples? If you learn about another kingdom exploiting others, do you oppose them? Does your society ban forced servitude? Is your society inclusive and more modern, or more savage and tribal?

Since ACKS is a kingdom-building game, the choices of how you build the world are yours. None of the Renaissance baggage is loaded onto you, or "conveniently forgotten" to present a family-friendly fantasy. The Middle Ages is less technologically advanced, but still in that familiar realm of fantasy.

But all of the choices on how the world is built are up to the players.

In C&C, I am back in the Renaissance model. If I want to ignore the societal and political aspects of this era and just play Keep of the Borderlands, C&C or B/X does a great job of delivering a playable game without all the guilt and baggage. If I want the moral struggle and horror game, LotFP is my choice.

But if I want a fantasy game where "the players build the world" and their choices matter, like a game of Civilization VI with all the great 4X action - ACKS is the game that sets the bar in both design and the model of the world it presents.