At my regular Swords & Wizardry game, I experienced for the first time what many other gamers have already experienced: the death of my PC.  Arvin Ardmore was a cleric; an acolyte of Mithra.  An heroic lad who managed to pull the group out of some tough situations.  He went down in a blaze of glory.  After setting fire to the one of the escaping bad guys’ boats, he fell after two powerful blows from the treacherous villain.

Several of the PCs in our group of adventurers have been close to death already including my own.  As I’ve written about before, S&W characters are fragile with few hit points.  There are no saving throws against death or healing surges. (4th edition characters aren’t immune to death, as evidenced here, but they are much harder to kill.)  But, it never seemed like any of our characters would die.  Somehow providence would protect us.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  Our group is bumbling and reckless to the point of high comedy.  It’s a source of great amusement at our table.

It’s actually funny because you do become attached to these characters.  I’m investing a lot imagination in this character and that inevitably brings about a little bit of emotional investment as well.  I’m not saddened by any means, because I was having great fun during the game, I was playing it out true to how the character would enter the situation, and he is just a freaking character in a game where we pretend to kill goblins and cast spells after all.  But, there is a certain feeling of loss nonetheless.  You could definitely feel the impact around the game table after the realization sunk in.

I like sense of danger this adds to the game.  Our group now all knows that an ill fated roll can wipe out a character.  It adds a sense of excitement and raises the stakes for the group.  I’m sure it will lead to a lot of dark comedy because our group plays most things for laughs.

Of course, it’s not just an end, but a beginning as well.  I’m going to roll up a new character before the next session.  Which will be fun, because I get to explore creating a new character.  There is the possibility that Arvin could come back in some way.  I can put the new character I create on the back burner if he does.  If Arvin does come back, he will come back changed.  So, either way I’ll get to change things up.

All in all great fun and high drama.  Can’t wait until next session.

Fare thee well Cleric Arvin Ardmore.  May Mithra guide thee to thy rest.

That is unless you’re resurrected by some arcane ritual.  In that case,  sit tight buddy.

Tales of Swords & Wizardry is series of posts I’m doing about my bi-weekly game of Swords & Wizardry.  This is the second post in the series.  Here is the first.

One realization I had while playing in my bi-weekly game of Swords & Wizardry (a retro-clone of OD&D) is the entertainment value of character incompetence in an RPG.  In the 3.5 campaign I played in, I started with a level 10 rogue who had a devastating sneak attack and was well equipped.  Level 1 characters in 4th edition start out very competent with powers and healing surges.  So, it wasn’t until playing S&W that I played a character that was not entirely competent.

I’m playing a cleric, Arvin Ardmore.  I don’t have the character sheet in front of me, but I ended up rolling pretty well for stats and gold.  So, he is armored pretty well and can hit moderately well.  But, he misses a lot.  Also, level 1 characters in S&W are fragile things.  He can survive maybe two solid hits before going down.  He has been near death twice so far.  Clerics don’t get spells until level 2.  So, he can’t even fill the cleric’s traditional role of healer, yet.  And Arvin is one of the more competent members of the party.

You’d think that would be annoying.  Before playing in this game, I would have thought it would be frustrating to play a character that can’t do much and could die at the drop of a hat.  Or that it would be frustrating to be in a group where the rest of the characters are as incompetent as yours or more so.

But, as it turns out it, it’s actually pretty fun.  Some of the best moments at our table have grown out of our characters’ utter failure.  One of the best moments during our campaign was an ill fated battle with some giant spiders.  Slick Vinny, our wizard, managed to roll not one, not two, but three 1′s in a row.  Arvin ended up nearly dead after the wizard rolled the first 1 and accidentally whacked him in the head with a staff.  Arvin and another character ended up poisoned and vomiting from spider bites.  Gedleesmite the dwarf rolled yet another 1 as he was about to attack one of spiders and slipped and fell in vomit.  My DM wrote a great summary of this on his blog if you want to read the gory details.

A very entertaining comedy of errors.  I like the idea of our group as a hapless bunch of adventurers barely scraping by.  Our group often plays things for laughs and our bumbling only heightens that.  There is also a genuine sense of suspense when we are on the verge of utter failure.  Victory is that much sweeter when we actually do accomplish something.

I know have a better understanding of the criticisms of D&D 4th edition with its powerful first level characters.  Without house-ruling “level 0″ characters, 4th edition flatly could not provide this experience.  I understand why the designers went that route though.  Because while I’m having fun with a weak first level character, the experience could get annoying on repetition.  Also, I think one-shot games such as those popular at conventions would be less entertaining with S&W style level 1 characters.  Then, there is the fact that while fragile characters heighten the suspense, they also die more easily which could be frustrating if you’ve invested a lot in your character’s story.

Many of you more experienced gamers are probably well aware of how fun incompetence can be, but it was a nice realization for me.

Ruined Tower of Zenopus (Art by Paul Fini)

My current gaming fix is a bi-weekly home brew campaign using the Swords & Wizardry system. On the Swords & Wizardry website, the system is described thusly:

Swords & Wizardry (TM) is a “retro-clone” of the original version of Gary Gygax’s fantasy roleplaying game, which was published in 1974. In other words, S&W is the “rules” of the original system, reconstructed and re-described . . .

Furthermore it is described as a game where

“light” rules create a framework instead of trying to cover every detail, every rule, and every situation.

The game is organized and run by Paul Fini. He was a player in the my First. Game. Ever. which was a D&D 3.5 edition campaign chronicled in my previous post.  He is chronicling our game in his blog, The Warlock’s Home Brew, if you would like to read about the details of our adventure.  It’s an amusing tale full of bumbling adventurers, severed heads, carousing, crotch-goblins, and much more.  So, check out his blog for the full details.  This post is more about my impressions of the system and experience with the game.

While we were playing in that 3.5 campaign, Paul told me about his interest in old school gaming and invited me to join a campaign he was organizing using Swords & Wizardry.  Now, at the time, I had little idea what old school gaming really was.  Since I’m new to gaming, old school gaming holds no nostalgic value for me.  Also, I quite like the 4th edition rule set with its compelling combats, powers, nifty character builder, and shiny, well organized rule books.  So, while I was eager to play in any game, dive deeper into the hobby and experience a new rule set, playing in a old-school, retro-clone felt a little like a step back to me.  It’s sort like if you just discovered playing video games on an Xbox 360.  Then, your friend invites you over to play some games on his Atari.  That was sort of my feeling about it.  Thankfully, that analogy does not hold out.

Well, the Xbox 360/Atari holds out in some respects.  Swords & Wizardry (and by extension OD&D) doesn’t have all the bells whistles of 4th edition or 3.5.  There are no skills.  There are no powers.  There aren’t any tactical combat rules such as flanking or attacks of opportunity.  Actually, there isn’t a whole lot of “game” there.  The description of it as a framework is quite apt since the light weight rules can conform to whatever experience you want to have.  This is actually quite appealing to a new gamer like me.  When you’re a new gamer, still getting the hang of role playing or figuring out which die to roll when, adding loads of rules and arcane minutiae really can get in the way of the experience.  I’m looking at you D&D 3.5 and 4th edition (although I feel the character builder alleviates some of that in 4th ed).

This has lead to a great experience at the gaming table.  There are six players including me.  Our game has grown into a irreverent, raunchy, mysterious, and slightly wacky adventure that’s been a blast to play.  My sides hurt from laughing so much each session.   Our DM Paul has done an excellent job of helping the game grow organically out of what all the players contribute to it.  He is running a campaign that is very much in the sandbox style of play which I think Swords & Wizardry is extremely well suited for.

While the open-ended, rules-light nature of the system works well for our group, I could imagine that it would not work well for everyone.  In the hands of a bad DM or even an average DM, the game could turn into a mess.  Because much what happens is up to DM “fiat” so to speak.  Also, without a dynamic group like mine, the game wouldn’t work real well either.  Both of these points are true for any system, but since there isn’t much of system to fall back on, I feel S&W would suffer more in those circumstances.

Combat in S&W is a different beast from the other editions I’ve played.  It’s short and very dangerous. Especially, since we’re still at level 1. Also, when we rolled up our characters, we took the rolls as they were. So, we’re certainly not an optimized fighting machine.  The danger and our sometimes crippling ineptitude is actually really fun.  It adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game.

Although, I do like tactical combat with a grid and minis.  And I like the epic fights that 3.5 and 4th edition can provide.  I don’t think S&W could provide that experience.  So, I miss that a little, but the experience that S&W provides doesn’t mesh well with big, epic fights anyway.

That said, I’m glad that we’re using Swords & Wizardry.  Our wacky, laid back, beer & pretzels (literally) game wouldn’t be the same under a different system.  Actually, I feel it might be a little worse off.

That’s all for now.  Since, this is currently my only regular game (a pregnant wife and a one year old only leave so much time for gaming), I’ll be writing more  Tales of Swords & Wizardry in the future.  If you’d like to check out Swords & Wizardry, the core rules PDF is free and available here.  Also while you’re there, check out the Book of Wizardry and Book of the Divine created by my DM Paul Fini.