Taking the Plunge into the Razor Coast for Swords & Wizardry

Let me preface this with the following statement: I was not a supporter of the Razor Coast Kickstarter. The Kickstarter seemed geared towards the Pathfinder version (as the third party PDFs would attest to) and I was neck deep in supporting other Kickstarters at the time. Funds were short and something had to give.

Fast forward to last week when I got my hands of reviewer copies of the Razor Coast Freebooter's Guide and Heart of the Razor in PDF. One of the first things I thought I noticed was that the conversion work from Pathfinder to Swords & Wizardry wasn't just some simple stat swapping - it seemed more like a rebuilding or reworking.

After last night's Rappan Athuk session, I decided to plop my hard earned cash down on the pre-order of the Swords & Wizardry version of the Razor Coast Hardcover (and accompanying PDF). At over 400 pages, I've barely scratched the suface of the PDF, but what I've seen so far has me excited. On one level, I was expecting an "adventure path" as is so popular with the Pathfinder RPG, and instead I find this forward by Matt Finch (edited for length):

Razor Coast was originally written for the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game by Nick Logue, and was edited and
produced by Lou Agresta. For better or worse, I have made
some very significant changes to the setting/campaign, so
Lou’s original introduction, which is to be found here in
the Pathfinder version, no longer fits the subsequent pages
particularly well. 

One of the signal differences between the two
introductions is that Lou introduces the Razor Coast as
a pure sandbox campaign, which, in the language of the
so-called “old schoolers” is not entirely correct. It’s true for
Pathfinder—don’t get me wrong—but over the years, the
definitions of the words “sandbox” and “campaign” have
evolved to have a very different meaning than many Swords
& Wizardry players might use... 

In the case of the Swords & Wizardry version, we had
in addition to myself a tremendously talented team of
adapters: Skeeter Green, James Redmon, and Jeff Harkness.
Our goal was to supplement the double-barreled adventure
sequence that weaves through the Razor Coast with
sandbox tools, such as the random encounter chart, and
also to downplay some of the elements that were originally
designed to move the adventure sequences forward, thereby
making it easier for the players to go on side-adventures
without causing undue grief to the hardworking Referee.
By doing so, I think we have successfully navigated – if the
gentle reader will pardon me the nautical analogy – a safe
channel between the shoals of “paralysis-by-too-manychoices”
on the one hand, and the sharp rocks of “tooscripted”
on the other hand. Some readers will no doubt
feel that the balance we have struck is neither the finest
nor the fittest that could have been achieved, for this is the
nature of a balancing act. However, there are many pure
sandboxes, and many pure adventure-sequences, but not so
many books that weave the two together. The book you are
about to read is something extremely appropriate to its own
subject matter—a hybrid form. 

From this point onward in the introduction, you
are reading a highly-edited version of Lou Agresta’s
introduction to the Pathfinder version, adapted to
the nature of the Swords & Wizardry version. I have
removed his signature from the bottom, because I have so
dramatically altered the details of what he wrote.
Good Gaming in the Demesnes of the Pirates! 

— Matt Finch

Now I'm really excited to dive into this, maybe as a side diversion during the summer months, when it's hard to get the weekly group together... weekly ;)

I do wish that the Frogs would change the descriptions of the Razor Coast's S&W versions at the RPGNow store - they are a copy and paste of the Pathfinder versions and only serve to confuse potential buyers in my opinion.

Fun stuff in store for me and my group.

As I get through sections I'll post reviews.