Survey Time - Would You Attend a Swords & Wizardry Online Mini-Con?

(edit - the damn poll has mysteriously reset twice - so leave a comment instead)

I had one of those late night thoughts cross through my head last night:

Swords & Wizardry Online Mini-Con

Get a few reliable DMs onboard, figure out a weekend, slot out some time slots to cover the games.

Have Matt and a Frog or two to submit to an On Air Hangout Interview / Q&A session.

Nothing too big, totally community driven. Heck, it's more like an online S&W focused Game Day, but you can use whatever label suits your thoughts.

This is in the concept phase if anything right now, but if it's going to happen there needs to be an interest from the community members.

When you answer the survey above, you can select more than one answer.

The questions then become:

Would you want to attend as a player?

Would you want to attend as a DM?

Would you want to participate in a Q&A session with Matt and / or the Frogs?

Does this hold absolutely no interest to you?

I have an idea I'd like to add - I'll leave it as a comment.

Time to put up the survey. It will be open for a week.

(edit - poll just dropped 17+votes - sigh - keep voting - it appears the interest is there but Blogger is having hiccups)

Free OSR Product of the Week - The Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams (S&W Appreciation Day)

+Tim Shorts released The Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams in conjunction with the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogest. If you haven't checked out previous Manor releases, you really should, as they are top notch pieces of OSR goodness.

I was going to try to give a good synopsis of the adventure, but this quote from the setup says it better than I ever could:

The player starts out at half hit points, no stuff and shackled to a dead guy while another guy is cutting the face off another dead guy. If this doesn’t sound fun to your player then you need to find another player.

Try and beat that ;)

(dont' forget to add your thoughts on the best posts of the S&W Appreciation Day Blogfest here)

Tell Me About Your Favorite Posts From the Swords & Wizardry AppreciationDay Blogfest

and you could get a $5 credit to RPGNow. Yep, pure bribery ;)

There were 140+ posts during the S&W Appreciation Day blogfest (140 that were captured and linked on this blog) and some major prizes going to "the best post", which is, of course, highly subjective. +Christopher Helton , +Matt Finch and myself are going to put our heads together to vote on that within the next day or three and this is your chance to get your thoughts heard.

We'd like to know what you think.

Add a comment to this post with a link to the post or posts that you think were the best of the ones you've read and tell us why. It's that simple. I'd like your answers by noon time tomorrow (April 22, eastern time). I'll randomly pick one commenter to receive a $5 credit at RPGNow. If the commenter is a member of the 2,000 Coppers Community on G+, I'll double it to 10 bucks credit.

The Tavern Returns to Normal Business - Stuff That's on Tap

It's been an amazing week with Swords & Wizardry's Appreciation Day blowing past any expectations I may have dreamt up. Although there is still some finalization of gifts / prizes and actual reading of the posts, the Tavern needs to return to normal business.

The following is on tap and will be eventually gotten to, hopefully over the weekend:

- I need to return to the review of Arrows in Indra

- I need to review AL-4 - The Way Station for the DCC RPG by David Przybyla - the fact that David is in my weekly Saturday Night AD&D / OSRIC game will have no effect on my review ;)

- Some assorted Kickstarter crap

- A return to the Tenkar's Landing Swords & Sorcery Campaign setting I'm working on

- maybe I'll actually get to the post that I was hoping to post for the S&W Appreciation Day ;)

 - assorted shit in general :)

Monday is Your Last Chance to Grab Yourself a Barrowmaze T-Shirt! (Indiegogo)

+Greg Gillespie the man behind Barrowmaze 1 & 2, has a crowd sourced project over at Indiegogo to put people in some Barrowmaze t-shirts.

I'm in for two of the first design.

Greg has 5 designs, including two by Holloway.

I'm really not into gaming t-shirts, but Greg put together an awesome collection and I fell in love with the first design - thus my being in for two ;)

Besides, it shows my love for Barrowmaze 1 and 2 :)

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 14.0 (Catching Up)

I believe I am now updated to the latest posts for the S&W Appreciation Day - 140 posts

I'm still accepting more posts if I missed them...

Dyson's Dodecahedron -  Swords & Wizardry Bishops! - One of the classes I liked a lot in Wizardry was the Bishop. The bishop combined the spellcasting of the Priest and the Mage classes, along with the ability to identify magic items for the party...

Dreams of My Mythic Fantasy - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: On Initiative and Combat - This is my adaptation of Jason Cone's (Philotomy) adaptation of the order of combat from the old Swords & Spells TSR supplement. You may find this overly fiddly, but the DM is the only one who needs to have it memorized and so far, its worked great in actual play...

19th Level - Swords & Wizardry & Me: Reflections and Applications - For this follow-up post I wanted to reflect a bit on the Swords & Wizardry game as a whole. I've never been at the core of the "Old School Renaissance" - I've played and run lots of games, old and new...

Once More Unto the Breach! - My last salvo for S&W Appreciation Day: The Octopuppeteer - I promised another beastie of my own creation. And now, here it is...

Secrets of the Shadowend - BELIEVE YOUR EYES!! The Basic Illusionist is HERE! - Wrap up Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day the right way!  GET IT!

Secrets of the Shadowend - Something Wicked: The Cultist Class & Summon Demonic Servant power - To summon a cult minion, the cultist rolls 2d6 to determine how many rounds the cult minion will remain. The cultists then makes a summoning roll...

Magical Monstrosity Press -Sword of Wizardry -The Sword of Wizardry is an arcane blade that channels an elemental force directly from the source plane...

Realms In the Mist - New Spells -A bolt of fire streaks towards the target, striking for 2-8 points of damage (save for half).  In addition, if the saving throw is failed, anything flammable ignites...

What Google Giveth, Common Sense Taketh Away

This afternoon I jumped on the opportunity to integrate G+ comments with my blog's comments. It was like peanut butter and chocolate, or so I thought.

My impression was that it allowed comments to the blog and to G+ to be mutually accessible. What I didn't realize it really made both sides G+ commenting only - no G+ profile, no comments can be left.

The idea was good in theory, but the implementation is horrid. I have a blog so that people can share their thoughts about my thoughts. I allow comments from everyone but "anonymous posters", because those fuckers are either spammers or worse, and I have no desire to be constantly weeding my blog garden of such.

G+ integration of comments has been turned off.

I need to thank +Dyson Logos for bringing this to my attention. Maybe later on down the line, Google will get it right and we'll try this all over again.

In the meantime, feel free to comment to your heart's content ;)

I Need YOUR Help to Capture the Final Posts of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogfest

I admit it. After 12 hours chasing after posts from all of the amazing bloggers yesterday, my mind was mush and I was done.

That was shortly after 9PM Eastern last night.

Which means if you posted a S&W Appreciation Day post after that time I never captured it and linked it over here.

I would really like to do so, but I need your help.

If you posted around or after 9PM Eastern last night and it didn't make it into the last S&W Update post last night, drop me a link to it in the comments here and I'll put a bunch if them in another post or two. If you posted something relevant today, and it as a comment and I'll link it up.

Somebody whispered a suggestion of an online S&W "Convention" to me. My only response to that is "Get back Satan! Tempt me not!" ;)

Let me sort out this event first, catch up on post reading, award some prizes and take a well deserved rest before putting me back on the path of destruction please.

Oh, still taking comments for some chances to be gifted some fine loot over on this post.

P.S. - If I buggered up a link to your post or your blog, let me know here and I'll do my best to fix it.

Google + Comments in Blogger? Blogger Comments in Google +? Interesting...

Just got this in my email:


Bringing Google+ Comments to Blogger
 
Hello!

Writing a thoughtful post and seeing how people engage can be really rewarding, so we’ve made it easier to reach a broader audience and see more of their reactions.

Once you enable Google+ Comments, people can share the comments they make on your blog to their circles in Google+, helping you reach people that they know. And there's more: mentions of your posts on Google+ automatically show up right in your blog's comments, so you can see more of people’s public conversations about your content (and private conversations you’re part of).

Here's how to add Google+ Comments to your blog:
1. Sign in to Blogger
2. Click on the “Google+” tab in your blog’s Dashboard
3. Upgrade to Google+ if you haven’t already done so
4. Enable Google+ Comments. Comments already made on your posts will keep working in the new widget

If only this had been active during yesterday's S&W Blogest ;)

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day - The Aftermath

I live!

Huzzah!

I can't compare yesterday's event with anything I've been a part of or followed in the RPG Community. My fellow bloggers set a new bar that will be hard to reach again in the future, let alone surpass. You should all be proud of yourselves.

As life slowly returns to normal you can expect 1 or 2 more updates to the list of participating posts in the S&W Appreciation Day blogfest. I'll update them as time permits. Thank God I thought of taking off yesterday or else I never would have been able to keep up ;)

For those that wrote articles for the blogfest and would like to have them shared with a larger audience, there was some talk of this last night on G+. Both the Frogs and +Matt Finch might be interested in your work. The success of the soon(ish) to be reborn Knockspell will lie squarely in the hands of the content creators that participated yesterday.

For those readers that want a chance to win some fabulous loot, I will direct you to comment on the "Loot List" post from yesterday. I'll accept comments through midnight friday.

If you messaged me or emailed me during the festivities, and I didnt address your concern or respond to you, I probably lost the message. Feel free to try me again. Yesterday was... a bit insane ;)

I don't foresee many if any of the prizes being awarded before the end of the weekend. Heck, I haven't even read the posts that I've linked to - the time wasn't there, so I (and others I am sure) need time to catch up.

Again, thank you for not only following me on this amazing journey, but for taking the reins from me and heading off in amazing directions of your own. The Swords & Wizardry Community is in your debt.

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 13.2

132 posts linked ;)

JOETHELAWYER'S WONDROUS IMAGININGS - For S&W Day: Anouncing a New G+ Hangout S&W Campaign! - So, last Saturday night playing in +Erik Tenkar 's game I was three sheets to the wind and asked him what this S&W day thing was all about.  He told me, and I promptly forgot all about volunteering to do something.  Until today when I saw 3000 posts.  Shit.

Lapsus Calumni -[contest] S&W: Appreciation Day adventure, part IV! -Continuing my S&W:Whitebox adventure...

Ilea jacta Est -- A 20-Sided Look at Life - Birhaakamen Fire Brew: An S&W Liquor - This reddish-amber liquor smokes when poured into a glass, usually a short tumbler. The wisps of smoke are thin and noticeable only if looked for...

Hereticwerks - The Not-So-Empty Crypt of Baljessor (Swords & Wizardry) - This is another low-level Mini-Adventure ideal for use as a one-shot or the seed of something bigger. It is geared for 1-4 player characters of from 1st to 3rd level, but you can certainly ramp it up for more powerful groups...

Starting Over With The OSR - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day - Part I - The Wastelands of Zin - So, what do you need to start your new Swords & Wizardry campaign? How about a world?

Semper Initiativus Unum -S&W Bonus #4: Vespertilians (Bat-Men of the Moon) -I had talked back in February about the Great Moon Hoax of 1835. Well, there was an adaptation of the bat-men of the moon that I've got written up, which will be published when I finally actually put out the adventure...

Quickly, Quietly, Carefully -Magic Swords for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day -For Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, I made this short booklet with a system to generate unique magcial swords...

The OSR Library -S&W Appreciation Day:The Giant Warrior-King Zombie -One more 'small' thing before I'm off to sleep. It will be expanded upon later.

The Campaign Expanse -S&W Appreciation Day: At the Confluence of the New and the Old -I’m not an old school gamer by any means, despite starting at the end of AD&D 2nd Edition (and there are many who argue 2E was not nearly old school enough)...

New Grog on the Block -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Post #2: Why play Swords & Wizardry? -You want rules-light?  Boom.  You got it.  Want just the fighting-man, magic-user, and cleric?  You got it.

Wampus Country - Swords and Wizardry of Wampus Country -Seeing that it's Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, let's talk about swords.  And wizardry.  Rather than spend a bunch of time going over what I like about S&W (short version: it's free and everybody puts out stuff for it which I can use in my LL game), today's post is going to be a big ol' mess of stuff along those two themes.

Pilgrims Guide Zeitgeist -Wreck of the Golden Koi a mini adventure to put a little Ruins & Ronin in your S&W -If you read the last post on ruins & ronin and thought you might give it a try, heres a little something i thought up that might help you put a little of it in your western fantasy setting

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day INTERMISSION ;)

It wasn't until about 3 this afternoon that I was able to catch my breath. The response to the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogfest has been... amazing, overwhelming, thrilling, exciting, daunting - all that and more.

We owe all of that to you, my fellow bloggers, and to you, our fine readers.

You have shown that the OSR still has a very solid and extremely involved membership.

The quality of the posts has left me humbled. I am a man amongst giants and it has been my privilege to chase after each and every one of your posts today. If I missed any, let me know and I will add them to an update.

My wife was kind enough to buy a mini-keg to replace the empty in the kegerator, and I will shorty be sipping a cold one as I look for the latest updated blog posts to add to the next recap posts here at the Tavern.  I think I earned that beer ;)

Huzzah!

Updated Blog List:

1 - Chronicles of Ganth! - Homebrewed heartbreaker

2 - Secrets of the Shadowend - Something wicked this way comes

3 - They Might Be Gazebos

4 - Mad-Kyndalanth - 'to share good stories afterwards' 

5 - Dizzy Dungeon - New School falls for the OSR

6 - Gothridge Manor - OMG, its full of Sleestaks

7 - Lapsus Calumni

8 - 19th Level - Musings on RPGs & Fiction

9 - Sycarion Diversions - "One day, Spelljammer will return!"

10 - Dorkland!

11 - Worlds Galore

12 - Dreams of Mythic Fantasy

13 - Daily OSR fix - Random tables makes me smile 

14 - BrewLab Gaming Concepts

15 - Realms of Chirak - "Eclectic Gaming Madness from Camazotz"

16 - Quickly, Quietly, Carefully - OD&D exegis, retro stupid fun

17 - Dreams in the Lich House

18 - Hereticwerks

19 - RPG Delisi - A Turkish blog about RPGs

20 - The Retired Adventurer

21 - Semper Initiativus Unum - Rethinking Classic Tropes, Sharing History 

22 - Red Box Denver - Old School Adventure in Denver

23 - Bat in the Attic - Hexes, Sandboxes, and Wilderlands 

24 - Reverend Dak dot Blogspot - Bicycles, Beer and 20-sided Dice

25 - The Ongoing Campaign - Obscure Games and Famous Ones

26 - The Other Side

27 - d20 Dialectic

28 - Once More Unto the Breach - Rediscovering the joy of roleplaying!

29 - Venger's old school gaming blog

30 - Fear No Darkness - reasons...not rules

31 - Mythmere's Blog (Mr S&W Himself ;)

32 - Gamers & Grodnards

33 - Dispatches From Kickassistan

34 - Six Sarcophagi

35 - Edgar's Game Blog

36 - Spes Magna Games

37 - The Space Cockroach's Hideout - Space, Modern and fantastic Adventures

38 - inthecitiesdotcom

39 - Sorcerer Under Mountain

40 - Tenkar's Tavern - "OSR To the Core!"

41 - No School Like the Old School

42 - Blessings of the Dice Gods

43 - Porky's Expanse - a nebulous region of hobby space

44 - The Clash of Spear on Sword

45 - Roll to Carouse!

46 - Ilea jacta Est -  A 20-Sided Look at Life

47 - Blood & Battle - Swords & Wizardry resources, reviews, recaps 

48 - Starting Over With the OSR

49 - Sandbox of Doom

50 - Lord Archaon's Grimoire

51 - Battle Axes and Beasties - Sporadic Babbling about Various Stuff

52 - Apathy Blogs

53 - Applied Phantasticality

54 - Strange Stones - Strange Stones: Demons, Rogues, and Lemurian Barbarians

55 - Mystic Bull Games

56 - Le Verre Violet - Hexcrawls, Blackmoor, Carcosa and OD&Dities

57 - The Sorcerer Speaks! - Purple Sorcerer News, and stuff

58 - The Crazy GM

59 - O Druida Hierofante (The Hierophant Druid) - Swords & Wizardry in Brasil

60 - The Rusty Battle Axe - Home of Haiku: The RPG

61 - Keith Davies -- In My Campaign - Too heavy for Tenkar's reading ;)

62 - Necropraxis - OD&D, rules hacking, necromantic musings

63 - Rended Press - Free typos deal double damage!

64 - Hunter's Quarry

65 - hDan's YAGB - Traveller, D&D and related interests 

66 - Like Being Read to From Dictionaries - It's Like Reading A Dictionary

67 - Vargold - The Wolf-Time

68 - The Wizard's Chest - Gaming Like We are 10

69 - Wampus Country - Whimsical tall-tale fantasy frontier

70 - Troll & Flame

71 - Epic RPG Blog - San Diego's RPG Scene 

72 - Kingdoms in Trevail - Infrequent & random old-school gaming thoughts :)

73 - Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog - Microgames, Monster Games, and RPG's 

74 - Swords & Dorkery - the name is the description

75 - Dice of Doom - Old School Cool

76 - Infinite Dragons - Adventure Unlimited

77 - Dyson's Dodecahedron - Award Winning Dungeon Design

78 - The Ultimate Josha - RPG reviews, stories, and thoughts

79 - Places to Go, People to Be - RPGs are easily accessible self-expression

80 - Tales From the Tower - Recaps, Campaign Info, Game Art

81 - Tenfootpole - Hypocrite reviews OSR adventures

82 - Ynas Midgard's OSR Blog - irregular musings and content for D&D

83 - Castelli & Chimere (Castles & Chimeras) - My musings on D&D (OSR)

84 - What Do I Know? - One Gamer Yapping; Many RPGs

85 - Dungeon of Signs - Drunken OSR glossolalia

86 - The Frothy Friar - Advancing back to basics
 -
87 - Tower of the Archmage 
 -
88 - The Adventures of the Clock Caravel - Eclectic Crowdsourced Virtual Steampunk Roleplaying

89 - Requiem for a Muse

90 - Scottenkainenland

91 - EdoWar's Blog

92 - Pilgrims Guide to Zeitgeist - A journey into the worlds i play in

93 - Forgotten Runes

94 - @ Padre's - Dragonquest lives on!

95 - Heropress

96 - Basic Fantasy RPG Blog -  The Basic Fantasy RPG Blog

97 - Rather Gamey - "How squirrel tastes."

98 - Into the Dungeondark - TPKs Continue Until Play Improves

99 - ubiHEX

100 - Mesmerized By Sirens - Carrying the torch of defunct fantasy role-playing games

101 - Tower of the Lonely GM

102 - The Frog God's Blog - where you can be the frog, not the flies

103 - The Dice Are a Lie

104 - Acirema Mountain - Playing the first Finnish rpg

105 - Ruthless Diastema BlogCast - Life From a Gamer's Perspective

106 - Jack's Toolbox - tools and tips for DMs

107 - Hits to Kill

108 - Lost in Time - D&D, Jorune, and other gubbins

109 - Jasper's Rantings - Random D&D/OSR/RPG and Geekish Amusements

110 - D20 Dark Ages - From 1989 to the Present

111 - The Iron Tavern - Cold Dwarven Ale and Casual Conversation

112 - Machpants' Blog - Mashing S&W for my kids

113 - My RPG Characters -

114 - The Campaign Expanse  - Settings perilous and other sundry

115 - Hexgeneration - Post Punk & Old School Role Play

116 - The Warlock's Home Brew -

117 - iDungeon Crawl - RPGs, macs and other things

118 - Theoretical GM - Sporadic Musings and Adventurous Ideas

119 - Aeons & Augeries -  

120 - Observational Epidemiology -

121 - Polar Bear Dreams and Stranger Things - Being the demented ramblings of a crazy person

122 - About Bruce Heard, D&D, and new stories

123 - Carjacked Seraphim - A Blog about tabletop RPG Gaming

124 - Under Siege

125 - New Grog on the Block - OSR from a younger perspective

126 - …and the sky full of dust.

127 - Barbarians of Provo

128 - Back to the Dungeon

129 - The OSR Library

130 - 5 Stones Games

131 - Realms in the Mist -  gaming, the osr, reviews, and house rules

132 - I Am Teh Bagder - Gaming, geekery and groanery

133 - JOETHELAWYER'S WONDROUS IMAGININGS

134 - Der Goblinbau -

135 - Alex Schroeder: RPG - Old School Sandboxing & some code

136 - Blog: The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst Friends

137 - Feargus' Gaming Corner

138 - Mutants and Magic

139 - MONDBUCHSTABEN

140 - M Blackburn: A Writer's Journey

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 12.0

120 posts and growing ;)

Once More Unto the Breach -Behold the might of Swords & Wizardry! -Swords & Wizardry got me back into roleplaying. Period. It was the first retro-clone I picked up. Not because it was the first one I encountered (that honor goes to OSRIC), but because it was the most persuasive...

Semper Initiativus Unum -S&W Bonus #3: The Taggbjörn -In making Dungeon Crawl #2's monsters, I had a backup creature in case I didn't get all the art I wanted. It's a little bit in the style of the monsters from Geoff McKinney's Isle of the Unknown...

The Dice are a Lie -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day (post 2 of 2) - S&W lends itself well to the style of play it is designed for and contains plenty of optional or alternative methods of running games or handling rules...

The Iron Tavern - S&W Adventure: Catacombs of Corruption -Wednesday is typically a day I post a map of some sort to The Iron Tavern. In honor of Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day I decided to make a map just for this event and apply some S&W loving to it. The result is this mini-adventure that can be used standalone or added onto by an enterprising GM...

West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more) -Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day: Wow -One thing that really stood out is how easy it is to houserule S&W.  It is not just that they have the rules available in editable text format but that the rules themselves are very robust to tinkering...

Mutants & Magic -Swords & Wizardry Apreciation Day: Five Weird Monsters -Here is my meager contribution to Swords & Wizardry appreciation day. I hope you all like weird stuff. Enjoy!

Le Verre Violet -Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogfest - D-Day - Here is my contribution (a 4-page pdf) : The Forbidden City of the Black Idols  Enjoy!

HeroPress - Merlin's Miscellany: Part Twelve - Today is Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day and I can think of no better time to resume my on-going conversions of elements from the BBC's brilliant Merlin serial to Crypts & Things (my Swords & Wizardry iteration of choice).

Vargold: The Wolf-Time - S&W Appreciation Day: An Opening Reflection - What impressed me most about S&W Complete was the capacious tone undertaken by Matt and his collaborators: optional sequences for combat, rules for ascending or descending Armor Class...

The Rusty Battle Axe - Swords & Wizardry Critter: Cave Goat - Cave goats are highly prized by subterranean creatures because of their tasty meat (yummy!) and warm coat. The coat of the cave goat is prized by goblins and others because it is repellent to most tiny vermin, such as fleas and lice, making it ideal as bedding.

Mesmerized By Sirens - New Spells for Swords & Wizardry -  Detect Polymorph: This spell allows the caster to detect the fact that someone or something within range is in a shape other than his/her/its normal shape, and further, to determine what the true shape of the polymorphed being or object is. Range: 1" per level of caster, up to 24" maximum. Duration: 3 turns.

M Blackburn: A Writer's Journey - 'Player Skill' versus 'Role Playing' - There is a debate in the gaming community about which is preferable, a player interacting with the game environment primarily through their own wits and problem solving ability versus a character interacting with the world through their abilities or stats on the paper.

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 10.8

Volume 10.8 because it puts us at 108 highlighted and linked posts for the S&W Blogfest :)

iDungeon Crawl -S&W Appreciation Day – Because Three Heads are Better than Two - In this 3rd installment of the S&W Appreciation Day series, I thought I might pass along some new monsters, scavenged up from my favorite medieval bestiary...

MONDBUCHSTABEN - Rätsel & Ringe -Swords & Wizardry kam auf leisen Sohlen. Ein Nachzügler der Retroklone, nachdem man denken konnte, dass mit OSRIC und Labyrinth Lord schon alles gesagt worden sei (und Hackmaster oder Castles & Crusades sich in ihre jeweiligen Nischen/Sackgassen zurückgezogen hatten).

The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst Friends -S&W Bonus: Doors in the Dungeon - So I had another post ready for tomorrow, but I thought, "Why not today?" So here you get my S&W bonus post -- Doors!

Dungeon of Signs - Swords & Wizardy - Appreciation - A Post About the Old School -Swords and Wizardy is an early edition D&D clone, designed to evoke the 1979 or earlier edition of TSR D&D.  It does a good job an S&W is an excellent retro clone, but how closely does it actually mirror the old edition?

Venger's old school gaming blog -Things happen while they sleep -This is a random chart for things occurring while adventurers get some well-deserved shut eye.  Happy Swords & Wizardry appreciation day, everyone! 

Infinite Dragons -Free Module for S&W AD! IDA0: Plague-Stricken Halls - Although I haven’t played much of it, S&W strikes me as a great system—clearly written, it retains the spark of the Original rules while smoothing out some of the more incomprehensible quirks.

EdOWar's Blog - S&WAD: Rayguns & Wizardry -Continuing my trend of science-fantasy related material for Swords & Wizardry, I give you RAYGUNS!  These were designed with S&W Whitebox in mind, but should work well enough with standard S&W (or any other version of The Game you prefer).

Mythmere's Blog - Posting Highlights and Links to the S&W Blogfest

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 10 :)

Like Being Read to From Dictionaries -A replacement for read magic -This spell creates a halo on unlight that only the caster can see. The unlight makes some invisible writing visible and makes magical writing readable while within the halo of unlight...

Scottenkainenland -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day - For those who pay attention to such things, the Swords & Wizardry “retroclone” rules is the system on which my superhero roleplaying game, Hideouts & Hoodlums, game is built...

Necropraxis - Sui Generia -In myth, monsters and treasures are often unique. For example, not a medusa, but the medusa. Not a sword +1, but Excalibur...

Geeky & Genki - SWORDS AND WIZARDRY APPRECIATION DAY LIMERICKS - (go to the site - they are lost in the reformatting)

Dorkland - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: Let Me Tell You About My Game... Today, I am going to take a slightly different approach for the Appreciation Day than some of the other bloggers. Instead of talking about rules or mechanics, I am going to talk about my first (but not last) Swords & Wizardry game, run via G+ Hangouts on the Air...

Mad-Kyndalanth - Some Love for S&W -So, what can I say. I like Swords&Wizardry, and rifling through my blogposts of the last year or so ... I found quite a few of them mentioning that fact. I generated characters using the 3d6 in order method, wrote up a few adventure ideas, and began a series on gamemastering called Spielmeistergespräche (Dungeon Master Talks)...

They Might Be Gazebos! - Swords & Wizardry: Monster Mash Rehash - In honor of Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, I figured I’d clean up and edit some monsters from old posts and add a new one...

Porky's Expanse! -Why I appreciate S&W and you might - even for 40K -I'm using S&W to help run a campaign with people who've never played early D&D, part of a rules blend that includes another retroclone and plenty of house rules...

Reverend Dak dot Blogspot -FIGHT THEM ALL!!! More S&W Appreciation Day Goodness -While looking at my PDF copy of Monstrosities, by Frog God Games for Swords & Wizardry, I came up with the [probably obvious] idea of a campaign based on encountering all the monsters in Monstrosities in order of Challenge Level...

Der Goblinbau -Appreciation Day: Warum S&W eine tolle Wahl für eure nächste Kampagne ist -Leider nur ein kurzer Post zum Appreciation Day, aber ich habe heute einfach unerwartet wenig Zeit: S&W ist das System für eure nächste Kampagne, weil...

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 9 :)

Dispatches From Kickassistan - Swords And Wizardry Is The Rosetta Stone of the OSR - Here's the trick with S&W, though: things work both ways. Not only can I take S&W monsters and modules and use them in, say Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria...


inthecitiesdotcom - Swords & Wizardry Day! -For me, the game’s authors really capture the feel and style of the game as it existed when I first played it...

The Other Side -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: The Witch - Now to me ALL the retro-clones are largely compatible, but sometimes a ready to go product is also nice.  So for you, the S&W fan, here is the Witch for S&W...

Semper Initiativus Unum -S&W Bonus #2: Pit Traps! -Since everyone's having so much fun with S&W Appreciation Day, here are some charts to liven up your pit traps. Not terrifically S&W specific but hey, I like trap charts...

Blessings of the Dice Gods -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day! -I’m working on a quickstart character sheet that will hopefully have everything a player needs to create a character on one page...

iDungeon Crawl -S&W Appreciation Day – Son of S&W Appreciation Day -without further ado I present a Swords and Wizardry GM screen...

The Warlock's Home Brew -A Day of Appreciation for Swords & Wizardry -Here's a collection of the goodies I've put together specifically for Swords & Wizardry over the past three plus years of our campaign, all of which is deliciously free...

The Dice Are a Lie -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day (post 1 of 2)  -Swords and Wizardry Complete (the rules I was looking over) is very close to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition. It is built on the earlier basic framework from the various boxed sets and includes some classes from supplements...

Polar Bear Dreams and Stranger Things -O is for Oriental Adventures (S&W Appreciation Day!) -Ruins and Ronin (hereafter R&R) is designed as a S&W Whitebox product. Therefore, it has a very old school feel as to mechanics...

D20 Dark Ages - DCC RPG's Funneling System for Swords & Wizardry - If you're not familiar with the "funneling system," here's the gist of how it works, as well as I how I used with Swords & Wizardry...
 

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 8 :)

Requiem for a Muse - Making Whitebox My Own -I thought I would discuss the changes I’ve implemented in order to customize Whitebox to be closer to the ideal rule-set for me...

@Padre's -Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Post - The Winged Folk Download - My post is a simple one. I converted the race that made me look into gaming as a hobby. That fateful September day back in 1981 opened the door to a world of imagination...

Six Sarcophagi - SWAD: Special Hirelings -Hirelings and "Special Hirelings" - this is one of the hallmarks of my Back in the Day memories.  As a player, my character wasn't anything without a proper support staff...

Hereticwerks - Taglar's Tomb (Mini-Adventure for Swords & Wizardry) - This Mini-Adventure is suitable for 1-4 characters of 1st-3rd level, but could easily be adjusted and/or augmented to serve a larger or more powerful group...

Daily OSR fix -S&W appreciation day: Tactical combat options -While one of the beautiful things about S&W and OD&D is that combat is very vague and open to interpretation, sometimes players will want to do something pretty specific. Any of these options could be used to spice up a combat situation...

Roll to Carouse! -S&W Appreciation Day - What is Old School without the House Rules! -Old School house rules, love'em or hate'em, they were a major part of the early days of D&D...

Worlds Galore - On the Issue of Balance -Making sure that all characters are essentially balanced with one another has been a consideration from the beginning...

No School Like the Old School - Mu: Notes For A Lovecraftian Fantasy Campaign Setting For Swords & Wizardry - Mu is a horror/fantasy setting for Swords and Wizardry and other OSR fantasy games based on some of the more obscure aspects of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos...

They Might Be Gazebos! -A Higly Opinionated Comparison of Swords & Wizardry -Let’s talk for a quick moment about what is different about Swords & Wizardry as compared to the other retro-clones. First there’s the option of using Ascending or Descending AC...

Ilea jacta Est -- A 20-Sided Look at Life -Psionics for Swords & Wizardry -I've been working on a method of psionics that is more suitable for my style of play: simple, fast, easy. I'm happy with the way this system is shaping up...

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 7 :)

Keith Davies — In My Campaign -Old Schools: Swords & Wizardry - Swords & Wizardry is undoubtedly one of the Old School games, one of the many legs of the OSR. Swords & Wizardry Appreciation DayBut I’m not going to talk about that, quite. Even though it’s Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, I’m going to talk about something I think might be missing. I notice that there is no mention of education or training in Swords & Wizardry Core...

Battleaxes & Beasties -A Travelers Tale - A snippet for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day -The following is a fragment of a scroll or pages from a book that the GM can have the characters stumble across...

Wampus Country -Swords and Wizardry of Wampus Country - Seeing that it's Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, let's talk about swords.  And wizardry...

Strange Stones - S&W Appreciation: Rogues In The Gallery - Wherein your humble scribe presents a batch of characters for Swords & Wizardry Whitebox in honor of Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day. You should have no trouble using these for any of the other flavors of S&W, though...

Tower of the Archmage - New Monster: Obloquy (Vampire Abomination) for Swords & Wizardry -The walls of the cabin, what remained of them, were painted in blood and gore. Strapped to a beam was the father, his arms and legs broken, his unseeing eyes staring at the decapitated heads of his family...

Hunter's Quarry - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogfest - A couple of years ago, I wasn’t even sure what Swords & Wizardry was, but I heard it mentioned quite a bit. A little googling later and I started to see what had helped give shape to the first generation of OSR products...

tenfootpole.org - Scourge of the Demon Wolf - This adventure has a lot of factions in it and because of that a lot of people and because of that it has a lot of AWESOME in it...

Jeffro's Space Gaming Blog -Revisiting Matt Finch’s Zen Moments of Old School Gaming -I never thought I’d play any sort of Dungeons & Dragons type game again. I gave away my modules. I traded my priceless boxed sets for games I would end up hardly playing...

Kingdoms in Trevail -Happy Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day everyone!  I know you've all got a lot of blogs to get through today, so I'll try not to keep you here too long.  Anyway, I'm sure there are plenty of blogs with much better content than this sad thing - I just wanted to share a little something and be a part of the fun. I thought I'd take a two-pronged approach and talk just a bit about what I'm doing with S&W. 

Forgotten Runes - Swords and Wizardy core review -Sword and Wizardry is an interesting beast. The first question to ask is which version to review. For now I’ll be sticking to the free ones...

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 6 :)

Feargus' Gaming Corner - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day - Rise of the Machines  - I've been working on these for a while and they certainly are not finished, but there is enough information here for you to build on. I thought Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day would be the perfect time to roll out what I've got so far...

The OSR Library - S&W Appreciation Day: Adventure, The Caverns of the Skraelings - Caverns of the Skraelings This setting can easily be dropped into any existing campaign or used as a one-shot adventure. For a bit of flavor let's stylize this one a bit for a one-shot game. Let's do Fantasy Vikings, short and sweet with little worry of historical 'accuracy.'...

Castelli & Chimere (Castles & Chimeras) - Swords & Wizardry a short review and a new class -The S&W ruleset has a great merit, every page cries "THIS IS YOUR GAME", this is your game to take and modify as much as you like...

Basic Fantasy RPG Blog - Swords & Wizardry - I can remember when I first saw Mythmere’s announcement of Swords & Wizardry on the Dragonsfoot forums.  I had a long familiarity with Mythmere’s work, gained by too much time spent on Dragonsfoot, and I expected anything he set out to do would be good.  I downloaded that early version and was suitably impressed...

Pilgrims Guide Zeitgeist - S&W Appreciation Day a look at Ruins & Ronin Part One - For S&W Appreciation Day, I am not going to write about straight up Swords & Wizardry White Box  but about one of the cool supplements for the game that i have found and use...

What Do I Know? - Swords, Wizardry, Confessions, and Theft (Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day) - I have a confession to make right up front.  I don't play in or run a Swords and Wizardry game.  In fact, I've been running a Dungeon Crawl Classics game for months now that I'm really happy with. No, wait, don't go.  I come to praise Swords and Wizardry, not to bury it.

Rended Press - Harnly's Hole: An Adventure for S&W WhiteBox - Why do I like Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox? It's deadly, that's why! It makes for gritty, dangerous dungeon crawls at low-level where the spectre of death is ever-present.

Swords & Dorkery - S&W appreciation day! - People are offering various content for S&W on their blogs as part of S&W Appreciation Day.  My offering is just a simple monster, the Black Hodag...

Rather Gamey - The Frog, The Finch, and the Boy - When I first fell into the spiked pit trap that is the OSR, I found myself pondering which clone to play.  It came down to one of two choices - Labyrinth Lord or Sword & Wizardry...

The Sorcerer Speaks! - Expand Your Swords & Wizardry Toolbox with the DCCRPG -Alas, despite gallons of electronic ink spent attempting to explain OSR gaming, it seems we can’t quite define what we are. But I think it’s fairly clear what we love: gameplay that places no limits on the scope of our imaginations...

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 5 :)

Jack's Toolbox - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day - So, Swords & Wizardry is one of many game systems that are indicative of the “Old School Renaissance  movement in tabletop RPG gaming. The idea is that RPGs these days aren’t like they were “back in the old days,” and that we’ve lost something in modern games that we had back then...

HexGeneration - Swords & Wizardry: Stepping Back to Move Forward -When Tenkar’s Tavern put out the call for bloggers to talk about Swords & Wizardry I pretty much dismissed it at first.  I have a love for all things OSR and I felt there was no need to sing the praises of one game over another.

Aeons & Augauries - Of Swords & Wizardry - It's Swords & Wizardy Appreciation Day. On this day it's only fair to share one of the best evenings I ever had and Swords and Wizardry was part of it.

Under Siege - Happy S&W Appreciation Day! - Swords & Wizardry is, at its heart, a rules light game where young and older players alike can gather call create characters, roll some dice, and share stories of adventure.  It does so by keeping things simple while giving power to the story teller (the DM or GM) to create worlds of adventure to be explored and plundered.

D20 Dark Ages - Why Swords & Wizardry is the #1 RPG - It was a toss up between Swords & Wizardry and Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG in my mind. And I love both, and I wish could play more of each. Both harken back to "Old School" game design...

Back to the Dungeon - Swords & Wizardry: Ot the Little Game that Could! - Swords and Wizardry! What a game! It invokes this primal primitive version of gaming...

The Iron Tavern - Is Swords & Wizardry The One? - What makes Swords & Wizardry stick out amongst the other “retroclones” other there?

Carjacked Seraphim - Totemic Paladin (S&W Appreciation Day) - In my Queston Campaign, all those years ago, I replaced regular Paladins with a different type of Paladin called a "Totemic Paladin." These Paladins had powers based upon their totem animal, rather than the standard list of Paladin powers...

Barbarians of Provo - Sword and Wizardry Appreciation Day and my first ever Crypts and Things game - As you might have guessed, today is Sword and Wizardry Application Day.  This also happens to coincide with the preparation of my first ever Crypts and Things game that is scheduled to go down this Saturday.

Realms in the Mist - Here are some house rules and variants that I use in my home campaign - feel free to steal anything you find, I hope to have some more - new spells - posted this afternoon...

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day "Loot List"

A (I'm sure incomplete) listing of the gift basket for the Swords & Wizardry is as follows:


Frog God Games will be giving away a PDF copy of Razor Coast and the choice of Monstrosities or Rappan Athuk in PDF to the blog post deemed "the best of the blogfest by Matt, Chris and myself. Two other blogs will receive PDF copies of either Monstrosities or Rappan Athuk. Plus we have gifted out some special offers to 4 participating bloggers to give away to the readers. It is like a scavenger hunt so be sure to check out all the postings!

Spes Magna Games is giving away a $10 RPGNow gift certificate to a random participating blog.

+Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor will be giving away 5 copies of his zine, The Manor. You'll need to hit his blog on the 17th for details.

Erik (that's me) is throwing in 1 $10 gift certificate and 3 $5 gift certificates to random participating blogs. As we have surpassed 100 participating blogs, I'll also be throwing in 2 $5 gift certificates to random commenters on the S&W Appreciation Day blogpost that goes up on this blog on the 17th (if you want a chance to win those random $5 gift certificates, you need to add a comment to this very post). If the winning commenters are also members of the 2,000 Coppers G+ Community, he'll double the gift to a value of $10.

Add in the Purple Sorcerer stuff, and it's an amazing "gift basket". +Jon Marr , also known as the main man behind Purple Sorcerer Games, is putting 5 PDF copies of The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk and 5 PDF copies of Perils of the Sunken City into the gift pool. While written for the DCC RPG, Jon will be posting an article on how to use DCC adventures and resources in your Swords & Wizardry game. (you want a chance to win one of these? add a comment to this post)

+James Carpio , the editor of Gygax Magazine and the main force behind the upcoming Tales From the Fallen Empire setting for the DCC RPG will be offering a $10 RPGNow gift certificate to a random commenter at his Hexgeneration Blog during the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Blogfest on April 17.

Matt Jackson over at Cubby Monster Games is giving away copies of volumes 1 through 3 of his Moleskin Map collection in PDF to all the bloggers participating that we have contact info for.

The Latest Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Posts - Volume 4 :)

About Bruce Heard, D&D, and new stories - Ar: Walking with the Wraiths - Wraithlings have an attraction for all that is alive, young, and healthy, which explains their propensity for seeking illicit romantic encounters outside their usual circles...

I Am Teh Bagder! - Brokkans: New Swords & Wizardry Player Class + WIN A COPY OF SWORDS & WIZARDRY COMPLETE! - In honor of the Swords & Wizardy Appreciation Day set up by the Erik Tenkar of Tenkar’s Tavern, my contribution to this event is a brand new playable class of humanoid badgers called the Brokkans.

The Theoretical GM - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Is A Go - Though there are many similarities to be among all the various retro-clones, Swords & Wizardry has a few tweaks that I especially appreciate. Firstly is the support for both ascending and descending Armor Class - I get that the descending system was the original and most people who actually play are used to it, but as a newcomer I find the latter easier to grasp.

5 Stones Games - for appreciation day - How I came to know my group is ready for old school and how I came to choose S&W...

The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst Friends - S&W Day: Speaking of Death Rays in the Dungeon - In honor of Swords and Wizardry Appreciation Day, I was thinking about saving throws. I went on to write an article about saving throws that had little to do with S&W, but it did include the infamous Save vs. Death Ray. Wayne Rossi wrote this fun little Death Ray table on Monday. So, my mind said, "What about other kinds of rays, beside Death?" Here is my table, usable with S&W...

...and the sky full of dust. - Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: The Tower of the Red Angel -Today it is Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, and my offering to the Great Gaming Gods is a simple adventure: the ToweroftheRedAngel.

Hits to Kill - Save or Die - Thirty years ago, I moved from Fighting Fantasy solo gameplay books to playing Dungeons and Dragons...

West Coast Stat Views (on Observational Epidemiology and more) - Swords and Wizardry Appreciation day - I was always surprised to be a Swords and Wizardry fan.  In a lot of ways I was a bigger fan of the original basic and expert (B/X) D&D books released after the first run of Dungeons and Dragons (and contemporaneous with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons). But the adventures sucked me in...

iDungeon Crawl - S&W Appreciation Day - Part the First - Swords and Wizardry was the very first game that brought the OSR and it’s related community to my attention. Some years ago (2009 if the timestamp on the file is any indication), I was browsing the web searching for information about the older editions of D&D...

Alex Schroeder: Diary - Swords & Wizardry - In 2008, I came across M74 and discovered the “old school renaissance”. I learned about OD&D and its use of a d6 for hit-dice and weapon damage. I was intrigued and wrote M20 Hard Core. I also wrote a little random character creator for my rules variant...