+James Spahn and Barrel Rider Games have released their first Swords & Wizardry product, and they didn't aim small, either. The Player's Companion adds a virtual ton of optional rules for your S&W campaign.
Attributes over 18? Got you covered.
Appearance and Luck as optional stats? There if you want it.
Missing out on racial attribute modifiers? They're here.
Additional class features for the classes in S&W Complete? Yep
New Classes? Damn but yes.
- The Anti-Paladin would make a decent BBG but I don't see it as a player class. YMMV
- Another take on the Bard. I want to play this class so badly. It reminds me of the original class from 1e AD&D days, without needing to be a fighter and a thief first. For me, damn near worth the price of admission.
New races, at least for S&W.
- Dark Elf - If anyone tries to play a dual sword wielding dark elf ranger in my campaign, you wont survive character generation.
- Gnomes - Strangely enough I like gnomes but never play them. Didn't 4e pride itself on removing gnomes from the core races?
- Half-Orc - It isn't D&D without Half-Orcs - 'nuff said.
The new weapons are pretty cool. I like the parrying dagger myself.
The new armors are interesting. Makes me realize my PCs tend to wear lighter armor, as most of these would not be an option for them.
The new magic items is basically a GM's section in the Player's Companion. It's a fun section, especially if your like me, and like to keep your players guessing when they find new magic items.
So, overall, how is the Player's Companion? Chuck full of a variety of useful stuff. At $2.99 I strongly suspect if you only use bits and pieces, you'll still be getting your money's worth.
The only thing that worries me is that this thing looks too 1e influenced, leading me to wonder if Appearance has rules as convoluted as Comeliness in the original Unearthed Arcana. Love the idea of adding more races, though, so I'm downloading.
ReplyDeleteI was looking at that on DriveThru last night and considering picking it up, but wondered if it was worth the trouble. Now I know that I will. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI have very pleased with BRG over the years. This one looks no different.
ReplyDeletePlus at only $3 it is hard to go wrong.
A "Player's Companion" seems to be a step down the path of endless supplements. But S&W was a huge disappointment to me anyway...guess I thought it would be more than it was.
ReplyDeleteOne of the items on my "fantasy wish list" of things to write for S&W was (is) a UA-like compendium. I can't say I'm overwhelmed by this product, but it does hit a number of the items I was contemplating, so good for him.
ReplyDeleteNow I've got to go cross off a few things. :/