Tenkar's Tavern: Playing Around with the 4 Page Pocket Format

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Playing Around with the 4 Page Pocket Format - Monsters, Creatures and NPCs

I'm pretty happy with the 4 Page Pocket Format that I've been playing around with. Each piece fits pretty nicely on the page with the 4 page Pocket Monsters, Creatures and NPCs. I need to add the White Star and Swords & Wizardry logos, but that's not a big deal. OGL would have to be on a half sheet insert for the printed version - for the PDF I'll just add a page.

Sure, it's basic, but this is as much a way to reward my backers as it is for me to learn new skills. Layout, formatting and the like aren't learned overnite. One only learns from doing.

I want to thank all my Patreon backers - today you pushed the total monthly backing of The Tavern to over $200 a month. If that isn't humbling, I don't know what is.

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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Playing Around with the 4 Page Pocket Format - Monsters, Creatures and NPCs

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