Next week we've agreed, as it's the holidays and Queen's Jubilee and all that, to run a one-off trial game of Swords & Wizardry. The thing is that, seeing as I am GMing, I couldn't resist taking the adventure that's being planned and sticking it into the Tal'Daryn setting... aka the second face of Taran, my fantasy meta-setting.
What difference does Taran make?
Well... in the scheme of things, it means that I am developing the setting that I enjoy whilst playing a fun game to try some rules.
On top of that, however, it meant that I couldn't sleep without tinkering with the rules set a bit. Or quite a lot.
In short, I've re-imagined the rules so that they more closely fit my initial ideas on how things will work in Taran. This also implies that, as we play, we can evolve the Taran Edition to suit our needs.
What's changed?
The main thing I wanted to change was the use of the d20 for combat rolls.
Whilst the d20 is a favorite die-type for most modern fantasy roleplayers, and there are a few million of those, I've never been too enamored with the straight 5% progression on the die. The idea of having an even chance of rolling a 1, 5, 7 or 20 is boring.
I've replaced the d20 with 2d10, radically shifting the odds of succeeding and making extremes much less likely. Why? Mostly because it just feels better... but play will tell.
Defense
I have also axed Armour Class (AC) and replaced the roll-high AC with Defense.
In short, attackers roll off against defenders, and the defender gets a Defense bonus in the same way that the attacker gets a "To-Hit" bonus.
This will make combat more dynamic by forcing player and GM to interact in every action.
Initiative
I've added an Initiative Die to the rules, meaning that characters with a high Dexterity and high Intelligence will roll a bigger die-type for initiative. Highest roll acts first, so this is a big deal... and encourages a balance of Dex and Int scores.
I've also made armour slow initiative a bit to give light-fighters an edge, which fits the setting.
Races
The second change was to alter the races to fit the setting. Gone are Dwarfs, Elves and Halflings. In are Drax, Nyhi and Bruxx.
This is largely a cosmetic change at present... but it allows us to evolve the races to fit our vision of the setting.
Interested?
If you want to access a copy of the Taran Edition you can find it -->
here<--:
Game on!
Labels: fantasy, SnW, Taran
