Institutional Members: CEPR, NBER and Università Bocconi WORKING PAPER SERIES STRANGER DUNGEONS 2d6 variant rules for Swords & Wizardry Alberto Maccheroni and Fabio Maccheroni Working Paper n. 673 This Version: January 25, 2020 IGIER – Università Bocconi, Via Guglielmo Röntgen 1, 20136 Milano –Italy http://www.igier.unibocconi.it The opinions expressed in the working papers are those of the authors alone, and not those of the Institute, which takes non institutional policy position, nor those of CEPR, NBER or Università Bocconi. STRANGER DUNGEONS* 2d6 variant rules for Swords & Wizardry Alberto Maccheroni and Fabio Maccheroni Istituto Suore Mantellate and IGIER–Universita` Bocconi IGIER Working Paper 673 First version: October 30, 2020 This Revision: January 25, 2021 Abstract During the 2020 Corona virus crisis in Lombardy —a stranger time— the Game Design Workshop at Bocconi University studied the implementation of the algorithms proposed by Maccheroni (2020, SSRN paper 3622663) for digital play using only six-sided dice. Swords & Wizardry by Finch (2011, Frog God Games) is a popular restatement of the Original Dungeons & Dragons Game by Gygax and Arneson (1974, Tactical Studies Rules). A case study, the present paper presents an implementation of the aforementioned algorithms for this game. *We gratefully thank Peter Pagano for permitting the use of his art to convey the athmosphere of OSR role playing games, and Nicola Gennaioli for enthusiastic support. 1 2d6 VARIANT RULES FOR SWORDS & WIZARDRY by Alberto and Fabio Maccheroni You are stranded in your family house because of the outbreak of a wicked disease and, to satisfy your thirst for adven- ture, you only have a couple of dice you slipped in your pocket before leaving for Carnival holidays. (Mantuan countryside, Mardi Gras, 2020) Foreword During the 2020 Corona virus crisis in Lombardy social distancing made it impossible for a group of players to meet and play Swords & Wizardry around a table. The game continued through a mobile messaging app, which allowed each participant to roll a six-sided die that the entire group could see —but not to roll more exotic dice. This lead to the research of variant rules that only required these rolls on part of the players, and we were delighted to discover that the legendary 1971 Blackmoor campaign of Dave Arneson was played with those dice only. Swords & Wizardry by Mattew J. Finch [S&W] is a popular restatement of the “Original Game” by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson [D&D]. In particular, Swords & Wizardry adopts the combat mechanics that Gygax and Arneson call the “alternative combat system.” This ruleset instead reinterprets the primary combat system of the Original Game,* which used two six-sided dice for attack rolls and saving throws, and very modern ascending armor class, called “Class of Armor.” Other digressions from the native Swords & Wizardry, such as the use of mana points, the possibility of a single score for thieving skills, and an alternative slot-based encumbrance system, were driven by the ease of having the full character sheet in a few lines of chat space; while leaving more room to imagination and storytelling. The present ruleset was playtested during the lockdown in an “Old School Megadungeon” of Greg Gillespie [BMC], whom we gratefully thank for giving us the opportunity to escape the gloom of quarantine in the dungeons under the Barrowmoor. We also thank Peter Pagano for allowing us to use his art to convey the intended athmosphere of the game. Our main playtesters were Bathorix, Beaderic, Ethendil, Fatin, Fonso the Fabulous, Kerya, SisterH, Rackgu, and Thandil the All Bright, to whom we dedicate this work. In a sense this is just another Old School Renaissance (OSR) retro-clone, building mainly on [S&W], but also on the brilliant works of Chris Gonnerman [BFRPG], Daniel Proctor [LL], and Marv Breig [WB]. Very little of this work is original, but every Referee loves to add his pebble to the Cairn of Legends. Alberto and Fabio Maccheroni, Halloween, 2020 “You have created an excellent game and I like the idea of using only six-sided dice to help in digital play. I hope the illustrations will add to the enjoyment of your game design.” Peter Pagano, September 18, 2020 Swords & Wizardry, S&W, and Mythmere Games are trademarks of Matthew J. Finch. The authors of these variant rules are not affiliated with Matthew J. Finch, Mythmere Games, or Frog God Games. Illustrations copyright © Peter Pagano, used by permission of the artist. Cartography by Dyson Logos. Character sheet by James V. West (modded). This rulset is NOT FOR SALE, it is intended for Game Design students and fans only. * The “Wargame Rules” by Gary Gigax and Jeff Perren [Cha]. 2021-01-25 23:10:40+01:00 SWORDS & WIZARDRY: STRANGER DUNGEONS Contents Foreword 2 PLAYERS MANUAL 4 REFEREES RULEBOOK 23 1 Getting Started 5 4 Running the Game 24 Dice 5 Designing an Adventure 24 Common Terms and Notation 5 Creating a Campaign 24 Instant Play 24 2 Creating a Character 6 Experience Points 24 Setting up the Character Sheet 6 Roll Attribute Scores 6 5 Magic 25 Calculate Hit Points 6 Magical Research 26 Choose a Character Class 6 Mana Points 26 Choose a Character Race 10 Spell Lists 26 Multi-classing 12 Spell Descriptions 28 Choose an Alignment 12 6 Monsters 50 Buy Equipment 12 Reading the Monster Descriptions 50 Weight and Movement 15 Monster Descriptions 50 3 How to Play 16 7 Treasure 75 Gaining Experience 16 Generating a Random Treasure Hoard 75 Time 16 Magic Items Descriptions 76 Saving Throws 16 References 87 Combat 16 Example of Play 19 End of the Players Manual 22 3 PLAYERS MANUAL Figure 1: House character sheet. James V. West (modded). SWORDS & WIZARDRY: STRANGER DUNGEONS PLAYERS MANUAL PART 1: GETTING STARTED This game requires two kinds of participants. One of you is COMMON TERMS AND NOTATION the “Referee,” who runs the game world: the Referee designs the adventures, makes decisions and dice rolls for the mon- You will discover several common terms (and their abbrevi- sters, describes what the characters see, and judges the ef- ations) while reading. fects of their actions. The rest of you are the “players,” each • As a player, your character will be a player character of you taking on the role of a “player character” who might (PC), while the Referee will provide non-player charac- be a barbarian, a necromancer, a paladin, a rogue, a sor- ters (NPCs). ceress, a witcher, or any other sort of alter ego representing you in the game world. • “Hit Dice” (HD) are the number of dice a character (or monster) rolls to determine total “hit points” (hp), the The first step is to complete a character sheet, recording amount of damage one can sustain before dying. your character’s statistics and equipment; the next step is to sit down around a table with two six-sided dice and start • “Mana points” (mp) quantify the magical or mystical playing! Unless, of course, you are the Referee, in which energy of a character (or monster). They are expended case you will have to prepare the adventure first. to cast spells. • “Armor Class” (AC) is an index of protection against at- tacks, so is the “Class of Armor” [CA], they are related (see Table 11). • The “Attack Bonus” (AB) is added to an attack roll. • A “Saving Throw” (ST) represents the attempt to avoid or mitigate some type of unusual attack. • “Gold pieces” (often just called gp) are the most impor- tant medium of exchange. • “Experience points” (XP) are the measure of a charac- ter’s growing expertise and ability. Do not worry about trying to memorize all this; most of it will be self-evident as you read through. The term “level” is mainly employed in three cases. • “Experience level.” Characters begin at 1st level in a particular class. As they accumulate experi- ence points through fighting monsters and gaining wealth, they will reach higher levels (2nd level, 3rd level, and so on). With each level comes more hit points and additional class abilities. • “Spell level.” The level of a spell is both a relative measure of the power of the spell itself and the cost in mana points of casting it. First level spells consume 1 mana point, second level spells 2, etc. As the experience level of casters increase, they will have access to spells of higher spell level. For instance, 2nd-level spellcasters can typically cast Figure 2: Dwimmermount. Dyson Logos. first level spells, 4th-level casters, second level spells, and so on (with level caps and exceptions). DICE • “Difficulty level.” When the outcome of an action is uncertain, the Referee determines its level of dif- ficulty, 2d6 are then rolled against this number Dice rolls are described with expressions such as “2d6+1,” to determine success or failure of the action it- which means “roll two six-sided dice, sum them, and add 1” self. Specifically, you roll 2d6, add any bonuses (resulting in a number between 3 and 13). The first number or penalties, and compare the total to the target tells you how many dice to roll (adding the results together). number; if the total equals or exceeds it, then you The number immediately after the “d” tells you the type of succeed, otherwise you fail. The target number is die to use (sometimes this is not a “real” die, see below). the difficulty level of the action. Attack rolls, sav- Any number after that indicates a quantity that is added, ing throws, and special abilities’ checks of Clerics subtracted, or multiplied with the result. and Thiefs, are the three main rolls against a dif- To simulate the roll of a d3 (or a d2), roll a d6 and divide ficulty level.