Still alive and thoughts on S&W Core Hardbacks

Hey Gang,

So yeah, been a while and I need to get cracking again (real life, work, gaming, EVE, running, playing music, etc.). I have a new banner in the works for the old blog and some awesome stuff for your Old School Games in the works. Additionally, it looks like I'll be contributing some more illos for the Petty Gods project. I'm certain that everyone who would be reading this is aware of the project, but here's the link just in case.

Petty Gods

Right, so about the S&W Complete hardbacks.

ZOMFG

That is some kind of crazy good cover. Erol has outdone himself and he really just gets better and better. The man really needs to step it up though with a better web presence. I'm not sure it would garner any more work for him, but fan boys such as I could more easily drool over his latest works that way. Just sayin'...

Aside from the awesomeness of the cover, what about the rest? Yeah, well, it's standard fare from Frog God Games which means, it's pretty darned good. I've been a fan of "Necromancer now FGG" since their early days of Crucible of Freya and of course Rappan Athuk. Bill and the folks at FGG never disappoint.

At some point though, the burning question becomes, "which of the various S&W products should I get?" My response is, well ALL of them of course. I have played countless hours with Whitebox and though it is certainly my favorite, I wish that the S&W Complete hardbacks had gotten in my hands sooner. In short, this vision of the game (correct me if I'm wrong, but it basically presents 0E at the point just before 1E took over as the dominant expression of our beloved game) is the ideal way to play 1E if you want to play it with kids or very casual groups. You get MOST of the iconic 1E character classes and the demi-humans are expressed as separate races rather than a class unto themselves. It is a very nifty, self contained game that you could utilize to run content from 1E to 2E without much adjustment at all really.