S&W White Box: An Appreciation

In the midst of my work on the Dwimmermount book I'm trying to finish up for publication early next year, I often find myself idly flipping through the books and games I have close at hand. Recently, I've found myself spending a lot of time re-reading the Brave Halfling edition of Swords & Wizardry: White Box. Over the last few weeks, I've come to think that it's probably the most under-appreciated product of the old school renaissance, which is why it's a pity that it wasn't released more widely.

Marv Breig's redaction of Matt Finch's original rules was well done to begin with, but Jesse Rothacher's layout for the BHP edition makes it shine in a way that the initial Lulu.com version did not. Likewise, the artwork, from Mark Allen's covers to the interior pieces by Matt Finch, Edward M. Kann, Jeff Preston, and Chad Thorson, add to what's already a terrific (and reasonably priced) introduction to old school gaming -- probably the best one there is.

I'm often critical of the ways that Swords & Wizardry deviates from OD&D and I won't deny that they still bug me a lot, particularly given the way the game is advertised as "0e," but the fact remains that White Box is an amazing piece of work nonetheless. It's a wonderful, unpretentious, and accessible little game and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to someone who's never roleplayed before. So, my hat's off to everyone involved in its creation. Here's hoping Brave Halfling is successful enough to get it back into print again soon. It'd make a great Christmas gift for friends and family interested in finding out more about this crazy hobby we all love.

S&W Complete Contents

Over at the Swords & Wizardry forums, Matt Finch has provided a list of some of the most important additions to the upcoming "Complete Rules" version of the game:

Here's the basic scoop, though I may have forgotten something:
Siege rules
Aerial combat
Mass combat (already there)
Naval combat

Order of combat - splits movement and attacks, but very close to Core Rules
Holmes Basic order of combat as an option
Eldritch Wizardry order of battle method (revised) as an option (rotating initiative based on what characters are wearing and doing)
Core Rules order of combat as option

More descriptions of things like wolfsbane
Wilderness adventuring, including getting lost, and monster encounter tables
Dungeon encounter charts now have specific monsters instead of just a CL listing
Dungeon encounter charts can also be used to generate mixes of different monsters (the orcs have a pet gelatinous cube! Run!)

No more wild boards in the monster listing

Building strongholds - prices for walls and keeps and such

Original saving throw numbers are listed as a chart in a side-box in case people want to use those.

I'm glad to see a lot of these changes, particularly the addition of the multiple saving throws. Taken together, many of these things bring S&W much closer to OD&D than any of its existing versions. Just how close I can't say without seeing the additional text, which I hope will be made available as a free text file as was done in the past. Looks like some interesting times ahead for Swords & Wizardry fans.

REVIEW: Knockspell #3

With the recent announcement that Black Blade Publishing was to become the exclusive publisher of the Swords & Wizardry core rules and Knockspell magazine, I expected it to be some time before we'd see any new products released. Not so, as it turned out, for shortly thereafter Black Blade published the third issue of Knockspell. It's theoretically the "Summer 2009" issue, which suggests that it uses the same unique timekeeping system as many academic journals. More seriously, I suspect this means that issue 3 was likely ready to go during the past Summer, but its publication was delayed because of behind the scenes snags connected to the new relationship between Black Blade and Mythmere Games.

As with the previous two issues, number 3 is available in both print and PDF formats. The issue is slightly cheaper than both the previous ones, while its page count (68) is more than issue 1 but less than issue 2. The layout and interior art continue to be of the same high quality we saw in issue 2 and Peter Mullen's cover is nicely evocative. Knockspell is most definitely not an amateur periodical and, while it's still far from being as slick and "professional" as, say, Kobold Quarterly, it very favorably compares to Dragon at its height, both in terms of presentation and content.

And what content! I am consistently amazed at the old school community's ability to produce new material that excites my imagination, even after 30 years of gaming. Issue 3 contains a number of excellent pieces:

• Allan Grohe's "The Theory and Use of Gates in Campaign Dungeons" is superb, both in its own right and because of its solid grounding in the great literature on the subject to be found in the hobby's past.
• Akrasia's "Pulp Heroes and the Colors of Magic" offers up some swords-and-sorcery style magic and damage rules for use with Swords & Wizardry (or any other old school fantasy RPG).
• John Vogel gives us a fun little chariot racing mini-game compatible with S&W.
• Tim Kask writes another trenchant editorial, "Blame It on the Players," in which he diagnoses where the hobby/industry went off the tracks. I expect it to be every bit as controversial as his last piece on the subject.
• Scot Hoover's "Black Armor, Black Heart" presents an anti-paladin NPC class for use with OSRIC. As with his Necromancer class from the previous issue, Hoover has done a fine job in bringing an old school classic to life in a slightly new form.
• Gabor Lux presents "The City of Vultures," a city from his Fomalhaut campaign world.
• There are several fun random generators, including one devoted to ruins.
• Jon Hershberger gives us a look at "The Planes: Playgrounds of the Rich and Powerful," which provides the nuts and bolts of planar travel for use with S&W.
• There are also new monsters, including the jin, a collection of genie-like races.
• And there's not one but three new adventures, my favorite of which was "Labyrinth Tomb of the Minotaur Lord" by R. Lawrence Blake, but then I've always had a soft spot for labyrinths (and minotaurs).

All in all, issue 3 was every bit as good as its predecessors, perhaps even better, as I found nearly every article herein to be of obvious use to me. In addition, Knockspell continues to develop its unique editorial "voice," one that is strongly informed by Gygaxian fantasy. That's hardly surprising given the large number of contributors associated with OSRIC, whose raison d'être is the preservation and promotion of Gary's particular vision.

That's not to suggest that all -- or even most -- of its contents march in lockstep to a Gygaxian tune, but Knockspell's content is not as varied or as whimsical as that of Fight On! That's not a criticism, both because my own take on fantasy is Gygaxian in inspiration and because I think the old school community is strengthened by having different publications, each with its own perspective and style. That said, I think Knockspell has more to offer fans of "traditional" fantasy roleplaying than those who prefer wilder, more eccentric takes on the genre. Knockspell is much more conservative, even staid, in its approach and that's fine by me. The hobby needs an unyielding "anchor" that resists the currents of faddishness in fantasy and Knockspell looks to be assuming that role and I'm very glad of it.

Presentation: 9 out of 10
Creativity: 8 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You're looking for your fix of largely Gygaxian gaming goodness to inspire you.
Don't Buy This If: Your tastes run to more exotic styles of fantasy.

Matt Finch Podcast

The Game's The Thing has a nice interview with Swords & Wizardry creator Matt Finch. It's well worth listening to.

S&W Wins Silver ENnie

Swords & Wizardry won a Silver ENnie Award for Best Free Product at GenCon tonight. If nothing else, it shows that retro-clones are starting to get some recognition outside the old school renaissance. I can't deny that I'd have much rather seen S&W walk away with the gold award, but second place is nothing to sneer at and Matt Finch deserves a round of applause for having produced a game that's received a lot of positive attention in the hobby. Bravo!

S&W Nominated for an ENnie

Swords & Wizardry has been nominated for an ENnie award in the category of "Best Free Product." Looking over the list of other products in the category, I notice that three of the five nominees seem to be "quick starts" -- essentially advertisements for other products rather complete games in themselves. Now, EN World can do whatever they want when it comes to the ENnies; these are their awards, after all. Still, I find something a bit silly and, dare I say, inappropriate in having a game like S&W, whose free version is every bit as complete as its retail version, competing against stuff like the Hunter: The Vigil quickstart, which is nothing more than an adventure with pregenerated characters and a stripped down version of the full rules you need to pay for to get.

On the bright side, it's fairly impressive to see an old school product appear on the nominations list at all. That's a definite victory for the old school movement and I hope it's the first of many more to come.

OSRIC is Mine

Thanks to the kindness of Tim Brannan, who saved me from having to pay Lulu's ungodly Canadian shipping costs, I now own a shiny, new, hardcover copy of OSRIC. I'd already seen the final release version of this game in PDF form months ago, but that couldn't compare to the, well, majesty of holding all 380+ pages of it in my hands this afternoon. OSRIC is an extraordinary piece of work -- by far and away the most ambitious of all the retro-clone/simulacrum games published to date. I'm frankly in awe of what Matt Finch and Stuart Marshall accomplished and there's no question I'll get a lot of use out of this book.

That said, I'm still a bit disappointed that OSRIC isn't a fully open game like Swords & Wizardry and Labryinth Lord. Had it been released in such a fashion, I suspect that OSRIC might be getting wider use by publishers than it seems to be. I admit I may simply not have noticed evidence to the contrary, but, from where I'm sitting, it seems as if S&W and LL are garnering more attention and support, both by gamers and third party publishers. That the 1e conversions of Goodman's Dungeon Crawl Classics aren't using OSRIC disappoints me. Heck, even Expeditious Retreat Press's Malevolent and Benign, which is explicitly sold as "a first edition bestiary," isn't an OSRIC product, which strikes me as very odd.

I'm sure there are reasons why OSRIC, the original retro-clone, now seems (to me anyway) to have been overshadowed by its younger siblings, but it's sad nonetheless. I was, for most of my gaming existence, a staunch 1e aficionado and I still retain much love for AD&D, even if my own tastes have moved closer to OD&D in recent years. Consequently, I want to see OSRIC prosper. Even if it's not likely to be my go-to game for old school fun these days, I think it's important that the standard bearer for the Gygaxian patrimony of the hobby be successful and widely used by gamers and publishers alike, which is why I hope my perceptions are mistaken.

Regardless, the print version of the game is simply awesome. Many hearty congratulations to everyone involved in its release and much thanks from me for making the kind of contribution to the old school renaissance I can only dream of doing.

Big News for S&W

Looks like Swords & Wizardry carried the day in the May Lulu sales contest. That alone is awesome news, particularly so soon after Fight On! achieved the same feat in the previous sales contest. Potentially even bigger is the fact that S&W will likely be going into regular distribution through an existing (though currently unnamed) publisher, who plans to support the game line with new products.

Both are big victories for S&W and are well deserved. I certainly hope that they will help give this awesome game a higher profile and add yet more steam to the old school renaissance. Great news.

Speaking of OSRIC ...

Looks like the book is finally available in print through Lulu.com in a variety of formats: hardcover, paperback, economy, and full-color hardcover.

It's a shame how annoying Lulu has become to deal with if you live outside the United States, because I'd love to snag some copies of this book, but I'm afraid the cost of shipping simply makes it prohibitive.

REVIEW: The Spire of Iron and Crystal

The Spire of Iron and Crystal is the second adventure module by Matt Finch released by Mythmere Games for use with Swords & Wizardry. Unlike its predecessor, the introductory Tomb of the Iron God, this module is intended for use with characters of somewhat higher level (5-8). Also unlike its predecessor, which drew solely on traditional swords-and-sorcery ideas and imagery, The Spire of Iron and Crystal has a slightly more science fantasy feel to it, which contributes greatly to the delightfully peculiar ambience the book exudes, from its superb cover by Peter Mullen to the interior art by Jeff Preston and author Matt Finch himself.

Indeed, I'd go so far as to say that the main attraction of this adventure, above and beyond its obvious use in challenging a party of 4-6 S&W players, is its eerie, not-quite-right atmosphere. There's an unnaturalness to the module's locale that comes through very powerfully in reading the text. I was reminded a bit of having read The Vault of the Drow, with its depiction of the "dark fairyland" of Erelhei-Cinlu, which I consider a masterpiece of High Gygaxian prose. The difference, though, is that, like a good weird tale from days gone by, The Spire of Iron and Crystal conveys that unnaturalness slowly, bit by bit, making it impossible to point to a single passage or section of the text that encapsulates the overall feeling I came away with after having read it.

That makes it difficult to explain, even in a lengthy review, precisely why I liked the module so much. On the face of it, The Spire of Iron and Crystal is much like dozens of other modules over the last 30+ years: the characters head off to investigate a mysterious location reputed to hold dangers and fortune and from which no others have ever returned successfully. The location in question is the eponymous Spire of Iron and Crystal, "four massive, egg-shaped crystals are mounted into a twisting, ornate structure of rounded metal girders, one crystal at the top and the other three mounted lower down." As one might expect, the Spire's four levels are inhabited, but these inhabitants are (mostly) creatures unlike any the characters have ever encountered before. Consequently, the module includes nine new monsters, including the korog, a prehuman race of subterranean beings that built the Spire.

The Spire of Iron and Crystal is a "pure" adventuring locale. Although there is a brief backstory about the korog and the original purpose of the Spire, very little of that comes into play unless the referee wishes it to do so. There are no essential encounters, boxed text describing your character's feelings about this eldritch place, or dramatic speeches by the Big Bad Evil Guy. What you get instead is an extremely well presented dungeon filled with weird magic and technology, clever traps, deadly monsters, and commensurate rewards. Yes, there's some great potential here for expansion. I can easily see using this module as the kick-off of an extended campaign involving the korog and their underground civilization, but, as written, the module makes no demand that the referee or the players be interested in such things. The Spire of Iron and Crystal is thus a fine modern example of the location-based approach to adventure design that gave birth to some of the best modules in D&D history.

Retailing for $9.95, this is an excellent mid-level adventure module for referees looking for a slightly more outré locale into which to throw the characters in their campaign. I suspect it will prove a very difficult challenge for many players. Finch pulled out all the stops in writing this one, creating both a truly memorable environment and filling it with obstacles to test even experienced players. If I have a complaint about The Spire of Iron and Crystal, it's that it feels a little cramped. I kept expecting there to be more than its four levels (most of which have only 15-20 rooms), but that probably speaks more to how much I enjoyed it than to any deficiencies in the text itself. And, as I said, the module gives more than enough hooks on which to hang many more follow-up adventures -- high praise for any module, especially one as unique and evocative as this one.

Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 9 out of 10
Utility: 7 out of 10

Buy This If: If you're looking for a well-done mid-level fantasy adventure that offers plenty of room for expansion
Don't Buy This If: You don't like location-based adventures or dislike the presence of even mild science fantasy elements in your fantasy games

Knockspell #2 Now On Sale

News from Matt Finch of Mythmere Games:

Knockspell issue #2 is now on sale at the Swords & Wizardry storefront. This issue contains dungeon design advice from both Allan Grohe and Philotomy Jurament, an adventure by Gabor Lux, and all kinds of other articles from jousting to monsters and all points in between! The art in this issue is phenomenal: artists include Jim Holloway, Liz Danforth, and others. The cover piece is "Dungeoneer," by Peter Fitzpatrick. Games covered include 0e, 1e, Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, and other retro-clones. 86 pages. Note: the pdf isn't up as of 5/13, but will be up shortly.

DURING MAY the prices of Knockspell #2, Spire of Iron and Crystal (module), The S&W/0e Monster Book, and Eldritch Weirdness Compilation Books Three to One are all reduced, because we're in the middle of another lulu sales competition.

Table of Contents:
3 Editor’s Note, Matt Finch
4 Art Director’s Note, Jeff Preston
4 From Kuroth’s Quill, Allan T. Grohe, Jr.
8 The Dungeon as Mythic Underworld, Jason “Philotomy Jurament” Cone
14 The Trouble with Thieves, James Maliszewski
16 WhiteBox Thief (1): The Treasure Seeker, Rob Ragas
17 WhiteBox Thief (2): The “Standard” Thief, Salvatore Macri
18 Core Rules Thief (1): The Skillful Shadow, Salvatore Macri
20 Core Rules Thief (2), James Maliszewski
21 Thieves and Tasks, Akrasia
24 Isles on an Emerald Sea 2, Gabor Lux
31 Retro-Clones: Interviews with the Authors
36 Jousting (Optional Rules), Brendan Falconer
37 Dungeon Oddities, Michael Curtis
45 The Zocchi Experience, Matt Finch
46 The Claws of Ssur-Sparih, James Carl Boney
47 Random City Lair Generator, Sean Wills
48 Random Thieves Guild Generator, Robert Lionheart
51 The Fantasy Marketplace: Looking at Merchants Differently, Michael Shorten
55 Spell Complexity (Optional Rules), Brendan Falconer
57 Thoughts on Arnesonian Alchemy in the Original Dungeon Game, Jason Vasche
60 When is a Spell Book Much More than a Spell Book?, Brendan Falconer
62 Random Pits & Occupants, Mike Davison
63 Magic Swords & Treasure Maps, Jason “Philotomy Jurament” Cone
67 Leprechauns, David (“Sham”) Bowman
69 Why White Box?, Jim Adams
71 Surviving Old-School Dungeons, Sean Ahmed
72 Three Sorcerous Creations, James Carl Boney
77 Magic Items
78 Review: On the Road of Knives, Matt Finch
79 Masterminds & Minions, bat
82 The Bestiary
86 Classified Ads

Lulu Contest Update

With a day to go in the Lulu Author Sales Contest, Fight On! has risen again to the #2 spot and Swords & Wizardry has risen to #5. This is really excellent news -- but it could be better still. If you haven't bought something from either publisher, please consider doing so in the next 24 hours. It'd be an amazing turn of events if either -- or both! -- made it into the Top 3, which would earn them cash prizes as well as free publicity from Lulu in the form of free advertising and an interview on the site's blog.

2008 was already a remarkable year for the old school renaissance. Let's make 2009 and even more remarkable one.

Art of the Old School Announcement

Produced by Matt Finch and jointly published by Knockspell and Fight On! magazines, Art of the Old School represents an effort to win the Lulu Author Sales Contest. Currently Fight On! is in third place and Knockspell is in seventh place. Both publishers would like to finish in the top three, for which there is a monetary award, among other benefits. Perhaps more importantly, it'd be a signal that the old school renaissance represents a serious movement of more than just a few disgruntled old guys complaining on their blogs.

Art of the Old School costs $9 and available for purchase from the webstores of either Mythmere Games or Fight On! Magazine. Buying a copy will help put one or both publishers over the top in the final contest standings. If you buy one from each store and give the extra to a friend, you can combine shipping even when your products come from different sources. You might also want to consider buying copies of Fight On!, Knockspell, Swords & Wizardry, and all the other great products these publishers have for sale. All products must be purchased by the end of March to count for the contest, and, as of April 1, Art of the Old School will be gone forever.

Free Ads in Knockspell #2

Once again, Knockspell Magazine is running all old-school advertisements for free. If you have a blog, or a free module, or a website, or you're an artist (here we are a bit arbitrarily selective - you've got to be part of the old school community), or you're a retro-clone publisher, or publish materials compatible with 0e, 1e, Basic, etc ... whatever.

Email Matt Finch at mythmere at yahoo dot com with the text of a classified ad, or with a quarter-page or smaller graphic (which must contain any text you want attached). Graphic ads will need to be approved - no photos, and artwork needs to be roughly in the general style of the magazine's internal appearance. Clip art is fine.

Mythmere Games does this to show the full strength and resources of the old school renaissance, as a service to the readers, and as an expression of gratitude to those who are producing free (and paid) material for all the rest of us to game with.

Knockspell in Print

I forgot to mention this the other day, but Issue #1 of Knockspell magazine is now available in print. The first issue is terrific and I'm not just saying that because I made a couple of small contributions myself. Like retro-clones, I don't think there can be enough fanzines and it gladdens me to see another one appear on the old school scene -- and in hard copy no less!

Knockspell Issue 1 Released

The premier issue of Knockspell has been released. You can get the PDF version here; the print version will be available in a few days. I'm very happy to see this, because it not only marks the appearance of a second old school publication in the last year, but also an important step for the promotion of Swords & Wizardry. Although I had a very small hand in the first issue, the real credit goes to the indefatigable Matt Finch and his many excellent contributors. And if that cover by Peter Mullen isn't the coolest thing, I don't know what is.

Good work, guys!

S&W Monster Compendium

Somehow I'd forgotten to mention that Mythmere Games has released a MS-Word document entitled Monster Compendium: 0e for use with Swords & Wizardry. Matt Finch has converted a vast array of monsters to S&W's format, including many creatures from 3e D&D, in addition to beasties of his own creation. Weighing in at 60 pages and over 30,000 words, it's an absolutely impressive piece of work and one that I'm sure I'll get much use out of.

At present, the Compendium is intended solely as a tool for referees looking to use some of their favorite monsters with Swords & Wizardry. One day, it might become a polished book available for purchase. In the meantime, if you have some original monsters you'd like to submit, pop on over to the S&W forums and make a post. One day they might see publication in a hardcopy edition of this great bit of work.

More Swords & Wizardry Goodness

Hot on the heals of the release of the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules comes Tomb of the Iron God, an introductory adventure by Matt Finch, available in both PDF and print formats. Designed for levels 1-2, this is, in the author's own words, "a high quality meat-and-potatoes dungeon," which strikes me as a very positive thing. I'll be posting a formal review of the thing once I've had a chance to digest it fully, but my quick read of it so far is that it reminds me of the early B-series modules from TSR, particularly In Search of the Unknown.

On the subject of reviews: I will continue to review any products I receive that I personally have not had a hand in producing. Though I worked with Matt Finch on the Core Rules and will be editing Knockspell, I'm not going to say I like a product that I don't simply because Mythmere Games produced it. Fortunately, I've been favorably impressed with all of Mythmere's products to date, so it's never been an issue. However, I wanted to make this clear now, in case anyone was concerned that my perspective -- I won't say "objectivity," since my reviews glory in their subjectiveness -- might somehow be skewed because of my working relationship with Matt on various S&W projects.

Swords & Wizardry Core Rules Released

Today, Mythmere Games released the core rules for Swords & Wizardry in both free PDF and in printed form. Rather than try and explain the whys and wherefores of S&W myself, I'll just quote its creator, Matt Finch:

As a lot of you know, Swords & Wizardry is a retro-clone of 0E, although it's not as tight as OSRIC is with 1E. The main differences are that there is only one class of saving throw, the initiative system (there's not one in 0E) is rudimentary (since everyone had to house rule this or use Chainmail, I just used a least common denominator) and the XP bonuses are constructed differently (but with similar results) - for legal reasons. These core rules are a mix of the White Box classes (only), the GH system of hit dice and variable damage by weapon, and spells from across the supplements.

In addition to the normal reasons for creating a retro clone (organized/beginner-accessible rules, shared brand name, preservation of rules in free format), Swords & Wizardry is a project to re-initiate the "hobbyist" approach to OOP gaming, the idea that you can tinker from the ground up and make the rules fit any sort of fantasy you want. Too many gamers (and this is not limited to modern gamers, I have seen it on OOP sites as well) approach games like consumers. If it's not in the rules, it's not in the game; if it doesn't fit into the rules, it's not in the game; if the rules aren't completely specific, they're bad rules - you see what I mean by this mindset. But games used to be approached with the ASSUMPTION that the GM and players were going to hack them apart and make them fit the desired effect. The same way we'd take rules for Napoleonic wargaming and tweak them into rules for Space Marines or 52mm green plastic army men.

I have spend an enormous amount of time over the last 6 months or so preparing the rulebooks (with especial thanks to Red Priest, Finarvyn, Philotomy Jurament, and Jerry Mapes) and building up a body of supplemental resources such as new spells, city encounters, etc). The intro module is just around the corner, and an expanded monster book for 0E is getting close to being done. My goal here is to assure those who want to be playing a living game that 0E is once again a living game supported by an active publisher.

I had a very small hand in the production of Swords & Wizardry, acting as editor of the core rules, so I'm to blame for any grammatical or spelling errors in the text. I've also agreed to oversee Knockspell, an upcoming magazine to support S&W, as well as any other retro-clone for which we get permission to provide support. The first issue has been simmering in the background until completion of the Core Rules. Now that they're done, expect to hear -- and see -- more of Knockspell in the near future.

As a personal aside, any old school products I create will use Swords & Wizardry as their rules, both because they're simple and straightforward but also because they're easily adaptable to any pre-WotC edition of D&D (and their spin-offs). Expect to see quite a few Grognardia-related S&W products over the coming months.

Old School Building Blocks

Lost in the mists of time was a nice little essay by Matt Finch, in which, among other things, he lays out how one might go about modifying Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition in order to make it more like old school D&D. The original post was found on ENWorld, but it's no longer to be found in the forum archives, at least not that I've been able to discover.

In any case, I'm not really interested in the specific topic, since I no longer play 3e. However, I think Matt's general advice is quite excellent, which is why I'm borrowing parts of it here, with apologies to him. My goal is simply to lay down some basic guidelines on mechanical/methodological elements that contribute powerfully to playing D&D à l'école ancien.

1. Magic items should never be available for purchase. Instead, they must always be won from opponents or discovered by exploring the hidden places of the world. In a similar vein, magic should never be a substitute for technology. Outside of the PCs, their allies, and their enemies -- and perhaps not even then -- magic and magic items should be rare.

2. Always award XP for gold. The reason for this is that it makes acquiring loot, not killing foes, the primary focus of dungeon delving. Once the players understand this, they might begin to behave more sneakily and realize that discretion is sometimes the better part of valor. XP should still be awarded for defeating enemies, of course, but it should pale in comparison to the XP gained from treasure.

3. Keep characters poor by any means you can. AD&D used training costs as a way to ensure that the PCs never had much money, as they rose in power. OD&D has no such mechanism, but I'd consider adding something like it. I know of several referees who only give XP for gold that's spent. This is a nifty idea, as it rather nicely emulates the way that Conan or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser would go on binges of spending after they'd completed a particularly successful adventure -- only to wind up poor again in short order. Either way, PCs should rarely have a full coin purse.

4. Make the acquisition of new magic-user spells difficult. They should rarely be available for outright purchase; when they are, they should cost ridiculous amounts of gold. Otherwise, the MU must win his new spells by finding scrolls or spellbooks. The point is to keep the magic-user's repertoire limited, both to encourage creative thinking and give him yet more reasons to go adventuring.

5. Encourage map-making by presenting environments where having a map is a must. D&D is as much a game of exploration as it is of heroic exploits. I've said before that planning a dungeon expedition is a bit like planning a safari or archeological dig. Having to draw a map in order to avoid becoming lost or suffering some horrible fate is essential to old school D&D. Yes, this means the game will run more slowly, but that's an important part of the old school gaming experience. This goes for wilderness exploration as well as dungeon exploration.

6. Sometimes there are no answers. That is, there are mysteries that will remain such. Not everything has an explanation, at least not an explanation available to the PCs. It's important to remind players that there are many things beyond their characters' ken.

7. All politics is local. Old school gaming is not about world-spanning, "epic "plots and cabals. There is no single Dark Lord whose machinations are behind the rise of evil in the world. Indeed, if you feel the compulsion to talk about the Big Bad Evil Guy of your campaign -- or, worse, to use the abbreviation BBEG -- seek help immediately. Likewise, there are no large organizations of do-gooders who oppose them. Instead, everything happens on a much smaller scale, with events being confined to (at most) a few hexes on the map.

8. High-level characters are few and rare and generally have no interest in helping -- or opposing -- the PCs. They have better things to do with their time.

These are some very broad strokes. I have some more specific advice I might dispense in a future post, but these ought to keep people busy arguing for a while.