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Unlike my Let's Read of Moldvay Basic D&D, where just about any piece of art found therein was available on the net, there's a real dearth of SW 2.5 art. The core ruluboos don't have much in the first place. However, looking at the SW 2.5 page on the publisher's website, I found some art that...

Let's talk about Alfleim, the Cursed and Blessed Land. Alfleim is roughly the size of North America, with similar climate zones. The first records of it go back to the middle of the Magic Civilization. Based on the research of Magictec Civilization archaeologists, it was thought that Alfleim...

When I did the brief summary of the gods, it was essentially with the idea that, "OK, gods, some good, some bad, pretty standard for D&D, nothing to see her, let's get to the interesting stuff." But on reflection, I think there's a little more that I should unpack there. At first glance, SW...

Yeah, it's very Plug-and-Play. Of course, you can always come up with new and innovative ways to get the party together, or feed them plot hooks to get into the game, and the replays do demonstrate this. But, there's always the option of just going, "The guildmaster says a new job's come in...

So when random bits of a hell dimension show up and menace your post-apocalyptic civilization, what kind of adventurer infrastructure might spring up to deal with that? Here we find out, with Adventurers and Related Organizations. In 2.0, Adventurers Guilds were simply A Thing, common, competing...

This post will be mostly about the game's concept of Adventurers, but first a little clean up on the gods. The gods are split into three groups: Ancient Gods are those who originally wielded one of the Three Swords. They are: Lyfos (lai-fohs) - the Ancestor--no, wait, really this should be...

Further exploration of the World of Sword World... This next section is called the People and Things that Make Up the World. It starts with a description of the jinzoku. This word is something of a translation trap. I've been translating it as "the good peoples," and occasionally "humankind."...

I was going to make a snarky comment about WotC putting out non-backwards compatible editions for so long that no one knows what backwards compatible even means any more. Then I realized that the 3.0 is 19 years old. Good grief. First of all, Wizards has not said that "all 5e material will be...

I've looked around and have found exactly zero hits for English discussion about 1st edition. Which is a little funny, because it came out in 1989, and there was a whole lotta Internet between that and 2008 when 2.0 came out. But no, a mention by Andy Kitkowski in 2003 blog post, an RPG.net post...

So what exactly is the World of Sword World? The original setting of Sword World was Forcelia, which was the setting for Lodoss, Crystania, and a number of other properties across various media. But with the change to a new edition with Sword World 2.0, they made a clean break with Forcelia and...

I've been looking over Rulebooks II and III, and the Manipulation magic-user takes an interesting turn in those. At third level they get access to "Create Golem" and (with GM's approval) "Create Undead." There remains some pseudo-elemental magic and party support magic, but they essentially...

So, Items! I've been looking forward to this because I think this is one of the strengths of Sword World. There is just such a wealth of options. The Items chapter is split into Weapons, Armor, Common Equipment & Consumables, Living Expenses & Accommodations, Poultices & Potions, Adventurer...

Continuing the Magic section of the Data chapter... Holy Magic This is your typical cleric support and healing magic, in Sword World wielded only by those with the Priest skill package. Although not as distinct as the domains of 5e, depending on which deity the Priest is a devotee of, they get...

Rulebook I only covers levels 1-6. Rulebook II covers levels 7-10, and Rulebook III covers levels 11-15. The spells for the higher levels are covered in the respective ruluboo.

The first section we look at in the Data chapter is Magic. That is, essentially spells, but SW uses neither the word "spell" or its Japanese equivalent "jumon" in the rulebook. This section is split into four parts: True Speech Magic (for Sorcerers), Manipulation Magic (for Conjurers), Holy...

None of what you wrote is in the rules. A DM could certainly rule that way, but as far as the Expert Rules are concerned, Cure Disease cures lycanthropy full stop. But that's all beside the point. The point is that B/X is particularly clear when it comes to procedures involving exploration, but...

So, regarding the uses of Fellows, I've been reading the first official SW 2.5 replay, as well as the scenarios that came with the Adventurer Guild Box Set. And in both, Fellows are used for a purpose we haven't discussed yet: NPCs who enter combat. In both the replay and the scenarios, the...

I would say that the primary purpose of D&D rulebooks is to provide more options. That's really the only reason anyone would need to buy the Core Three instead of just using the rules in the Starter Sets/Essentials Kit and/or the Basic Rules PDFs.

I, for one, can't believe people are bringing up Moldvay Basic as complete game in contrast to 5e. And I love, love, love Moldvay Basic. More than anything else, it is D&D to me. But, it doesn't even deliver the game it suggests it is on the cover, the title page, and in the Foreword. Even when...

So after talking about the concept of Fellows as something to be shared on social media and in fanzines, the rules go into how to make a Fellow public. The creator puts the character on the platform of their choice in the simplified Fellow form. They can make as many Fellow versions from one...