Swords & Wizardry and Gygax's AD&D PH

[pessimisthalfling]

Hello All!
I've just begun reading through E. Gary Gygax's AD&D Players Handbook for the very first time. I couldn't help but to see a lot of similarities with Frog God Games' Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules.
Could I use S&W Complete Rules to to clarify any doubts that may abound from my first reading of the Players Handbook?

Thank you for your help.

[chicagowiz]

Apr 14, 2011 6:33:53 GMT -6 pessimisthalfling said:

Hello All!
I've just begun reading through E. Gary Gygax's AD&D Players Handbook for the very first time. I couldn't help but to see a lot of similarities with Frog God Games' Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules.
Could I use S&W Complete Rules to to clarify any doubts that may abound from my first reading of the Players Handbook?

Thank you for your help.

Heh. Great question and an interesting can of worms.

S&W Complete is "based" on the original version of D&D (OD&D) as written in 1974, plus the various supplements to OD&D that followed (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry) and some of the content from TSR magazines that was written for OD&D (Strategic Review magazine, early issues of Dragon) PLUS some creative reinterpretation by the author(s).

Advanced D&D (AD&D) was released in 1978 and represented Gary Gygax's "vision" of a "unified" set of rules that everyone would follow, while OD&D was more of a toolkit.

At the end of the day, though, it's all D&D.

So while using S&W Complete might help you understand specifics of AD&D, it could be said that those changes or difficult points may be because AD&D was going in a more complex or comprehensive direction than the source material for S&W Complete (OD&D+supplements) and therefore you might not have as complete a picture as you might think.

If you want a more modern restating of AD&D, I highly recommend going and downloading OSRIC - this is a modern retroclone of 1e AD&D and is about as good as it gets for clarifying AD&D. It's a large book, but that's because it combines the original AD&D 3 core books into one tome. And by tome, I mean if you get the print version, you can kill someone hitting them with it...

Just remember though, at the end of the day, it's all D&D and what you want to have happen at your table is what's supposed to happen at your table. Good luck!

[pessimisthalfling]

Thank you for the info chicagowiz!
I just took my first glance at the combat chapter in the AD&D DMG. It looks kind of intimidating, but I'm keeping an open mind. If worse comes to worst, I'll adopt the pretty simple combat system in the Complete Rules. Hopefully it won't destroy any sort of cohesion within the game rules.
I'm a huge fan of the Holmes Basic Set. So as of right now, I'm looking at AD&D as a source for stuff to adopt for the Blue Book. Like I said, I have an open mind, so at the end of the day I may end up doing what the Blue Book suggests, which is graduating into AD&D.

[kesher]

Like I said, I have an open mind, so at the end of the day I may end up doing what the Blue Book suggests, which is graduating into AD&D.

I, for one, would like to hear about that process, if you end up going that way!

[pessimisthalfling]

Apr 15, 2011 7:56:15 GMT -6 kesher said:

I, for one, would like to hear about that process, if you end up going that way!

I've thought about detailing my transition from Holmes Basic to AD&D on my Old School blog. I'll give it some more thought as I read the book.

[Falconer]

I’ve often said that using OD&D + PHB hits the sweet spot for me. That said, I am not dogmatic about it, as I don’t scorn to use magic items from the DMG, Moldvay’s monster write-ups from his rulebook and modules, Holmes in a zillion little ways (especially early in a campaign), Judges Guild stuff, etc.

[foxroe]

Apr 14, 2011 17:05:06 GMT -6 pessimisthalfling said:

I just took my first glance at the combat chapter in the AD&D DMG. It looks kind of intimidating, but I'm keeping an open mind. If worse comes to worst, I'll adopt the pretty simple combat system in the Complete Rules. Hopefully it won't destroy any sort of cohesion within the game rules.

It's not to bad, so long as you take your time and slowly read through it a few times. It's a fantastic system, especially if you want to use miniatures. Also, this document helps alot: members.cox.net/dmprata/ADDICT.pdf

chicagowiz said:

Heh. Great question and an interesting can of worms.

S&W Complete is "based" on the original version of D&D (OD&D) as written in 1974, plus the various supplements to OD&D that followed (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry) and some of the content from TSR magazines that was written for OD&D (Strategic Review magazine, early issues of Dragon) PLUS some creative reinterpretation by the author(s).

Advanced D&D (AD&D) was released in 1978 and represented Gary Gygax's "vision" of a "unified" set of rules that everyone would follow, while OD&D was more of a toolkit.

At the end of the day, though, it's all D&D.

So while using S&W Complete might help you understand specifics of AD&D, it could be said that those changes or difficult points may be because AD&D was going in a more complex or comprehensive direction than the source material for S&W Complete (OD&D+supplements) and therefore you might not have as complete a picture as you might think.

If you want a more modern restating of AD&D, I highly recommend going and downloading OSRIC - this is a modern retroclone of 1e AD&D and is about as good as it gets for clarifying AD&D. It's a large book, but that's because it combines the original AD&D 3 core books into one tome. And by tome, I mean if you get the print version, you can kill someone hitting them with it...

Just remember though, at the end of the day, it's all D&D and what you want to have happen at your table is what's supposed to happen at your table. Good luck!

This+1.