As a Player, Swords & Wizardry

  Recently started playing in a Swords & Wizardry game on Roll20 as a player. Stone Hell Megadungeon of which I am a fan and have run but its always great to be able to set back, flush everything I know out of my head and just play. Except I have not been able to get into character, just snarky beer and pretzels auto pilot. What the fuck is up with that?

   Thinking I will just have to 'evolve' into a personality for this fighter type. I joke he is not really Lawful but of the (L)Awful alignment. On a one man quest to preserve the Order of civilization by crushing the wilder monster races into submission for the 'good' of humanity. Rules of conduct when dealing with Chaos are suspended, & I actually got the party to allow me to poison the drinking water in a living area within the Quiet Halls since it appeared that it was a cultist's chamber. Drink up buttercup and choke to death on sweet silent poisonous justice. 

   Since it was good old fashioned 3d6 in order I ended up witha fighter with these stats: Str 11 Dex 18 Con 9 Int 13 Wis 14 Cha 12 with the standard max hit points at First level. Handy since I have no Con bonus and seems to be the most commonly used House Rule in all of Dungeons & Dragons plus its entirety of Retroclones. Since it is OSR it usually is best not to be to much of the personality and back story for a character. I mean its two sessions and I have not broke 1000 XP yet and I need 2000 XP to level. With no Prime Requisite at all so even with a good loot session it seems it will be about 4 - 5 sessions before I get to roll some sweet d8 hit points to weather the storm.

   This was my first time playing Swords & Wizardry and it is not bad. B/X meets 2e ascending AC is best as I can describe it with a single save number. Not sure how I feel about a unified single save but its cool since this party appears to be all beef and light on casters. OSR forces you to become cautious, tactical and smart with your resources. I usually enjoy playing with other former military as we can coordinate squad style tactics with little conversation but it appears its just me and a younger crowd.

   Patterned my Fighter as a Dextrous viking /celtic warrior, perhaps a gallowglass. A Mish-Mosh in my heard but I dislike doing funny accents for a character so he is more like myself. Talkative and to the point, rude but honest. Went with Spear and Axe and was lucky enough to get Plate very quickly in the game so his Armor Class is above average which I intend to pair well with his High Dexterity. Swords & Wizardry only gives a +1 to AC and to hit for high Dexterity but I have a Parry option which is a -5 to be hit due to 18 Dexterity. DM/GM is allowing me to choose after initiative is rolled and I think that is an interesting way to go about it. If it appears I have the advantage press the attack and rope a dope otherwise. Fighting smart and not recklessly seems to fit nicely into the random stats.

   But for now I am enjoying the change of pace, Enjoying making foolish adventurer decisions. And delving into the depths of Stone Hell.

  

#OSR #MindsGaming #RPG #TableTop