Screw Box Sets - I Want a Kard & Magica Ziplock Bag Set!

Ziplock bag sets? I remember them from the beginning of the eighties while sifting through the shelves of game stores. Cheaply printed booklets and sheets, in a dull, vaguely-transparent plastic sheath, usually with a dot-matrix printer sticker explaining the contents. Good lord, what a beautiful thing!

I love Gabor Lux's adventures for the Wilderlands and Fomalhaut; I love what has been translated (or I have translated myself) of the rules for his 3E/retro-clone hybrid Kard & Magica (Sword & Magic in English...but I prefer Kard & Magica!); I want them all, in digest-booklet form, with Gabor Lux generated artwork, in a greasy zip-lock set with a dot-matrix printer label!

Jewel Throne Update & 'Catholic' Retro-Clone Stat Block

Firstly, I HAVE THE JOESKY BARBARIAN CLASS WRITE-UP ON MY COMPUTER!!1 It emulates the over-the-top cartoon shirtless cliche, and also has an Encounter Critical style level advancement scheme! Between this guy and the Netherwerks Robot Fighter, one of the themes of this issue will be "Comic Book Character Classes," which is pretty cool. I wish someone would make a retro-clone-ish RPG designed to emulate eighties fantasy comic books like THE WARLORD and ARION: LORD OF ATLANTIS...

Secondly, I have a rough assembled document of all of the material I have so far, and at digest-size with 10-point Arial type, it's over sixty pages.

Also, Red Box Vancouver stalwart Johnstone has a submission he's working on, "...a random technology generator for Planet Algol and other Swords & Saucers style games. Or Gamma World and post-apocalyptic settings. And Jack Kirby settings." Jack Kirby settings!

As I'm compiling and editing the material, I'm trying to make it as "catholic" as possible, with the goal of including the information needed to quickly use the material with a variety of retro-clones & D&Ds (without going overboard and bloating the text!).

Here's examples of a stat-block format I'm using:

Bloakang Drongthur
AC 5[14]<16>, Fighter-1, HP 6, Move 90'(30'), Attack hooked pole-hatchet (1d10), Save Fighter-1[14], Morale 9, Alignment neutral (evil); chain mail, hooked pole-hatchet, dagger, 16 gp in a belt pouch.

Beslimed Moat Lurker
AC 6[13]<15>, HD 2+1, HP 9, Move 60'(20')/swim 120'(40'), Attack 2 suckered limbs (1d4/1d4 + attach and blood drain), Save Fighter-2[16], Morale 6, Alignment chaotic (evil), Special on an attack roll of 20 a suckered limb will attach and automatically inflict 1d4 points of damage through blood drain every round; a successful open door roll is required to pull an attached limb off, inflicting another 1d4 points of damage to the victim.

The Armor Class value within the '< >' is the value for use with LOTFP WFRPG, with the preceding brackets containing the ascending Swords & Wizardry value. I find the standard Swords & Wizardry AC notation elegant, buy my "triple" version is pretty clunky. Movement is presented in B/X format to accommodate those of us with poor math skills. The Save entry includes both the standard D&D reference and the Swords & Wizardry value in brackets. I am considering including Fortitude/Reflex/Will values for compatibility with Kard & Magica/Swords & Magic and the forthcoming Goodman Games DCC RPG, but I don't want to bloat the stat-block. I'd like to include XP values for the different standard D&D variants, but again, I don't want to bloat the stat-block.

Send In The (Retro-) Clones(-ish Games)!

"...Blah Blah Blah...Why do these jerkwads continue rereleasing old D&D with their houserules tacked on? LOTFPWFRPG was bad enough, but if DCCRPG, WOTRP, and AS&SOH are released I'm going to totally freak out on some internet forum..."

- Some internet dude

Castles & Crusades, OSRIC, BFRPG, LL, S&W Core, S&W WB, LL AEC, LOTFPWFRPG, S&W Complete, DCCRPG, AS&SOH... sheesh are there ever a lot of retro-clone(ish) games out there...with more coming.

As many pundits have observed, not only is it bad enough that these ungrateful hacks are raping the legacy of Gygax, Arneson & co. before pasting their own names on it and gouging the consumer for their intellectual theft, but there seems to be no end to this madness. In addition to a legion of unimaginative hacks, Swords & Wizardry Complete will be for sale any second, and next year sees the release of both the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, Warriors of the Red Planet, and the Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. "What's the point? I already know how to play D&D, I already have the original books or can just buy them used, these retro-clone publishers are a bunch of assholes...THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES!"

Myself? I love 'em (well, maybe not so much with C&C although I dig prime attributes as a skill system), and I can't get enough of them. Sure I own the B/X D&D and AD&D originals (I was considering shopping around for OD&D material...but I've got to save up for university, nevermind that the wifely creature would probably kill me). I'll be buying S&W Complete (although granting bows two attacks per round fills me with furious nerd rage!), I'll be buying DCC RPG, WOTRP, and I'll definately be getting AS&SOH (haha... Ass-Oh!).

What good do they serve? In the case of the clones that cleave to the original sources, they make for a nice reference work as well as serving as an alternative perspective. And they allow several options to play oldschool D&D with the variety of ruleset that suits your fancy.

In the case of the games that deviate to a significant degree from the originals, they serve as a set of alternative and additional rules for my use as a DM. Swords and Wizardry has the inspired "single saving throw," which I have become quite enamored with, and LOTFP has a plethora of legacy D&D compatible rules options (investments, starvation, etc.).

It's much like the original "Houseruled D&D Clone", Empire of the Petal Throne, at first blush it's just a different variety of OD&D...but how about using the EOTPT Magician class and associated systems instead of the Magic-User? How about using the level based combat damage option? How about using the Monsters and Treasures instead of the D&D slection? How about all of the other rules that replace or supplement the original D&D material? It's a fucking buffet man, and I have a big plate and a big appetite.

And since all of these clones, simulacrums, and "house ruled systems" all share 90-99% of their D&D DNA, it's easy enough to mix-and-match them to make YOUR GAME.

"I want a game with the Swords & Wizardry single saving throw, EPT Magicians, LOTFP Specialists, C&C SIEGE system for task resolution, and AD&D Fighters & weapon proficiencies" ...easy enough to do man!

And if your choice D&D-ish rpg doesn't have the rules for a certain subject you're interested in, and you want rules for it, it's easy enough to find them in another D&D-ish rpg. "I need castle construction costs; rules for how much room henchmen need; maritime warfare rules...good thing I have this stack of retro-clones!"

So, in summary, I don't think retro-clones are redundant; I don't care if they fragment the market (ha!); and I'm looking forward to more of them!