Another Appendix N Score

Every year, our local Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio station sponsors a charity booksale, in support of childrens' literacy projects. This is the second year of my attendance. Again, I came away with a nice collection of Appendix N science fiction and fantasy paperbacks. Here is a list of those paperbacks, for which I paid a buck a book:



• Anderson (Flandry of Terra, Flandry-Agent of the Terran Empire, Flandry-A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows, The Man-Kzin Wars, Three Hearts and Three Lions)



• Anthony (A Spell For Chameleon)



• Aspirin (Shadows of Sanctuary, Face of Chaos)



• Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes, Return of Tarzan, Beasts of Tarzan, Warlord of Mars, Gods of Mars, Thuvia Maid of Mars)



• Carter (Flashing Swords #5)



• deCamp (Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Adventurer, Conan the Buccaneer, Conan the Warrior, Conan the Usurper, Conan the Avenger, Conan of Aquilonia, Conan of the Isles, Conan and the Spider God)



• Doyle (The Lost World)



• Eco (The Name of the Rose)



• Eddison (A Fish Dinner in Memison, Mistress of Mistresses)



• Foster (Splinter of the Mind's Eye, The Time of the Transference)



• Glut (Empire Strikes Back)



• Haggard (The World's Desire, Heart of the World, People of the Mist)



• Howard (People of the Black Circle, Hour of the Dragon, Marchers of Valhalla, Swords of Shahrazar, Skull-Face, Red Nails, Black Canaan)



• Jackson (Fighting Fantasy)



• Harrison (The Stainless Steel Rat)



• Lee (The Book of the Damned, The Book of the Beast)



• McCaffrey (Dinosaur Planet)



• Moorcock (Legends from the end of Time)



• Moore (Jirel of Joiry)



• Norman (Slave Girl of Gor, Tarnsman of Gor, Time Slave)



• Norton (Quag Keep, Lord of Thunder)



• Nowlan (Armageddon 2419 AD)



• Offutt (Sword of the Gael, Demon in the Mirror)



• Perry (A Warlock's Blade)



• Saberhagen (Empire of the East)



• Smith, E.E. (Triplanetary)



• Stasheff (The Warlock Wandering, The Warlock is Missing, Warlock and Son, The Majesty's Wizard)



• Van Vogt (Quest for the Future)



• Vance (City of the Chasch, The Dirdir, Big Planet, Galactic Effectuator, The Blue World, the Anome)



• Zelazny (Hand of Oberon, Dilvish The Damned)



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Is Dungeons and Dragons A Swords And Sorcery RPG?

Considering that my introduction to swords and sorcery literature came long after discovering Dungeons and Dragons, I can perhaps be excused for failing to note the overt references to swords and sorcery in the D&D rulebooks of the day.

My earliest experiences with Dungeons and Dragons were in the campaigns run by friends of my older brother. Those campaigns were heavily informed by Mormon mythology: my character's name was Archeantus, and the other players had similar Book of Mormon names. I seem to recall us creeping through a cavern in one session, looking for the lair of the Gadianton Robbers.

Thus, my earliest D&D experiences were quite unlike those of you who were emulating the fantasy fiction of Howard, Lieber, Vance, Burroughs, Lovecraft and their ilk.

The earliest reference to swords and sorcery role-playing that I can find in D&D appears in the 1975 Greyhawk Supplement to the Original Dungeons and Dragons game. In that rulebook, Gary Gygax writes:

"If you enjoy fantasy you will never be sorry you were introduced to the swords and sorcery of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS games." - Greyhawk, pg. 3

And in the preface to the 1979 AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, Gary Gygax makes the following remark:

No two (Advanced D&D) campaigns will ever by the same, but all will have the common ground necessary to maintaining the whole as a viable entity about which you and your players can communicate with the many thousands of others who also find sword and sorcery role playing gaming an amusing and enjoyable pastime." - DMG, pg. 8


It may simply be a function of my ignorance of the meaning of the term swords and sorcery, but I don't consider either Original or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons to be a swords and sorcery roleplaying game. Generic fantasy, perhaps. But not swords and sorcery.
There are many reasons I hold that view. Here are two.
First, the inclusion of Magic Users as a playable class seems antithetical to a swords and sorcery game: few S&S stories feature a spell-caster as protagonist, and where they do, they usually pay a steep price for dabbling in the dark arts. Most spell-casters in S&S literature are at best distrusted, at worst, they are the dread antagonists of the story.
Second, few if any S&S tales include demi-humans such as elves or dwarves as protagonists. Where they do appear, they are malicious spirits or fearsome creatures of the earth.
There are more than a few old-school bloggers playing swords and sorcery campaigns, but most have house-ruled D&D to more fully emulate the genre, or are using a different ruleset to capture the feel of swords and sorcery adventures.
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Wanderer RPG: Traveller Fantasy

Of course, Wanderer RPG, is not, as far as I know, in production, although you just know that some DIY publisher would have a runaway OSR hit on their hands (that is, by selling at least 100 copies) if they actually published a playable version of a Traveller-based Fantasy game.


I won't rehash the genesis of this Wanderer RPG mock-up. You can find several threads talking about it on various role playing boards. Over at the OD&D board, they have a thread devoted to the creation of Wanderer RPG. There are several threads speculating on what Wanderer RPG would look like, over at RPG.net here and here. There is even a thread on the travellerrpg boards which you can find at the link here.

In a fit of nostalgia, I just broke out my old Traveller LBB's. Ah, the memories.Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/sword-n-sorcery
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The Beginnings Of My Pulp Fantasy Collection

Every year, one of our local radio stations, CBC 1010, co-sponsors a charity book sale, the proceeds of which go to providing children with books and mentors.

I have never attended one of those book sales, until this year. As I arrived, I saw hordes of people, leaving with boxes of books, some of them using handcarts and trolleys to cart away several boxes at a time.

The line-up to enter the booksale was about 300 people long, and there must have been over 800 in the arena where the sale was being held. By the time I moved up to the front of the line, there were another 200 people behind me. My expectations were that by the time I entered the arena, all of the good books would have been already picked over.

But when I finally entered the arena, some 45 minutes after I arrived, I squealed like a girl (like a little girl, I tells you!), to discover a veritable treasure trove of Pulp Fantasy, virtually ignored by the other attendees. I picked up over 60 books (for a $1 each), including:

Brackett, Leigh: "The Sword Of Rhiannon"
Carter, Lin: "Thongor and the Dragon City", "Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus", "Zanthodon", "Tower at the Edge of Time", and "The Black Star"
Moorcock, Michael: "The Warlord of the Air", "The Masters of the Pit", "The City of the Beast"
Vance, Jack: "The Dying Earth", "Best of Jack Vance", "The Dragon Masters"
Norton, Andre: "Witch World", "Sargasso of Space", "High Sorcery", "Warlock of Witch World", "Exiles of the Stars"
DeCamp, L Sprague: "Land of Unreason", "Warlocks and Warriors"
Smith, Clark Ashton: "Genius Loci", "Lost Worlds", "The Abominations of Yondo"
Norman, John: Captive, Tribesmen, Hunters, Marauders and Priest-Kings of Gor
Eddison, E. R.: "The Worm Ourobouros"
Holmes, John Eric: "Mahars of Pellucidar"
Niven, Larry: "The Magic Goes Away"

And a host of others, including the pictured novel, above, called "Demon In The Mirror" by Andrew J. Offutt and Richard K. Lyon.

On the Back Cover of Demon In The Mirror, they have a recommendation from none other than Andre Norton:

"Not since Jirel of Joiry has there been a sword-wielding heroine like Tiana Highrider. For a long time the field of sword and sorcery writing has been waiting for a swordswoman who can stand beside Conan, Brak, the Grey Mouser ... It is good to know that this is only the first of what I hope will be many adventures to come."Source URL: https://idontwanttobeanythingotherthanme.blogspot.com/search/label/sword-n-sorcery
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Legends of Steel: A Review

I have been planning on purchasing the Legends of Steel sword and sorcery setting for several months, but it took until Christmas to bring those plans to fruition.

Legends of Steel is the brain-child of Jeff “Evil DM” Mejia, whose blog can be found here. The Legends of Steel setting has already been ported over to the Savage Worlds and Barbarians of Lemuria RPG game systems. I am familiar with both of those game systems, having recently purchased and reviewed Barbarians of Lemuria, and having also purchased the Savage Worlds Explorers Edition and Fantasy Companion. In fact, the Legends of Steel setting is what originally twigged my interest in Barbarians of Lemuria.

The Legends of Steel book that I received is the Savage Worlds Edition (LoSSW). Having read both Savage Worlds and Barbarians of Lemuria RPGs, I now wish I had asked Santa for the Barbarians of Lemuria edition of Legends of Steel, if only because I prefer Barbarians of Lemuria to Savage Worlds.

I should explain at this point that my preference for the Barbarians of Lemuria over the Savage Worlds game system has more to do with my dislike for skill-based RPGs than any deficiency in the Savage Worlds game system itself. As far as skill-based RPGs go, Savage Worlds is considered, by many, to the ultimate skill-based system, and that game system has a shelf-full of related settings and expansion materials to its credit.

LoSSW is, of course, a licensed Savage Worlds product. At 70-pages long, and 8.5 x 11 saddle-stitched, LoSSW is both setting and rules-supplement. The interior is black and white, with a smattering of sword and sorcery appropriate artwork within. The characters depicted on the front cover of LoSSW also serve as sample characters in the final appendix of this book.

Roughly 20 pages of this 70-page book consist of the rules supplement. As it is meant for the Savage Worlds setting, eight of those pages consist of new sword-and-sorcery related “Edges.” I presume those would have been relavoured “Boons” had this been the Barbarians of Lemuria edition of Legends of Steel. The remaining 12 pages of the rules supplement portion provide advice on preparing for and participating in a sword-and-sorcery campaign.

The new Edges in LoSSW are fairly well known. Among the most infamous of those 32 new edges: “Sexy Armor” allowing the character to run around in a chainmail bikini or loincloth but be considered to have chainmail armor, for game purposes; “Just the Thing” allowing the character to somehow always have just the thing the party needs to get out of their current predicament; and “Cannon Fodder” allowing the character to recruit extra henchmen when the need arises. Those new edges certainly complement the sword-and-sorcery flavour of this game-setting.

The next 35 pages of LoSSW serve as a high-level overview of the Erisa game-world. That game world is vintage sword-and-sorcery, as if torn from the pages of your favorite pulp novel or magazine. Jeff gives you enough information regarding each land, city and kingdom in Erisa to whet your appetite, without overwhelming or restricting your freedom to make each location your own. He uses the SWOT format (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) for each entry, which is invaluable as a starting point, while still allowing you to customize this setting. Among my favorite locations: the Moor of the Witch Queen, and the Raven Hills, near Broaq-Nohar, and the Dark Lands near Radu. Both would be ripe for throwing at a party of adventurers!

The last 10 pages or so consist of a introductory adventure and sample characters (using the Savage Worlds character creation system, of course).

Oddly, one of the missing elements of this book is a bestiary. While a bestiary is not required, it has become such a staple of game-settings that it was a bit jarring to discover that LoSSW does not contain one. Granted, any sword and sorcery monsters you may need can probably be obtained from a host of Savage Worlds or other products, including the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion. But I always figure that a few extra snakes could always be thrown in for good measure, don’t you agree?

One minor comment about the choice of binding. Both the Savage Worlds Explorers Edition and Fantasy Companion are 6.5 by 9 perfect-bound. If I had my druthers, I would love to see the same binding format employed for LoSSW, rather than larger saddle-stitched format, if only to fit more elegantly with my other two Savage Worlds books.


If, in addition to the new edges and rules supplement, you are intending to use the Erisa world, or at least mine it for great ideas for your own sword-and-sorcery campaign, LoSSW is well-worth the $23 asking price. The Barbarians of Lemuria edition is also available as a $15 PDF, along with a $35 hardcover from Lulu. At $35, the hard-cover Barbarians of Lemuria version seems relatively pricey, but if it also contains the bestiary, new flaws, and careers promised in the BoL PDF version, perhaps it is worth it.
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