Supplement V: Swords & Spells • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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Supplement V: Swords & Spells
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ThirstyStirge
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Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Last Visit: May 11, 2008

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:03 am

Hello, all!

Long time lurker, first time poster! :lol:

I've read that Swords & Spells, the mass combat/wargaming supplement was rife with mistakes, yet when I ask around to various RPG or D&D-specific fora about this, I've gotten no response.

Has anyone here played with this set of rules?

What exactly are these errors in the text? Are they straightforward typos, or serious structural issues with the playability of the rules?

I collect many mass combat and miniatures wargaming rulebooks, and am interested in getting a copy of this, but would like to hear some appraisals of its quality (or lack thereof) before purchasing a copy.

Thanks in advance!

Badmike
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:10 pm

ThirstyStirge wrote:Hello, all!
Long time lurker, first time poster!

I've read that Swords & Spells, the mass combat/wargaming supplement was rife with mistakes, yet when I ask around to various RPG or D&D-specific fora about this, I've gotten no response.

Has anyone here played with this set of rules?

What exactly are these errors in the text? Are they straightforward typos, or serious structural issues with the playability of the rules?

I collect many mass combat and miniatures wargaming rulebooks, and am interested in getting a copy of this, but would like to hear some appraisals of its quality (or lack thereof) before purchasing a copy.

Thanks in advance!

We did use these rules for large scale battles back in the day. Sorry it's been about 25 years so I can't recall specific issues, but from my vague recollection it seems the rules contradict themselves in places. I remember he eventually came up with a hybrid system using stuff from S&S and our own imagination.

Mike B

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
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Zenopus
Verbose Collector

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Location: Portown

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:40 pm

I searched around a little & found many references to the errors in Swords & Spells, but nothing specific.

You might try Dragonsfoot.org - there's some OD&D players there. Try the 'Classic' forum, which includes OD&D.

If you want to preview Swords & Spells before buying a print copy, you can buy a legal pdf (of decent but not great quality) from rpgnow.com or paizo.com for $4-5.

Anybody here know if any text corrections were made to later printings of S&S?

sauromatian
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Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:34 am

According to Murphy's Rules [SJG], orcs in S&S have a negative point value, so you can have an infinite number of them. There are a few lead collectors out there who might be said to have the required infinite number of orc minis.

Badmike
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Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:03 pm

sauromatian wrote:According to Murphy's Rules [SJG], orcs in S&S have a negative point value, so you can have an infinite number of them. There are a few lead collectors out there who might be said to have the required infinite number of orc minis.

Yeh, but can you EVER be said to have enough orc minis????

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

ThirstyStirge
Collector

Posts: 4
Joined: Mar 16, 2008
Last Visit: May 11, 2008

Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:51 pm

I asked around at DragonsFoot and Knight-n-Knaves, but got no real answers. Most of the folks at the former are more AD&D and BD&D, not supplemental OD&D. Too many crazy factions in this roller-coaster RPG world! :roll:

bbarsh
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Location: Milford, Michigan

Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:42 pm

Badmike wrote:
Yeh, but can you EVER be said to have enough orc minis????

Mike B.

No.

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

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