Some belated Swords & Wizardry stuff

Along with my other projects and mapping jobs, I been working on my own retro-clone. I don't want to compete with Swords and Wizardry but I really want a complete book that I can just print and sell when I need it. It hard to sell supplements locally when the core books are hard to get.

My retro-clone is largely going to be a merge of Swords and Wizardry Core plus the Majestic Wilderlands supplement and the rules I developed since 2008. It will function as a 2nd edition Majestic Wilderlands supplement  as well. Think of it as Swords & Wizardry tailored for a specific campaign. When I do get it done (probably still be a while) I will promote as a super-supplement.

The main thing that needs work on are the monster lists and the spell lists. It not sufficient for this project just to copy and paste from the Swords and Wizardry reference document. I want to present how I used or will be using that spell in my campaign. For some spells there are little differences, for example Magic Missile

Magic Missile
Magic-User, 1st Level, Range: 150 feet, Duration: Immediate

With a gesture one or more glowing missiles of magical force erupt from the caster’s hands. The caster is able to hurl one missile starting at 1st level, three missiles at 5th level, and five missiles at 10th level. Each missile may hit the same or different targets at the caster’s choice. 

The caster must pick one of the following two options at the time of casting.
• Roll to hit the target(s) at a +1 bonus and have each missile deal 1d6+1 damage.
• Automatically hit the target(s) and have each missile deal 1d4+1 damage.

Other spells I rewrote to reflect how I handle things in the Majestic Wilderlands. For example I have no Astral Plane. The various homes of the Gods are connected to the Wilderlands and to each other through a system of wolds.

Astral Spell
Magic-User, 9th Level, Range: 100 miles, 100 yards (underground), Duration: 2 hours.

The caster projects his astral form outside of the mortal realm of existence. While in astral form he can see or hear anything that occurs in the mortal realm. Various colors appear to be washed out. Other astral forms can be see within line of sight as version of their mortal body except colored all white and luminous. Elves also appear the same way even if they are in mortal form.

The flow of mana can be seen and appears as thin brightly colored strands intertwined with creatures and objects. Likewise wolds are visible if they are within normal line of sight. They appear as globe anchored by a thick stalk to the ground with strands of brightly color mana surrounding it like a net. 

He cannot be seen except by those who are also in astral form. He can travel at speeds up to 100 miles per hour per character level above 18th. If the caster's mortal body is moved more than 100 miles from the location from where the Astral spell was cast the link to the astral form is broken and the caster dies.
If underground the top speed is limited to 120 feet per 10 minutes. Also if underground and the caster mortal body is moved more than 100 feet, the link to the astral form is severed and the caster dies.

Caster can cast spells and perform rituals in the immediate vicinity of his astral form. Any spell or ritual components on the physical body of the caster is carried along in astral form and is consumed when used as part of a spell or ritual. The caster must roll a 1d20 and subtracts the level of the spell. If the caster does not roll a 1 or higher than the spell fails and is lost.

After every casting attempt, successful or not, another d20 is rolled, subtract -1 for every two spell levels starting at -1 for a first level spell. If the caster doesn't roll a 1 or higher than the caster astral form is immediately pulled back into his mortal body and the Astral spell ends.

Still a long way to go. I am in the B's on the monster list and in the A's on the spell list. I was hung up on the Astral spell for a while until the inspiration for the above came. One thing is that I am adding Harvest notes to all the monsters. Tim gets a kick out of harvesting monster parts and I figure it will make for a cool addition to the game to have formal notes.

Ant, Giant (Queen), AC 3[16], HD 10; HP 31; ATK 1; HTB +10; DMG 1d6 (bite); MV 30’; Save 5; Special: None; Harvest: Small Mandibles [2] 10d, Chitin Pieces [10d], Ant Queen Fluid [100d/10 gallons]; CL/XP 8/800;