Frog God Games 2013 Holiday Grab Bag Unboxing

Saddle stitched adventures fore, perfect bound modules plus ToH III hardcover aft.

One Large Box

- S&W Dice set

- S&W Patch

- Orcus Sticker

- Rappan Athuk side view map

- S&W Encounter Cards

- S&W Monster Cards

- K4: The Coils of Set 

- K5: The Six Spheres of Zaihhess 

- K7: Tower of Jhedophar 

- K9: Elemental Moon 

- F1: Vindication 

- H1: The Bonegarden 

- L2: Vampires and Liches 

- G9: A Lamentation of Thieves 

- M3: Maze of Zayene 3: Tower Chaos 

- Tome of Horrors III hardcover (3E)

- Hall of Bones (S&W) - A Free RPG Day module, which I wanted since I can never make it to the event.

- MCMLXXV, in Grimmsgate cover (S&W) - Have it already from the S&W Kickstarter, same mismatch cover coincidentally.

- ST10 - ST14: Slumbering Tsar The Hidden Citadel Parts 2 - 6 (PF) - Already have the ST hardcover.

The NG modules are great because I don't have most of them. Also very pleased with the miscellaneous items as they were kickstarter extras I didn't add-on at the time. Cost of the large grab bag was $100 plus priority shipping. Going by retail prices the box certainly more than makes up for its value.

A quick scan of eBay shows the modules going anywhere between $9 to $15 with the average price working out to around $10. Of course, since these adventures are not rare, they do crop up as auction lots quite often for very reasonable prices. With 15 full adventures at $10 a piece, the Free RPG Day adventure is about $4, ToH III is around $16, we're looking at $170 for the books alone. Combined with the other materials, I would optimistically value of the box at about $200. 

However, leave it to my luck to end up with 6 modules as duplicates of the few FGG adventures I already have. This immediately takes out $60 worth of value from the box. None of the items are particularly uncommon or even in demand given the existence of the excellent Slumbering Tsar hardcover and we've been flooded with the MCMLXXV module covered in the Grimmsgate skin. As my shelf space dwindles, I have to find some way to liquidate them.

Compared to acquiring out-of-print modules on eBay, with some patience, it is feasible to obtain these modules for a similar price. Overall it was a wash due to the duplicates in my collection. If the Slumbering Tsar modules had be just about anything else, the equation would change drastically.

Such is the way of random grab bags.

S&W Appreciation Day: At the Confluence of the New and the Old

I’m not an old school gamer by any means, despite starting at the end of AD&D 2nd Edition (and there are many who argue 2E was not nearly old school enough). I spent most of my gaming years in the d20/3E/3.5E trenches and more recently started digging around its offshoot, the Pathfinder system. It was through Pathfinder that I inadvertently found myself backing Frog God Game’s Kickstarter for Swords & Wizardry Complete, by way of their previous Kickstarter for Rappan Athuk.

Before this time I had been tangentially aware of the OSR movement as some nebulous thing on the fringes of my gaming sphere. I downloaded the free PDFs of the various system for potential future reference and had trouble differentiating them. They were all just an alphabet soup, OSRIC, S&W, LL, BFRPG, etc.

At around the same time, I started noticing the d20SWSRD link on the sidebar navigation of the d20PFSRD. Hmm, I thought to myself, this one OSR system is effectively marketing itself to my new school senses. By joining forces with some of the most prominent third party companies, sites, and organizations of the Pathfinder system, S&W is making headway into a significant population of gamers, PFRPG is giving WotC’s D&D behemoth a run for its pedigree after all.

If this were some type of OSR contest, I would say S&W took steps towards "winning" by dramatically increasing its profile and adoption by the limited number of gamers. Except this isn’t a race. Reading the many blog posts and comments for Sword & Wizardry Appreciation Day, it is evident there is much overlap in the various OSR systems. Being based on the d20 OGL, the OSR games also invariably take some influence from the mainline d20 games. It is all one grand continuum.

From my exposure to the energetic discussions, I’m starting to gain a better grasp of the different OSR games, their differences, and ways in which they may be remixed. One informs the other and vice versa, and there is room for a multi-channel infusion between other d20 games, and even across genres (sci-fi applications of S&W in particular have caught my interest).

The cross-pollination coupled with the ease of sharing and dialogue through web-based medium is the great strength of these games and the communities formed around them. Today may be Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day, but it is in actuality a day of appreciation for gaming in general. I think this is a good day, not for one system or for the old school, but for all system and all schools. As the old saying goes, the rising tide lifts all ships. We’ve a lot of ships on the water and it’s wonderful seeing people signal each other across the waves to share cool stuff.

Let the Games Begin!

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day has arrived!

While the focus of this event is on the ideas presented in the system and the directions people take them, what’s a shindig without some actual *stuff* to go with it. Two places are running a one day sale during this occasion. One is Frog God Games and here’s what they had to say about their offer:

"Frog God Games has discounted their entire line of Swords & Wizardry products for 1 day only in celebration of Swords & Wizardry appreciation day (April 17th 2013). The discount is good for 25% off S&W Products but you must use coupon* code SWApprDay on April 17th 2013 at check out.

*The coupon excludes items less than $1, S&W Cards, Pre-Orders, and Subscriptions."

Follow the link below to see what strikes your fancy.

Link: http://www.talesofthefroggod.com/products.html

Of course the core rules and all sorts of other goodies can always be found here for FREE: http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/?page_id=18

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Another place running a sale is the D20PFSRD store. They’ve been very supportive of Swords & Wizardry, putting up the open game content of the S&W products on their site along with their SRD of Pathfinder open game rules and mechanics as well as Mutants and Mastermind. The wonders and convenience of technology. D20PFSRD’s promo code is: SWAD252013. Link below to the corresponding products:

Link: http://shop.d20pfsrd.com/collections/swords-wizardry-appreciation-day

The Swords & Wizardry SRD is available FREE, searchable and indexed online at: http://www.d20swsrd.com/

In the beginning …

Welcome to The Campaign Expanse.

'What's with the name?' would be an apt question to answer in order to establish the primary focus of this blog. I’ve wanted to start a gaming and general geekery blog for some time, but through the course of various obligations and distractions never initiated one with the proper time or effort. A recent set of influences has provided me the impetus to finally try my hand at blogging.

Part of the reason for the long delay to action was a muddled sense of purpose. What would I post about? The thought brewed for some time before I looked back and realized the topics I gravitate towards through my years as a gamer (and geek of other media) were the campaign settings. I like to read about them, discuss them, try them out and play in them, buy the setting guides, examine the different versions, even study their publication history, and when the opportunity arises add to them.

My fascination with settings and worlds was quite obvious, I'm surprised it took me this this long to express, but there was never a need to reflect on something meant for fun, since the objective of fulfillment overrides most requirements for objective scrutiny. As a nod to the campaign settings that inspired me when I first entered the hobby, this blog takes its naming cues from the campaign accessories, regional supplements, and most obviously the campaign expansions of the classic campaign settings.

While I will write about the concept of settings and the settings themselves here, it will certainly not be the sole subject. I've collected an assortment of different game systems, adventures, and other books over the years and continue to increase my library. Expect the usual random thoughts, reviews, product hauls, as well as posts on other non-gaming topics, though I will keep to things of interests within related genres and fandom.

One of the more recent games to enter my library is Swords & Wizardry. My exposure to the OSR community and retro-clone type games is limited. Although I have electronic copies of the more prominent OSR games (because they’re free, why not keep the main PDF for reference), Swords & Wizardry is one of the few OSR games I have acquired a print copy. Thanks partly to Kickstarter and partly to Frog God Games who I previously purchased Pathfinder materials from. Crowd-funding may be a source of many posts for this blog as I have several products derived from these sorts of projects or due from such projects. Come to think of it, this blog just became a lot more interesting due to that thought alone.

A major reason for finally getting a blog off the ground is the upcoming Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th. The growing list of blogs and overall energy of the S&W and OSR communities is infectious. Since I have a perfectly good copy of Swords & Wizardry in hand, I figured I would finally crack open the book. For Sword & Wizardry Appreciation Day, my perspective will be mostly as a 'newish school' gamer looking at an old school style system for the first time, 'newish' since I started at the end of 2nd edition (and still play the system), but spent most of my time in 3E/3.5E and more recently Pathfinder. Then again, by now with 5E on the way, everything is 'old school' in some sense. Everything under the many suns of the 'verse is fair gaming.

H