First Post of 2023 - Gonzo Post-Apocalyptic Swords & Wizardry!

 

Public domain image by Burnt Pineapple Productions

My first post in this blog for 2023 is an idea I am thinking about for quite a while: writing a post-apocalyptic hack for Swords & Wizardry: Core or Swords & Wizardry: Complete. As I noted before, I am returning to Swords & Wizardry from other d20 OSR rulesets (such as OSE and before that, ACKS), as S&W has a growing community here in Israel, and I am very actively involved in writing material for it in both Hebrew and English. I also know that S&W is extremely hackable, perfect for creating variant rules.

Now, why hack S&W for an apocalypse? After all, I have my own 2d6 post-apocalyptic game, Cepheus Atom, and there are several other prominent and excellent gonzo-apocalyptic games, most notably Mutant Future by Goblinoid Games and Mutant Crawl Classics by Goodman Games. However, Cepheus Atom is less suitable for the dungeon crawling I had in mind, and I find Mutant Crawl Classics to be a bit too random for my tastes; I am also less fond of some of the design choices in Mutant Future (such as the significant starting hit points).

So, here I am, hacking S&W: Core/Complete for gonzo-apocalyptic gaming, as a side project. Right now, this is a "hobby" project, but it may get published in the future.

What do I want from my hack?

• If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Much of Swords & Wizardry works perfectly both in a fantasy dungeon or in a gonzo-apocalyptic swamp. No need to write the combat rules, the monster design methods, or even much of the Fighter and the Thief.
• Ease of play, related to the above point. Not making the rules unnecessarily complicated by my hacks and additions.
• Strong dungeon crawl and hex crawl support. The "Old School D&D game loop" of exploration, finding treasure, experience, and mechanical character growth. But mainly, a strong emphasis on exploration of ruins and wilds.
• Gonzo! Mutants! Psionics! Robots! Sentient animals! Mobile sentient plants! Gengineered dinosaurs! Ray gun! Cool stuff that will make my inner child shine with joy.
• Complete compatibility with S&W and most OSR. Once again, the hack must not change the basics too much; I want to be able to port monsters on the fly and turn them into mutants! Muhahahahaha!

Also, behold the tentative setting, the Slag Marsh!