Olde Swords Reign: Past, Present, and Future

This video covers where Olde Swords Reign came from, where it is now, and where it’s going. I’ve had a lot of questions about design choices and what’s coming, so here’s everything in one place.

The History

The original game was made by Scott Myers - my good friend, an evil genius who understands mechanics beautifully. At one point Scott wasn’t even going to release it, but he knew at least one person would play it. That person was me. I played the crap out of it.

It was simpler than what we have now. Four classes. A lot truer to original D&D.

Scott wanted an advanced version, so he created Advanced Old Swords Reign - full color, beautiful books. Monsters and treasure for the GM. Magic and the game for players. Classes went up to 20, more races, more spells. Stunning books.

The problem: color made them expensive. Scott was selling them at pretty much cost - still 30 quid a book. That changes who can play.

What I Learned Running It

I ran Advanced Old Swords Reign a lot. One thing I noticed: our assassin wanted certain abilities from different classes. I realized I could just cherry-pick feats. That got me thinking: do we actually need all these narrow classes?

That thought stayed with me until I took over the game.

My Design Criteria For Version 2

Affordable. No beautiful color book - black and white, small format, something that could print on demand cheap.

A toolkit. Everyone has house rules. There’s even a blank section in the back for people to write theirs. The game is designed to be expanded.

Easy to create for. The base mechanics are super simple. Simple doesn’t mean lacking variety - it means easy to make decisions on the fly.

Easy to run. Simple DCs, simple checks, simple monsters.

Classes that expand instead of restrict. Look at 5e - this huge smorgasbord of choices that drives you down narrow paths once you pick. Olde Swords Reign is the opposite: few base things that expand out. Create anything you want.

When people have a specific class, they become their class. They’re not a character - they become what’s on their sheet. That gives them permission to do things. I wanted characters to develop through play.

Emergent Story

This was central to everything.

Hindrances in play change how characters develop. That same assassin rolled “coward” as a hindrance. He thought it was unplayable. We went with it. He made a Charisma check at the start of every combat - if he failed, he’d hide for d4 rounds. Nobody else knew what was happening. They’d just see him make a roll and sometimes bolt. It developed his entire backstory.

The breathing mechanic - rolling for hit points after combat - defines how badly you were hurt.

Long rests take d4+1 days. You have to engage with your surroundings. When you go back to a dungeon, they’ve had time to prepare.

Random encounters aren’t just monsters. I’ve included what creatures are doing when you meet them.

Reaction rolls matter. Provisions matter. Wilderness matters.

Spells I Left Out

Goodberry is a perfect example of why I cut certain spells.

The best things in old school games happen when players face hard choices. Goodberry means they don’t have to worry about provisions, tracking across wilderness, or what to do when someone drops. It robs players of opportunities to shine and come up with creative solutions.

A lot of the later-edition spells did that. I didn’t want them in this game.

The Classes

You can create almost anything with four base classes:

• Fighter (including barbarian via feats)
• Expert (the Swiss Army class, replacing thief)
• Cleric
• Magic User (including illusionist - same class, different spell list)

Want an assassin? Use feats and background. Ranger? Fighter with some cleric. Paladin? Combine cleric and fighter - heavy on combat or heavy on magic, your choice. Bard? Absolutely doable.

The exception is Druid. Still figuring that out. As far as I’m concerned, druid is a cleric using the god of nature. I don’t think the class structure needs to fundamentally change, but I haven’t solved it yet.

The Future

Keep costs down. These books sell essentially at cost. I’ve made about two pounds forty over the last month. If you want to support the game, buy the PDF - that’s where I get money for art.

Create a setting. Most people will use their own settings anyway, but I want a place to put adventures. Development will happen on the website, free to download, until there’s enough that I can publish it.

Small expansions by biome. Arctic adventure, forest adventure, jungle. Each comes with custom monsters, random tables, maybe extra feats and races. Print-at-home booklets to keep costs down. The game expands naturally over time.

Adventures. I’ve seen some cool Arctic art, so that might come first.

DM Screen. Some people use them. I don’t personally, but I’ll make one.

The License. The OGL debacle broke my heart. I spent so much energy writing this game and then Wizards tried to take away the right to use it. The license will change - probably Creative Commons or AELF from Mythmere Games.

This Channel

I want to share house rules, show how to create monsters and spells, do adventure conversions. I ran Keep on the Borderlands, Night Below, Against the Reptile God, loads of Basic Fantasy modules.

One inspiration system I use: I bought a big pack of tiny d6s. Instead of inspiration at the start of every game, everyone gets a d6 they can hold. Roll it anytime, add it to any result, give the d6 back. Someone does something cool? I throw them another d6. There’s something about holding something physical. People loved it.

The Open Table Campaign

I ran an Open Table game at a local cafe and online. One-on-one time, people competing, online players stealing treasure from the cafe group. It was meant to be Keep on the Borderlands but I pretended it was a mine. Over a year, they went into the actual mines maybe three or four times. The rest was emergent gameplay and Basic Fantasy modules I dropped randomly into places.

I had no idea where people would go each session. That was the point.

I learned so much from running it that way. I’ll share more of that in future videos.

That’s where we are. That’s where we’re going. Nothing is majorly going to change - all future stuff will be plug and play.

Join the Discord if you have questions.

Get the game. Olde Swords Reign