Idle thoughts on S&W convention games and LotR...
May 29, 2017 8:08:21 GMT -8
Post by Probie Tim on May 29, 2017 8:08:21 GMT -8
Since joining Happy Jacks, I've GMed at five different conventions. Of those five, I've run Swords & Wizardry (or a derivative) four times. Of those four times, I've never had more than 2 pre-registrations, and I've never run for a full table. Over this last weekend, I was thinking about why that might be the case, and one of the things I came up with was that each time, I've run a home-brewed setting. This means that I'm targeting the game to people interested in S&W itself, as a system, and inadvertently excluding those players who know nothing about it because I've given them nothing to draw them in.
So I started thinking that I should change my approach, and start running in established settings so that fans of those settings would notice the game, and then maybe give S&W a shot. Because let's face it... for as much as I aspire for it, I just don't have mook-level "west coast GURPS guru" cred with which to push S&W. Hopefully, some day, my ARMOR setting and S&W-based rules will have some brand-name recognition, but that's a long way off. So, in thinking of established settings, the first setting which popped into my mind was Middle-Earth.
I've always wanted to run a Middle-Earth game. I freakin' love the setting, and Tolkien's stories set therein. The reason I haven't is because the setting is so detailed that unless you run in the 4th age, everyone pretty much already has a good idea what's going on pretty much everywhere at pretty much any time, so it's hard to fit in any sort of a unique adventure. (With respect to the time between the ending of The Hobbit and the beginning of the Lord of the Rings, of course; that span of time is less defined, but is also covered handily by The One Ring RPG.)
...
Except for Harad. Or Rhun or Khand, for that matter. The areas wherein men have largely sworn allegiance to Sauron. And once I realized that, a scene from the LotR movies popped into my head (it might be in the books, too, but I've seen the movies more recently so that's where my mind went) right after Faramir first captures Frodo and Sam. Faramir looks down at a fallen Haradrim and muses about how the Haradrim thought Faramir was the enemy, and how the Haradrim thought he, himself was in the right.
So imagine a LotR game run with S&W wherein you play Haradrim. It would be loosely middle-eastern in style, and your people would firmly believe that Sauron is a good guy and that the Men of the North, and their five Wizards, and their dwarven and elven allies are all horrible, evil creatures. You - the Men of Harad - are the good guys, helping to defend Middle Earth from the depredations of the Gondorians and Rohirrim and all the rest. Granted, it's all based on Sauron's lies, but... I mean... as players you know that, but the PCs would not. And it's not like that really comes out until the 4th age anyway.
Game mechanically, paladins, rangers, druids, and clerics would be out. Thieves would be frowned upon (and most would probably be missing some fingers), but assassins would hold a more respected position (tapping into the middle-eastern Hashashin stuff). Fighters would be exceedingly common. Magic-users could be allowed - but be rarities - under the idea that Sauron would teach sorcery to help them fight against the five Wizards. The spell lists would need a bit of a retooling... huge fireballs and the like are not really a good match for Middle-Earth.
I'd love to hear thoughts on this idea.
So I started thinking that I should change my approach, and start running in established settings so that fans of those settings would notice the game, and then maybe give S&W a shot. Because let's face it... for as much as I aspire for it, I just don't have mook-level "west coast GURPS guru" cred with which to push S&W. Hopefully, some day, my ARMOR setting and S&W-based rules will have some brand-name recognition, but that's a long way off. So, in thinking of established settings, the first setting which popped into my mind was Middle-Earth.
I've always wanted to run a Middle-Earth game. I freakin' love the setting, and Tolkien's stories set therein. The reason I haven't is because the setting is so detailed that unless you run in the 4th age, everyone pretty much already has a good idea what's going on pretty much everywhere at pretty much any time, so it's hard to fit in any sort of a unique adventure. (With respect to the time between the ending of The Hobbit and the beginning of the Lord of the Rings, of course; that span of time is less defined, but is also covered handily by The One Ring RPG.)
...
Except for Harad. Or Rhun or Khand, for that matter. The areas wherein men have largely sworn allegiance to Sauron. And once I realized that, a scene from the LotR movies popped into my head (it might be in the books, too, but I've seen the movies more recently so that's where my mind went) right after Faramir first captures Frodo and Sam. Faramir looks down at a fallen Haradrim and muses about how the Haradrim thought Faramir was the enemy, and how the Haradrim thought he, himself was in the right.
So imagine a LotR game run with S&W wherein you play Haradrim. It would be loosely middle-eastern in style, and your people would firmly believe that Sauron is a good guy and that the Men of the North, and their five Wizards, and their dwarven and elven allies are all horrible, evil creatures. You - the Men of Harad - are the good guys, helping to defend Middle Earth from the depredations of the Gondorians and Rohirrim and all the rest. Granted, it's all based on Sauron's lies, but... I mean... as players you know that, but the PCs would not. And it's not like that really comes out until the 4th age anyway.
Game mechanically, paladins, rangers, druids, and clerics would be out. Thieves would be frowned upon (and most would probably be missing some fingers), but assassins would hold a more respected position (tapping into the middle-eastern Hashashin stuff). Fighters would be exceedingly common. Magic-users could be allowed - but be rarities - under the idea that Sauron would teach sorcery to help them fight against the five Wizards. The spell lists would need a bit of a retooling... huge fireballs and the like are not really a good match for Middle-Earth.
I'd love to hear thoughts on this idea.