Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Is this the next Swords & Wizardry cover art?

As others have noted, Mythmere Games' Swords & Wizardry is changing publishers again. As a fan, I've found myself slightly and oddly concerned that S&W might be eclipsed and forgotten by the latest offerings. There’s nothing to fear in the end of course, since the game as we know it goes on. Still, there’s the way for me in which Matt Finch’s version of the rules has thus far appealed as the most roll-your-own edition, laying a groundwork and stepping back a bunch to let you step in. I love the approach and hope that the latest version will help grow the brand. The latest news has S&W consolidating additional/supplemental original edition classes under one cover. Sounds good... I've been DM'ing a version of OD&D via S&W with additional classes available to players for a while now via Macri's Supplemental Lore (available on Lulu.) Whatever keeps the game rules alive and outlasting our mouldering books is fine by me.

Working in IT, I’m always tempted to compare each of the OGL retro-clones (to use Daniel Procter’s term) to this or that version of Linux. With each we have open code that’s been around for decades - it’s just a matter of how much convenience and customization is desired and immediately available or implied with whatever version we choose.

Update to post title: Answer: Yes.

7 comments:

John Matthew Stater said...

I'm also looking forward to it. I'd love to see Swords and Wizardry become more visible.

Paul said...

The new art is nice, but not nearly as iconic as the Mullen cover.

Akrasia said...

The new cover rocks, but like Paul, I prefer the Mullen one. I assume that the Core Rules will continue to use the Mullen picture.

Exciting news overall!

ze bulette said...

I think I must be the only one who doesn't like that cover! I wouldn't assume the Mullen art will stick around on the CR - the old Whitebox cover is history.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm...
I love the Mullen covers, and I understand that games evolve, yet this game isn't evolving, is it? It is still S&W. I am a bit sad to see the Mullen work moved out.

James Maliszewski said...

I think I must be the only one who doesn't like that cover!

You're not. I don't much care for it myself.

Stefan Poag said...

Why change the cover? I really liked the Mullen cover. This new one might look more "slick" but it also looks like most other 'painted on the computer' covers currently on the shelf at the local bookstore.
The Mullen cover was individual.

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