Swords & Spells
 | |
| Author | Gary Gygax |
|---|---|
| Genre | Role-playing game |
| Publisher | TSR, Inc. |
Publication date | 1976 |
| Pages | 45 |
Swords & Spells is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation is TSR 2007.
Contents
Swords & Spells was a supplement of miniature rules, for use with the original D&D set.[1] It provided miniature-scale battle rules more compatible with D&D than those of Chainmail.[2]
Publication history
Swords & Spells was written by Gary Gygax, with art by David C. Sutherland III, and was published by TSR in 1976 as a 48-page digest-sized book.[1]
Swords & Spells was published by TSR, Inc. in 1976, the fifth and final supplement to the original Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, and can be referred to as "Supplement V", with supplements Greyhawk and Blackmoor having been released in the previous year, and Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes released previously in the same year. It does not, however, bear the official "Supplement V" designation on the cover, as "Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes" is stated in its introduction to be "the last D&D supplement."[3] Swords & Spells' product designation was TSR 2007.
The 45-page Swords & Spells has been billed as "The fantasy-based successor to Chainmail,"[4] and indeed is stated within the introductory text to be "the grandson of Chainmail."[2] The Chainmail rules originally formed the measurement and combat systems for the Dungeons & Dragons game, as the D&D rules could be cumbersome when conducting battles between armies. Improvisation was required, since D&D contained monsters and spells not covered in Chainmail. In Swords & Spells Gygax tried to fix this problem by introducing a diceless approach for large battles which averaged each monster's D&D statistics.
Swords & Spells proved unpopular, and its rules were discarded in later editions of D&D.
Reception
Lawrence Schick, in his 1991 book Heroic Worlds, felt that this book was "Sloppily produced, with some howling blunders in the rules."[1]
David M. Ewalt, in his book Of Dice and Men, commented that Swords and Spells "is the odd man out in the original D&D rule set. Rather than adding new details to the fantasy role-playing game, it takes a glance backward and provides rules for large-scale miniature war games that are merely based on Dungeons & Dragons. In his foreword, editor Tim Kask describes it as 'the grandson of Chainmail.'"[5]
Additional reading
Review: The Space Gamer #11 (1977)
Notes
- 1 2 3 Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. p. 147. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
- 1 2 Tresca, Michael J. (2010), The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland, p. 62, ISBN 078645895X
- ↑ Kuntz & Ward. Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes, Foreword. TSR Rules, 1976.
- ↑ "Original D&D Supplements". The Acaeum. Retrieved 2009-01-17.
- ↑ Ewalt, David M. (2013). Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and the People Who Play It. Scribner. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-4516-4052-6.
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