Swords & Wizardry, the 2009 ENnie award winning RPG game, is on it's way to a game-store shelf near you. Previously, it was available only in electronic format or through the Print-On-Demand publisher: lulu.com. There have been rumors swirling for a few weeks now, but this morning, Black Blade Publishing seems to have a new addition to it's online store catalog:
Black Blade Publishing is a company run by Allan Grohe and Jon Hershberger. Allan's old school cred is very well established - he has editing credits on several recent RPG books, author credits in Dragon Magazine, and runs one of the more popular Dungeons & Dragons Greyhawk sites. Jon is no slouch with old school bona fides either, as he did the conversions of Goodman Games' Dungeons & Dragons products for Goodman's special "old school version" releases. Black Blade is licensed to do conversions of the Goodman DCC series of modules into a form compatible with the 1st Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and from what I understand, they sold out their first print run of Secrets of the Smugglers Cove.
The "old school" RPG world is a lot better off for having yet another product to put in front of game consumers - Swords & Wizardry is a very accessible and fun game to play.
Comments
Good for them, but I wonder what will happen if S&W ever becomes popular. It's a good bet it violates Wotc's copyright. I'm sure they're content to ignore it for the time being, since it was an internet freebie. Now they have a publisher and are going to be on store shelves. We shall see...
Tom, that's an interesting question. Labyrinth Lord has been on bookshelves for awhile and has been the darling at various ENnies and conventions - no effort on WotC to take them down. Given that the OGL was pretty specific and clear, I think S&W is in the clear.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!