Back in July, I talked about the way that spell-casting is going to work in Crowfield. I like the system a lot, but it causes a few problems:
- Every spell in the rulebook needs to be updated to reflect the changes.
- I don’t have the rights to reproduce the original D&D spells .
- I need a way to distribute the updated spell book to the players.
Rulebook Update
So I started converting all the spells. Combining the spells from the original Men & Magic and Greyhawk books yields a list of 166 spells. I’m committing to convert 2 spells a day, every day. That means I should be done by the end of March.
Copyright & Licenses
The original spell descriptions are under copyright, and not available for licensing. The 3rd Edition spell descriptions are available under the Open Game License (OGL). But I don’t like them. They’re very rules heavy. For example the spell Charm Person is 405 characters long in the orginal edition; in 3rd Edition it’s 971.
Fortunately, it looks like Swords & Wizardry already has reduced the spells to more closely resemble the OD&D “feel,” and they’re licensed under the OGL. This will make my life easier.
Distribution
My plan is to put together both the spells and the rules into a PDF in Drive-Thru RPG as a free or PWYW1 title. That way players can download them freely, and so can anyone who’s interested.
A Rose by Any Other Name
I haven’t decided what to call this yet. Something alliterative:
- Crowfield Codex of Conjuring
- Crowfield Casting Codex
- Crowfield Conjuring Compedium
- Crowfield Compedium of Castings
- Complete Castings of Crowfield
You get the idea. What variation (including the ones not listed) do you like best?
That’s It
That’s it this week.
I hope everyone had a happy, covid-safe Christmas!
-
PWYW = Pay What You Want. It’s a feature of Drive-Thru RPG.↩
Props for the investment here!
ReplyDeleteDo you think you'll utilize this spellbook for any other games, outside of Crowfield?
If not, then I think I like "Crowfield Casting Codex" best. Or if you want to get verbose, "A Concise and Complete Catalogue of Crowfield Castings and Conjurings".
If this is going to be more generalized, you could go with "Snowgen's Sublime Source of Spells and Sorcery".
The very first "D&D" campaign was Dave Arneson's "Blackmoor."
ReplyDeleteThe second one was Gary Gygax's "Greyhawk."
After the first three D&D books were published, they published some supplements with new rules, spells, classes, etc. The first two supplements were "Greyhawk" and "Blackmoor."
So, yes, I do hope that spell book will get used outside of Crowfield, I think it's appropriate to keep "Crowfield" in the title.
I am totally stealing "A Concise and Complete Catalogue of Castings and Conjurings" as a subtitle! Thanks!