Swords & Wizardry

Swords & Wizardry is becoming one of my favorite gonzo old-school games. It hits many correct notes, and it is careful about doling out ability score modifiers to everyone. Only fighters get the STR damage and to-hit bonuses! The DEX bonus also stacks with the STR bonus for fighters and missile weapon to-hits, making fighters highly desirable and valuable as both melee and ranged weapon damage dealers.

S&W is also a small game that borders on rules-light compared to many other games. Still, it delivers a complete experience with many classic elements. The game is comparable to an AD&D-type experience, but with far fewer rules and much more room to modify and adapt it to your liking.

Bards, barbarians, warlocks, necromancers, and many other classes exist in the Swords & Wizardry Book of Options, putting the more modern character classes into the game. This book elevates the experience to a higher level and puts the entire system on par with the options found in 5E and other games.

As a "quick system" for fantasy, S&W is becoming my number one option. This pushed Dungeon Crawl Classics out of my top spot just because S&W has a few books that do everything, plus more, than DCC does in a massive tome. I get more monsters, a larger selection of magic items, more classes, more spells, and more of everything that matters to me in fewer pages. S&W does not have all the random charts, corruption system, or other DCC "features," but if I want those, I can use my imagination and open the game up to ability score checks for stunting during combat and spellcasting.

And "stunting," skill, or ability score checks are easy in S&W. They are just a saving throw. Or you can do a roll equal to or under on a d20 to the ability score.

Castles & Crusades is the only game competing with S&W for the top spot, with Old School Essentials a substantial third. DCC has fallen off my radar substantially because the system is heavier than it needs to be for my liking. I still like the system, but not enough to make it my go-to game for fantasy.

Adventures Dark and Deep is also up there as my number-one first edition retro-clone. This is not a rules-light game, but it does amazing, incredible things while staying true to the original and best role-playing game ever written.