The dwarves in this setting are, as so often, stoic in nature and philosophy. They believe they came from the foundations of the earth and are the children of rock and stone, created on the “Forge of the Mountain” (Govemenydh) by their god Durkarreg.

The only true giants as we see them are the Hill Giants of Swords & Wizardry (and similar). The other “giantkin” (Cloud, Frost, Stone, Fire, and Storm) are in fact demigods to most mortals. They are aspects of divine beings (possibly the elemental forces) made material on the earthly plane of Aralak (the planet of Heirs of Argax). Deviating from the monster section of Swords & Wizardry, these “elemental” giants are all Neutral alignment. The true giants (Hill) are as listed, beings of Chaos.

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The stone giants are revered by the dwarves, as they are worshipped as “heralds” (divine aspects/demigods) of Durkarreg. It is written in the holy tablets of the dwarves that the stone giants gave them the secret for crafting their stone guardians (i.e., stone golems).

Dwarves are, as so often in myth and folklore, expert crafters, stoneworkers, and engineers. This reputation is what ultimately led to their exile from their homelands. Argaxian Emperor Quantillus the Wise wished to bring the dwarves who resided within the general boundaries of the empire (and slightly beyond) into the citizenry of the empire, for he saw great value in their crafts and ingenuity. The dwarves refused Quantillus’ offer and he waged war upon the dwarves for nearly 20 years (708-727 AC). When finally broken and defeated, the dwarves were forced into submission and taken from their homelands into the heart of the empire, near its greatest cities: Argax, Perrcarra, Pharegium.

But now, after nearly 300 years of indentured servitude, and with the recent fall of the empire, many of the dwarven diaspora are wandering back to reclaim their lost homelands. What they might find is unclear and hiring freelancers (the earlier term for mercenaries or “warriors-for-hire”) to help and supplement their ranks is an often-employed tactic by dwarven expeditions.

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Given the level caps imposed by Swords & Wizardry (and other OSR retroclones and classic D&D editions), dwarves do not take up the adventuring lifestyle for long periods of time. They are communal and protective of their kin, which nobody can blame them for given their history. They do not abandon their communities forever.

In addition to the dwarf abilities listed in Swords & Wizardry, I supplement with OD&D and my own house rules with the following:

• +1 to hit vs trolls, ogres, and hill giants

• Trolls, ogres, and hill giants have a -1 to hit against dwarves

• Languages: Argaxian, Dwarfish, Skitheri, Kobold

That is quick summary of dwarf lore (and giant lore) in Heirs of Argax. Of course I have expanded on these points across the campaign, but this is enough to give an insight into their culture.

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To be honest, I did not just focus on S&W, but also looked at OSRIC. As you can tell, I am a Matt Finch fan. I am also a fan of racial class & level limits. Aside from game design reasons, they imply worldbuilding and that is the aspect I focused on.

Half-elves

To understand half-elves in Heirs of Argax, you have to understand elves. Elves live in a mythical plane that is akin to a separate dimension from the realms of the other races: Ailindae. The connection to the human dimension is via “elven gates.” When residing within Ailindae, elves age at an extremely slow rate (hence the long lifespans). But when traveling the “mortal lands” they age at the same rate as humans. Many elves leave their lands to wander the lands of humans, they are called the Profiadin. Once they enter the mortal realms, they have no recollection of the gate through which they entered. But these elves are eventually called back to their homes (once they reach their level limits or 10 years have passed, whichever happens first), at which time they are drawn to the nearest gate and travel back into Ailindae. There are those rare elves who do not heed the call. These stay and are called Caridin: the half elven, no longer seen as true elves. Their offspring carry the traits of the half elven, which are the traits as described in Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, OSE, Castles & Crusades, etc.

Halflings & Gnomes

Halflings and gnomes are linked by a shared heritage in Heirs of Argax. They are all termed “half folk” due to their size respective to humans. Gnomes (Svirdaelf) live in service to elves and often accompany them on their journeys across the mortal realms, also returning once they receive the call. Their connection to the fey world of the elves have given them magical abilities, e.g., the gnomish abilities as listed in Castles & Crusades or the fact that they can become illusionists in OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry. Halflings are those who, like the half elven, did not return to Ailindae and thus lost their connections to magic (hence the lack of a halfling magic-user). This disconnect from magic is passed on through the generations.

That is how I ended up changing my mind and including half-elves, halflings, and gnomes in Heirs of Argax, albeit from an in-world perspective that reinforces (and explains) the rules found in Swords & Wizardry. I believe the setting is richer with these added pieces of lore, as they not only explain these races but also give more depth and weight to the elves of the world.

Art by Carlos Castilho

I have a conflicted history with Knave and other "rules light" games created in the same vein. I think they're brilliant...but not quite done. They're 50-80% there, but then lack more needed guidance. I definitely like them a lot (otherwise I wouldn't waste so much brain space on them), but they all leave me wanting more. I understand that is counter to many of their stated intentions of being "rule light" but many flirt with the line of being "rules incomplete" far too often. I have described many of these games as easy to grasp mechanically for players and thus very beginner friendly. But they are for the experienced GM only. The GM has to do a lot of heavy lifting. Not in terms of knowing far too many rules, like in Pathfinder, but rather in making things up...a lot. Knave 2e, frustratingly for me, is no exception to this perception.

I can feel it in my bones that there is an amazing game right there, but it’s just beyond reach at times. Knave 2e has so many great random tables, but painfully little guidance on how to use them. They are also thematically jarring at times that can create a massive mental obstacle for a GM. We get a taste for what monsters look like, but not enough guidance yet again. You basically need to buy a different monster book for a different game and then convert it...why? And one of the coolest aspects of the game, relics, is so barebones that it renders it near useless.

I do get it though, Ben Milton wrote Knave 2e as a toolbox for running OSR modules and campaigns, probably in already published materials. That being the case, he couldn’t very well tie it into any specific world themes. That is the bigger short-coming of Knave 2e for me. True old-school play is world-facing more than character-facing. It is the world that defines many of these parameters.

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All of this has then led me down the path of Wanderers of Farhold. It is what I have started to build out from the foundations of Knave 2e, but felt it was lacking: the world that defines the system. I spent the last few months diving into various online discussions on Knave 2e (some prompted by me and many by others) to get a sense of what’s missing. I came to find out that it’s many of the issues I’ve been having. So one evening, I cranked out the first 1,000 words of notes on what I would want and do with this great game to really make it shine for my tastes. The result of this brainstorming sessions (aided with good Bourbon) is a Knave 2e “hack” (or world with rules modifications) that I feel delivers a more robust system for GMs. But...it does add more rules and some dedicated “rules light” fans might bristle at that notion. That’s ok. I wrote this down to satisfy my issues with the game and not everyone else’s (which is impossible to attempt anyway).

Here are the abridged notes that were some of my takeaways.

• Expand downtime into three categories: weekly, monthly, seasonal.

• Weekly downtime: turn carousing into a “bender”, add repairing gear, expand brewing and healing, add lore research and level training & costs.

• Monthly downtime: detail/expand common career training, add common spell research (more on this below).

• Seasonal downtime (3 months): detail/expand uncommon career training, domain management, add spell crafting (more on this below).

• Expand equipment lists again.

• Add legendary weapon forging.

• Fully develop a religion and associated relics.

• Add loot tables.

• Alter Nat 20/Nat 1 combat rules

• Add Nat 20 weapon triggers

• Add dual wield and double gripping weapon rules

• Add fatigue rules (similar to Cairn)

• Add non-human options in rolled backgrounds

• Pair down backgrounds/careers and expand with weapons & armor

• Add water travel rules

• Expand mass combat rules (with some inspiration from Mythic Bastionland)

• Add a full bestiary with random encounter tables keyed to environments

• Modify hazard die system

That’s definitely a lot to add and expands the game a bit beyond “rules light” in scope, but it’s really not overwhelming since much foundational work has been done by Ben Milton already.

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I approached many of these topics from an in-game analytical lens. Following is an example of my notes around the topic of spellbooks in Knave 2e, as well as answering the “why be an adventurer question” I often ask when I look at TTRPGs.

Spellbooks as described in Knave 2e book

“…cannot be created or copied by PCs and must be found while exploring dungeons or stolen from other magic users.”

WHY?

Game loop reason: to facilitate exploration and “problem solving” i.e., trickery.

I find this unsatisfactory and gives no in-world reasoning other than “it is thus” which doesn’t expand the scope of the game beyond thievery.

SOLUTION

• Give in-world reasons for original statement.

• Offer new spell research and spell crafting mechanics.

Lore: Spells and magic left the world in the lost past. Wizards retreated and disappeared from the land. Why? Not yet known. With them, all traces and knowledge of magic disappeared as well.

Deep Lore: The wizards crafted dimension gates as portals to their obscured and deeply strange refuges. Why? To conduct experiments, craft new spells, create strange beings and more. The wizards retreated through the gates and sealed them with command worlds only (believed) to be known by them. Many gates were chained to each other via wizarding circle links.

Recent(ish) Events: Far away in the land of Imborion, a delver discovered a cache of lost spell books in a strange dungeon with a cracked entrance, following an earthquake. This event not only brought spell lore back into the world, but unbeknownst to any, it severed the seals to linked gates and magic has spread back across the lands. This chain of events has released strange beasts and constructs, as well as opened lost, forgotten, or unknown strange locales. It has also brought forth renewed miracles of the saints and curses of the fiends with it.

Mechanics Tasks:

• Add spell research of “known common” spell books (the 100 listed in Knave 2e pp. 22-25) as a downtime option treated like common career training. Requirements per spell: 1 month time + quiet research “facility” of some type + 1,000 coins.

• Add spell crafting of new spell books treated like uncommon career training. Requirements per spell: 3 months’ time + quiet research “facility” of some type + 1,000 coins per spell component. Spell components: pieces of lore found on adventures, corresponding to the “qualities, effects, elements, and forms” found in Knave 2e pp. 28, 29. Example: finding pieces of lore “bizarre” (quality) + “pollen” (element) + “blast” (form) would cost 3,000 coins to craft a new spell from. The exact effects are down to the conversation between the player and the GM, as laid out in Knave 2e.

Why go on Adventure?

A new class of people have sprung forth from these recent events as well: adventurers. As the legends of the mythical past seem to have been true, these hardy, foolish, daring, and dangerous people are spreading throughout the world in search of lost treasures, magic, holy (and unholy) relics, fame, power, fortune, and to be recorded in the legends.

The old rock formations, pillars, ruins, and barrows are now being seen as more than discarded remnants of the forgotten mythical past.

So where does this all leave me? I’m not sure. At worst, this was a fun exercise in design theory and what could be done with a game to address some “open areas” of common complaint. At best, enough people show interest in this to push me forward in actually writing the thing and putting it out into the world, fully formed. It’s this last point that gives me the most pause and I spent some time analyzing.

I do not have endless amounts of time. I run my own business and have a family. Neither of these aspects can ever be neglected. Therefore, I do not wish to “waste my time” (or money) on publishing a product with little return on it. That sounds overly pragmatic and calculating and flies in the face of what many see as the “creative path”, but if I publish something like this for others and not just for my own table then it has to be good and worthwhile. Looking at the Kickstarter numbers for Knave 2e (and Cairn 2e and Mythic Bastionland due to customer overlap), it had 11,000 backers (myself included). That’s a solid base of people at least interested in the game. It’s now been 2 years since Knave 2e was delivered. Is there still momentum behind it? That’s a more difficult question to answer, since there haven’t been much of any “official” supplements published for it by Questing Beast and the “community building” is almost non-existent when compared with Cairn or games like OSE (aside from the Patreon paywall Questing Beast Discord channel).

As such, I’d be curious to see people’s thoughts and feedback on a more “robust” and detailed Knave 2e hack/setting.

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Why do all clerics have access to all spells? That is the default as set in the game since OD&D. Now AD&D 2e altered this somewhat with the introduction of specialty priests and spheres, thus slightly differentiating the priests of differing deities from one another in terms of spell selection (amongst other things). I really love this approach and always require PC clerics to be specialty priests in my AD&D campaigns.

In prior editions it did explain that “evil” clerics had access to the reverse versions of spells like cure disease or cure light wounds, or at the very least that it was an evil act to use them. But with the introduction of the nine-point alignment system in 1e, I always found it “problematic” to have all clerics get all spells. It means that deity choice doesn’t matter in terms of spell access (aside from good vs evil I guess).

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I do not think this same problem is present in the original game nor in B/X or BECMI. Why do I say such a thing? The answer is simple: 3-alignment system. You had Law, Neutrality, and Chaos. In OD&D, they had to be aligned with either Law or Chaos. Neutrality was reserved for druids. B/X does not have druids and thus that limitation is not given. BECMI did introduce the druid class option for neutral clerics that were 9th level.

Personally, I believe the original 1970s version of D&D handled it the best. Lawful clerics had access to all spells as written, whereas chaotic clerics had access to the same spells but then the reverse version instead of the “good” version. Again...why do I think this to be so? As alignment fits into a cosmic force structure in the implied D&D worlds, every lawful cleric is dedicated to this aspect of the cosmic forces. deity names, spheres of influence, etc. do not matter so much. They are all of Law. The same is true in reverse of course. What this allows for is a consistency of world lore. You are a cleric dedicated to the forces of law, therefore you have access to all spells associated with that force. Even if the practices, names, buildings, and interpretations of the deities of Law differ, the goals are the same.

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What I then tend to do in order to differentiate the deities (or equivalencies) in my OD&D worlds tends to come down to customs, weapons, rituals, and granted boons for worship/sacrifice. Leaving a sacrifice at a shrine to the patron deity of travel might give the PC a bonus on a roll to not get lost or avoid a monster encounter.

These are just some more rambling thoughts on how I justify and explain clerics (and other classes) and their mechanics in my old-school D&D campaigns. In an upcoming “part 2” I will discuss another option for clerics receiving their spells as they progress in levels.

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A lot more play testing the last few weeks have updated some aspects of the game. I’ve got finalized play test packets printed out + maps. I’m busy working on the Tome of Judgement. Loot is done and the bestiary is nearing completion. The Referee section and Falenburg Gazetteer will take up the bulk of the time now. I’m pretty excited to get it to this stage already.

If you’re interested in the expanded play tests, leave a comment or send an email to realmbuilderguy@gmail.com

More details coming soon…!

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The online consensus (or at least the majority when asked) is that “we don’t need more game” but rather that “we need more places for our games” and that “we need more interesting stuff for our games.” The first point is a somewhat valid one, especially where the OSR/D&D scene is concerned. There are a lot of D&D-esque games out there. I know...I own a lot of them. So does that mean we just stop designing? Not really. This same prevailing sentiment was echoed before Shadowdark came along and I think Kelsey did alright for herself. But I will still let the main point stand. At every Con I attend, I hear countless people talking about “this OSR game I’m working on” and I get it...there are maybe too many out there.

The other two points of “places” and “stuff” are more than valid. “Places” referring to setting and adventures and “stuff referring to classes, magic items, spells, etc. This also echoes the advice I received from other designers I like and trust. The unanimous feedback was to publish a setting for a specific system (not generic OSR) and to not design an original system for it...yet. Examples abound from Gods of the Forbidden North for OSE to ShadowSun for Shadowdark, or even my own Beyond Basic series of “stuff” for OSE.

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Then there’s Greg Gillespie and what he’s done. Greg initially wrote a number of megadungeons (e.g., Barrowmaze and Dwarrowdeep) for Labyrinth Lord. After their success, he then went on to publish his own game, Dragonslayer, to work with his dungeons and setting (coming soon...). The TLDR on Dragonslayer is that it’s based on B/X D&D, but with some great changes to make it unique and not “another B/X clone game” that many online bemoan.

Now where does this leave me with Heirs of Argax? Well I’m sticking with the advice of it not being a new game, but rather a place to run a different OSR game: Swords & Wizardry. I know I have a previous post out talking about using different areas of the world for different game systems, but that’s just for me at home. What will be published will be for S&W. That being said, I am considering publishing a rules supplement that details my house-ruled version of S&W/OD&D for Heirs of Argax. This wouldn’t exactly be a new game, but would fall more into the “stuff” category for an amazing existing game.

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For now, I am just focusing on designing the “places” category but will be posting the “stuff” stuff on Patreon over time.

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I recently migrated my weekly Castles & Crusades campaign to the world of Argax. It involved some retconning, but not too much since C&C and S&W can easily work together and “communicate” with each other. The adjustments from, essentially, OD&D to C&C are minimal and easily done on the fly.

The reasons for the campaign location shift were many. But it mainly came down to my own cognitive load. I simply don’t have the time necessary to deeply develop multiple settings. I’m already working on Falenburg and then added Argax. So instead of burning out on worldbuilding (a favorite pastime of mine), I shifted my C&C campaign over to Argax, which I can spend even more time in. This change then made me step back and look at the world analytically. Given how I am developing the setting, I can easily port over any RPG based upon classic D&D or any classic D&D edition. Running AD&D 1e or 2e, B/X or BECMI, Castles & Crusades or ACKS II is extremely easy with little to no adjustments needed to have the system reflect the themes of the setting. Even OSR systems like Knave, Shadowdark, or Cairn would be a breeze, since they share the “D&D” design intent DNA.

Going beyond these “D&D” themes, I have other game systems that I love and want to run campaigns for. But these systems are not Dungeons & Dragons or a derivative thereof. I am talking about those systems not directly tied to a setting, so no RuneQuest, HarnMaster, or The One Ring. Instead, I am looking at Rolemaster 2e, Dragonbane, Against the Darkmaster, BRP, Mythras, or even the system for Forbidden Lands (minus the setting details of course).

For these systems, I would need to make certain changes to reflect the setting within them, but it’s not a stretch to do so. All of these systems are built for emergent, sandbox fantasy campaigns and can easily work within the “medieval sword & sorcery” themes that Argax exudes. It is no accident that I picked these systems for Argax. They work for me and my campaign styles. Of course there are possible settings out there where I can run these systems or create yet another world. But as I explained earlier, I do not have the time or energy to do so.

Now is where the setting becomes “elastic” for my uses. It allows for adaptations of those rules to fit the world (not the other way around). To make the needed adaptations, it mainly comes down to adjusting the choices of “races” and “classes” (or their equivalents) where necessary (if even necessary).

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That being said, I do not want to “cross the streams” too much between where the OSR campaigns are taking place and where a Rolemaster or Dragonbane campaign is taking place. To avoid that, I have outlined different regions in this vast world that are linked through the common link of the Argaxian Empire, but distant enough to avoid direct contact. Think in terms of the Roman or Mongol empires. Whilst Britain, northern Africa, Persia, India, China, etc. may have been linked (depending on the empire of course), the contact was relatively minimal. Unlike the aforementioned empires, the Argaxian Empire has shattered. In our own world history, the fall of these mighty empires fractured the world and led to many instances of greater isolation.

Given the personal nature of sword & sorcery adventuring, continent-spanning “save the world” campaigns are not part of my tables. It will therefore be easy for me to run campaigns using Mythras or Forbidden Lands at the same time as the OSR campaigns, but without complications. The two shall never meet, but it is certainly possible that there could be global impacts.

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Even though different systems get different regions (some of these systems can even “talk” to oneanother similar to the various “D&D” systems), this is not a “kitchen sink” world like we see for Pathfinder from Paizo or what the Forgotten Realms evolved into. The themes are consistent across the lands. Monsters might vary based on habitat and local cultures will invariable need some adaptations, but it will still feel like a holistic world (unlike Golarion by Paizo).

I really love my world of the Heirs of Argax and want to return there and explore it as often as possible. By expanding the scope to run systems beyond the OSR tent allows me even greater room for creativity and enjoyment, even if the publishing goals are firmly rooted in Swords & Wizardry.

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The 1983 Greyhawk books are my “gold standard” for books describing a TTRPG setting at the continent “macro” scale. Gary Gygax gave DMs detailed frameworks to build from and make the setting their own. All major “nations”, factions, gods, settlements (towns & cities), languages, geographic features, leaders, etc. are named and given enough details to build a campaign from. You get a lot of information, but none of it is overwhelming (except maybe the weather generation mechanics). There’s no need to give the detailed information on every town and city. That’s all left to the DM, which i find liberating. When running campaigns in Greyhawk, I feel like I am in a setting built for gaming and not like I am visiting someone else’s setting that I’m afraid to mess with. My PCs are participants in Greyhawk and not visitors.

There are named NPCs, but these are at the leader level and most of them are not at exceedingly high levels. Most leaders are at or below 15th level. No other personages or heroes are defined. The PCs and NPCs of a DM’s campaign fill in those slots.

Another aspect of 1983 Greyhawk that I am emulating in Heirs of Argax are the amazing random encounter tables defined by region and geography. Something sadly missing for the Forgotten Realms in many cases.

Now when looking at the “micro” level of setting guides, the GAZ series of books written for BECMI are truly fantastic and inspirational.

These books give more detail on each region of Mystara, instead of the larger “macro” overview we got from Greyhawk in 1983. the theory here being of course that most campaigns will center around a specific region and not the entire world. Therefore, the GAZ series is a bit more granular. However, it’s not so dense as to overload the DM.

GAZ 1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos clocks in at only 64 pages and it covers a very large swath of land. The Dolmenwood campaign book only covers a relatively small region and is 400 pages longer. In GAZ 1 I get all the info I need to run a long-term campaign there. It gives me details on history, human cultures, different religions, the factions and conflicts, key NPCs, named settlement overviews, adventure hooks, and steps for creating region specific PCs.

For Heirs of Argax I am merging the two types of setting guides presented in 1983 Greyhawk and the GAZ series. I want an imminently gameable setting with a framework of information that sets certain “truths” of the setting for a GM to run, whilst still leaving it open to have a long-running emergent sandbox campaign. I expect every table’s version of the setting to be entirely unique and the random generators will make sure of that, whilst still adhering to the “truths” of the framework.

My goal is to address both the GMs that function like me (give me a framework and I’ll create the rest) and those who want a little more help on the information front. The latter will be aided by the random generators (including names!) that will help spark their creativity to make the campaign world their own.

Of course this approach to setting design won’t be for every GM, but that’s totally fine by me. I wanted to design a setting that I wanted to run campaigns in for many, many years to come and hopefully some other GMs will enjoy it too.

More details and setting developments will be posted here and on my Patreon.

Setting out on the initial design of my Argaxian setting for an OD&D campaign, I knew I wanted a sword & sorcery theme intermixed with an early medieval societal aesthetic. Whilst the "sword" aspect is clear to most, the "sorcery" component seems much less defined in the eyes of readers and gamers (as I found out on a recent question I posed on X). How I approach magic in my setting, in particular in the province of Gertania would be key for my campaigns.

Some of my favorite sources for fantasy magic are the stories by Jack Vance, Fritz Leiber, and Steven Erikson. Arcane magic-users are tapping into something far beyond themselves. Nearly nobody seeks these powers for entirely magnanimous reasons. There are certainly no magical colleges or detailed centralized orders in my world, at least not in Gertania. This borderland region is one that draws the loner. The magic-user who wants to draw out the arcane powers far away from prying eyes, or ones who seek lost lore.

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There are established, “civilized” magic-users dotted across the various settlements of Gertania. PCs need tutors after all. It’s a key aspect of classic D&D that PC magic-users need someone to teach them new spells, on top of them finding spells, and/or contracting out the writing of scrolls. Therefore, I needed to plant some of these individuals in a variety of locales. There are also those who have taken up residence in the wilds and once abandoned keeps. But magic is not ubiquitous. No magic item shops. No magical tavern games. Magic in this world is beyond the ken of 99% of the inhabitants, although they are very well aware of its existence and keep away from it for those reasons.

By the nature of classic D&D, magic-users are fragile and seldom survive long enough to attain true power. Most sane people would never choose this path, thus making old-school Vancian magic a scarce commodity unto itself.

In Vance, and Leiber to a degree, most wizards lean into the forces of chaos, power, and corruption. They tend to be a selfish lot, amassing secret knowledge (oft forbidden). These sorcerers also tend to lose something of their humanity in the process of harnessing arcane spells. OD&D does not necessarily cater to this aspect, but it easy to add a non-mechanical roleplaying element to the setting to reflect this process. Simply by making more dangerous and powerful spells harder and more dangerous to attain, you can easily lean into this theme, which I have in the campaign. Non-lethal or non-mind corrupting spells are easier to learn from a tutor, whereas spells that cause physical harm (e.g., magic missile) or warp the mind (e.g., charm) are rarely (if ever) taught. PCs that wish to attain these spells must seek them out...on adventures...or through research (funded by adventures). There’s no way of getting around the dangers of adventuring for the magic-user wishing to attain true arcane mastery and power.

I also imagine the magic in my setting to not just be pseudo-science (as in Vance) or darker rituals (as in Leiber) learned over time, but it must also come from somewhere. Here is where the influence from Steven Erikson comes in and his use of “warrens” in his amazing Malazan series. Arcane magic in my setting is drawn from a place...a dimension...beyond our own. Casters translate this power through their formulas and rituals, but it still has a place where it is born from. This extra dimension is not empty space. It is a place of strange creatures, demons, and possibly worse. They can seep into the material world through rare fissures in reality, but when a magic-user casts certain spells, these being could latch onto the spell being drawn and then materialize somewhere in the world. Spells that risk these extra-dimensional piggy back rides are those that tap right into another dimension. These include such spells as Phantasmal Forces, Dimension Door, any Conjure/Summon spell, etc. Once cast, I make a secret d20 roll. If the roll is equal to or under the spell level, then some randomly determined entity has entered the world...somewhere.

This mechanic is obviously a little arbitrary in the sense of where I would plop the being, but I take my guidance from the campaign and situation...I make a referee’s judgement call in the moment. Adding this rule certainly makes magic dangerous and is another reason why so few pursue this path in life.

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I hope this short post properly highlights how I handle arcane magic in Heirs of Argax to give it that certain “sword & sorcery” edge.

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As a refresher, Falenburg is my love letter to both classic D&D and the folklore and legends of my home region of Germany, whist incorporating the aesthetics and themes of 17th century Central Europe.

Whilst Falenburg certainly can be classified as an OSR game, I have included wrinkles and changes to the classic D&D framework to make it truly unique...beyond the 17th century themes.

In a series of posts, exclusive to my Patreon supporters of the Adventurer and Hero tiers, I will be diving into various aspects of the game and giving peeks behind the curtain of development and design.

What is Falenburg?

Falenburg is an adventure roleplaying game of exploration and survival in a world of danger, mystery, magic, treasure, and horror. Falenburg is set in a world akin to what our 17th century central European world looked like, with its black powder technologies and societal norms. But do not let that fool you into thinking it is a world devoid of the fantastical. Whereas in our world, the people only believed in the supernatural forces of magic, demons, and monsters, in the lands of Falenburg they are very much the reality of life for every person living in it.

The Falenburg game would not exist without the inspirations from the early Dungeons & Dragonseditions, designed and written by E. Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Tom Moldvay, John Eric Holmes, David Cook, Steve Marsh, and Frank Mentzer. Other game influences are The Black Hack by David Black, Knave by Ben Milton, and Dolmenwood by Gavin Norman.

The setting of Falenburg is based upon the history of 17th century Europe, as well as its folklore, myths, and fairytales. Further influences upon the tone and aesthetic of the setting come from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski, and Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard, as well as the movies Brotherhood of the Wolf and The Witch.

Falenburg is an OSR “d20” mechanic game. You are either trying to roll equal to/over a target number (attacks and saves) or equal to/under a target number (attribute- and skill rolls). As I love the “X-in-6” probabilities found in classic D&D, this mechanic is also included in the game. Furthermore, it is a “class & level” game where players can choose from a variety of classes (archetypes) that advance in levels (up to 14) through the accumulation of experience points.

After this brief introduction, future posts in the series will delve into every aspect of the game. To follow along on the development of the Falenburg TTRPG and gain exclusive game content, consider signing up to my Patreon by clicking on the following link: https://www.patreon.com/c/realmbuilderguy

A core essence in fantasy is how myths, legends, and religions are interwoven within a world. Fantasy RPGs are no different. It’s evident in the variety of classes, professions, cultures, etc. that a player can choose from, as well as the monsters present in the world.

Some games and settings are overtly imbued with mythology and religion, none more so than RuneQuest’s setting of Glorantha. Staying with Chaosium games, Pendragon ties directly into both aspects of myth and religion, but especially into legends. It’s the King Arthur game after all. The world of Harn and game of HarnMaster brilliantly tie the metaphysics of the setting into meaningful choices for players.

In Dungeons & Dragons, and its derivatives, religion is most often displayed via the cleric, paladin, and druid classes. But most modern gamers (and settings) treat these aspects more as a game mechanical add-on rather than a core part of worldbuilding. I consider this a big failure and one that ignores aspects of humanity that truly make a setting feel real. Religion, mythology, legends, folklore, and faith are such core elements of what make up our world throughout history that settings who treat them like an afterthought are less than appealing to me personally.

Inspired by the aforementioned Glorantha, Pendragon, and Harn, I always strive to make the themes of myth, legends, and religion central to my worldbuilding and game design. I have been interested in these topics since I first encountered the legendary Nibelungenlied as a child and the story of the legendary Germanic hero Siegfried. I want my settings to give the players the feeling like they are in that world.

The purpose of these aspects of a world can be manifold in a TTRPG campaign. Firstly, they create immediate possibilities for adventures. Beasts to slay, artifacts to recover and heroic deeds to emulate. The famous “hero quest” of RuneQuest means that PCs in Glorantha are striving to do exactly (or at least similarly) as the legendary heroes of previous ages had done and thus enter the tales. Norse society was rife with these tales and the culture embraced them and strove to emulate them. In Dungeons & Dragons you’re an adventurer, a hero in waiting so to speak. Myths and legends give you the cultural nudge to act like it.

When designing your own setting for D&D or some other game (as I am doing for Swords & Wizardry) legends and myth should play a vital role. The “mythical underground” realms are the easiest pathway to a metaphysical nexus into strange mythological worlds of demons and devils. The same can be true above as it is below. Why can you not climb the highest peaks to enter the realms of demigods and angels? On the island of Harn there is a deep cavernous region that, legend has it, connects to the world of the gods.

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Let the gods, who are real in these worlds, seep into the setting in miraculous ways. Be less concerned with tectonic plates and fault lines in your fantasy magic world and maybe think if the “gods did it” or some mythological beast. Not to be overly repetitive, but take inspiration from Glorantha where mountain ranges can be sleeping dragons, hills can be ancient giants, and a lake is fed by a never-ending raincloud.

And if the gods are real then religion is ever-present in a fantasy world. some games make deity choice implicitly important in the magic one can wield (e.g., RuneQuest and HarnMaster). In D&D, I feel that AD&D 2e did this best with the specialty priests dedicated to specific deities who then dictated the spheres of magic the priest could access, along with specific powers associated with that god.

Making the metaphysics of a world important is easy when you're creating a world from scratch, since you control all of these aspects in your design. It's also easy when taking a published setting for your campaign. Since I'm mainly focused on classic TSR-era D&D, you can find the metaphysics in the "generic" medieval fantasy settings of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Mystara. Even though the materials of the '80s and '90s for Greyhawk never explicitly detailed a creation myth, reading the description of the gods lets you craft it yourself. The same is true for my much loved "Gray Box" set of the Forgotten Realms. The deity descriptions ooze with mythological details that make the world fantastical. What these two setting describe in particular is how the people of the lands interact with the gods, not just the priests. How they pray or give a sacrifice to a specific god ahead of a journey, caravan trip, harvest, battle, etc. That many inns and taverns have the symbol of a god etched on their doorways to protect and bless the establishment. As a GM you should reinforce these key cultural aspects in your descriptions of places and interactions with NPCs. I'd recommend rewarding the PCs for doing the same with small mechanical bonuses (e.g., a +1 to forage for food after sacrificing to Silvanus that day if the weather is particularly bad).

Mystara ("The Known World") and BECMI D&D went even deeper into the metaphysics, mythology, and legends of the setting by eschewing the gods and using their immortals instead. These now divine entities were once mortals who ascended to god-like immortality through their deeds and power. The BECMI (and Rules Cyclopedia) rules clearly detail how a PC might achieve immortality and the trials they must go through to get there. If that doesn't scream lived mythology then nothing does. It's the closest thing to RuneQuest's hero questing that any official D&D edition has ever gotten and it's better for it.

The best modern “D&D”/OSR setting that makes mythology and religion matter with a detailed and well thought out creation myth is the world of Aihrde for Castles & Crusades by Troll Lord Games. Written in a style similar to that of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, the creation story of Aihrde is enthralling and ties directly into every cultural, ethnic, and metaphysical aspect of the setting. The Codex of Aihrde even gives details on how each deity is worshipped and the possible benefits derived from supplication and sacrifice.

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I hope I’ve made a good case as to why you should always incorporate mythology, legends, and religion into your fantasy settings and campaigns. Not only do they make them richer from a mechanical and gaming point of view, but they tie the players closer to the world making it more believable and “real” in their experiences.

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After talking a lot about it in 2025, one of my RPG goals for 2026 was to finally dedicate time and effort towards solo gaming. I've got a few ideas cooking (e.g., HarnMaster, RuneQuest, and BECMI in Mystara), but I wanted to ease into it with relatively loose constraints and in a setting that is still developing every day. So I set out to run a solo adventure (maybe it will become a campaign) in the far northwest of my Heirs of Argax Fantasy Adventure Campaign setting, using my house ruled Swords & Wizardry/OD&D system.

The beauty for me with using Swords & Wizardry in my setting is that I don’t require any additional materials that I don’t already use anyway for group play (at least not initially). As I run a very emergent sandbox style of game, all of the random generators and oracles I use for group play are perfectly suited for solo play as well.

My standard oracle system that I now use for all my RPGs are the oracle cards and dice I bought with the amazing Tales of Argosa RPG. They offer a huge variety of options and answers.

The Cards

As you can see, the cards offer 4 words and an image to use as idea generators that I interpret and use according to the situation at hand. The basic method is to draw 2 cards and interpret what that combo could mean. Additionally, the cards offer a directional arrow, as well as a sun/moon symbol to indicate possible time of day for something to happen. So much can be generated from just two cards. If you need additional information, just keep drawing cards. An entire adventure or NPC arc can be quickly generated with these cards.

The Dice

Next we have the oracle dice, 5 in total. There are 3 “yes/no” dice, 2 white and 1 red. They each have Y and N rune symbols on them. The white dice have 2 Y, 2 N, and 2 blank sides. The red die has 3 each of the Y and N runes. The red die acts as the weighted tie breaker or really emphasizes an outcome. The black die has 2 skulls, 2 suns, and 2 blank sides. When asking a “yes/no” type question, you roll all 4 dice and interpret the result. The black die shows that the event is either a benefit (sun), complication (skull), or neutral (blank) for the party. The black die can of course be rolled on its own.

The blue die is rolled when an encounter happens and you wish to randomly determine what the NPCs/monsters/creatures/etc. are doing: threat, socializing, eating, working, traveling, or resting.

The Session

I have to be honest and say that it took a bit for me to roll the first dice and settle in. I turned on some music to fit the setting and theme and then simply started. I had created the adventuring party of 4 characters a few days prior and thus didn’t have to spend any time with that once I took the step and actually start playing.

Here’s how it went...

I should start by introducing the group. The “motivations” were generated using the cards from above.

Mendos (Human, Male, Age 26, Magic-User, Neutral Alignment, Level 1, HP: 1)

STR: 11, DEX: 17, CON: 8, INT: 15, WIS: 5, CHA: 11

Motivation: To explore mysterious ruins he learned about in his studies.

Dagbios (Human, Male, Age 22, Fighter, Lawful Alignment, Level 1, HP: 3)

STR: 17, DEX: 15, CON: 10, INT: 9, WIS: 9, CHA: 12

Motivation: To wander through the world in order to better understand it.

Mata (Human, Female, Age 23, Cleric - Cult of Illurios and the Order of the Enduring Dawn, Lawful Alignment, Level 1, HP: 2)

STR: 7, DEX: 9, CON: 9, INT: 11, WIS: 12, CHA: 10

Motivation: To bring the light of Illurios to the wilderness.

Vectorix (Human, Male, Age 19, Fighter, Neutral Alignment, Level 1, HP: 4)

STR: 7, DEX: 8, CON: 11, INT: 8, WIS: 9, CHA: 8

Motivation: Is a bit aimless and lost without a true calling, so he’s along to see if he can find one.

Arday, the 9th of the month of False Spring, Year 1025 AC (Argaxian Cycle)

The party arrives in the far northern trading outpost town of Eotenword. In his search for lost ruins, Mendos recruited his friends Dagbios and Mata to come along. Looking for purpose in life, Dagbios’ cousin Vectorix also joined the group. With the chaos of the Argaxian Civil War far to the south, it wasn’t hard for Mendos to convince his compatriots to leave their homes in the former imperial province of Cellanica and venture beyond the former borders of the empire.

They had initially sailed up the coast to Evan’s Hold in Gertania. Then gaining passage on a trader’s longship, they continued north to Eotenword. A town of 2,000 souls, Eotenword had grown out of a simple Thalurian trading village and Argaxian outpost into the last port of civilization in the north. It is a gathering place of Thalurian barbarian traders and merchants from the south. Ruled by a merchant council, with input from local chieftains, Eotenward can boast of a militia of around 400 somewhat able-bodied fighters. A portion of the militia (roughly 100) is always on duty, with regular 20 person patrols sent out into the immediate countryside. Very seldom do they travel beyond a day’s ride from town, as the wilds are full of dangers. The council is always looking for brave (foolish) adventurers willing to range further and report back with any findings.

It’s a blustery day of whipping mist coming off the Brymwyl Sea and the party turns into the nearest inn they can find. They immediately find that all prices seem to be double what they saw in Evan’s Hold. A clear sign that trading season has begun.

After settling in, the party engaged a few locals in conversation. Oracle dice roll: overwhelming YES. They find a very reliable rumor that there seems to be trouble in the mountains south of town.

Apparently, rival cults have been clashing and this fight is seeping into the community. The local authorities have put out a bounty of 100 silver pennies (I use a silver coin based economy where 1 sp = 1 XP) to find out what’s the cause of the dispute and to resolve it.

The party decided to accept this task (there was an additional rumor that the dispute might be about some ancient relic and that got Mendos’ attention), geared up (including getting a mule) and to head out the next day. They even paid a local 8sp to draw a somewhat reliable map of the area where they suspect the cults are hiding out (they couldn’t afford to hire a guide, so a map will have to do).

Unfortunately, due to unlucky random weather rolls, the party had to delay their trip by 3 days due to stormy weather pouring in off the sea. The wilds are dangerous enough and you don’t need to add bad weather to the mix if you don’t have to. The downside of the delay was that it drained the party of much needed coin.

Suneve, 13th of False Spring

Finally the party headed south, camping in the hills (Hex 1014).

Illurday, 14th of False Spring

A heavy rain settled in during the day, making travel difficult. The party found a rock with ancient carvings on it. Mendos took some time to discern it, but it seemed to warn of some sort of an infection spreading. After Dagbios found some shelter for the group, they spotted a giant raven tearing at the carcass of a deer some distance away.

Solarday, 15th of False Spring

The poor weather continued and the group entered the mountains (Hex 1015).

At this point I ruled that there would be an X-in-6 chance each day for the group to find the cultists’ hideout. They roughly knew it was in this hex, but couldn’t get an exact location on the map. So I take a base chance of 1-in-6 on day 1 and increase that to them guaranteed to find them on day 6, but that amount of time spent would literally eat into their rations and add another time pressure to their adventure.

Arday, 16th of False Spring

Light rain replaced the heavy rain from the previous day. They did not locate the cultists, but near a waterfall they encountered 3 frost giants! Luckily the party wasn’t surprised by the giants, but the giants were. Since a die roll determined that the giants were eating, the party was able to slip away and evade the giants (I use the OD&D outdoor evasion rules, which are absent from Swords & Wizardry).

Orday, 17th of False Spring

The light rain continues, but the party gets a lucky break: they discover the cultists’ hideout.

End of Session

I decided to end the session here. I had been at it for about an hour and this cliff-hanger was a perfect stopping point, insuring my interest to return to this adventure and see what happens next.

After finally sitting down and playing a solo session, I have to say that I enjoyed it. It was an awkward start at first, but that soon faded away. I’m looking forward to getting back to Mendos and his compatriots to see how this encounter with the cultists unfolds.

A good campaign setting needs a clear tone & theme to it, along with an unambiguous "call to adventure" for PCs to follow. In Heirs of Argax I wanted there to be no doubt as to all of these aspects.

The tone & theme of the campaign is one inspired heavily by the early medieval period, which tends to be defined as roughly 500 - 1000 AD. What we’re thus looking at is a pre-Norman conquest type world. The geopolitical landscape is fractious with petty kingdoms, warlords, a few larger kingdoms and empires (think the Empire of Charlemagne and the Eastern Roman Empire). Trade exists, but is less prosperous than in previous or subsequent ages. There are no established merchant- or crafts guilds yet. Coinage is mainly silver based at this time as well (I have a custom silver coin based price list for the campaign).

The initial core campaign region of Gertania is far removed from the greater centers of world civilization. It is an isolated place that should remind players of Frankish Central Europe, Norse Northern Europe, and Saxon Britain, as well as the “pagan” lands of Eastern Europe. As a fan of giving my players distinct cultural references that immediately conjure up relevant images, I will say it is akin to the vibe seen in the TV series The Last Kingdom. Though historically flawed in many respects that series is a great medieval adventure campaign story that can work with the Swords & Wizardry framework.

With an historical basis to build from, I added the fantastical and swords & sorcery elements of OD&D on top. Heirs of Argax does not aim to be an historical simulation or exact analog of the early medieval world. If you’re looking for something that close to “reality” then I’d recommend my beloved Harn as a perfect setting to scratch that itch.

Magic is certainly present in the world. Regionally it can be very rare and viewed with suspicion, but I didn’t want it to be so shunned as to make every magic user a pariah right out of the gate. Though viewed with caution, they are present. Magic items, however, are a bit more on the rare side and can certainly never be purchased in some shop. These artifacts must be earned with blood and sacrifice. In future I will write an update dedicated to the place of magic in the setting.

I will give a brief recent history update in a future post, but the “call to adventure” for PCs is one of reclaiming lands against the encroaching tendrils of chaos. Restoring the civilizing touch of Law to the lands. It is a place where heroes etch their names in the songs of legend (or infamy). Power and influence can be gained through various means. What if the PCs do nothing? Chaos continues its march from the wilderness and nobody knows which direction events might take.

The setting is meant to be explored. To this end, I utilize emergent, procedural, random generators during hex travel by PCs. Though there are set locations, both known and unknown to the PCs, most of the setting is determined through exploration and random tables. This approach makes every campaign utterly unique without the hint of a linear metaplot.

I also designed the maps and existing society in a manner conducive to higher level “domain/faction” play. Though not built for truly massive scale warfare, it gives the amount of room to generate the relatively smaller scale and more intimate warfare common in the early medieval period.

To summarize, Heirs of Argax is a fantasy, sword & sorcery interpretation of the early medieval period. It is a period with darkness on the edges, but with defenders of light and hope for Law pushing back against the darkness. It is gritty and grounded, but it is not grimdark or low fantasy.

2025 has been my "OD&D" year with me dedicating a lot of time into studying this edition, its various sources, and running a detailed campaign based upon it (my Heirs of Argax Fantasy Adventure Campaign). One topic that seems to get a good amount of attention is focused on classes, usually revolving around the thief but also the cleric. The cleric gets a lot of "hate" from many OD&D players. Much like the thief, the cleric often gets removed from games entirely. The reasons for this vary from "it's not needed" to "this type of class isn't present in any source materials" and so forth. I personally really like the cleric and see their purpose, but not in the "support class/heal bot" trope that they've been relegated to. I see them as the crusaders of their faith. They're not there to proselytize per se, but rather to defend their faith and strike out against the forces opposed to it. Some may consider this the turf of the paladin, but I see the paladin more as the true embodiment of a "holy warrior" on a quest of some sort and not one that is as community focused as the warrior-priest cleric. I've tinkered with many versions of the cleric in the last 12 months and wanted to present these options as something others could use, whether directly or just as a thought experiment.

My first entry point is of course to go with the RAW cleric from the original 3 booklets. So we’re looking at no spells at level one, no edged weapons, turning undead, and a few benefits at higher levels for creating a stronghold. Interestingly enough, in Volume I: Men & Magic all characters employing spells are assumed to be using a spell book...even a cleric. In Supplement I: Greyhawk it is further explained that clerics know all spells of a given level, since the spells are divinely given and thus wisdom has no impact on their spell casting ability (unlike intelligence for magic-users). This is the point at which the two main spell casting classes begin to drift the furthest apart and ultimately lead us down the path where we are today in D&D.

I’ve always found the “clerics know all and have access to all spells” part a bit off-putting, but simply moved on from my irritation in 35+ years of playing D&D. This was then the first point of experimentation that I have tinkered with on various occasions. I used the original text that clerics also needed spell books and then applied wisdom to clerics in the same way Greyhawk updated the use of intelligence for magic-users. Wisdom would thus dictate the % chance to know/understand a divine spell (interpret the scripture as it were), as well as give the minimum and maximum number of spells available per level. Finally, it also sets a maximum spell level. Given that clerics have smaller spell lists and a max level of 7, a wisdom of 15 would give the cleric their max spell casting power (vs 18 for magic-users). I also randomly determine the starting known spells for both classes based on their “minimum spells per level” employing the % chance to know a spell per spell at level 1 (a fairly common practice in OD&D and AD&D). This method worked well as it provided interesting choices for players and added value to the wisdom ability. However...I still wasn’t quite satisfied and continued to tinker a bit.

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One reason why the clerics of OD&D (and B/X & BECMI for that matter) get looked down upon by many players is the lack of a spell use at level 1. AD&D changed this aspect of the cleric. I believe this is mainly down to poor marketing on the side of the cleric and the wrong word being used. Spell, for me at least, implies sorcerous magic with intricate formulae and intense study. This interpretation is also found in many of the AD&D Appendix N inspirational source materials for D&D. Since cleric spells are divinely given, I believe that the word “spells” is incorrect and replaced it in my games with the word “powers” and immediately reshaped the discussion. Why? Well turning undead is available at level 1 to clerics. It’s a divinely given power, no less impressive than spell casting. Now clerics have divine powers at every level, even level 1 in OD&D. I know this is just semantics, but it immediately changes the perspective of cleric players.

Me being me, I didn’t stop with this change in verbiage. Scrapping the wisdom variant I highlighted above, I went down the path of detailing powers. I simply took the cleric spell list and categorized each spell as a power and attached it to a specific deity. Not all deities grant all powers. One deity might grant the curing power, whereas another grants light and yet another inflicts wounds. This resulted in the choice of deity mattering a great deal. So at level 4, a cleric has access to using their level 1 powers twice and their level 2 powers once per day. In practice this of course meant a shrinking of available spells to cast for the cleric. However, I felt it fit thematically well with the universal level 1 power of manipulating the undead (some deities allow you to control them vs turning them). I also opened up the AD&D spell lists as researchable powers for clerics. By dedicating time and resources to study, the clerics can study ancient mythological texts to discover and unlock new powers of their deity. Alternatively, I have used these added spells as powers granted by the cleric’s deity for particular acts of devotion or divine quests. I know this approach massively deviates from RAW OD&D and probably makes some purists cringe, but it truly enhanced my OD&D campaigns. In general, since many players and referees do not utilize spell research, adding the AD&D spells helps alleviate the need (and stress) to come up with new spells.

These were the two main methods I used to add more depth to the cleric in my OD&D games in terms of spell casting, with the “powers” option now being my preferred version of the cleric.

The final aspect of clerics that I tinkered with was weapon choice. Being forced into non-edged weapons has always bored me and so I tied weapon choice to mythological cult. The dominant Argaxian cult of Illurios (and its associated Order of the Enduring Dawn) got the default OD&D cleric choices of any armor, shields, helmets, and only blunt weapons. Those dedicated to the cult of Ranur (war) have access to any armor and the the use of bladed melee weapons, but no shields, helmets, or missile weapons. The reason: Ranur judges his champions in every battle and to use a shield or helmet or not engage in hand-to-hand combat shows a lack of faith in his judgement of your worthiness. Another example is the cult of Shenut (sky, storms, and water). Her followers do not wear metal armor (doesn’t go well with lightning) nor do they wear helmets as they are an unnatural barrier between a chosen and their goddess of the sky.

By altering the weapon choices and tying them to the chosen mythological cult, players are presented with meaningful choices and the setting matters (I’m certainly not unique in this approach).

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Adding these varying elements to the OD&D cleric has given this much maligned class added depth. It has not only made for a more interesting cleric and presented players with important choices to make, it has also tied the setting and its mythology more tangibly into my campaigns. Whether a cleric is dedicated to the cult of Illurios, Ohrenn, Ranur, Setubis, Shenut, Dahruak, or the ever present Orcus matters a great deal.

I hope this dive into the OD&D cleric has given you some new options for your own campaigns (or at least been a fun thought experiment).

As I sit here just before Christmas, 2025, I can’t help but reflect upon an interesting (to say the least) 2025. One aspect of my reflection is focused on the TTRPGs I encountered this past year. I got to play quite a few games, some for the very first time (e.g., Ars Magica at GaryCon) and I ran a solid variety as well. But back in January I set myself the goal to really focus in on 1-2 systems. I might dabble in short stints with other games and definitely read many, but I wanted to drill down on just a very small selection to bring to the table consistently to truly understand most every aspect of the games and achieve some level of “mastery” with them. A goal like this is very difficult for me since I enjoy a huge variety of RPGs, which has been both a blessing and a curse ever since I discovered the hobby 35+ years ago.

Looking back, I can proudly say that I achieved my stated goal and focused mainly on 2 game systems and all the varying aspects, writings, and rule books pertaining to them: Castles & Crusades and OD&D.

I loved every minute I got to spend with these two systems and the plethora of supporting materials, writings, and other content pertaining to them. I am running weekly campaigns with them, designing classes for them, and have now launched a project (Heirs of Argax) inspired by one of them (OD&D).

I have found that truly committing to a very focused set of systems allowed me to see all the flaws as well. And every system has flaws. But the few that are there with both C&C and OD&D are so few to mention that it’s not worth my time in this post. The great thing about both of these systems is that they clearly share the same DNA (C&C was essentially born out of OD&D) but they are still uniquely different enough as to keep me engaged for countless hours every week.

This “singularity” of focus certainly expanded my RPG library. I have added a number of Castles & Crusades products to the shelves with much more to come following their great BackerKit campaigns this year for Castle Zagyg and the Adventurers Backpack. For OD&D I added some classic items such as the Monster & Treasure Assortment booklet by TSR and the Ready Ref Sheets by Judges Guild. I also ventured further down the OD&D OSR path by adding all of the new Swords & Wizardry expansions, Delving Deeper, and a personal favorite in Seven Voyages of Zylarthen. This early-D&D bug even got me to get Empire of the Petal Throne, which has been a joy to dive into this year.

2025 has thus been a truly fantastic and deeply enjoyable RPG year for me. Both Castles & Crusades and Original Dungeons & Dragons can provide me with more game joy than I probably have years left in me (which will hopefully be another 40+).

This past year, after two years of playtesting, saw me finalize book 1 of my OSR game, Falenburg (read about it here). I wanted to get the Tome of Adventure done by the end of the year and actually got it completed earlier in the fall. I’m quite proud of what I’ve designed there and can’t wait to share more about it with the community in the near future.

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So what does that leave for 2026?

Looking ahead to 2026 I can safely say that I will not stop running my C&C or OD&D/Swords & Wizardry campaigns. Nor will I stop adding more to my library for these systems. That being said, I will expand beyond the singularity of sorts from 2025. I will maintain a focus and plan on only bringing another 1-2 more games to the table (a key distinction here). My plans are to not add another D&Dish system to the mix in 2026, but rather go with “skill based” systems that eschew the notion of classes and levels.

In the beginning of the year I plan on launching a campaign of HarnMaster. This campaign will either fall into the rotation of my current weekly online group (so it will then alternate between C&C and HarnMaster) or I will try to build a new online group that I will need to recruit from strangers online (an adventure unto itself).

In the second half of the year, I will venture beyond the realms of fantasy and plan to start a campaign using Classic Traveller. I will take the next months to really prepare for a campaign and, most importantly, become comfortable with CT.

This isn’t all I have planned for 2026. My biggest goal for 2026 is to actually begin running solo RPG campaigns, something I’ve dabbled with but never fully committed to in the past. Many people I know truly enjoy solo campaigns and do it for a variety of reasons. My reasons vary greatly. First and foremost, I want to do it to decompress from the invariable stresses of the world and away from the busy tech that consumes our lives. I also see it as a tool for me to get better as a GM. It will help me learn new systems and expand my worldbuilding.

I haven’t decided on which systems I want to use for my solo gaming, but will probably use quite a few until I find the one that suits me the most. There will be short-lived ones that will be purely used as teaching sessions for “new-to-me systems.” My planned lineup will range from “new-to-me” to “I just really want to play this” type systems. These will probably include Classic Traveller, Twilight:2000, RuneQuest 2e, Rolemaster 2e, Fading Suns, HarnMaster, and Classic Pendragon (once the Chaosium Kickstarter is delivered).

I plan on also running a solo campaign with OD&D/Swords & Wizardry using my Heirs of Argax - Fantasy Adventure Campaign world. The goal here being to expand the worldbuilding, game more in this setting and to share it amongst the community. In fact, I plan on sharing my solo RPG experiences with all systems I will try out in 2026. Who knows...some might even stick for a long term campaign. I am keeping an open and flexible mind when it comes to this 2026 experiment. I will be sharing my solo campaigns here on my Substack. The first sessions of my solo Heirs of Argax campaign will be out very soon.

The final goal for 2026 is to complete my OSR game of Falenburg and get it ready for publishing. After completing book 1 in 2025, I will tackle finalizing the more daunting book 2, the Tome of Judgement. It’s almost half written, but the referee advice & tools section and the setting gazetteer will occupy much of my time.

All in all I can’t complain about 2025. I am happy that my RPG resolution for the year was a success and it has motivated me to press to more success in gaming in 2026.

Before deciding to go down the path of publishing Heirs of Argax, I spoke with a lot of people in the designer and OSR community about what they like to see from a published setting. A few times the topic of customization came up. Namely, is it “just” a setting or will it include new custom classes and rules supplements for the game system? And whilst I plan on publishing an accompanying rules supplement that details the house rules I use for my OD&D/Swords & Wizardry campaign in the setting, I am unsure about custom classes.

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In a previous post (find it here), I spoke about setting limits and parameters for players in your campaign setting. Adding more classes to the mix seems counterintuitive to my stated goals, unless I were to eliminate some classes to not have an overload on class (and thus NPC) options. That being said, the greater question rests upon me as to what the intention of a published setting should be when made of another system.

If I look at the setting of Dolmenwood (which is amazing BTW), it has its foundations in Old-School Essentials but has become its own “OSE house rule” game where unique classes and races are expected. But this is not my intention for Heirs of Argax. It is not supposed to be its own game. I want it to be a campaign setting for use with Swords & Wizardry (and similar). To function as thus, I believe the setting shouldn’t necessarily make the options in the S&W books redundant...they should be usable in a published setting.

Gods of the Forbidden North (also amazing BTW) is a campaign with a setting designed for Advanced OSE. This product adds setting flavor to the existing options found in OSE along with some rules supplements, but it does not load you up with a bunch of new custom classes and races. It’s intended to be used with the OSE options and not instead of them.

Right now I believe the best path forward for Heirs of Argax is to offer referees and players an emergent sandbox campaign setting where they do not need to add new rules and player options to what they have already paid for. However, I am open to idea down the road. Leave a comment with what you prefer from a published setting that is designed to be used with a separate game system like Swords & Wizardry. Do you want/expect new class and race options or possibly just some supplemental rules one could use with the setting?

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I was recently watching a stream from Troll Lord Games where Stephen Chenault referred to an entity from their amazing setting of Aihrde as “lawful and good.” This simple phrasing with “and” attached to it made the proverbial lightbulb go off in my head.

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For as long as I can remember, we have been discussing alignment in Dungeons & Dragons. I am a big fan of alignment and consider it essential to proper D&D. But...my concept of alignment differs from what it has morphed into over the decades. I like it’s original, even if somewhat vague, usage in OD&D and the clear line from the amazing book Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson where it is meant to show which cosmic forces you align with: Law, Chaos, or Neutrality.

It wasn’t necessarily meant to denote one’s morality and behavior. B/X D&D already began to shift the focus away from cosmic forces and more towards behavior. This was further altered with the publications of Holmes Basic and AD&D, which expanded alignment into 5 and then 9 aspects. The cosmic forces were beginning to largely fade away and morality took its place. Yet it was still called “alignment” and the aspects of Law, Neutrality, and Chaos left in.

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I personally believe they got it right the first time, as in keeping the concept of the forces of Law facing off against the forces of Chaos, with Neutrality stuck in between and not really concerning itself with either side. When Steve used the simple word “and” between Lawful-Good it showed how flexible and diverse the original alignment concepts truly are. This character aligns with the forces of Law and is also good. They like civilization, society, and structure, but for the positive benefit of those within it. Equally, you can be Lawful and Evil. Still abhorring the anarchy presented by Chaos, you believe society and civilization is the best mechanism to benefit you and your power. Someone who is Chaotic and Good detests the structure of civilization, but does not want their individualism to cause harm to others. There is an elegant nuance and player freedom to the original three-alignment system that has been lost in subsequent editions.

When creating the setting for Heirs of Argax I had some choices to make. These centered around a lot of different topics from theme and cultures to the role of magic and existing tech levels. Before going down many of these rabbit holes, I needed to set the base layer of the campaign and the setting. What do I mean by “base layer” for a setting? Basically, it’s defining clear limitations and base assumptions for the options players have when it comes to the types of characters they can choose to play: classes and ancestries.

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As this campaign is born out of an OD&D campaign, many classes are limited even by the minimum attribute scores required to qualify for the classes. However, these qualifiers weren’t enough for me. I wanted to state clearly which classes the players could even choose from and that doesn’t change with the setting being designed for Swords & Wizardry. In the older edition of S&W Complete, the old minimum attribute scores were listed but the game got rid of these requirements as a base line. Instead, S&W defines the prime attributes needed for +5% XP bonuses. This doesn’t bar a player from choosing a class due to low attribute scores, but rewards them for picking the more “optimal” class choice.

Be that as it may, I still had to define which classes I would allow. Before diving into that list, the question that often comes up is why limit/define available classes to begin with? All too often, GMs don’t want to limit player choices out of some misguided belief that to do so is “mean” or “not fair.” I mean…it’s in the books so why not be able to choose whichever class or ancestry/race/kindred/etc. that the player wants to? The answer is actually fairly simple: because the world doesn’t allow it. Not every class or ancestry fits every location or setting. Modern Forgotten Realms (and modern fantasy TV & movies) has skewed this picture too much. Making a setting truly believable is to define existing cultures, to which classes and ancestries belong. It’s the difference between a “player first” vs a “world first” approach to running games and Heirs of Argax falls squarely into the latter camp. This should be true of every single emergent sandbox campaign. Therefore, if you adopt a “world first” approach to a campaign you must set limits for your players.

The greater and expansive Argaxian setting could allow a greater variety of classes, but I’d veer away from an expansion in this regard and rather define the cultural uniqueness of a region by the prevalence of certain classes and ancestries, as well as their regional flavor. I do not want a “kitchen sink” setting.

With all that being said, I defined the available classes and ancestries to any new player in the core initial campaign region of the former imperial province of Gertania.

Ancestries are the easiest to define. Humans are the core ancestry. Beyond humans, players can choose dwarf or elf. Sorry…no halflings, half-elves, or gnomes. I find no place or use for them in the thematic inspirations for this world and campaign. Dwarves and elves are class and level limited as set in the OD&D/Swords & Wizardry core books.

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Class options are also initially limited to fighter, magic-user, cleric, and thief. Since the premise of the campaign start tends to be that of the “new arrivals” to this region, these are the initial choices. That being said, I open up the class choices during the campaign as the PCs encounter other classes. This then introduces them to other class options for possible future new PCs (there tends to be some attrition in old-school campaigns). It’s almost like they “unlock” new class options as they discover the setting which is initially foreign to them. Additional “unlocked” class options include assassin, druid, paladin, ranger, bard, and barbarian.

Druids, rangers, bards, and barbarians are unique to this borderlands and wilderness region. It’s hard to be a “new arrival” and discover a region when your PC already comes from the region. But as mentioned, players will (most likely) encounter these classes and then gain access to them for hirelings, followers, and future new PCs. Assassins and paladins are a bit different. They aren’t from around these parts as much as the other classes are, but rather they are exceedingly rare Argaxian imports (more on that in future updates).

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With that I have established the setting base layer for the campaign. Next I will be defining other core elements such as magic, religion, tech levels, and theme.

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Over the past 12 months I have fallen further and further down the rabbit hole of original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons and it has become my old-school D&D system of choice now. It culminated in starting a home campaign with my own house ruled version of OD&D that I had been referring to as Hawkmoor. That name has now been shelved for a variety of external reasons, but the campaign lives on and is flourishing. It has been some of the most fun I have had both in terms of running a campaign, as well as worldbuilding. So much so that I have decided to take this home campaign world and begin a publishing project dedicated to it. From it is born the Heirs of Argax Fantasy Adventure Campaign.

My goal is to present a vibrant setting that is imminently playable; a landscape of adventure. I wish it to be engaging for players and referees alike, with a main emphasis on emergent sandbox campaigning. To create such a setting requires certain elements in my opinion.

1. The setting needs a rich background, but not a burdensome amount of lore to parse through or convey.

2. It must be moldable to make every campaign feel unique and individual.

3. There need to be the quick and easy-to-use tools for running an emergent sandbox campaign without the need for hours of prep.

4. The hook to adventure, the “why are we here” as it were, needs to be immediately self-evident.

These core design principles are not easy to achieve, but do not require a change in focus from me since it is how I run my TTRPG campaigns anyway.

The first question I posed myself was whether or not I would tie the setting to a system or present it as a system neutral “OSR” setting that can be used with anything. I reached out to a few designers I know and poked around on some community Discord servers. Overall the feedback was to not make it system neutral. Setting it up as such would lead it to flounder in the broad sea of generic OSR content. So after a lot of back & forth, I picked the system for which it will be designed. Since this setting is born out of an OD&D campaign, I ultimately chose Swords & Wizardry.

Why S&W? The quick answer is that it’s an OD&D “clone” and I’m running an OD&D world, so the translation is minimal. But it goes beyond that simple fact and that I really love Swords & Wizardry. The tone of the game and the style of campaigns it facilitates fits perfectly with this setting and my tastes. Despite my love for Old-School Essentials and the popularity of Shadowdark, those systems simply aren’t the perfect fit. That being said, designing the setting with S&W in mind as the baseline doesn’t limit it in anyway. Any good OSR system or classic edition of D&D will translate perfectly into this world with very minimal adjustments needed. Other reasons to pick Swords & Wizardry are also very practical. The market for settings and supplements isn’t flooded like it is for some other systems. The author of S&W, Matt Finch, also provides an extremely generous license policy to create third party content for his game and utilize the information he has provided.

Now that’s all fine and good, but what is the theme of this setting? I wanted to capture a certain Appendix N flavor in this setting, which is a clear homage to Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, but I didn’t want another Conanesque sword & sorcery setting. I wanted to capture some of those elements for sure, but grounded in an early medieval world (to a degree).

Of all the Appendix N books, this world carries with it a lot of the thematic elements and inspirations from The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.

I have also put in a lot of my historical research knowledge on medieval societies in the timespan of the 7th to 11th centuries. A world before there were guilds, but with the remnants of a fallen golden age. A world in turmoil, where adventurers not only can make their mark and become legends but where they must do so.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be posting regular design & development diaries, especially on my Substack. I will be displaying the “Judges Guild style” hex maps of the setting (I’m drawing more and more every week), discussing regions, design choices, religion & mythology, history, NPCs, society, and more. Eventually I will have the setting book completed. I also plan on publishing a rules supplement booklet for Swords & Wizardry to use with Heirs of Argax and really any OSR type TTRPG.

I hope you will join me on this journey of uncovering the Heirs of Argax Fantasy Adventure Campaign.

I will also be posting downloadable content on my Patreon (find it HERE) at the Adventurer of the Realm tier ($5) and above. Patrons will also be included in setting discussions, polls, naming of NPCs, etc. Any and all support for my work, in particular sharing it, is much appreciated.

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“One of the most overlooked assets the wizard or priest has is the ability to research new spells.”

This is how my beloved AD&D 2e books lead into the topic of spell research. There is much in this sentence as it both highlights an oft unused feature in classic D&D, as well as being prophetic regarding it being dropped from future editions of the game (“most overlooked”). I decided to look back at spell research in Dungeons & Dragons, how it was presented, possibly why it was rarely used and make a few suggestions on how to use it in OSR games today.

Spell research has been a part of D&D from the very beginning. The original game from 1974 had very simple rules laid out for players to follow. As with every subsequent edition, it came down to the player and referee discussing a proposed new spell and the referee (later DM) determining its level (and permissiveness), which would dictate cost and time. Naturally, the PC would need to be of a high enough level to even cast the spell being researched.

There was no formula for cost like one would see later, but rather a set base amount by level (e.g., level 3 spell = 8,000 gp). For each investment of this base amount, the PC would get a +20% chance that the research would be successful. The time needed for the research was very simply 1 week per level. After the research period, there would be a roll to see if the research succeeded. That’s it. A very simple system.

Naturally, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1e would pick up spell research and go to significantly greater details on this topic (as with all aspects of the game). There were prerequisites for Intelligence to even be allowed to research a spell of a certain level. Gary Gygax also introduced a detailed, complex formula for calculating costs based on whether or not the PC had a research facility (library or laboratory) at their disposal. The costs then tied into the chance of success, which was rolled with a d100 (as it was in every edition). The time needed stayed the same (min. 1 week per spell level). What was explicitly stated in AD&D 1e was that spell research could be a new spell or an existing spell from the game’s spell list but that the PC hadn’t learned yet (more on this later). There were also rules for modifying existing spells and how to determine the level based on those modifications.

The 1981 B/X edition only briefly mentioned spell research and that it costs 1,000 gp per spell level and takes 2 weeks per spell level to research. That’s basically it. Not much guidance for player or DM.

BECMI then took the previously detailed concepts and gave it its own spin. The base cost was 1,000 gp per spell level and the time spent was 1 week + 1 day per 1,000 gp spent. This made spell research a much shorter endeavor than in the previous editions. Example: A level 5 spell in OD&D and AD&D 1e would take 5 weeks to research and in B/X 10 weeks. In BECMI, however, it took just 12 days (1 week + 5 days for the 5,000 gp minimum spent).

This version of the “basic” game also used a formula to calculate success chances and, like in AD&D 1e, warns the DM of the dangers of spell research and game-breaking spells. It also stated that spell research can include listed spells the PC hadn’t learned yet. A new, and unique, wrinkle that BECMI added was the need for monster components for the research process. The PC needed to gather/harvest ingredients from a monster whose HD was equal to the spell level of the researched spell. I really like this mechanic, as it puts an entirely emergent adventure quest in front of the players that is a direct result of their actions and PC goals.

The final edition of Dungeons & Dragons to feature spell research was AD&D 2e. It went back to the B/X time investment of 2 weeks per spell level, but left the costs up to the DM with only very vague guidelines (100-1,000 gp per spell level). It also streamlined the success chance to make it equal to the wizard’s Intelligence based % chance to learn a spell or a simple Wisdom check for a priest. I feel that the team behind AD&D 2e saw that not many players were utilizing spell research anymore and attempted to make it as simple to remember as possible. Even though I believe they achieved that by eliminating the need for remembering overly complex formulas, the guidance was a bit too nebulous for my tastes.

When Wizards of the Coast then brought out 3rd Edition D&D, spell research had been axed. The DMG had guidelines for creating spells (so does 5e), but that was more geared towards the DM who wants to create their own spells for the game and not for PCs.

This all begs the question as to why did spell research fall out of favor and why was it underutilized? Now this is all just conjecture and based on my experiences at my own tables over the decades, but players were often put off by the overly complex formulas, high costs, and out-of-adventuring time investment for their character. But there is another reason here and that comes down to creativity. Players often didn’t feel the need or want to come up with entirely new spells, when they could just wait to learn one of the many already included in the game. I feel that AD&D 1e (and BECMI) got it right by calling out that spell research included researching already listed spells from the game. Players then didn’t need to come up with their own spells. However, these options still weren’t enough to make the system survive into the WotC editions era we have found ourselves in since 2000.

I personally believe that spell research is a fantastic aspect of D&D. It makes gold matter a lot to a spell caster and helps progress time in a meaningful and “realistic” way.

How would (do) I implement spell research now into my D&D campaigns? I run Old-School Essentials, AD&D (1e/2e combo), and OD&D and I split the difference in many regards. I feel that 2 weeks per spell level is fine for time investment. Financially, I also keep it simple with 1,000 gp per spell level. To then keep it fair between magic-users and clerics, I require an Intelligence or Wisdom check after the required research time and modify it by the spell level. Investing more money then helps them. I give a +1 per extra 1,000 gp spent.

Example: A magic-user with INT 14 researched a level 3 spell, they need to roll equal/under an 11. They spent an extra 2,000 gp and thus need to roll equal/under a 13.

Should a PC fail, they need to spend at least another week researching, plus another 1,000 gp, after which they then get to repeat the check. I also then give +1 for each failed check (BECMI did something similar). The PC learned through failure so I think the bonus is only fair.

I know that AD&D has a % chance tied to the Intelligence of a magic-user to learn a new spell. You can certainly use that for research (as is written in 2e), but I prefer to keep it consistent across classes and use the ability score check for research instead. I see the INT based % more about the magic-user’s ability to understand something they discovered on the spot versus the methodical process of spell research.

But that’s only the mechanical aspect of spell research. What about the actual research? Here is where my decades of investment into D&D books comes in handy. First off, I take a page from GAZ 1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos and limit the spells magic-users can even learn through institutional instruction.

By limiting what they can learn in a school, magic-users are naturally pushed to either quest for new spells or research them. And these new spells can be from the core book’s spell lists or I hand the player any other classic D&D magic source book I have that includes spells. That’s right...I make them actually research for spell research. I have the advantage of having many classic D&D books that include “non-core” spells. Examples of books I use are Greyhawk Adventures, Tome of Magic, Pages from the Mages, and Prayers from the Faithful.

I will gladly implement these spells into both my campaigns. If you don’t have copies of these books, you can find decently priced copies on eBay or very inexpensive PDF copies on the Dungeon Masters Guild website. You might even ask for the player to buy the PDF (usually costing $9.99 or less). BTW: If you have players not willing to invest $10 or less into the campaign then you might have other issues.

I will always been advocate of classic D&D procedures and systems that I feel enhance both the play experience and player investment into a campaign. Therefore, I strongly encourage the use of spell research in my games and at other tables as well. It might open new paths to great adventures for your campaign.