[Swords & Wizardry] Advice for Stoneheart Valley in S&W


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Hey guys,

I'm about to start DMing the Tomb of Abysthor portion of Stoneheart Valley in S&W.

Any advice for someone who's never run this one before?

Thanks!


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I think any advice would depend on your group of players.
Perhaps recommend they have back-up characters. This thing is deadly.

If you have players who require story reasons, there are plenty of hooks in the adventure. You will just have to hunt for them. Possible examples include retrieval of the Cup of Tircople, finding out what happened to Abysthor, scouting out the place to determine what and how many potential enemies are within the dungeon are some possibilities.

Other groups just want an old-fashioned dungeon crawl. This delivers in spades and is smaller and thus more managable (perhaps) than the megadungeon, Rappan Athuk.


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Read through it carefully. Some of the encounters are absolutely brutal. This is a good thing. Just remember to let your players know up front... it's a meatgrinder - they'll get the hint about 3 rooms in when they reach the Font of Bones.

Careful, smart play will get the players farther than brute strength alone. They will need to know when to run, and make good use of the items they find along the way. Like Rappan Athuk, there are a lot of ways to get from one level to another. Be prepared for them to go from "easier" areas to areas with more deadly encounters in a few rooms.

Make sure you give fair warnings for some of those encounters. If there's a den of 2 dozen giant frogs up ahead, cautious players may state they're listening, but they'll also be able to smells the beasts. Don't give everything away, but be fair.

Oh, and let the dice fall where they may. It takes about five minutes to make a replacement character, so no one will be out of action for too long. ;)

Layout and Design, Frog God Games

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Scout, plan, know when to run away.

Publisher, Frog God Games

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Important is they need to learn to make an objective--avoid unneeded crap that has nothing to do w/ the objective--attack objective, develop new objective--then leave and fight later. My dungeons are not video games where you "clear levels".


Bill Webb wrote:
My dungeons are not video games where you "clear levels".

That would drive my completionist/quasi-OCD side crazy. (Gotta catch 'em all!)


Clearing levels involves so much risk (especially in big, old-school dungeons) that the reward is usually not worth it. Better to deal with an objective that the party is sure will give a commensurate reward. After that, create a new goal and move on to deeper level and bigger reward.

When you go to clear an area, you'll often end up in unnecessary combats ~ and by unnecessary, I mean those that provide little to middling experience and waste resources. On top of that, in a game like Swords & Wizardry, combat is often quick, brutal, and often deadly. It's best to avoid when you can, and strike hard when necessary - preferably with henchmen and hirelings in the front rank to take the brunt of the damage!


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Old school is definitely not new school.

If my players were new to old-school dungeoneering, I'd definitely point them to Matt Finch's Old School Primer, as well as OSR blogs.

One of my favorite bits of information was that the 1gp = 1xp rule means that players don't want to fight everything, because if there isn't gold, they don't get any reward. The author of the piece noted that his players approached fights much more carefully, and actively tried to avoid fighting if at all possible because it didn't matter if you killed the critter or not. What mattered is that you scarfed the loot.


I remember when a good thief (a very good one) could conceivably gain levels without ever fighting anything or even leaving the city.

Most OSR GMs hand out XP for defeating monsters as well as for gold gain, though.


Laric, did this ever take off? How has your party fared?


On a side note . . .

Can anyone give me a fast review for this book.

I've been thinking about getting some Swords and Wizardry : Lost Lands books and also Swords & Wizardry : Monstrosities.

Don't want to get these unless they're top notch books.

Shipping cost to Canada is - C R A Z Y - ! ! !

I often wonder if it would be cheaper to ship stuff to the Moon.

Thanks.


The bulk of Stoneheart Valley includes both the Crucible of Freya and Tomb of Abysthor.

I didn't see any reviews on this website, but DriveThruRPG has some for 3rd edition versions.

Tomb of Abysthor

Crucible of Freya

The first adventure is a little introductory adventure that serves as a good start for beginning GM's as well as players. It was a free adventure offered only on the old Necromancer Games website for those who had purchased Crucble of Freya. Now it is included with the other two in one hardback book.

I am not sure if Monstrosities received any reviews as yet. It is a huge monster book full of necessary critters that are not in the core rulebook nor in the Tome of Horrors Complete. At least, I am fairly certain there is no overlap.

EDIT: Drive thru does contain reviews of Monstrosities after all.

Shadow Lodge

I listed out the contents of Monstrosities (as well as Tome of Horrors Complete and Tome of Horrors 4) here.


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I used Crucible of Freya as the first adventure for my current group, using Castles & Crusades.

I like it: It's kinda sandboxy, so there are options for players to go in different directions. There's also the chance they'll get in over their heads. Learning to run away is a good lesson to teach, in my opinion.

The Tomb is a "megadungeon" but there are lots of things going on, and my players will likely encounter that in short order.

Frog God Games' physical books are very well constructed. They're so big, they have to be. Text-book quality binding.

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