Smoldering Wizard's Old-School Gaming Forums

Hey there Everyone! Thought I'd introduce myself. The names MisterB, or Brian in this case. heh
I'm a 53-year-old who grew up on BECMI and 2nd Ed. AD&D influences mostly. I just found this particular Gaming Forums. To this day, though I haven't "played" in such a long time, have tried to keep myself in the know about RPG's. My Favorite OSR, is the very option heavy Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. I absolutely love this game.
I might be willing to run something in the near future, but I came here hoping to find some folks, who are just as Interested in FHW as I am. Or perhaps find an interesting game to get into here on the forums.

Welcome Brian! It's a very fun and supportive place to be!

Welcome to the forums Brian! I have not played FHW, it appears to be one that slipped under my radar . What do you like about it?

merias wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 20, 2023 3:12 pm

Welcome to the forums Brian! I have not played FHW, it appears to be one that slipped under my radar . What do you like about it?

It came out in 2014 I believe, and had a decent run into a second printing if I remember. It doesn't have monster or treasure stats, itself. You can use material in some of your other materials. It was meant to be used with older modules. I often use the monsters & treasure tables from OSRIC.

It's like BECMI but brought up to modern gaming standards. But blends some Old school into it too. So you have races and over 30 custom classes. Including race specific classes that are close to the original BECMI material. Each core class, fighter, religious, rouge, and mage has 3 classes that should tickle your fancy.

Magic and Religion takes a more western medieval bend to it. There are colors of magic (white/gray/black), But illusionists, are still separate. There is no dedicated priest class. Because anyone can be a priest/follower. However, there are a few religious classes. This is where I think it really shines. There's no divine magic, it's all magic regardless of its source.

Level 13 is the new level 20. I love this change. However, level 14+ are considered Epic levels of ability and skill

Saves are simplified, but class, race, and ability scores can alter the chances.

Fighters are no longer a rather bland class by introducing fighting styles that only true fighters can have. I'd even play a Bard in this system, has more of a troubadour feeling to it.

Your background determines the skills you learned growing up. This is a broad grouping of skills that are on par with professionally skilled NPCs (LVL 4). You gain skills for your class as well, and you can learn more if using the optional talent system. Skills are a d20 vs. a target number like, DnD 3 + and above.

Alignments are replaced with a personality trait system, adding a level of flexibility to the old alignment system. But better defined.

Thanks for that! I confess to being daunted by the page count - I much prefer lighter systems like S&W White Box, but even still it seems like there is so much there that even if you don't play it, FHW would be a great resource that can be used to add classes and house rules to existing B/X or BECMI-stlye games.

Dom put a ton of effort into it, he's not really doing anything with it for a while now though

Welcome!