Showing posts with label retroclone. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retroclone. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

The Paladins of Space: A 4C System Supplement


This post features some supplemental rules for the 4C System, a super-heroic retroclone. I am keeping exact locations vague in this so that GMs will have some wiggle room in placing these characters in their own campaigns. Space is big, so there is plenty of room for the Paladins and the Eidolon in any campaign.

Courtesy NASA

Monday, May 27, 2013

The 4C System

I've put up a page with the 4C System rules, here on the blog. If you've never checked these out, this was an early retroclone (of a certain popular Marvelous role-playing game) that had the misfortune of coming about before people really accepted and understood what retroclones really were. Much like OSRIC, 4C was intended to be a way to allow publishers (and fans!) to make new material that would be compatible with the old game.

The game, while complete and playable, is a bit dry and barebones. One of my goals has been to do a cleaned up new edition of these rules that expand these basics, give plenty of examples and even have some sample characters included. Basically build out and demonstrate what can be done with the basics.

For now, enjoy the SRD for the game. The text of it has been released into the public domain by it's creator, so you can do with it what you will.

If you're so inclined, you can also find some cool stuff made by small press publishers for the system over at RPGNow.com.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Mini Manor In Review

I received a copy of the zine-formated module The Mini Manor from +Tim Shorts of GM Games, and promptly forgot that I had intended to blog about it. The picture to the right is one that I took of the cover of the 20 page long, 5.5" x 4.23" inch booklet.

Don't let the size fool you because there is a lot packed into the small package.

Written for Swords & Wizardry, as part of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day festivities, Tim has crafted a fairly standard dungeon crawl into something with a bit more bite by using the modern sensibilities of the DIY zine culture. And I think that's a very good thing. We need to advance fantasy games beyond what they were like 30 years ago and make them into something that is recognizable by us now. In a way, that is what the dungeon and adventure designers of the 70s and 80s were doing with things like the Judges Guild books, or many of the Mayfair Games materials. It is good to see people making their own, rather than just trying to emulate what has gone on before.

The Mini Manor lives up to its name, this dungeon has only eight rooms to it, but they are filled with an interesting take on monsters and situations. The characters wake up, naked, in a room after a night of partying and the action goes from there. There is a bit of a grindhouse feel to this module, so it isn't for the faint of heart (or the young). This is clearly labeled as a "mature audiences" module, and I think that it lives up to that label. This isn't a tee-hee 13-year old sniggering at naked breasts sort of mature, but the real deal.

I won't spoil the module, because I think people should track it down and experience it for themselves. I may have to spring it on my Demon Codex players in a few levels (it says that the adventure works best with 5th level characters). In addition to the module itself, The Mini Manor has a number of new creatures (stated for Swords & Wizardry but easily adapted to any of the old school games), a handful of new magic items, a new spell and a new race. All definitely worth the price of admission. The best part is that you can get the PDF of this for free, however if you can track Tim down and get a physical copy it is worth the effort.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Whitebox Classes: The Timelord

Every culture on every world throughout time and space have their own myths and legends about the Timelords. Many of these stories hold truths, but as often as not the myths do not tell the whole story. The first species to become "time active" (i.e. be able to move through time and understand its workings) were the people of the planet Gallifrey. Those who use the powers of time, and space, are known as Timelords.

This optional class for your Swords & Wizardry Whitebox games allow you to bring a bit of science fiction (often using the word science loosely) into your games. Don't expect to play the Doctor or the Master, or even many of the other named Timelords of the Who EU, right out of the box. This class assumes someone who has only just recently stolen their own TARDIS, likely inspired by the adventures of the Doctor, and wanted to see the universe as well.

If you don't like the idea of a character who can travel through time and space in your games, then take inspiration from the plight of the Third Doctor and strand them on the game world with a TARDIS that has a burned out dematerialization circuit. The TARDIS can be used as a homebase, and occasionally as a source for tools, but never as a way to find weapons. A Timelord has a 1-6 chance of finding a tool or piece of equipment that they need from their TARDIS.


Level
XP
HD
ST
1
0
1
13
2
3,500
1
12
3
7,000
1+1
11
4
14,000
2
10
5
28,000
2
9
6
56,000
2+1
8
7
112,000
3
7
8
224,000
3
6
9
448,000
3+1
5
10
896,000
4
4

Timelords fight as Thieves.


Timelord Class Abilities
Regeneration: When a Timelord is killed (at zero HP or lower) they do not die, instead they regenerate into a new form. They keep the level they were at when they died, but all of the attribute scores are scrambled. All of the scores have to be changed to a different attribute, once scrambled. The Timelord’s XP is reset to the lowest possible for their level. Regeneration take 1-6 rounds, and interfering with the process will cause the Timelord to be rendered unconscious for 1-8 days.

Saving Throw: Timelords get a +2 to saving throws versus poison, paralysis, or death.

Experience Bonus: The prime attribute for a Timelord is Intelligence. An Intelligence of 15+ grants a bonus of +5% to experience gained.

Benchthumping: A Timelord has the ability to fix a device (technological or arcane) by hitting it, hard and fast, with the flat of their palm. This ability has a 1-6 chance of success. At 5th level, this ability increases to 2-6. On the roll of a 6, the device is broken.

Scientific Knowledge: The Timelord is a master of science and technology. To this end, they have a percentage chance equal to their level plus their Intelligence bonus multiplied by ten to figure out things of a scientific or technical matter. For example a first level Timelord with an Intelligence of 13 would have a 10% of puzzling out some strange scientific matter, while a second level Timelord with an Intelligence of 15 would have a 30% (2 + 1 = 3 x 10 = 30%) of figuring out the same thing. To the Timelord magic is nothing but an unexplained form of science.

TARDIS: All Timelords have access to a type of timeship known as a TARDIS. Those who have gone rogue, i.e. those who have embarked upon a life of adventure, typically have stolen, antique and often malfunctioning ships. In game terms it means that where the Timelord wants to take their TARDIS is rarely under their control, and most often the  referee gets to decide where it goes.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: Let Me Tell You About My Game...

A lot of people are writing today about Swords & Wizardry, and that's a pretty cool thing. You can find an ongoing list of all of the posts over at Erik Tenkar's Tenkar's Tavern (the premier OSR blog nowadays, in the opinion of this non-OSR person). There is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement going on for the game. Today only (April 17, 2013) there are also a couple of sale going on (the links to and coupons for I posted last night) from Frog God Games and the Swords & Wizardry SRD site. I would also suggest checking out the Lulu.com storefront of +Matt Finch, the creator/developer of Swords & Wizardry. It's nice to give him some direct support for the cool work that he has done for all of us with this game. If you go the Lulu.com route, be sure to use the 20% off coupon for April: APRILBOOKS13, and get a discount that doesn't cut into Matt's profits. Show some love for this great system that you can get into for free.

Also be sure to check out the Google Plus Swords & Wizardry Discussion community on G+. It is unofficial, but Matt and some of the people from Frog God Games all post there, and it is a good place to get questions answered from Matt and from fellow fans. There's also a lot of cool new rules discussion and material posted to the group as well. At the risk of sounding egotistical (I founded the Community...total disclaimer), the Community has really evolved into a premier place for talking about the game online. It has started hooking up community members in games too, which is pretty awesome.

Sunday I did a "pre-mortem" post getting a little bit into what got me started down the road of Swords & Wizardry fandom that led, in a way, to today's appreciation happening. A few months back, a conversation between +Erik Tenkar and myself lead to the first Appreciation Day, that time for the Basic Fantasy RPG (another OSR retroclone). Basic Fantasy nearly became the system that I ended up using for my return to running games and my first ever online gaming experience.

Today, I am going to take a slightly different approach for the Appreciation Day than some of the other bloggers. Instead of talking about rules or mechanics, I am going to talk about my first (but not last) Swords & Wizardry game, run via G+ Hangouts on the Air. For the longest time I was incredibly skeptical about running a game online. I just didn't think that it would have the same energy or enjoyment to it. I was so incredibly wrong about all of that. I think that the Google hangouts are a great tool, and for me at least, do a great job of simulating the face to face experience. And considering that our group has a couple of people from California, a Canadian and others scattered around the country...this is a group that never could have happened other than through online play. I have to say that I have made some new friends through this, and developed an appreciation for Swords & Wizardry along the way.


One of the great things about playing via Google+ Hangout is that we can record our games. This may or may not be great to everyone, but your mileage will vary. It is nice to have something tangible (as tangible as electrons at least) that you can point to when people ask question like "So, what is this game and how do you play it?" I can give a link and people can experience the awesomeness of the group in action. Above isn't our first session of our campaign (we had been playing for about a month or so by the time that G+ started offering the Hangout on the Air option), but it was our first recording. It took a couple of weeks to convince everyone that we should a) livestream our gaming and b) put it up on YouTube (yes, that's a link to a playlist of all of the videos that we recorded...including a couple of Lamentations of the Flame Princess games as well) for everyone to see in the months and years to come.

Obviously, mistakes were made during play. I misruled things a few times, but overall we tried to not let things breakdown and we kept playing through things. There was a sort of reverse learning curve to the game, as a couple of the players had to unlearn some of the habits that they picked up from years of playing more recent editions of D&D. The acceptance of an old school game wasn't entirely universal, but I think that the dynamics of the group, and the fun that we were having, overcame some of those things eventually.

I asked the players to comment on Swords & Wizardry and our campaign, and these are the comments that I got from them. First off, I'm going to put Ethel's comment up (she goes by +solange simondsen on G+, which is her Second Life screen name), because she was the reason that I started this campaign in the first place:
I mentioned to Chris Helton one day the OSR gaming he was talking about sounded fun and he offered to start a game I could play in. That seemed like a lark and that was about a year ago, and the gaming group is still going. I had never played any kind of D&D or tabletop RPG, but I’ve always been a lover of games - board games, video games, word games. But that really didn’t prepare me much for what was ahead.
Before the first game, I read over all the rules and tried to make sense of what all the monster tables and lists of spells were for. OK! I was ready… That first night on Google+ I met my fellow gamers and we rolled up our characters. They knew everything; I was completely unprepared. I kept forgetting (and still do sometimes) how saving throws work. They knew all the monster abilities and were blithely arguing with the GM about why they should get a +1 to hit and I was couldn’t really decipher the hit table. In fact, I was having trouble telling a d8 from a d10. Lucky for me, the gamers in our group were some of the most generous, patient and good-natured people you’d ever want to meet. I am still kind of iffy, but after a year of gaming, I’m slightly less of a derp than when I started.
Looking back, I can see pros and cons with starting out with Swords and Wizardry. What’s great about it is also what made it hard for me at first. It is rules light, easy to grasp and simple to dive right in. Being rules light also means, though, that you have to be inventive, bring some background knowledge to the game, and not rely on the book to resolve every question. But having just read what I wrote, maybe that was a positive even for a first-timer. All the discussions about how things could or would work, the stupid mistakes that wound up working out in spite of myself, all the laughing and poking at each other we all did… A lot of that would have been lost if we had been following a more prescriptive system. And that wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.  
So, right from the trenches we see that Swords & Wizardry can be used to make someone with no experience with tabletop RPGs into a gamer. I honestly think that Ethel sells herself a little short, after 30+ of gaming I still have brain farts about what to do and not to do at times (I think our game play videos have plenty of evidence to show that), and she took to gaming like a fish to water. Yeah, there were some hiccups. Gaming, for better or for worse, does have a lot of jargon to it that a new person has to learn and over come, but like she said, I think that the group really came together and tried to help her out and smooth over some of the rough patches. Ethel has even run a few sessions of her first adventure (which you can catch near the end of the playlist of our videos). It only took a short while before she was in there, making Monty Python jokes and acting all gamer-like with the rest of us.

+David Rollins, who played the party Cleric, had this to say:
The thing that affected our play as a group most was the streamlined nature of the rules. There was a lot of room to improvise creatively and use items and the environment in creative ways to increase our effectiveness far beyond our collective hit dice. In Chris' campaign we found ourselves seriously outclassed on a a few occasions but managed to avoid the TPKs with some out-side-of-the-box tactical play that was not covered by the rules. Instead of covering everything the rules left room for creative solutions.
In my case, I played a cleric. With no spells until 2nd level but the power to turn undead my character started as a holy warrior who stepped to the front in the battle against chaos. Spells and turning became something to be called on only in cases of great challenge in battle. With fast advancement my character had multiple hit dice before any other party member giving him the hit points to remain a viable front line fighter even though his attack bonus did not keep pace with the actual fighters in the party. This is a very different animal from the tough casters that clerics became in the later editions. It was a blast playing an uncompromising holy warrior on a mission!
David was also the person who helped mentor Ethel's new gamer. He helped with explanations and patiently explaining things multiple times (if needed) in order to help her out. Plus he also embraced some of my weird approaches to fantasy game worlds, and I think that helped things a lot. David really helped to push my campaign in new directions, when I thought that I was going too far already, by taking some of my weird plot ideas, and weird dungeon crawling ideas, and running with them.

+Josh Thompson, the player of the party Thief, said, in his succinct style:
My time with S&W has shown me that you don't need a complex set of rules to have  complex setting and characters. If anything, the non-intrusive rules have allowed such areas to deepen. Also, the hallways are very cozy.
+Jeremy Whalen who, sadly, no longer games with us, provides a bit of a counter point towards the game. Showing how things can vary within a group. Jeremy provided the muscle to our early adventures, with his Fighter Goreaxe.

I played Goreaxe as a traditionally grim warrior as intent on inflicting harm as on protecting his compatriots and surprisingly enough his family back in town even though we only touched upon that specific aspect when I was with pleading with Chris to spare Goreaxe from a failed save that should have resulted in his untimely but richly deserved death.  "What about my wife and kids? Seriously they need me!" (btw that worked, Goreaxe survived!)
I really enjoyed my role and the system was certainly quick and easy but I think it may have been a bit too streamlined. One specific incident sticks out in my mind.
Early in our campaign we were exploring a dungeon, hot on the trail of the mysterious chaos that threatened the region, when we burst through a door and confronted a pack of lizard men (if I recall correctly). Goreaxe rushed forward and attacked, as intent to kill his enemy as on protecting his party. The initial flurry went well enough but when it came time for our opponents to attack they simply did an end run around Goraxe to hit the soft wizard left behind in the doorway. I objected and sought to interpose Goreaxe in someway but apparently they were too quick for him as. I felt quite impotent as the wizard took the beating that should have been for Goreaxe. Mechanically S&W just didn't’ work that way and it left me, as a player, somewhat frustrated by the oversight. Now to be clear I do not advocate for systems that attempt to codify every eventuality as that is simply not practical. What should have happened? Well I think it came down to narrative and presentation. When I objected Chris simply indicated the rules did not support that and then proceeded to keep the game moving however I was disappointed, and for a few moments, my happiness index fell.
The lesson here, if I may be so bold, is that when systems don’t cover intended character actions, or player desires, it is up to the GM to find a way to handle the situation that maximizes everyone's fun without derailing the session. I moved on after a few moments of irritation because, as a player, my responsibility was to help Chris make the game enjoyable for everyone, not just myself. Also, the wizard deserved a beating.
+Stacy Dellorfano (the first person to join our core band of adventurers) added:
The best thing that I could possibly say about Swords & Wizardry (and it's a good thing), is that I've barely noticed the system, been too busy beating shit up. :)
Honestly, it seems like we mostly came to very similar conclusions about the game and its approaches, and found that it was a style that suited us as a group, once we were all able to get into the mindset and allow ourselves to stretch our muscles. Swords & Wizardry supplied us with a light and flexible ruleset that supported us when we needed it, and also got out of the way when we needed that. I honestly don't think that our game would have been the same, or as much fun for any of us, if we had used a different game. Swords & Wizardry has officially become my go-to fantasy game, and I don't see that changing any time soon.

As a GM, and as a game designer (both hats were worn in our previous campaign), Swords & Wizardry provides a solid, but light, foundation that encourages me to hack it and do with it as I want. That was demonstrated in some of my different approaches to a traditional dungeon crawl, and interaction with the characters and the world. Our next game is going to be based on S&W as well, but we are going back to the Whitebox rules as our foundation. I'm also using the encouragement of the players to hack things a bit more extensively than we previously did. I am adding a skill system to the game (adapted from a Basic Fantasy RPG hack), doing away with the Cleric as a class, and adding other little mechanical bits and pieces. Ironically, during the time that we have been playing this game I discovered and fell in love with the world of the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing Game and have started tracking down some of the early edition material for it. While I like Swords & Wizardry as my system, I am finding that a non-D&D type of setting suits me, and my fantasy interests better. In our next campaign, Demon Codex, I am going to embrace a lot of that and turn this game into my game, and then by extension into our game.


It has been a fun road. Not only has Swords & Wizardry introduced my friend to the wonderful world of gaming, but it has also allowed me to meet some great new people and game with them. It has also let me find a community of people interested in this game, and their different approaches have shown me new and different ways of looking at the game. It has also allowed me to meet and pick the brain of Matt Finch (who will be appearing on a future Dorkland! Roundtable). It also led, indirectly I guess, to so many bloggers talking about a great game on this day.

Thank you, everyone, for contributing to a great community and for helping to make such a great day.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: Pre-Mortem

The Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is coming on April 17th. For me, this is a day that has been months in the making. Last summer an online friend decided that she wanted to give tabletop role-playing a try. Unfortunately, she was in California (still is, actually) and I am down here in Florida. That would require a really big tabletop. Then G+ started up their Hangouts, a way to do browser-based video chats that was tied in to your Google account. It was good. I was surprised, honestly. I had avoided online play for a long time because I had believed that it wouldn't be the same sort of experience as face to face gaming. It turns out that I was wrong (which isn't something that I announce very often) and the gaming was a lot of fun. I think that luck had a lot to do with it, finding the right mix of people that worked well together.

I've never really considered myself a part of the OSR, or any old school movement. When I decided that I wanted to run this game online I started looking around for a system to use. Free was the first consideration. This was a game for someone who might not actually even like it. I didn't want her to go out and spend a bunch of money on a game, or hobby, that it might turn out that she wouldn't like. Simplicity was the next consideration. I am, at heart, a pretty rules light kind of guy these days, and games with a lot of crunch really aren't really my thing anymore. Even with those two considerations, that still leaves a lot of games as contenders.

Eventually I narrowed it down, and I ended up settling on Swords & Wizardry as the game to use. I liked the clearer explanation of the rules from the original (and better organization). I had hoped that it would make it easier on someone who had never gamed before to be able to get into the rules. We start with Whitebox, because of all of the available versions of the game, this was the simplest of them. It seemed a good starting point. The game clicked for all of us, and the mechanics were mostly easy enough to understand for her as well. She had a few difficulties understanding some of the finer points that those of us in the group who were more experienced with gaming had come to grips with long ago, but some further explanations (and none of us being afraid to look stupid helped a lot) smoothed things out eventually. However, one of the things that seemed to help her out the most was when I reccomended that she read Matt Finch's (that's the creator of Swords & Wizardry) Quick Primer to Old School Gaming. I don't agree with all of it, and I certainly never played all of the ways that are talked about in it, but it is definitely a great resource for understanding this style of play, and it helped her to better understand a lot of the things that already made sense to the rest of us.

Over time everyone fell into their characters and the idiosyncrasies of my style of GMing, and we all had a lot of fun. Battle were fought. Scars were earned. Narrow escapes were made. Along the way we even playtested a few things, and my friend wrote her first adventure and tried her hand at GMing herself. Really, not so bad for about seven months of gaming.

As I said at the beginning of this post, Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is coming, and there are going to be a lot of bloggers talking about the game around the internet. It is very cool and I am glad to be a part of it. This is just another step the journey of gaming that I've taken over the years, only now I have at least one more friend who is walking on that trail as well. I've also made some cool new friends and gamed with them. I've also discovered an awesome game in Swords & Wizardry and I see myself getting a hell of a lot of mileage out of it over the rest of my life.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Norse Mythology-Inspired Monsters For Swords & Wizardry

This post is taken from some notes that I made for a campaign world for Swords & Wizardry inspired by Norse mythology. Norse myths were one of the first that I got into when I became interested in mythology as a kid (I think that the copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology that I received from a grandmother was to blame for all of that). The ideas that I have had for this world are probably the most "metal" of my D&Dish ideas, being inspired by Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Jack Kirby's Thor: Tales of Asgard and the myths themselves. Maybe one day I will get to expand this into a full setting. Characters would be Aesir and Vanir warriors, roaming the Nine Worlds looking for adventure.

I think the fact that I picked the version of Immigrant Song from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie is telling that I'm not going to be all that traditional or "metal" in my interpretations. Keep in mind that this isn't intended to be a strict historical or mythological interpretation, so liberties have been taken for the sake of fun and gameablity.


We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!


Fenrir
Fenrir (also known as Fenrisulfr or Vanagandr in the Northern tongues) is a monstrous black wolf that bedevils the Aesir and Vanir of the Nothern Lands. Fenrir is close to the size of a full-grown bull elephant and is covered in dark, mangy fur. The wolf is highly intelligent and is prophesized to be one of the forces that will take part in the world's end.

Many adventurers have claimed to have brought the end to the wolf, including many Aesir and Vanir warriors, but still the beast comes during the night to raze and kill.

It is said that the wolf can move freely among the Nine Worlds.

HD: 8
AC: 2 [17]
Attacks: bite (1d10), 2 claw (1d8)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: reforms within 6 days of being killed (roll 1d6 to determine the number of days), hit only by magical weapons
Move: 20
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1400

Jotunn
Also known in the Northern tongues as the Hrimthurs, the Jotunn are a race that plague the Northern Lands from their ice and mist-filled lands of Niflheimr. The both fight against the Aesir and Vanir, and sometimes work along side of each other as well. The relationships between the three races is complicated and it is not unusual for them to interbreed. While called giants, because of their large size, Jotunn are in fact not Giant in size (as the S&W game thinks of giants). They tower over the Aesir and Vanir, by a foot or more, and are exceptionally strong.

Jotunn are either extremely beautiful, sometimes rivaling even the most beautiful among the Aesir and Vanir, or monstrous in appearance. The monstrous Jotunn are chaotic and twisted in their appearance, with claws and multiple limbs and heads. The Jotunn are an older race than the Aesir or Vanir, being the offspring of Ymir, the first being.

There is another race of Jotunn that live in the land of Muspell and are known as "fire" Jotunn. Like Fenrir, they are prophesized to take part in the end of all things when they raze the Nine Worlds with their fires. "Fire" Jotunn are not often seen, and do not wander the Nine Worlds, like their brethern. Referees may want to use the Jotunn as a template and add fire-based abilities to that to simulate these fiery giants.

HD: 5
AC: by armor worn (which has to be specially made to fit their larger bodies)
Attacks: punch (1d8), by weapon
Saving Throw: 12
Special: --
Move: 15
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1-10, plus a 6 HD leader if more than three
Challenge Level/XP: 6/400

Einherjar
Not strictly monsters, the Einherjar are the heroic dead picked by the Valkyries to reside in Valhalla until their need in the battles at the end of days.  They look as they did in their lives, like strong and brave Northern warriors. They spend their time waiting in Valhalla, drinking, eating and practicing their fighting with each other. Any Einherjar killed again in combat rises up again in Valhalla the next morning.

Einherjar are very rarely encountered outside of Valhalla, but sometimes Odin will entrust one or two of them to Aesir that are on particularly important or dangerous missions.

HD: 4
AC: 5 [14] (ring mail and shield)
Attacks: by weapon (typically battle axe or bastard sword)
Saving Throw: 13
Special: if killed, return to life in Valhalla the next morning
Move: 12
Alignment: Law
Number Encountered: 1-3 if guarding, 1-100 in Valhalla
Challenge Level/XP: 5/240

Svartalfar
These so-called swart or black elves are probably closer to what fantasy games think of dwarves than elves. They are the craftmen of the Aesir and Vanir and dwell in the lands of Svartalfaheim. Their disposition towards the Aesir and Vanir tends to bad, as they have put up with generations of being ordered and threatened by the two races. Jotunn tend to be on slightly better terms with the Svartalfar. They tend to stay to themselves in their caverns of Svartalfaheim, creating great items and artifacts and tending to their forges. For enough money (which is often a lot) or pledges of favors, the Svartalfar will work their magics and create items for the Aesir and Vanir. If attacked, or organized into war parties, they will be carrying powerful magical weapons and items that they have created.

HD: 3
AC: 9 [10], 3 [16] if armored
Attacks: by weapon, always magical weapons of at least +2
Saving Throw: 14 (+2 against magic)
Special: --
Move: 10
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1-6
Challenge Level/XP: 4/120