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Advanced White BoxPlayer’s Handbook1

4th Edition, 2017Swords & Wizardry, S&W, and Mythmere Games are trademarks of Matthew J. FinchCover Art: Copyright Dungeon Crawl Classics – Vault Of The Dragon King, 2005. Erol OtusArt: Archer by Eric Elmore, Gold from AD&D Unearthed Arcana, Goblin by Adrian Smith, Half-Orc from Baldur'sGate II - Shadows of Amn, Barbarian by myconius (inspired by Frank Frazetta), Assassin by Matthew Stewart,Thief from AD&D Unearthed Arcana, Ranger by Dustplat, Dwarf by Max Dunbar, Paladin by David Sutherland,Fighter by Wayne Renolds. Bard by Christiano Flexa, Wizard by Karl Kopinski, Elf by Evan Kart, Halfling by RudySiswanto, Magic by Anthony Palumbo, Druid by William Stukeley, Cleric by A.J. Manzanedo, Heroquest by LesEdwards, Faerie by Iain McCaig, Artificer by Terese Nielsen, Treasure Discovery from Unearthed Arcana, Warlockby Michael Mckenna, Tiefling by Tony DiTerlizzi, Half-Elf by Jared Blando, Automaton by march1studious,Lizardfolk by Makkon, Merchant by Jean Discart, Armory by Erol Otus, Hirelings from AD&D DM GuideInspiration and material from Whitebox Omnibus, Whitebox Heroes, Castles and Crusades, S&W AdditionalWeaponry, Crusader‘s Companion, D&D 5th Edition, Whitebox Companion II, Whitebox Demihumans, DarkestDungeon, Dungeon Crawl Classics, D&D 3.5 Edition, Pathfinder, dandwiki, and Whitebox, blogsites, YouTube,Charles Mason, /tg/, and many, many more.I am not affiliated with Matthew J. Finch or Mythmere Games2

Table of ContentsForeward. 4Rules of Play .5Character Creation .6Henchmen .10Combat .11Sanity Rules .14Classes & Races .14Fighter .16Cleric .18Wizard (Magic-User) .21Bard .24Druid .26Paladin .29Ranger .31Thief .33Barbarian .36Assassin .38Master Merchant .40Warlock .42Artificer .46Cavalier .48Dwarf .50Halfling .52Elf .53Half-Elf .55Goblin .57Half-Orc .59Automaton .60Lizardfolk .62Tiefling .64Gnoll .65Faerie .67Items & Equipment.69Adventuring Gear .72Transportation .73Weapons .73Armor .75Campaign Setting .77Planes of Existence .78Pantheon .79Magic & Spells .80Schools of Magic .82Wizard (Magic-User) Spells .83Cleric Prayers .129Druid Spells .147Warlock Invocations .166Character Sheet .1743

ForewordMy introduction to Tabletop-RPGs was through the medieval toy and castle sets namedImaginext and Playmobil. I had the instinct of rolling to see which knight would win in thebattle, kindling my fire for tabletop roleplaying. In 8th grade, I bought the vintage 80s boardgame Heroquest and loved it immensely. I created homebrew rules, classes, and quests for it,expanding it to the point to where it was more a tabletop roleplaying game than a hack and slashboard game. So I set out and bought the then new D&D 4th edition quick start set. The ruleswere over complicated for my friends and my attention span, so we made our own. We took outmany of the rigorous combat rules in favor for a richer roleplaying experience. In early highschool, I tried Pathfinder and 3.5 edition. I had a feeling that it wouldn't feel like the retrodungeon crawling of Heroquest, but I had no idea that it'd feel more like filing taxes thanactually playing a roleplaying game. It wasn't until an anon on the /tg/ (traditional gaming) boardsuggested Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox, and said that you'll never go back. I tried it. Theycouldn't have been further than the truth. It was free, it was fun. It felt like the homebrew fun ofmy youth, yet adaptable for my more matured and aged roleplaying needs.Swords & Wizardry: Advanced Whitebox Player's Handbook has gone through manyedits, and will continue to go through many more. While I did work on some classes and rules onmy own, many aspects have been ripped directly and shamelessly from other sources. Fromblogs, to supplements, to other computer games, to other editions, this book is more of acompilation of my favorite homebrew rules and I mostly take credit for compiling them togetherin one book. The name Advanced Swords & Wizardry is more so to distinguish between theoriginal game and my house rules for it takes attributes from a plethora of other systems andsources. OD&D is known for its harshness and unapologetic nature. You may not survive. But ifyou do, the fruits of your labor are ever so sweeter. Races work as classes because they are rarein a predominantly human and evolving world, leaving ancient magic and lore behind slowly butsurely. This philosophy is directly inspired from Gary Gygax's philosophies in creating theoriginal game. It was almost discouraged to play as another race due to level caps, formatting amore human-centric game.The DM has the right to modify any rules. In fact, there are gaps in the rules specificallyfor the DM to add their own flare and make it their own setting. When in doubt, make a ruling.This book is a great resource for players as well as the Dungeon Master. For monsters, spells,and magical items, refer to the white box. You are a hero, not super hero. OD&D is very muchbased on a human scale. It is incredibly normal for players to feel small from the start. It's wherethe popular saying "Don‘t split the party" comes from. If the original Whitebox only had 3classes and 3 races, one may ask, why are there so many more options in this book? I lovevariety and options. No two party should be the same. I encourage experimentation as a DM.After all, above balance, the game is about having fun with friends, crawling dungeons.4

Rules of Play5

Character CreationThe original version of the S&W: Whitebox was based on the OD&D (OriginalDungeons & Dragons) Whitebox rules. It is incredibly streamlined, easy to pick up, andadaptable to the Dungeon Master's discretion. This Advanced edition of S&W: Whitebox adaptsthe accessibility of the Whitebox set of rules, while adding complexities for more experiencedplayers. Remember that the Dungeon Master may change any aspect of the rules to their liking.S&W: Whitebox originally featured only six playable classes: Fighter, Magic-User(Wizard), Cleric, Halfling, Dwarf, and Elf. When a character hits 0 hit points, they are dead.There are no stress levels, difficulty checks are more or less determined by the Dungeon Master,attribute bonuses ended with 1, and rolling stats were 3d6 in descending order. Play these rulesfor a more retro experience. Refer to Quick Primer to Old School Gaming for the true retro feel.Nothing in this rulebook is concrete! Dungeon Masters may use or deny any aspect of the rulespresented here as they see fit, or even add new rules.Character SheetsA character sheet is a piece of paper designed to organize and contain any and allnecessary PC information, for the benefit of both the Dungeon Master and Player. For AdvancedSwords and Wizardry: Whitebox, the character sheet could be something as simple as a 3 5‖index card—with equipment and spells written on the back, like so:6

Attribute DescriptionsStrength: Physical power for lifting, hurling, cutting, and dragging. Characters with Strength of 5or less can carry a weapon or a shield, but not both. When performing tasks of hard labor, playercharacters typically add their strength modifier to said roll per the Dungeon Master‘s discretion.Intelligence: Intelligence represents IQ, reasoning, and the ability to solve puzzles or understanddifficult concepts. A high Intelligence score gives a character an additional language for every 2points above 10.Wisdom: Wisdom determines a character‘s insight, perception, sanity, stress management, andgood judgment. A character‘s stress score is equal to their Wisdom score. Any character with ahigh Wisdom score (15 ) gets a 5% bonus to XPConstitution: Constitution refers to the health and endurance of a character. A high Constitutionscore (15 ) gives 1 hitpoint for each hitdie, while a weak Constitution (6-) gives a penalty -1for each hitdie.Dexterity: Dexterity is a combination of coordination, nimbleness, and quickness. A highDexterity (15 ) will add 1 to a character‘s Armor Class while a low Dexterity (8-) gives apenalty of -1 to Armor Class.Charisma: Charisma refers to a character‘s force of personality, persuasiveness, personalmagnetism, ability to lead, and physical attractiveness.A PC with a high Charisma (15 ) maystart a character with a torchbearer hireling.Attribute ScoresThe basic abilities are numbers which represent the Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom,Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma of a character. The standard way to create attribute scoresis to roll 3d6 for each attribute in descending order. Once those rolls have been made, it isobvious which type of character best fits the statistics—though, the player always has the optionto play any class desired.Attribute RollDescriptionBonus3-6Below Average-17-14Average015-18Above Average 1House Rules: Heroes of LegendFor campaigns in which the PCs are superhero in nature, players have a choice between rolling4d6 for each ability in descending order and dropping the lowest number, or rolling 3d6 andchoosing which ability to attribute the roll to. Note that rolls may not be saved for later and mustgo somewhere before a new roll is made.7

Hit PointsHit points (HP) represent the amount of ―damage‖ a character can take before dying andare determined by the amount of hit dice (HD) a character has at their particular class level. If aPlayer begins the game with a 1st level Fighter, (1 1 HD) they would therefore roll 1 HD (1d6)and add ― 1‖ to the end result to determine their PC‘s starting HP.Hit points are re-rolled each time a Player Character advances in level—however, if there-roll results in a character having fewer hit points for their new level than their previous level,ignore the re-roll and retain the prior amount.House Rule: Heroes of LegendFor campaigns in which the PCs are superhero in nature, Player Characters at Level 1 may startat max HD. (For example, if a 1st level Fighter's starting HD are 1d6 1, then their starting HP is7.)Social Class & Starting GoldA Player Character's social class not only affects their starting gold total, but it affectstheir character's view on life. To generate character social class and starting gold, the PC rolls3d6 x 10, and then rolls 1d6 and consults the chart below.RollSocial Class1PC comes from laboring background (farmer, carpenter, etc.) [-1 to each die]2PC comes from common background/middle class [Face value 3d6x10 roll]3PC comes from artisan/mercantile background [ 1 to one die rolled]4PC comes from lower noble background [ 1 to two dice rolled]5PC comes from upper artisan background [ 1 to each die rolled]6PC comes from lesser royal background [ 2 to each die rolled]8