Rolling up a Swords & Wizardry character

So I threw my name in the ring for Eric Tenkar's Swords & Wizardry game's B-Team.

I finally noticed where the chargen rules were stashed, and rolled up my guy yesterday. I remember how fun rolling up a character is, and why I play a game that means I never have to do that anymore. I rarely get to play . . . I might be happier with pure random if I was making like 6 guys and playing every day at school.

The Rules

We're using Swords & Wizardry Complete, which lucky for me, I got as part of the Bones kickstarter last year. Lucky for me, I downloaded it before they took the link down and didn't lose the PDF.

So we get two tries, 4d drop lowest, arrange as you like, can trade 2 points from one stat for a +1 to another (nothing drops below 10). Any race/class combo is okay.

The Rolls

I did that, and got one good set of stats and one bad set.

Here is what I got:

16
12
13
13
12
11
(Nice!)

and

11
7
9
5
10
16
(Much less nice!)

That was my two tries.*

I decided I wanted to run a fighter. I love fighters, although a Ranger seems pretty cool too and Paladins are great in the right group. But a fighter is always okay.

The Paper Man Emerges

So I decided this is the way to arrange them:

STR 16 17
DEX 13
CON 13
INT 11
WIS 12 10
CHA 12

It's not 100% clear to me if I can trade 2 points out of CHA, too, for an 18 ST. I'd give up 1 special henchment for a +1 to damage, +20 carry bonus, and +1 to opening doors. If it's a 2-for-1 once per PC thing I'm satisfied with 17. If not, dropping CHA to 10 for an 18 or CHA to 10 for a 14 DX might be good. His DX is 1 point too low to use the Defensive Fighting tactic - it only has an effect at DX 14+. I'll have to ask Erik about that.

I rolled d8+1 for HP and got a 7, +1 = 8. Yes, I am glad I rolled that particular die. Just for grins I rolled for Much Less Nice dude and got a 3. Yeah, that's like a 50% chance of dying whenever you get hit.

So that's what I have for now. I just need a name for my strong, moderately quick and healthy fighter. I already used up Tarjan Telnar for my short-played GURPS DF knight. I'll come up with one that feels good to say soon enough. Oddly, though, the name stuck in my head is the very western monk "Grimwulf" my friend Jason ran in my Junior High School-era AD&D game. I do like "Grim" in a name. But we'll see - something will strike me:

The Sheet

Mr. Placeholder Name
Human Fighter
STR 17 (+2 to hit, +2 damage, doors 1-4, +30 carry bonus)
DEX 13 (+1 to hit with missiles - stacks with STR bonus, +1 AC bonus)
CON 13 (+1 HP per die, 100% Raise Dead survival)
INT 11 (+2 max additional languages)
WIS 10 (doesn't seem to do anything, regardless of the score)
CHA 12 (4 Special Henchmen maximum)
Luck 5 (we just get this, it sounds like the rule from DCC)
HP 8

Now I need to buy gear and run him past the GM/DM/Ref whatever he's called in this system.


* Then for grins, I did a third, and got Mr. Suspiciously Above Normal But Not Too Suspiciously Above Normal:

15
11
7
16
15
14

Yeah. A 7 thrown in as a ringer ("my guy is a bit foolish" - just stick it in Wisdom) and enough stats for a solid ST, a DX bonus on defenses, maybe a solid CHA, etc. It sounds like "I picked these and then picked one bad score to make it look like I didn't pick them."