Old-School Essentials vs Swords & Wizardry
Compare Old-School Essentials and Swords & Wizardry side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Old-School Essentials | Swords & Wizardry | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Dungeon Crawl, Exploration, Hexcrawl, Deadly, Sandbox, Resource Management, Inventory Management, Random Tables, Vancian Casting, Strong GM Support | Classic Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Deadly, Vancian Casting, Hexcrawl, Random Tables, Resource Management, Sandbox, Domain Management, Strong GM Support |
| Core Mechanic | Attacks roll d20 against an attack matrix or an optional ascending Armour Class target. Saving throws meet a category target on d20. Ability checks roll at or below an ability score on d20. | Roll a d20 with attack modifiers and meet the target number for the chosen Armor Class system. Ascending Armor Class allows a direct roll against AC; descending Armor Class uses attack tables. Saving throws use a single class-based d20 target number with bonuses against particular hazards. |
| Dice | d20 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | Medium |
| Availability | Free core rules | Paid |
| Runnability | 5 of 5 book tools | 4 of 5 book tools |
| License | OGL 1.0a | Swords & Wizardry Compatibility-Statement License (CSL) |
| Third-Party Publishing | Commercial publishing allowed — Open license | Commercial publishing allowed — Swords & Wizardry Compatibility-Statement License |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Necrotic Gnome | Mythmere Games |
| Year | 2019 | 2023 |
| Languages | English, Italian, Spanish, French, Czech, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean | English, German |
| Best For | Groups who want treasure-driven dungeon expeditions and open wilderness campaigns with fragile starting characters. | Groups seeking dangerous dungeon expeditions and open wilderness campaigns. Higher-level characters can establish strongholds and govern surrounding settlements. |
| Highlights | Treasure recovered from adventures provides most experience points, rewarding successful exploration over fighting alone. Reaction and optional morale rolls let encounters lead to negotiation or flight instead of automatic combat. Stronghold construction and taxation let accumulated wealth support a growing domain. | One class-based saving throw target replaces separate hazard categories. Treasure grants experience points, rewarding successful expeditions even when monsters are avoided. Stronghold construction and settlement taxes support campaigns that grow into territorial rule. |
| Considerations | Characters die at zero hit points, and failed poison saves are usually fatal. Demihuman characters combine ancestry with class and have lower level limits than human classes. Declared spells are lost if the caster is hit or fails a saving throw before acting. | Low starting hit points and death below zero make early combat dangerous. Damage during casting interrupts a prepared spell and expends it. Nonhuman ancestry restricts available classes and level advancement. |