Review of Savage Swords of Athanor (Part 1)

Considering the 77th birthday of Flash Gordon was the 7th of January, it seems rather appropriate to do a review of Savage Swords of Athanor. Granted, Savage Swords of Athanor is rally more in the vein of say John Carter than Flash Gordon, you’ll get the idea. So without further ado, let’s begin. Savage Swords of Athanor Rules Supplement and Campaign Setting for Swords and Wizardry White Box is by Doug Easterly. I picked my copy up at Lulu for $8.00 USD. Digest sized and weighing in at 64 pages, Athanor fits in nicely with your S&W White Box books or even better, your OD&D little brown books. The first page is the title and credits while the second page is a table of contents and introduction. The final page is given over to the open game license. So for those of you who are sticklers for that sort of thing, the rest is all devoted to the game itself. The front cover depicts a very nice silhouette cut out of what appears to be some pteronadons and an iguanadon in front of a domed city with pyramids and two moons. Done in tri color, it is very simple, elegant, and evocative. The interior of the work contains no further illustrations. There is a line map of the domed city of Zamora and a hex map for the city of Zamora and surrounding environs.

The first section Men and Magic starts on page three and ends on page seventeen. This section details the races, classes, skill and magic system available in Athanor. There are five playable races in Athanor and four subraces of humans. The humans of Athanor are quite a bit different than us in that they have a wider range of skin color and hair color. The four subraces are the Duma are black skinned and red haired, xenophobic dinosaur riders that hole up in their walled cities. The Ghuls are chaos worshiping cannibals that have clear skin. The Khitai are another xenophobic race that has yellow skin and black hair. Zamorans are red skinned and black haired. Zamorans area passionate people and the assumed default race of the setting. Mal’Akkans are a vegetoid cactus people. Alemanians are blue skinned arthropods. Throon are fungus men. Finally, earthmen from the 20th/21st century Earth may be played.

There are three classes in Athanor: Fighting-man, Magic-user, and Rogue. The Fighting-man and Magic-user classes function as per the S&W rules while the rogue is a sort of hybrid between the two. The rogue has the ability to use any weapon, but can not cast spells while in armor. Rogues do not gain spells until second level. Further, they must hunt down their spells as the game progresses.

Three classes might seem limited, but there is a skill system that allows for further customization of characters. Skills are not required for a character to attempt an action, but instead, they give bonuses to the actions performed. The skills are divided into three groups. Characters can choose one skill from group 1 or two from group 2. Only earth men can choose from group three. Here’s and example of a skill: thief – may use skills to overcome locks, traps, and scale walls. Thieves gain a +1 to surprise rolls when alone or with other stealthy characters. Skill checks are handled by making a saving throw. A character that is skilled in an area gain a +4 bonus to saving throws that involve the skill. A character can learn additional skills by spending money and time.

The spell list is a mix of magic-user and priest spells. In addition, there are rules for creating scrolls and a rules for interrupted spells. Spell interruption rules require a save to be made and also roll on the magical mishap table. There are also mutations that result from exposure to the Clone Pits, the technology of the ancients, or irradiated ruins. The mutations can have a variety of effects either harmful or beneficial. Finally, there is a lack of resurrection spells but the Clone Pits run by the Necromancer Vog-Mur are capable of resurrection (but can also incur a variety of effects).

The Men and Magic section is rounded out by details of the effects of hit points and death, binding wounds, rest, and fortifying spirits. Combat options such as parrying, two weapon fighting, and disarming are detailed.

The second half of the review follows.

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