About every five years or so, some clever RPG egghead gets a wild burr under the saddle and decides it’s time somebody took Gary Gygax’s Chainmail and cleaned it up for modern audiences. Typically, the egghead is more of a technical writer than a gamer and gets most of the rewrite wrong, with at least one error and/or commission that completely breaks the game.
This time around, Alchemic Raker takes a swing at it and knocks the ball out of the park.
Meet The Old Lords of Wonder and Ruin.
It’s the most accurate l, authentic, and accessible version of the game that launched a million campaigns and ten thousand games we’ve ever seen.
In any effort to translate a book from one language to another, and make no mistake about it, updating 1970s rulespeak to modern googoogaga hand holding IS translating from one language to another, artistic decisions must be made. A healthy sense of judgement must be exercised, in order to convey the spirit of the rules. Just as important, if not moreso, the weekend ght of experience must be brought to bear in order to ensure the language used allows for the same experience when the dice hit the table.
The play is the thing, and very few of those who set out to clean Chainmail have a sufficient body of time at play to really understand how changing the rules changes the game. These things are instruction manuals, and if you leave out important steps or mistranslate one or two, the instructions become worthless. Sure, you may get an experience out of them, but it won’t be the Chainmail experience.
And this is where Raker’s version of Gary’s rules really shines. When you get into the table, the two are virtually indistinguishable. The only thing that changes is the ease of #BookControl, and the ease of finding those little hidden rules that you need at a moment’s notice.
Perhaps an example is in order.
Here, Raker gives us the master troops table complete with move rates, charge distance, and in a user-friendly update, Troop Class, or TC. This number is used in both versions of the game, but Gary buries it in the morale section, where Raker brings it to the fore and even gives it a name o for easy reference. The mass is the same, the only thing that changes is the order of operations.
It’s a very insightful look at the guts of Chainmail, and even if you have no intention of playing The Old Lords, it’s worth a read just to get a better glimpse of the inside workings of Gary’s game.
And you can download a PDF copy for free, so there’s really no excuse not to give it a look.