Swords Appeal (and Wizardry)

There may come a time in a post-OSR (or NSR, or plain old OSR - whatever, choose your acronym) gamer's life where they feel compelled to study the old ways. To look beyond the smooth elegance of a Mythic Bastionland or a Mothership, and try on the frictive clunkiness of TSR era D&D to see how it fits. Dear reader, I have been playing in a modified Old School Essentials campaign for a couple of months now and... I like it! The sense of achievement in finally getting a hobbit (halfling) to survive to level 2 (now sporting some chain armour to boot) was delightful. A far cry from the quotidean feel of the expected levelling-up in Official Brand & Builds style D&D. Does that mean I have cast aside my Cairn 2e box and the teachings of Yochai Gal to learn the ways of Moldvay, Cook and Mentzer? Not at all... but my appetite has been whet, and so I delved deeper. I dabbled with PDF scans of the 1974 TSR D&D box, B2, some of the various Basics, and after extracting some enjoyment from that…