PRESS RELEASE

BRAVE HALFLING TO PUBLISH SWORDS & WIZARDRY WHITEBOX

December 22, 2009 -- Brave Halfling Publishing, Black Blade Publishing, and Mythmere Games are pleased to announce a new forward leap in the development of the ENnie-Award-Winning Swords & Wizardry game. Swords & Wizardry is a retro-clone of the original, 1974 edition of the well-known fantasy game written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (often called "0e," for "original edition"). The Core Rules version of 0e, published by Black Blade, includes material derived from the various 0e rules and
supplements originally published by Tactical Studies Rules and TSR Hobbies between 1974 and 1977. The WhiteBox version of the 0e game is based solely on the first boxed release of 1974, which was altered in many ways by the later supplements.

As of today, Brave Halfling Publishing will become the publisher of the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox Rules, under license from Mythmere Games, the producer of both versions of Swords & Wizardry. Brave Halfling will publish not only the WhiteBox rulebooks, but also a full line of supplemental material including modules and other resources specifically designed for use with the WhiteBox version.

"This is going to be a real boost for fans of Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox," said Matt Finch, founder of Mythmere Games. "There has been a lot of excitement about the Swords & Wizardry game, but up until now, most of the attention has been focused on the Core Rules. With Brave Halfling coming in to publish and support the WhiteBox rules, this is a chance for the game's earliest, un-supplemented edition to really grow and thrive. Brave Halfling plans to build an entire supporting line of WhiteBox products, which didn't happen even back in 1974. The game was changed with supplemental rules before TSR ever published a single module. Brave Halfling is going to be the first into that new territory."

"We have lots of plans for Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox," said John Adams, president of Brave Halfling Publishing, "and you're going to begin seeing them almost right away. For starters, we're already assembling a Boxed Set packed full of Old-School goodies including four digest-sized rule booklets, a set of dice, a tablet of digest-sized graph paper, twelve 3x5 index card character sheets and a digest copy of Matt's A Primer for Old School Gaming. Next we will be releasing a single-volume version of WhiteBox in both perfect bound and hard cover."  

"At first glance, it may seem unusual for two versions of Swords & Wizardry to be published and distributed by different companies," said Jon Hershberger, president of Black Blade Publishing, "but there are key differences in the rules mechanics, and available character classes and monsters, spells, and magic items, which creates a unique and distinct feel to both versions of the game.  With both games being developed by different publishers, that also guarantees that the two won't grow too similar over time."

"Twice as many modules," Matt Finch added. "That says it all, doesn't it?"

Formed in 2009 by Jon Hershberger and Allan Grohe, Black Blade Publishing publishes the Swords & Wizardry Core Rulebook under license from Mythmere Games. For additional information, visit www.black-blade-publishing.com.

John Adams' Brave Halfling Publishing has been producing Old-School products since May of 2008 and now publishes Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox under license from Mythmere Games. For additional information, visit www.bravehalflingpublishing.com.

Kingofpain89 wrote:Sold out already!  

http://bravehalflingpublishing.com/

Yep jumped on the pre-order soon as I saw it!

For those interested in the white box, and were unable to get in before selling out...you now have a chance since they just increased the print run for an additional 75 boxes....I got mine  

http://bravehalflingpublishing.com/

Got one Whew!!

tacojohn4547 wrote:...based solely on the first boxed release of 1974, .. twelve 3x5 index card character sheets...

I'd like to get a look at those character sheets. I ran a white-box-only game once, & boiled it down to half a dozen stats derived from attributes: MISSILE BONUS, HIT DIE BONUS, XP BONUS,  MAX. LANGUAGES,  MAX. HIRELINGS,  LOYALTY,  SURVIVAL.

ashmire13 wrote:would this have been available to the UK?

I hope so, or my $41 is down the pan!

Maybe you guys know.. but apparently "Brave Halfling" moved to a new site.

I found a forum, which appears active:

http://bravehalfling.forumotion.net/ann ... g-t175.htm

which indicates recently that these are shipping.

Good thing I googled.. I was about to get pissed off because the original site is dead and gone.

Still pretty shady.. but that's the indy games business I guess!

edit:

New Site: http://bravehalfling.com/

Weird they didn't at least leave a pointer from the old one.  But seems like honest incompetence rather than competent dishonesty.

Kingofpain89 wrote:I noticed some bubbling in a few places where the glue isnt consistent on the bottom part of the box.

I'll avoid making comparisons with which OD&D white boxes /that/ is similar.

Kingofpain89 wrote:No 3x5 character sheets.  This was advertised in the original offering but there werent any in my box.  I know of at least one other person that didnt get them either so it is very possible that this item just didnt make it into the finished product.

There wasn't enough space to shoehorn those in, apparently. Shall see when the box arrives but sounds promising, that!

Agreed.  I didn't mean to imply anyone was dishonest in anyway, just making a joke.  

It did kind of scare me at first though when I went to the old site and got a parking page but then Google found them.

I didn't want anyone else to think what I thought due to the site so posted.

Looking forward to seeing what the box set looks like!