The Wizards' World Difference

Art by Tracy Cameron Mansfield

Wizards' World does not offer any detailed setting information, although there are glimpses into the campaign(s) of Dave Silvera and/or Doug Krull.  For instance, Madradox and the Eldritch Field or the Earth King that rules the Metamorphic Dwarves.  Essentially, the game is a platform for Silvera and Krull to offer alternatives to D&D rules; alternatives that go beyond an extra characteristic and some new races and classes.

The game presents the familiar array of thief abilities along with the addition of 'Spot Hidden Item', 'Recognize Value', and 'Estimate Value'.  Thieves, of course, have all of the thief abilities; scouts, assassins, destroyers, jesters, and spies each have some thief abilities (spies also have the additional abilities of 'Disguise' and 'Mimic').  Rather than a measured progression per level, professions with thief abilities receive a number of percentage points per level to allocate among the abilities as the player sees fit.

Like thief abilities, combat is also resolved with percentile rolls.  All characters have a 25% proficiency with every weapon, possibly modified by a dexterity based “To Hit Adjustment.”  Professions with a focus on combat can improve their ability through experience.  Such professions have experience “intervals” in addition to experience levels.  For example, warriors have an interval of one hundred experience points for the first two levels; “[w]arriors gain a one percent increase in their to hit probability with the weapon of their choice at each interval.”  Professions (such as Wizard and Thief) without 'fighting ability' simply do not improve their ability to use weapons, ever.

Experience, by the way, is earned by killing.  In addition, combat-oriented professions gain experience by causing damage, spellcasters gain experience from casting spells, and thief-like professions gain experience by successfully performing thief abilities.  Finally, “[t]he GM may wish to award experience for other accomplishments as well.”

Armor “absorbs” damage and reduces dexterity and agility by a like amount.  For example, “Chain Armour” has an absorption value of 4 and causes a dexterity and agility penalty of 4.  A character's agility can provide a defense adjustment that modifies an opponent’s chance to hit.  Low agility causes a negative defense adjustment which increases an opponent's chance; high agility, vice versa.  According to the example of combat, the destroyer profession provides a bonus to defense, but I do not see this detailed in the destroyer profession description.

With regard to magic, there are spell points and spell learning points.  Spell points are spent when attempting to cast a spell.  First through fourth level spells cost one point to attempt to cast; higher level spells cost more.  For a particular casting, an “aspect” of the spell (such as range or duration – but not damage) can be doubled by doubling the spell points; tripling spell points can triple the aspect (or double another aspect), etc.  One spell point is recovered for every hour of rest.

Wizards get a spell learning point for every point of experience earned.  (Other spellcasters get a spell learning point for every two points of experience earned.)  The cost of learning a spell – assuming the spellcaster has a copy of the spell (from the Wizards' Guild or elsewhere) – is determined by the level of the spell and the “chance of failure” the spellcaster is willing to take per casting.  The cost of any of the following options is two thousand points:  a 1st level spell with no chance of failure, a 4th level spell with a 75% chance of failure, a 2nd level spell with a 10% chance of failure, or a 3rd level spell with a 30% chance of failure.

Six years before the publication of Second Edition AD&D, Wizards' World presented “specialty wizards” as a character profession option.  Instead of schools of magic, Wizards' World has types:  Destructive, Curative, Creation, Transformation, Enchantment, Detection, Illusion, and Protection.  A specialty wizard pays half of the learning cost for spells of his type, but pays double for any other type.  A specialty wizard gains more spell points for casting spells of his specific type.  For instance, a sixth level 'general' wizard has twelve spell points, while a sixth level specialty wizard has six spell points to use with any spell type and eight spell points that can be used only with his specialized type.

Although percentile dice are used for combat, spell success, and thief abilities, curiously, 3d10 are used for attribute saving rolls.  Multiplying an attribute value by three would seem to provide a viable percentile score for a linear probability distribution consistent with the rest of the game.

Wizards' World

Art by Tracy Cameron Mansfield

Wizards' World is one of those games that boil down to D&D with some house rules thrown in.  Nowadays, you can't swing a displacer beast without hitting one of those; however, Wizards' World was released in 1983, when the notion was not altogether tired.  In a previous post, I explained that Lawrence Schick confused this game with Wizards' Realm.  There's only one syllable of difference between the titles; perhaps I expect too much from Schick.

Anyway, Wizards' World is no longer an obscure, out-of-print game from thirty years ago; it is now an obscure, print-on-demand game from thirty years ago.  It has been acquired by Daniel Proctor and is available wherever Goblinoid Games are sold.  The current printing has been reformatted somewhat and incorporates errata.  Yet, the book is not entirely without error; the attacker critical blow table on page 13 displays a spreadsheet goof of “Jan-50” instead of “1-50.”  “Populous” instead of “populace” (p. 59) remains uncorrected from the original version.  Also, it would have been nice to have a spell index and an alphabetized monster listing.

One interesting difference of the current version from the original is the lack of any mention of co-author Douglas S. Krull.  Originally, Krull's name appeared with that of David Silvera on the cover, the title page, and beneath the preface.  The preface itself is unchanged with phrases like “We especially wish” and “We also wish.”  It makes it seem that Silvera is employing the editorial 'we'.  Krull's  status as an unperson is confirmed when Proctor, in his foreword, uses the phrase “of the author” (singular).  Perhaps Krull wanted to divorce himself from any association with the game.

All of the artwork (including the cover shown above) is the product of Tracy Mansfield, who evidently did not pursue a career in art or adorn any other game books.  His efforts are rendered in a style I can only describe as a step up from high school notebook realism.  I'm not complaining; it offers something of an 'old school' authenticity.

The first step in creating a character is to select a race.  Playable races include the familiar assortment of humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, half-elves, and gnomes. Additionally, there are 'evil' versions dwarves, elves, and halflings.  I guess humans are already evil; they are “the most warlike race” and are considered “inferior and barbaric.”  Gnomes enjoy practical jokes most of all and “the gnomish sense of humor has been known run roughshod over meek, and sometimes not so meek, beings of all types.”  So, I guess gnomes are already evil too.

The 'bad' dwarves are called metamorphic dwarves and they are servants of the Earth King.  “They have golden skin and sparkling eyes” and they “can also cause their skin to appear to move and change hue.”  The 'bad' halflings are called demon halflings; they received powers from Lucifer and Mephistopheles.  Demon halfling powers include some percentage of magic resistance, the ability to transform “to humanoid form,” and they take half damage from fire.  Dark elves in Wizards' World are standard issue except they automatically have some spellcasting ability (as do 'normal' elves).

Although there are 'bad' character races, Wizards' World has no rules for alignment.  However, characters of the white knight profession get an experience bonus “for being kind, generous and generally heroic” and an experience penalty for behaving evilly; vice versa for black knights.

There are seven primary attributes:  strength, willpower, intelligence, endurance, appearance, dexterity, and agility.  Dexterity influences “manipulative capability (i.e. picking locks)” and “ability to hit with a weapon.”  Agility measures “reflexes and dodging ability.”  Each primary attribute has a value from three to thirty; the average “for normal, non-adventuring individuals is 10.”  Primary attributes are determined based on a character's race; humans have 3d6+2 for each.

There are four secondary attributes, each of which is the average of a set of three primary attributes:  Life Points (END, STR, and WIL), Alertness (WIL, INT, and AGL), Stealth (INT, AGL, and DEX), and Movement Value (WIL, AGL, and END).

Wizards' World offers an interesting assortment of character professions beyond the expected warrior, wizard, and thief; however, there are no cleric analogs.  Among the other 'professions' there are:  attackers, defenders, scouts, spies, assassins, white knights, black knights, jesters (yes, there are jesters), destroyers (the Wizards' World equivalent of the AD&D monk), and vampires.  Incidentally, “Vampires...are the only monster that can be played as a character.” (I guess demon halflings, metamorphic dwarves, and jesters are not considered to be monsters.)

Entry into a profession is based on attribute minimums and race.  In Wizards' World, race is not as restrictive as AD&D with regard to profession/class choice.  Among the restrictions, dwarves and halflings cannot be wizards; however, their 'bad boy' race equivalents can.  Also, the 'bad' races can't be white knights, neither can gnomes.  (I told you they're evil.)

Curiously, neither flavor of halfling can be a scout.  At first glance, this might be explained by the fact that the minimum strength needed for a scout is 13 and halflings only roll 3d4 to determine strength.  However, demon halflings roll 2d4+1d6 for strength and thus can have 13 strength.  Also, halflings are permitted to join the attacker profession even though the minimum strength requirement of 14.