1: episodic and unrelated adventures. The idea behind this was to create adventures that were unrelated by theme or plot. Each adventure (or night of gaming) was supposed to be a different adventure unrelated to the previous or following. I guess what I was thinking of here was a series of one shots with no theme (like good vs evil) or long running plot (like defeat the lord of x realm). Adventures could run across several night of several nights of gaming but no long running plots (like say conan versus lord of the rings).
2: combat oriented. This, I would suppose, is a focus on violent conflict to resolve many issues or bring the tension up. Conflict creates tension. This can be overstated, never-the-less, sword and sorcery is fueled by conflict and violence.
3. no world changing events. this is sorta easy, the characters are not changing, in fact, can not change the world. the world runs on its own engine despite the characters. Of course, this is up and down. Conan became King of Aquilonia. But, my thinking is more akin to Elric such that the doom at hand can not be prevented. Its sorta norse in nature. The fututre is set, its just how you manage your part in it that matters.
4. characters are stronger than most people. The characters in s&s novels are far above average, in most respects, than other people. The players would be playing powerful characters from the git go and be able to lay waste to most opponents.
5. magic is virtually non-existant. This comment was for the players. Its unusual in that two of my favorite characters are Kane and Elric, both sorcerers. However, many characters in S&S literature are not sorcerers, their opponents are. Magic is evil or at least magicians are. Not sure how I would handle that.
6. human orientation. The major players are human in almost all S&S literature. I don't see why this can not be extended to other races though if the rules setting support it.
7. sword defeats all. This was a simple one. Cold hard steel can defeat almost anything. So uhhh, I know I was revolting against the rule in the game where magic weapons were required to hit certain monsters. I can see silver and lycanthropes or garlic and vampires (as these are staples) but I know that I just allowed steel to vanquish any foe.
So there were some thoughts. I am perusing some rules that I had, some ridiculous, others not helpful. Some I still like.
This
Last art by Jeff Carlisle who captures the mundane quickly
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