CAL2b Conversion Guide to Caldwen
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This Conversion Guide is an indispensable referee's companion as Calidar sourcebooks are otherwise system-neutral. It provides all game statistics written for the OSRICTM system. This supplement covers the three books in Calidar's Caldwen arc:
CAL2 "Wings of Darkness" Gazetteer: 428743
PG2 "Players' Guide to Caldwen": 428743
CA2 "How to Train Your Wizard" Adventure: 428743
Each of the original books is treated as a separate chapter in this Conversion Guide¸ exactly in the same order as presented in the source material. Each translated entry shows easy-to-use page references linking back to the source material.
Coming Soon:
PG1 "Players' Guide to Meryath": Essentially Calidar's "missing link¸" it fills the gap left vacant in the wake of Calidar's original launch as a new game world. It finalizes the present structure of the gazetteers' product lineups for each realm-1 core sourcebook + 1 adventure + 1 players' guide (and two conversion booklets-see below).
CAL1a and CAL1b: These two Conversion Guides are for use respectively with the Labyrinth LordTM and OSRICTM systems. They cover the three Meryath sourcebooks-CAL1 "In Stranger Skies" Gazetteer¸ CA1 "Dreams of Aerie" Adventure¸ and PG1 listed above. Additional material unavailable in the original books is provided here.
Review on The Other Side¸ by Tim BrannanI am still spending a Virtual Vacation in Calidar's beautiful Caldwen. But you know what every tourist needs? A tour guide. Thankfully our thoughtful travel agent Bruce Heard has supplied us with not one¸ but two new "tour guides" for anyone traveling to Caldwen.
CAL2a Conversion Guide to Caldwen for Vintage Roleplaying and CAL2b Conversion Guide to Caldwen for the OSRIC System .
Both books follow the same format. The only differences are the systems they are being converted too. The books cover both CAL2 Calidar On Wings of Darkness and CA2 How to Train Your Wizard. Knowledge of PG2 A Players' Guide to Caldwen and Game Mechanics for the World of Calidar is helpful. (links are to reviews¸ not the products themselves.)
The books are 30 pages with full-color covers and color with black white interior art. Prices at $3.95¸ but currently $2.95. You do not need both¸ but I find it nice for my own system analyses.
Unlike the main Caldwen/Calidar books the art here is sparse¸ but that is by design since the focus of this book is the stats. Here Heard make explicit the conversions he discussed in the main books using the Calidar game stats. Depending on the system book you grab¸ you get easily familiar stat blocks and guides on how to use the books. Now obviously the "vintage roleplaying" can be used with any 70s and 80s circa version of the World's Greatest Role-Playing Game. Or as I have called here¸ any Basic-Era edition. It is labeled for "Labyrinth Lord" but any game similar enough to Labyrinth Lord can be used (ie. only a Law-Chaos alignment axis¸ race-as-class)¸ or adapted. The OSIRC-labeled version can also be used with any Advanced-era version of the game.
One of the main features of these books is the Mage Knight class. I am quite fond of this class so I wanted to try it out. Now I have choices¸ a "Basic" or an "Advanced" version. Now the class has been converted faithfully¸ so don't expect them to look exactly the same between the Basic and Advanced versions. There is no description of the powers the Mage Knight has¸ you still need the Caldwen book for that¸ but this is expected.
After the Mage Knight¸ we get into the How to Train Your Wizard material.
Throughout the book¸ page references to the sourcebooks are given.
So the great thing about these books is if you play a particular system then