Mark Pitcavage - 08:56pm Aug 31, 2000 PST (#1658 of 1658) 

I love Swords and Sorcery. The humor was amusing--for those who are
unaware of the game, it contains personages such as Gygax Dragonlord,
Unamit Ahezredit, Logarithm Son of Algorithm; places such as the Evelyn
Woods and the Stream of Consciousness, as well as the notorious Hills of
Avalon; and peoples such as the Corflu Cultists, the (communist) Orcish
Revolutionary Council, and of course the dreaded Killer Penguins. It is
also a game in which X the Unknown could potentially conjure the SS
Viking Division. How many fantasy games are there of which you can say
that? 

However, the humor in the game would have only amused me briefly. What I
liked much more about the game is its immense playability. There are
tons of scenarios, ranging from small two player scenarios up to massive
scenarios for six or seven players. Some of the scenarios are very
cleverly designed. For instance, there is a multiplayer scenario about
the rise of one dark lord type of fellow. The other players basically
get victory points for beating up on each other, not on the dark lord,
and they can even submit to him and not necessarily lose. But of course
if the evil guy wins, they all lose, so it becomes a neat scenario with
much potential for backstabbing. Another scenario--the destruction of
the O.R.C.--has a great situation in which an inferior force with the
advantage of interior lines much stave off a much superior force (I
admit to being particularly fond of this one because I had my second
greatest wargaming victory playing that scenario). 

The scenarios give it a lot of replayability and also encourage people
to design their own. Moreover, the scenarios also help give an
interesting sense of the history of the Valley, which adds much flavor
and color to the game. 

Moreover, many of the systems in the game are quite clever as well.
While the movement and combat systems are very par-for-the-course, there
is a great magic system with three types of magic whose power waxes and
wanes with the movement of various planetary bodies. There are a great
many spells that can be cast, with a variety of interesting effects. The
diplomatic system, in which emissaries and other events can cause a
diplomatic display to be manipulated (with perhaps resulting alliances),
is very interesting. 

And, of course, there is an entire separate game, the quest game, a
pseudo role-playing game. 

I mean, geez, how much more game could you possibly want in a box? This
game provide hours and hours and hours of enjoyment for me, and I
wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is at all interested in
fantasy wargames. 

Rush out to ebay, buy buy buy.