Fantastic Heroes & Witchery Rpg Blues - Visions of Campaigns Past

Last night I found myself around a table discussing OSR or old school gaming subjects & Fantastic Heroes & Witchery came up.  Why?! Because this is a OSR game that haunts me as a DM. Once upon a time I had a full blown Eighties Science Fantasy campaign going using Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. Partially this campaign was based on the Eighties cultclassic TV show  Otherworld as well other Eighties Science Fiction shows. We used many of the  Science-Fantasy Classes and Race – PDF  from the Fantastic Heroes & Witchery website. And for a long time it was a solid campaign. And then one of our players went off the rails and passed away. The whole game fell apart ages ago.

Fantastic Heroes & Witchery apparently was/is partially based on Troll Lords Castles & Crusades system with a bit of the author's own spin on the game system. Last night really got me thinking about getting a campaign off the ground again. 

One of which is the fact that Troll Lords has a solid monsters and treasure book in the form of 

Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure. And this helps to fill in the gap for monsters & treasure within Fantastic Heroes & Witchery. 
And why a campaign now?! While this is a thought excercise at the moment there are couple of reasons for this. One is the fact that I've got a ton of experience under my belt. Two is the fact that I loath unresolved campaigns on my mind. And three is the current state of the world. I'd love to do a far more with the system then it has gotten time at my table top. This isn't my first time lamenting the fact that Fantastic Heroes & Witchery hasn't gotten the love it deserves. A review from 2017 by Maros on Amazon describes FH&W thus;" Currently my favorite “OSR”-style game. Here’s a very terse rundown: Unified Score mods & XP advancement chart. Standard races plus “Weird Tales” extras: Cthulhu & Pulp (Primates, Tainted Humans, etc). Alignment is per basic D&D (Chaotic, Neutral, & Law – interesting, vast majority are neutral unless they have specific reasons). Lots & lots of classes (including 3rd-era prestige fleshed out full classes): “Traditional” (Fighter, Wizard, etc), Racial (Elven Arcane Archer, Gnome Illusionist, etc), & “Weird Tales” (Cthulhu, Pulp, Psionic, & 30s style SciFi). Saving throws are decreasing (per standard A/D&D)), but to-hit is ascending (per 3rd-era). The former was obviously a concession to allow for easy use with AD&D material. I’d personally go ascending (level + mod vs attack – per C&C) and use the C&C monster/treasure books. (Or make allowance for A/D&D sources.) Lots of extras in here, including rules, more optional classes, and even optional 3rd-era skills." And if your going to grab Fantastic Heroes & Witchery for the love of God grab the Lulu printing which is only 31.29 plus shipping. Noble Knight is selling the book for $50.oo. 

What really prompted this dive back into FH&W is reading through Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure.  And the amount of Fey,fairies, & other creatures really stirs the imagination. There's something about the interplay of unrealized campaign material & monsters that does something to the imagination. Or it could just be unresolved regrets of campaigns past..