Swords under the Sun — Blades in the Dark meets Dungeon World

[loverdrive (Alice Loverdrive)]

Sorry, I’m buried under a big pile of work at my real job, so I can’t respond right away, but don’t worry, I’m absolutely fine with you “pestering” me Honestly, I’m flattered

@xabth

One thing I’m struggling with is the concept of faith as a cornerstone of the game. I really like it, but I’m having trouble coming up with ways to implement it in game in ways that force characters to struggle with their faith. Some of this comes from not quite knowing what the religion of the world looks like. You refer often to “The Temple” and at least once to the Temple of the Incandesce of the Sun, which I assume are one in the same. Is this religion human based? Do the other races follow it as well, or are there competing religions? Is it a pantheon, or is the Sun worshiped as a singular entity?

Faith is a very personal thing, and I don’t want to canonize any particular teachings – it’s something for the group to figure out.

My own Temple of the Incandesce of the Sun is heavily based on Islam, but that’s only because Islam has influenced my own life, and that’s what I want to talk about – but your experience is probably different from mine.

@xabth

Speaking of the sun, can you shed any more light on this ancient solar event and it’s effects? It sounds like the world is getting hotter which makes me assume that most of the world is a desert hellscape. How true is that? If it is accurate, are there still forests and the like?

Oh. I just realized I didn’t ever mention it. How I see it, the Sun burns away souls, and in the end, only a lifeless husk remains, devoid of will and emotions.

I guess after dozens and dozens of writes and rewrites this was so ingrained in my mind that I forgot that other people can’t read my mind

@xabth

You mention the Schism War in one line and we did our best to run with that. We decided that the war was a result of a split in the human race over the issue of how much voice the church would have in government. This rift led to war, with the dwarves largely sitting it out while orcish converts to the Church of the Incandesce joined it’s cause. We judged that the church won the battle and that human government is now mostly theocratic. Again, this will work for us, but any input you can give would be very interesting.

Just like religion itself, Schism is something to be defined by your group – it should be over something important specifically to you. When I ran the game, in three separate groups:

• Whether “Men” in “First Men” refers to “Men” as males, or just people in general – so can women hold positions of power?
• We invented two Beastslayer Saints, and then decided that it was debated, whether they were lovers, or just friends. We gays make everything about gays.
• It was just about two groups competing for dominance, to highlight how corrupted exploit the religion for their own personal gains.

Struggle over race sounds cool! I really like it.

@xabth

Are elves, in fact, immortal? We decided to make them fairly rare, chalking it up to a low birth rate combined with the newly hostile sun being particularly destructive to them.

They are. They don’t die of old age, so there are some elves who have lived for thousands of years.

@xabth

Back to a rules question, do you have any plans to make the PC party it’s own entity ala Crews in BitD? We were thinking it might be cool to have the party enjoy specific upgrades or special abilities so long as the party is a cohesive unit, which we also felt would promote a bond and a further reason for the heroes to stay together. Just a thought.

I thought about it and decided against it. Unlike Blades, I want my game to be about specific characters, not their organization as a whole – though you certainly can create their crew as an NPC with Tier and moves.

@xabth

A rules question first: Can PC’s take special abilities from other classes ala BitD veteran abilities?

They can, although its restricted – you can’t take special abilities of other classes more than three times.

@xabth

I’m having a hard time figuring out if you’re using Position and Effect in the same way that Blades does. Your notations on this are a little scattered and not explicitly laid out. You do mention Controlled, Risky, and Desperate over the course of the rules, but I can’t find an exact breakdown of how a given Position affects Effect. For the time being I’ll assume an exact port of Position/Effect from Blades, but if you have a tweak in mind I’d like to try to understand it well enough to implement it in my playtest.

The actual reason why there’s no breakdown is a bit silly – I couldn’t figure out how to lay out Position/Effect table lol. I will add it in a next update, but I’m drowning in work right now, so I don’t have an ETA.

Another reason is, I personally advice people to come up with exact complications before rolling the dice – “You can try it, but you risk suffering Extreme harm” instead of “Ok, that’s a Desperate position”, but that’s not that important to my vision of the game.

@xabth

In the rulebook the Sun-Speaker’s Terrifying Armor is listed at 3 load, while the character sheet marks it as 2 load. For now I’ll defer to the rulebook, but maybe you can give me the definite number on that.

It should be 2 load, thanks for spotting it.

[xabth]

Thank you so much for the reply and info. I figured that much of the lore would be up to the players and once I decided to embrace the world building it’s been a lot of fun. There’s still details about the sun and it’s effects that I hope you elaborate on (is it too hot to be out in the daytime? etc) but I can roll with what I’ve got for now.

It makes sense that your Temple reflects your experience with Islam. Mine will almost certainly bear a resemblance to the catholic church. The more I think about it the more ideas I have to inject faith into the fiction. I am curious though, is there an assumption that PC’s will start out working for the Temple? I’m not sure how you would square a Sun-Speaker being in the same party as a heretic.

But we’ll see how it all shakes out. Thanks again for the information. I’ll try to let you know how the playtest goes.

[xabth]

Our first playtest session is in the books with a second slated for this Sunday. Most of the first session was Session Zero stuff; character building/introductions, etc. Then we did quite a bit of world building to try and get a sense of the world we’re playing in. Unfortunately none of that stuff is probably what you’re (Alice) is looking for. We did get into a brief opening scene with the party chasing down a street urchin who tried to pick our orc fighter’s pocket. In the process a city guard (I call them “Rozzers”) was knocked out, and you can bet he’ll remember the PC that did the knocking. Their paths will cross again! From there they met with a member of a rebel faction who are fighting against the brother who now occupies the throne after usurping his brother (the rightful king) with the help of the Temple. And so on and so forth.

As far as mechanics go, so far so good. The Attributes/Actions and Position/Effect work just fine for the few rolls we had to do. I expect these will be put to a lengthier and tougher test in the upcoming sessions, but I see no reason they won’t hold up.

There’s a few things that I’m still unsure about, such as how well the Set Off For A Journey mechanic will work with long term journeys, which is featured so heavily in fantasy stories and RPG’s, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

All in all the players are having a good time, both developing the world and running around in it. I think we’re all still a little shaky on just what the deal with the Sun is and how it effects the world and people. I think our nutshell summery is that it is super hot outside, which is bad, but prolonged exposure will eventually result in the loss of ones soul. The Temple of the Incandescence Sun is so popular because it WORKS! If one attends regular temple services and is present at the recitation of the ancient rituals intoned by the priests one will benefit from a sort of supernatural protection from the soul burning rays of the sun. Of course there are other religions and ways to gain protection (the orcs are largely nocturnal and worship the moon, while the knowledge obsessed dwarves use some kind of scientific means to ward off the soul burning properties). Much of this is still broad stroke ideas, but I think we’re off to a decent start.

Question: Do you have to take Swift Magic to cast spells at all? Does spell casting in general use the same rules listed under Swift Magic, i.e., does casting a spell always take up Doom equal to it’s level?

Question: What benefit is it to have multiple Beast Masks?

[xabth]

Playtest session 2

In a quick story summery nutshell, the three players (orc fighter, human sun-speaker, dwarf rogue; our elf sorcerer couldn’t make the game tonight) have been hired by a member of the rebel faction to rescue a man who was once general in the royal army. He has been kidnapped by a criminal gang. They find out where he’s being held and head in to deal with the thugs.

The bad guys were fairly tough (Tier III) and while there was only three of them they used ambush techniques to cause as much damage as they could. The PC’s wracked up Doom pretty quickly, but eventually prevailed. They found the general being guarded by the second in command of the gang as well as a Bishop from the Temple of the Sun. The Bishop commanded the sun-speaker to stand down and depart which had the sun-speaker tied all in knots. He was about to obey when the dwarf rogue stepped out of the shadows and murdered the Bishop. The thug leader surrendered and they took her captive, turning her over to the rebels as they returned the general to safety.

As far as rules go, things played out fairly smooth. The Resistance mechanic worked well and was just effective enough to balance out the damage they were taking. The fighter used his armor to good effect.

Doom trackers filled pretty quick, although I think the players all wanted a Dark Gift. Whether they did or didn’t, they all ended up getting one. I don’t know if that’s unusual, but I assume it was a little given that this was only our second session of play. I should say that I skewed the difficulty a bit, probably a little more than was necessary. Despite that, they all seemed okay with taking their Gifts.

Some more questions did arise during play and I’ll keep a running list at the bottom of these posts to help you keep track.

Rules Questions

1. What benefit is it to have multiple Beast Masks?
2. Do rogues have any armor options?
3. What does a Healing potion do? We saw Healing pots listed on character sheet loadouts but not in the items list in the rulebook, and we couldn’t find any place that described exactly what they did. We finally settled on potions dropping all harm down by a level of severity with the understanding that they will be replenished during downtimes.
4. What happens when a Doom tracker fills? We assumed that this doesn’t work like the Stress tracker in Blades where, once it fills, you’re out of the action because it doesn’t say that or even imply it in the rulebook. But neither could we find a hard and fast written rule for it. So we decided that once your Doom tracker fills it clears (excess does not roll over) and you take a Dark Gift but you are still in the action. This worked pretty well given that all three PC’s took gifts but didn’t have to “trauma out” and leave the action.
5. Does Silver Tongue work with both Charm and Command? The rulebook only specifies Charm, but the character sheet lists them both.
6. Do you have to take Swift Magic to cast spells at all? Does spell casting in general use the same rules listed under Swift Magic, i.e., does casting a spell always take up Doom equal to it’s level?
7. We’re a little unclear about how Bobnebreaker actually works. It sounds like using it gives the fighter a stronger effect with the trade off of being easier to damage, but how exactly? For example, our fighter used it during the session and rolled a 6, which normally means he wouldn’t take any harm. Does that still stand, or does he take some harm anyway? Or is the severity of Harm just increased by a level if he does take Harm?
8. How does the fighter’s shield actually protect him? We understand that it offers him better Position, but the wording implies that he can use it to defend himself. How?

I recorded the session and it’s up as a private vid on youtube. If you want to check them out send me an email and I’ll shoot you the link.

[loverdrive (Alice Loverdrive)]

Oh, wow, I’m not dead.

@xabth

What benefit is it to have multiple Beast Masks?

The wording currently is all weird, but my intention was to allow creating other kinds of masks with other effects. I’m going to expand this ability to all kinds of magical effects.

My wife wanted masks to be an important thing and I couldn’t say her “no”. Now she agrees that it’s too narrow.

@xabth

What does a Healing potion do? We saw Healing pots listed on character sheet loadouts but not in the items list in the rulebook, and we couldn’t find any place that described exactly what they did. We finally settled on potions dropping all harm down by a level of severity with the understanding that they will be replenished during downtimes.

The page with all non-class specific items is broken and doesn’t get included in PDF for some reason (software is weird).

It’s supposed to allow to ignore penalties from all physical injuries for an hour or two.

@xabth

What happens when a Doom tracker fills? We assumed that this doesn’t work like the Stress tracker in Blades where, once it fills, you’re out of the action because it doesn’t say that or even imply it in the rulebook. But neither could we find a hard and fast written rule for it. So we decided that once your Doom tracker fills it clears (excess does not roll over) and you take a Dark Gift but you are still in the action. This worked pretty well given that all three PC’s took gifts but didn’t have to “trauma out” and leave the action.

There’s Meet your Doom move.

@xabth

Does Silver Tongue work with both Charm and Command? The rulebook only specifies Charm, but the character sheet lists them both.

It should only apply to Charm. Thanks for spotting it.

I’ve almost done crunching on my day job, so I hope I’ll fix all such discrepancies this weekend. For now, rulebook always takes priority – I layouted it after I’ve finished with charsheets.

@xabth

Do you have to take Swift Magic to cast spells at all? Does spell casting in general use the same rules listed under Swift Magic, i.e., does casting a spell always take up Doom equal to it’s level?

I don’t think I understand your question.

Swift Magic is the only way to cast spells both fast and with predictable results. Without it, the best you can do is Attune and hope things will go your way.

@xabth

We’re a little unclear about how Bobnebreaker actually works. It sounds like using it gives the fighter a stronger effect with the trade off of being easier to damage, but how exactly? For example, our fighter used it during the session and rolled a 6, which normally means he wouldn’t take any harm. Does that still stand, or does he take some harm anyway? Or is the severity of Harm just increased by a level if he does take Harm?

“Wrecking an enemy with savage force, abandoning all sense of defense” is inherently more risky than fighting cautiously – so fighter’s position will be worsened most of the time.

6 is still a 6 – they do it, and they don’t suffer a complication.

@xabth

How does the fighter’s shield actually protect him? We understand that it offers him better Position, but the wording implies that he can use it to defend himself. How?

Shield improves his position if:
a) He is in combat
b) He can use a shield to protect himself (as in, there’s nothing that prevents him from using a shield)

So, if you are, say, fighting an incorporeal ghost, shield has a little use to protect you.

[xabth]

Hi Alice, and thanks for the answers to my many questions. They help a lot.

I can’t believe I missed that whole page about filled Doom trackers. Duh.

I guess my question about Swift Magic could also be, is it possible to cast, say, Magic Missile, without that ability? It sounds like it would not be. This, in turn, begs the questions, why would any sorcerer NOT take Swift Magic as their starting ability, and why is Bonecarving listed first (and thereby recommended as the best starting ability)? It’s a quibble at best. I’m just curious.

We’re are set to have our fourth session this coming sunday. Here are a few thoughts thus far.

The Set Off On A Journey mechanic is taking a little getting used to. Where the Blades engagement roll generally covers a single score, our version of Swords is taking on a more D&Dish, sweeping tone of the journey itself being an integral part of the adventure/conflict. During our last session the heroes had to travel two days north and I had a couple of encounters planned for those two days. So I had them make a Journey roll for each encounter to determine their starting position. It worked fine, I just wonder if that was how you intend it to work. It made sense, especially given that the journey’s destination was a small village with no real conflict set there.

So far I’ve been letting the players partake in their passions to reduce Doom whenever they have some downtime, which works pretty well since successfully getting rid of Doom is not a sure thing. In fact, we’re wracking up “attract trouble’s” pretty quickly, and one of the players even opted to have his PC go on a short vision quest (sit that character out for a couple of weeks) after being utterly unable to roll above a three on 3 separate occasions. He’s got trouble coming, had to find a new passion, and is now riding the bench for awhile.

Overall this works okay, but there are a few things I’d mention: With only two real sessions under our belt (first session was Session 0), at least two of the characters are in a rough state (one has a still almost full Doom tracker, and the other is sitting out). I’m a little worried about character lifespan given how quickly Doom piles up and how difficult a time they seem to be having getting rid of it. Also, with the one PC suddenly sitting out it makes continuity a little tricky. Whereas, in Blades, since the PC’s are in a city and surrounded by people who can join the crew, I’m not sure how well this works in wilderness/dungeon based adventures. Fortunately our group happened to be in a village with an NPC who has a Ranger buddy that can fill in, but I’m not sure how suddenly introducing a new PC, say, in the middle of a dungeon will work. It’s certainly not unworkable with a little imagination, but I guess my concern is party cohesion if there is a revolving door of PC’s coming in and out.

My players really miss the idea of the Crew as it’s own entity and are already suggesting ways to implement it. My goal has been to play RAW and not tinker too much because I want to give you a valid playtest report, but the idea of Party as Entity also appeals to me. If we come up with some house rules for it I’ll tell you how it goes.

Have you thought about any other means of recovering from Harm? My group will be heading into a dungeon this Sunday and with no means of getting to a Temple I’m not sure how they’ll survive. I wonder if maybe a Sun-Speaker ability to heal (maybe something that had to be used outside of combat) other than Words Of Power might not be needed.

And that’s assuming that we’re reading Words Of Power correctly. The way we read it, the Sun-Speaker takes a level of harm themselves and a second party heals that much harm while a third party takes that much harm. Is that correct?

Anyway, we’re having a good time so far and I’ll try to keep updating you on our experience.

[loverdrive (Alice Loverdrive)]

@xabth

I guess my question about Swift Magic could also be, is it possible to cast, say, Magic Missile, without that ability? It sounds like it would not be. This, in turn, begs the questions, why would any sorcerer NOT take Swift Magic as their starting ability, and why is Bonecarving listed first (and thereby recommended as the best starting ability)? It’s a quibble at best. I’m just curious.

Yeah, I’ve come to the same conclusion. I think I’ll do it the same way I did in my previous hack and just give everyone a free ability right from the start and expand list a little bit more.

@xabth

The Set Off On A Journey mechanic is taking a little getting used to. Where the Blades engagement roll generally covers a single score, our version of Swords is taking on a more D&Dish, sweeping tone of the journey itself being an integral part of the adventure/conflict. During our last session the heroes had to travel two days north and I had a couple of encounters planned for those two days. So I had them make a Journey roll for each encounter to determine their starting position. It worked fine, I just wonder if that was how you intend it to work. It made sense, especially given that the journey’s destination was a small village with no real conflict set there.

Yes, it is the intended way – if the characters arrived somewhere relatively safe (it maybe a village, or maybe they set up a camp and took turns standing watch), when they prepare to leave, Set off for a journey move is triggered.

@xabth

With only two real sessions under our belt (first session was Session 0), at least two of the characters are in a rough state (one has a still almost full Doom tracker, and the other is sitting out). I’m a little worried about character lifespan given how quickly Doom piles up and how difficult a time they seem to be having getting rid of it.

Unlike Blades, Doom pilling up doesn’t always mean getting closer to the character’s end – taking a Dark Gift is an option, not something mandatory.

@xabth

My players really miss the idea of the Crew as it’s own entity and are already suggesting ways to implement it. My goal has been to play RAW and not tinker too much because I want to give you a valid playtest report, but the idea of Party as Entity also appeals to me. If we come up with some house rules for it I’ll tell you how it goes.

It’s something a number of people wants, but, honestly, I just have no idea how to implement it.

To oversimplify, in Blades, characters are running a business – Bravos run an extortion ring, Hawkers run drugs, Assasins run Murder Inc., etc. Crew choice gives the players a direction in which they, khm, “work”.

Fantasy heroes, on the other hand, aren’t running a business, they solve problems that no one else can solve. They may execute an elaborate “heist” to steal lich’s phylactery and the next day they may fight tooth and nail with a dragon.

What would differentiate crews in Swords? What kind of abilities should they grant? I don’t know.

@xabth

Have you thought about any other means of recovering from Harm? My group will be heading into a dungeon this Sunday and with no means of getting to a Temple I’m not sure how they’ll survive. I wonder if maybe a Sun-Speaker ability to heal (maybe something that had to be used outside of combat) other than Words Of Power might not be needed.

Harm is supposed to suck, but I’m tinkering with rest mechanics similar to “Make camp” move in DW.

@xabth

And that’s assuming that we’re reading Words Of Power correctly. The way we read it, the Sun-Speaker takes a level of harm themselves and a second party heals that much harm while a third party takes that much harm. Is that correct?

Yes, it is.

[xabth]

I think, with regards to the Party as entity thing, it would be tough to define an adventuring party of heroes as a given “business” type name, so my idea is to drop that part of it altogether and simply have “The Party”. It would still Tier up and be able to take special abilities or upgrades, but nothing would be dependent on the PC’s professions.

Here’s a quick look at an idea I was kicking around to implement the idea. I’m no game designer so I don’t vouch for it’s playability. Also the special abilities/upgrades are cribbed directly from Blades. I just grabbed the ones that I thought could fit with the fantasy heroes theme.

Possible Tier system
• Instead of choosing a new special ability when a PC fills their Playbook tracker they may choose to raise their Tier by one level.
• Once all PC’s have raised in Tier the Party Tier raises by one.
• No PC may raise their Tier more than 2 levels above the Party Tier.
• Once the Party Tier is raised the PC’s may choose one Special Ability or two upgrades

Possible Special Abilities
• Hardened (+1 to a single ability; can only be taken once)
• +1 Doom box
• Forged in Fire (+1 resistance rolls)
• Bound in Darkness (party members may aide when they normally could not)
• Synchronized (Multiple 6’s in a group action may be used toward a critical)
• Lay of the Land (You don’t need a guide during the Journey roll; you get the +1d automatically)
• Extra Downtime Activity

Possible Upgrades
• Cohorts
• Mastery
• Quality (Documents, Gear, Arcane Implements, Supplies, Tools, Weapons, Mounts)
• Quarters
• Training
• Workshop
• Rigging

I like the idea of a “Make Camp” move or something similar. I agree, Harm is supposed to suck, but one of the things I’ve always believed made D&D work is the ability of the PC’s to heal from wounds relatively quickly and keep moving, especially when they are removed from conventional healing. That said, Swords might just require a shift in thinking about how a dungeon delve is conducted as far as things like number of encounters, etc. I’m going to pay special attention to how things go today and I’ll let you know.

[xabth]

Sessions 4 & 5 are in the books. Overall I’d say things are running pretty smoothly. On the occasion that we can’t figure out how to rule on a situation we talk it over as a group and come up with a workable solution.

The last two sessions have largely revolved around a dungeon crawl. We did have one death when our ranger got pushed into a pit of spikes. He rejected Death’s deal and died an adventurers death.

Two things I notice, 1. the lack of healing is tough. I ended up having them find a healing scroll (had to be used out of combat). During the boss fight our sun-speaker used his Words of Power to pull the rogue back from the brink of death. As a Panic Button ability that works pretty well. Given the damage it does to the sun-speaker it’s not going to be overused, but it sure came in handy when the chips were down. 2. Doom trackers fill up fast. This is, of course, on the players. No one is forcing them to spend Doom like it’s black Friday at Walmart, although I will say that I hit them with some pretty tough encounters that probably warranted the Doom expenditure. As it stands I think everyone in the party has filled their Doom tracker 2-4 times so they are attracting all sorts of trouble and their loved ones are being visited by the Dark on a fairly regular basis. Also all PC’s have at least one Dark Gift.

Given all that I don’t know how long this party can survive. I don’t know if a long term campaign is in the cards. However, the focus on story and roleplaying, as well as the wonderful cinematic nature of Blades style combat makes the whole game much more engrossing and satisfying than a game like D&D. Combat is reasonably fast and visceral, and the fact that social skill rolls actually MEAN something makes for a much deeper game.

[Nazim]

I haven’t read the hack that much, so forgive me if I’m saying something completely out-of-line.

To oversimplify, in Blades, characters are running a business – Bravos run an extortion ring, Hawkers run drugs, Assasins run Murder Inc., etc. Crew choice gives the players a direction in which they, khm, “work”.

Fantasy heroes, on the other hand, aren’t running a business, they solve problems that no one else can solve. They may execute an elaborate “heist” to steal lich’s phylactery and the next day they may fight tooth and nail with a dragon.

What would differentiate crews in Swords? What kind of abilities should they grant? I don’t know.

First of all, I agree with @xabth that there need not be a crew type. You can just be a gang of adventurers. After all, that’s a trope of its own at this point, both in-setting (calls to adventurers to do special things, dungeons full of adventurer remains, and in-setting folks liking or disliking adventurers) and in reality (“murderhobos” are a real thing…).

Second, I would suggest the following party types:

• Mercenaries or opportunists - somewhat bravos-style.
• Wizard tower - have a stable base, and focus on attune-things.
• Faction party - like the Harpers or Red Sashes, these guys have a clear xp trigger and code of conduct.
• Thieves’ guild - again, more sedentary, and again, a clear xp trigger, although a somewhat less clear code of conduct…
• Community - this one I’m less sure about, but the idea here is to try to run a small community that keeps getting swept up in bigger matters, and the gang has to keep trying to make the best of it.

But, more to the point, I’m not sure that crews are as distinct as you make them out to be. No crew has an exclusive right to a certain type of activity. After all, Smugglers can also kill, worship, intimidate, and hawk, and often do. The only strong distinction, I think, is the crew xp trigger. And even the book says that if you feel like you should rebuild the crew as a different crew type, go for it. There’s clearly a lot of overlap between crews.

On the other hand, the crew serves a fantastic purpose by creating player buy-in past their character. The crew sets the character within an organization in the world. And the players have strong agency to make whatever they want of that organization. Without a crew, the tendency as a player to revert to murder-hobo-tude is strong, because my only agency is over my character, and the best way to engage the game mechanics is to level-up my character, which means killing things and getting power, if you set aside people’s willingness to roleplay.

[xabth]

So I’ve been reviewing the last few sessions and there’s something I wanted to ask you about, Alice, to see if your experience has been similar to mine, and if so, how you’re handling it.

Our party’s fighter took Barkskin during the game’s first session, and I thought, damn, that’s a hell of an ability! But since then, after seeing it in use for two or three sessions, I’m wondering if it may be a little… broken?

I am absolutely not a stickler for so-called balance in RPG’s. One of the things I love about Blades is how black and white crazy some of the abilities are, but the more I think about Barkskin the more it just seems beyond the pale. Our fighter has not needed to use his armor a single time since he took the ability. In fact, he has no fear of Harm whatsoever. Since filling your Doom tracker doesn’t take you out of the action ala Blades/Stress, he’s happy to fill his tracker and take whatever problems that brings. On top of that, he’s way ahead in terms of xp because he always, always, always trades Position for Effect in order to roll from a Desperate position. So he marks xp every time that happens and has no fear at all of any damaging consequences. And yes, I can and do hit him with non-Harm complications, but sometimes in a sword fight the obvious answer to rolling terribly is to get stabbed with the bad guy’s sword. But I don’t think he’s taken a single bit of Harm since he took that ability.

In fact, I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t simply start out as a fighter, fill their Doom tracker asap, take Barkskin, and then take whatever veteran abilities they need to build the character they want. Maybe that wouldn’t work across the board, but it’s certainly a strategy that came to my mind when thinking about the kind of Swords PC I’d build.

Have you had this experience in your playtests?

While I’m on the subject of game breaking abilities, that same fighter just took Terrifying Presence, and again, I didn’t think too much of it until I saw it in play. He invokes supernatural fear in men and beasts alike. Period. Full stop. There’s no cost to it, there doesn’t appear to be a maximum amount of men/beasts this can affect. I literally have no idea how to threaten him outside of a narrow band of undead/constructs/maybe a demon, but constantly throwing non-men/beast enemies at him seems pretty lame. I had intended for a lot of this campaign to play out in the city in order to utilize factions, NPC’s, and because that’s where the Temple of the Sun is, but how do I threaten him when he can basically make anyone who get’s in his way run in terror. And remember, this character has only been in play for, I think, three sessions.

Am I missing something?

Now, granted, he’s taken two Dark Gifts, so he’s teetering on the point of becoming a beast himself. But he’s really under no obligation to ever take that fourth gift. He can keep right on filling his Doom tracker and attracting trouble. Given his near-invincibility, I don’t think any of the Doom penalties concern him too much.

So, I ask for your advice because I feel like I must be missing something that would check this problem.

[loverdrive (Alice Loverdrive)]

So I’ve been reviewing the last few sessions and there’s something I wanted to ask you about, Alice, to see if your experience has been similar to mine, and if so, how you’re handling it.

Our party’s fighter took Barkskin during the game’s first session, and I thought, damn, that’s a hell of an ability! But since then, after seeing it in use for two or three sessions, I’m wondering if it may be a little… broken?

Yes, it is broken, one of the things I’ve fixed but haven’t time to translate to English and layout. Overall, the whole Fighter class needs a rework, as it was the first I’ve written, and as many rules and assumptions changed, things started to fall apart.

So here’s an errata in a form of a forum post:

Barkskin: Your skin grows thicker and rougher, resembling the bark of ash-trees. Treat it as a fine armour that weights 0.

While I’m on the subject of game breaking abilities, that same fighter just took Terrifying Presence, and again, I didn’t think too much of it until I saw it in play. He invokes supernatural fear in men and beasts alike. Period. Full stop. There’s no cost to it, there doesn’t appear to be a maximum amount of men/beasts this can affect. I literally have no idea how to threaten him outside of a narrow band of undead/constructs/maybe a demon, but constantly throwing non-men/beast enemies at him seems pretty lame. I had intended for a lot of this campaign to play out in the city in order to utilize factions, NPC’s, and because that’s where the Temple of the Sun is, but how do I threaten him when he can basically make anyone who get’s in his way run in terror. And remember, this character has only been in play for, I think, three sessions.

Well, I didn’t envision people running away from him when he’s outnumbered, more like hesitant to approach.

I guess it was lost in translation. In Russian it’s something like “people find you supernaturally unsettling”.

I’ll read your previous posts and answer a bit later.

[xabth]

Thanks for the reply, Alice. I’m glad I wasn’t the only one worried about those abilities. During our session tonight my players and I will have to discuss it. I’ll try to let you know how it goes and what we come up with.

[Brian (Brian Murphy)]

So I picked this up the day it released, read it that first week, and didn’t really like it very much. I want to be really clear that I don’t think it’s bad or poorly done or anything like that - it’s just not what I wanted from a fantasy FitD game. Your game is going to reflect your own particular tastes (obviously), and your own tastes are not going to be 100% identical to anyone else’s tastes (also obviously). There are lots of great…things…in the world that are great, but just aren’t my thing, and I think this is probably one of those situations.

I’ve done creative work in the past, and I’ve had well-meaning friends/people provide me with feedback on projects before that was overwhelmingly negative - a laundry list of “I don’t like this, I’m not a fan of that, this didn’t land with me, etc. etc.” And sometimes that’s helpful. Other times, it’s appreciated but also the stuff they don’t like? Is the stuff I think is awesome, and I just shrug and ignore it. And other times, it’s a real enthusiasm-killer - I’ve had pet projects wither because I just lost interest after a bunch of negative feedback (well-meaning as it was) just kinda soured me on things.

So, if you’re interested in hearing what did & didn’t land with me? I’m happy to provide more detailed feedback, keeping in mind my own personal tastes & biases. If you don’t want any of that? I’ll keep my opinions to myself.

Either way, I’m going to keep an eye on this project as updates roll out, as well as whatever you produce in the future. I’m still glad I bought it, glad it exists, and the atmosphere/art direction? Is absolutely killer. Oh, and I’m also a big Dark Sun guy - and I totally get the comparison. More in tone/atmosphere than in the actual implied setting, but I made the same connection, for what it’s worth.

[loverdrive (Alice Loverdrive)]

Sure, I’ll be very interested in hearing your opinion!

[xabth]

Hello Alice, sorry it’s been awhile since I’ve touched base with you regarding SUtS. Real life derailed my game for a bit. But things are returning to semi normalcy and a couple of weeks ago we managed to wrap up our Swords mini campaign.

In all we played seven sessions which included quite a bit of combat, a dungeon crawl, a survival test of traversing the inferno-like desert, and quite a bit of social interaction. I feel like we gave the rules a pretty good workout and I wanted to give you some final feedback and impressions.

In general, we had a pretty good time with Swords. I’d been looking for a swords & sorcery type Blades hack for awhile, and SUtS fit the bill nicely in many ways. Overall using a Blades style mechanical system within the dungeon crawl setting worked for us.

Here are some critiques from myself and my players.

1. Probably the thing that we felt most needs work is the system of getting rid of Doom. For players with a weak attribute it became a comical exorcise in near futility. One of our players ended up changing his passion no less than ten times, which really messes with character continuity.

2. Special abilities and gear could really use clearer description and explanation. We realize that much of those things are left intentionally vague (as in Blades) to allow the GM and players to make them up, but many abilities/items in Swords directly affect mechanics while having little to no explanation that we were sort of constantly house ruling things, not to mention my many questions directed at you in these previous months.

3. The actual setting is very cool, and we enjoyed adding to it’s lore, but some official description of the world, the Temple of the Sun, what exactly is going on with the sun, and so on would be very cool. I know you stated that a document of that kind is in the works and I’ll be interested in checking that out. If it would help at all I’d be happy to send you the work that we did on races and factions.

4. My player’s biggest complaint was the lack of Crew-as-Character. I know you’ve stated your reasons for not including that component, but it one of the things they love about Blades and it’s absence from this hack was very noticeable. We tinkered with house rules for it, but never got round to implementing them.

I think the biggest thing that our playtest taught me is that one of the reasons Blades works so well is that the characters are generally confined to a single city where they interact with factions and NPC’s every day which generates allies and enemies and drama and politics and so on, which allows the game to almost run itself. Swords & Sorcery style games, on the other hand, open up the entire world to the PC’s which, if your campaign swings that way (and ours kind of did) puts the emphasis on the journey and subsequent dungeon delving. This makes it much more difficult for factions and NPC’s to be involved in the PC’s day-to-day life. In our mini campaign the PC’s spent roughly 4 of 7 sessions on the road, in a dungeon, or in wilderness. Certainly factions/NPC’s still can and did influence the game, but not nearly as much as in Blades. I’m not stating this as either a good or bad thing, it’s simply the difference that most jumped out at me.

Overall, I felt like the core Attributes and Actions were very solid and made good sense. The concept of the ever heating up world was really interesting and I wanted more information about it. I don’t know if my group will try SUtS again, but I, at least, will be watching for updates.

Thanks for writing Swords and for the opportunity to playtest it, and thanks for answering my many questions. Good luck fleshing it out!

[loverdrive (Alice Loverdrive)]

Thank you for the feedback and kind words!

1. I’ve reworked some things, so there’s ~30% less Doom taken by a player each session.
2. Thank you! I’ll try to clear some things up. I’ve already did with a couple of abilites you’ve mentioned.
3. I’ll absolutely love the work that you did! I always love when people tinker with things I’ve did.
4. A friend of mine is working on Swords & Sorcerers, a hack emulating old school D&D, with progression and growing from adventurers to kings, and it includes Crewsheets (they represent the PC’s strongholds, like HoMM3 cities) and it’s super neat.

Right now, I’m very busy with putting this game with all the changes to print in Russian, and then I’ll return and revise the English version.