Swords of The Serpentine - Hardcover Role Playing Game Book, Pelgrane Press

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The reason these are all related is that they are all rooted in contracts and agreements, which are the metaphysical and metaphorical foundation of the city. Trade and commerce are forms of worship. This has interesting implications, like the beggars selling stones or the fact that churches are run like banks. Literally – churches are big-time moneylenders, but the vig takes the form of acts of devotion rather than more cash. This idea that everything can be (and should be) bought and sold in a fair and open way is foundational to almost all interactions in the city. One-Hero Play: Two-Player Adventures in Swords of the Serpentine– Kevin Kulp on the changes needed during character creation for a one player, one GM game. Sorcery gets it own section, but I mostly just reiterate: it’s flavorful and awesome, but also dark and costly.

Appendices and Index: Don’t forget they’re here; we grabbed the most important tables and charts for your use. Chapter Eleven: Corpse Astray (example adventure about family, betrayal, body snatching, and revenge) Drives are somewhat more interesting and take the form of your answer to the “Conan, what is good in life?” question. These are your characters three answers to that, and when you play to them, it offers a small mechanical benefit. Adjectives are what they sound like. “Fiery”. “Strong-thewed”. “Mysterious”. They’re freeform descriptors for your character. That is the effect that dragon-talk has on the inexperienced. Bilbo of course ought to have been on his guard; but Smaug had rather an overwhelming personality.Drives (what is best in life?): To crush your enemies, to rule your conquered nations, and to put your enemies to the sword I love this mechanic. It’s used a little bit here and there in the game, but not nearly as much as I feel like it deserves. ↩ That probably seems like a weird thing to focus on when there are other bullets about dark sorceries, mighty thewed warriors and so on. But as a reader of settings, it’s gold to me for a couple of reasons: Quests tend to be small, personal, and centered around self-interest and small groups instead of saving a nation or the world. There are various tables that help to define the scope and range of magical effects, and how much those effects cost in corruption. In addition, if a Sorcerer dies, they can spend all their remaining corruption in a Death Curse, and treat this curse as if it had been cast using more corruption than the Sorcerer expended upon their death.

Special Abilities: Infection, Hivemind, Monstrous Ability (cost 3), Regenerate (half of health damage inflicted), Strength, Summoning (cost 3 – other Drowned) Much more effort than in most other Gumshoe systems has gone into individualizing the player-characters, as part of embedding them in the setting. As well as positioning in fairly familiar iconic archetypes, such as thief or warrior, characters are kitted out with five or so iconic possessions that help define them, as well as a personal "what is best in life?" Conanesque drive. (When I joined in the SotS playtest, I drew up an impoverished son of an ancient noble family who used his flute both to play ancient airs and to cudgel his opponents. I'm determined to give him another outing some day.) That foundation of commerce folds into the expectation of law. Certainly, law’s job is to provide an environment where commerce can safely be plied, but its priorities are also shaped by that emphasis. The very worse crimes in the city are things like counterfeiting and fraud, with things like murder, or even theft, coming as sloppy seconds. The idea is that these things (and the corruption of sorcery, which is also super illegal) are existential threats to the city, and everything else is mere inconvenience. Some nice structural guidelines for solo play, differing levels of experience, or even playing a ghost if that’s your thing. This is the sixth in our series on non-human heroes which has so far covered the spider-like Arakene, the Considerata (humans whose souls are contractually linked to gods), Constructs, Intelligent Animals, and Unsleeping Advisors (secret undead). This month’s Ancestry is inspired by the cordyceps fungus, The Last of Us, and terrifying hiveminds. Be sure to read the previously published rules on Non-Human Heroes if you haven’t already.. The DrownedLastly, the core pitch for SotS is Sword & Sandal urban adventure 2, which is a mixed bag for me. I’ve never been much of a Conan guy, but I love Lankhmar to my very bones, so a lot was going to depend on the specifics. There are also magic items. They are, by and large, colorful and fun. Well, something like fun, but a bit darker.

Scurrilous Rumors represents your fungal hivemind’s link to sources of gossip from multiple locations throughout the city Guidance on NPCs and Monsters also. This is all fine, but it’s one of those areas where the size of the combat system really shows its head — the ratio of combat guidance to anything else is skewed really heavily in favor of combat, and it feels like lost opportunity. Created by the disease wetlung, the Drowned are humans who can be puppeteered and possessed by Colony, an underwater fungal hivemind somewhere beneath the city. They can instantly communicate with each other when Colony wishes and use this hivemind communication to focus on and efficiently eliminate one enemy at a time. The Drowned seek to put themselves in positions of influence and power, all the better to promote the fungal intelligence’s inscrutable plans.Gear: Ledgers, ink, and quills; daily diary; fragile spectacles; a high and often tremulous voice; unremarkable clothing; doting and proud parents; a sharpened letter-opener; a constant murmur of assurance in his head; quiet shame over your unremarkable life to date; quiet pride that you finally seems to be bulking up with muscle. Sample Adversary – The Drowned Drowned Elder In the quote from The Hobbit that opens this article, Smaug is using a Morale-based Maneuver to convince Bilbo to show himself. Chapter 9: The City of Eversink. Enough rules, let’s look at setting! We start off with the most important city features that everyone should know. When building the living and bustling city of Eversink, Emily and I kept asking ourselves, “could this feature be the hook for an adventure?” Almost everything that couldn’t got tossed. We want the city to feel comprehensive but to have a huge amount of space for your own factions, neighborhoods, and design. As a result, ignore the details at first; read this chapter the first time to just get the feel and tone of the city. Understand what it looks like, smells like, and sounds like, and maybe what neighborhoods you’ll find where, and reading it later for details later will be even more fun. As such, read up to Eversink’s History (p. 238) carefully, then skim the districts for now. Then skim the Allegiances; you want to know who the politically powerful groups are, sure, but save the details for your second pass.