Let's Read Sword World 2.5!

[Iosue]

Having finished a Let's Read of the rulebook that brought me into RPGs, I thought it would be interesting to do something completely new to myself, and not very well-known by the RPG community at large. Sword World! Japan's most popular fantasy role-playing RPG.

My copy will actually arrive in a couple of days. But just to get the discussion started and set-up the background, I thought I'd open with a little history.

Our story begins with one Hitoshi Yasuda, whom we might call the Father of Japanese Role-Playing. Born in 1950, by the 1980s he had found some success as a translator of science fiction and fantasy. In the course of reading overseas science fiction and fantasy magazines, he came across advertisements for Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller. He ordered these and sent them to his juniors in the Kyoto University SF Research Club. After about half a year, the club members had figured out the games and explained them to Yasuda. Fascinated by the idea, he decided to get more and more people playing these games. He reached out to a science fiction writing club, and got them involved in writing adventure scenarios for these games. Members of these two clubs eventually formed a science fiction gaming club called "Syntax Error."

Trying to think of new ways to get people interested in playing, they hit upon the idea of "replays." To put it simply, you know those "examples of play" in every RPG? That's a replay. Only instead of being short examples, these were long stories with a beginning, middle and end, told in the manner of an "example of play." So the group began publishing these in the "geek culture" magazines under the name "Group SNE" (SNE for SyNtax Error). A replay of a D&D campaign, called "War Chronicle of Lodoss Island," was particularly successful, eventually becoming a series of novels, a manga, and an anime (generally under the clunky translation, "Record of Lodoss War"). Group SNE grew as a kind of genre content company. They did books, magazines, RPG translations, and the like. Essentially, like a slightly better managed TSR, if you like.

As the popularity of Lodoss War grew, people began asking Group SNE for a Lodoss supplement or campaign setting. Either because they didn't want to pay the licensing fee to TSR, or because TSR didn't want an outside company making products for it, Group SNE decided to create their own RPG so that Lodoss fans could smoothly play in that world.

That RPG was Sword World. Thematically, it was a calque of D&D. The races and classes have the serial numbers rubbed off, but they were D&D classes. But for mechanics, they went with a 2d6 system. Polyhedral dice were not at that time particularly easy to obtain. So it was not unlike the GURPS system, married to a Classic D&D love for charts and tables.

But then, a funny thing happened. Sword World came out in 1989. Unlike overseas RPGs, which came in large size booklets, Sword World was published cheaply in Japan's pocket paperback size. Slowly but surely, it began to take market share, particularly the oh-so-coveted new player market share away from Dungeons & Dragons. Shinwa tried to combat this in 1991 by switching from D&D to AD&D 2nd Edition. It failed miserably. Almost no one made the conversion. By 1994, Shinwa was bankrupt.

One interesting tidbit out of this was that the D&D license went to a company called Media Works. Seeing the writing on the wall, they eschewed the recreation of the American products. They published the Rules Cyclopedia in three pocket paperback volumes, complete with anime art. And who did the translation? That would be one Hitoshi Yasuda, now president of Group SNE Ltd.
Media Works plans for D&D did not last long, as it lost the license in 1997 when the sale of TSR to Wizards of the Coast went through. Japan had no D&D from then until the end of 2002, when Wizards’ Japanese MTG distributor published 3rd Edition. In the meantime, however, Sword World continued to grow, becoming the most popular RPG in Japan.

After nearly 20 years of success (and many, many supplements), Sword World finally got a new edition in 2008. Learning from WotC, Group SNE christened it Sword World 2.0, telegraphing that not only was this the 2nd edition, but that they would make incremental improvements on it going forward. 2.0 was a relatively large overhaul of 1st. The core mechanics remained the same, but many changes were made to character generation, game adjudication and the default setting. As near as I can tell, 2.0 is to 1st as AD&D 2e was to 1e. 10 years later, in 2018, they released 2.5. 2.5 is essentially the same as 2.0, with just a few math fixes and the addition of some races and classes that had become popular in the intervening years.

Sword World’s place atop the Japanese RPG market has since been take by Call of Cthulhu, and 2.5 vies with D&D and Pathfinder to be the top fantasy RPG. But it maintains its place as the top selling domestic RPG.

Sword World was in conception meant to be a thematic calque of D&D. So there won’t be much that is groundbreaking in sense of mechanics or lore. It remains at its heart a somewhat rules-heavy system meant to simulate adventuring in a generic European fantasy setting. But it should be interesting to see what kind of tweaks in design were desired or accepted by the Japanese market, as well as how the D&D -> Japanese CRPG -> anime -> Japanese TRPG feedback loop has affected it over the years. Just in a preliminary look at the race and classes, I daresay I see something of an influence from the WotC-era D&D editions, as well. I find this all fascinating, and I hope my musings will be of some interest to others, as well.

 

[CapnZapp]

A really good summary

 

[Grinton]

I love that write up, thank you.

You say your copy is on the way; is it an English copy? Either way, from where did you order it?

 

[Iosue]

I love that write up, thank you.

You say your copy is on the way; is it an English copy? Either way, from where did you order it?

No, it's a Japanese copy, ordered from Amazon Japan. I live in Japan and have no problem with Japanese. The thread will be in English, though!

 

[Iosue]

I would like to start by emphasizing that this Let’s Read is not meant to be a translation. Unlike my Let’s Read of Moldvay’s Basic Rules, I’m going to try to avoid getting too deep in the weeds with the actual text, or the minutiae of each paragraph. And I probably won’t be spending too much time pointing out where SW is just a bog standard RPG, focusing more on the differences and the departures from D&D or western RPGs in general. (I’m aware that the phrase, ”western RPGs in general” is doing more heavy lifting than Amazing Spider-Man #33!)

There has been an ongoing fan project to translate 2.0, and if you can stand a Fandom wiki, much of the text is the same, so it may help to follow along. I’ll generally use my own translations for terms, but the translations there will probably be of reference.

So first, here’s the cover, art by Kususaga Rin and Anji Majima. Suitably atmospheric manga style!

The book is 10.6 x 2.2 x 14.9cm, or 4.2 inches wide, 5.9 inches tall, and just under an inch thick. That’s roughly half the size of a 5e hardcover, and roughly just as thick. Under the title is the author’s name, Kei Kitazawa/Group SNE, and the same in English in small print below that.

This is Rulebook I, covering the basic races and classes, and levels up to 5. Rulebook II introduces some new races and classes, and goes up to level 10. Rulebook III introduces some more options and goes up to level 15. (We'll only cover Rulebook I in this Let's Read.) A fun fact: in Japanese RPGs, a rulebook is called just that: ruurubukku. And because people love abbreviating transliterated words, the TRPG community came up with: rurubu. Or, as we might back-transliterate it: ruluboo. I suggest, folks, that we can make “ruluboo” happen.

The ruluboo is divided into parts as follows: Introduction, Part 1 Player Characters, Part 2 Rules, Part 3 Data (i.e., spells, combat maneuvers, and items), Part 4 The World, and Part 5 Gamemaster.

So let’s look at the Introduction. It begins with your typical evocative text about becoming an adventurer, vanquishing evil, and so on. Then we get the usual explanations about tabletop RPGs, limited only by your imagination, etc. etc. Where it gets interesting is the section, “What is a Table Talk Role-Playing Game?” That’s right, whereas we use TRPG for “tabletop role-playing game,” in Japan they say “table talk role-playing game.” And the ruluboo reinforces it by the subheading, “a game played through conversation.” I like that expression. It’s not a conceit you see very often in English books. There it’s usually something like, “you tell a story together!” But the idea that the game is played through conversation is a useful mindset to have, I think! The next section is “a game played through rules,” and here you can see the D&D influence on design in that the rules are explained as “setting how strong a character is,” while whether they are successful or not is up to the judgment of the GM. This part reminds me much of the DM advice section of Moldvay, in that there’s a lot of emphasis on final judgments being in the hands of the GM, but the GM is continuously urged that their job is to make the game fun for the players.

The next section is “What is SW2.5?” And what I find interesting here is that is not at all about explaining or justifying the need to go to 2.5, or differences between 2.0 and 2.5. No, this section is about setting. In contrast to D&D, where even a default setting may only be alluded to in the core rules in favor of letting DMs homebrew their own worlds, right from the beginning Sword World sets up the world to explain why the rules are as they are. Part of this is surely from its origins as an RPG for Lodoss, I also suspect that it’s also partly because the “generic fantasy setting” that English players would be familiar with from Tolkien, Conan, Shannara, etc, was not, until relatively recently, part of the Japanese cultural background. The implied setting of the rules must justify itself.

SW 2.5 takes place on the world of Raxia, created by the three swords. Raxia was a world of great civilization until 300 years ago, when it was broken by the Diabolical Triumph.

Okay, linguistic digression. Japanese orthography uses an (unholy) combination of Chinese characters and two distinct Japanese syllabaries. This can be seen in the above cover, where the author's name is written using Chinese characters, but the words at the very top, Soodo Warudo ("Sword World"), are written in syllabary characters. Syllabary characters can be written alongside or above Chinese characters to indicate pronunciation. This is most commonly seen in literature aimed at children, where the pronunciation will be indicated on characters they are not likely to have learned a yet, but can also be seen in adult-oriented media as well, where a rarely used character might have its pronunciation indicated. It’s a Japanese literary device, then, to use these syllabary characters to indicate nuances of meaning, or to explain the meaning of a term or phrase of foreign origin.

In this case, the Chinese characters for “Great Breaking” are used, but “Diabolical Triumph” is given as the pronunciation for this term. Deformed evil creatures called “Barbaros” (Chinese characters: banzoku, meaning barbarians) invaded on a worldwide scale. Civilization broke down, nations were split up, and it looked like the whole world would fall under the dominion of the Barbaros. A group of heroes defeated the Barbaros king, bringing the invasion to an end; without their absolute leader, the Barbaros lost cohesion, and could not win a decisive victory. But the world had been greatly harmed, and Barbaros and other monsters continue to walk the earth.

SW thus sets up a post-apocalyptic fantasy world for its players. They can look for lost knowledge in the ruins of the old civilization, or protect people from attacking monsters. So far, pretty standard D&D fare. But I thought this next line showed some anime/manga influence: “At times they may save people in need. And while they may fall in love with somebody, they might also experience death or parting.” Throughout the book, you can see the lore revolve less around killing monsters for fame and fortune, or even “plucky heroes defeat the BBEG”, and more towards what I would call the “romantic pathos” of Japanese genre media.

Following a page for “How to Use This Book” and “What You Need to Play” (ruluboo, character sheets, 2d6, writing utensils, and friends), the game provides a helpful glossary. The first section has terms used to describe the world: peoples (humans, elves, etc), the Barbaros (humanoids, like goblins, opposing the good peoples), monsters (Barbaros, fantastic beasts, undead), Raxia, adventurers, the Swords of Genesis (pronunciation given for hajimari no ken, meaning “swords of the beginning”), and mana (magical energy). Then a section on game terms (all the usual ones we know, in English transliterated with syllabary characters), and finally a section on units and rules-related terms. The “gamel (G)” is introduced as the unit of currency, 1 day is defined as 6 AM to 6 AM the next day (many character abilities are paced per day), and “declarations.” A declaration is a player or GM saying what a character will do.

Finally, the introduction ends with “The Most Important Rules to Remember.”

What Everyone Should Observe: TRPG players may compete with each other, but it is not a game where players battle the GM. A feeling of, “Let’s all have fun together!” should be proactively maintained.

What Players Should Observe: Players, should follow the GM’s directions. The GM may make mistakes, and it’s fine to point that out, but ultimately the GM’s decision should be followed.

What GMs should Observe: GM must always have a spirit of fairness. They hold the role of making final judgements and decisions on the rules, and should make appropriate use of the rules, and make just rulings so that all the participants can enjoy the game.

The GM’s Authority: Deciding the rules - The GM decides what rules will be used to make a decision. If a situation comes up not covered by the rules, the GM should use their judgment to make a ruling. GMs make decisions while thinking about what will be most exciting for everyone. Dismissal of results - If a player makes a roll without the GMs permission, the GM may set aside the result or ask for a new roll Advancing the session – The GM has the authority to always keep the session advancing. If the session gets derailed, or if the players become deadlocked and the session stalls, the GM can decide at their own discretion to advance the session, change the circumstances, or advance in-game time.

Finally, what to do if there was a mistake in the rules. It should be remembered for next time, but there is no need to go back and try and fix it. Rewinding time may be confusing, and might cause the game to come to a halt. The final decision is the GM’s, but they should make just rulings so that the players are not disadvantaged. Everyone should be familiar with the rules so that play can smoothly and enjoyably proceed.

Very old school D&D when it comes to GM authority and the role of rules, but tempered with the Japanese virtue of maintaining harmony within the group.

Having set the ground rules, next time we will start looking at Player Characters!

 

[overgeeked]

Shinwa tried to combat this in 1991 by switching from D&D to AD&D 2nd Edition. It failed miserably. Almost no one made the conversion. By 1994, Shinwa was bankrupt.

Interesting start, looking forward to the rest. You introduce Shinwa in this sentence, but not before, as far as I can tell. What's Shinwa? Why are they relevant to this history?

 

[overgeeked]

And the ruluboo reinforces it by the subheading, “a game played through conversation.” I like that expression. It’s not a conceit you see very often in English books.

Not to sidetrack the thread, but that's exactly how PbtA games refer to playing RPGs.

 

[Iosue]

Interesting start, looking forward to the rest. You introduce Shinwa in this sentence, but not before, as far as I can tell. What's Shinwa? Why are they relevant to this history?

Oops. I talked about Shinwa in the other D&D in Japan thread, and forgot to introduce them here. Shinwa was the original holder of the D&D translation license. They’re the ones who brought BECMI to Japan. From 1985 to 1991, Japan had only BECMI for D&D. So you can imagine why Shinwa’s pivot to 2e wasn’t effective.

 

[Iosue]

Let’s start with some artwork by Mikako Mikaki!

Two kinds of character generation are offered: “simple” and “deliberate.”

Simple character generation is using pre-generated characters. A handy flowchart is presented: Choose a sample character -> copy the character sheet -> put together the character’s profile. But choosing a sample character is not just a matter of flipping through the provided character sheets and choosing one. Another handy flow-chart is provided to guide players through selection.

I want to fight it out on the front lines

I don’t need magic​

One-blow, one-kill with a sword​

Human Fighter​

I want to explore martial arts​

Lycant Grappler​

I want to use magic​

Nightmare Magic Fighter​

I want to fight a bit, while supporting my friends

I want to live tough, a shield for my friends​

Dwarf Priest Fighter​

I’m not the type to overdo it​

Elf Priest Fencer​

I want to attack from the back lines

I want to attack with magic​

Tabbit Magic-user​

I want to fire guns​

Runefolk Shooter​

It should be noted that these are not character classes, per se. They are more like descriptions that have overlap with the SW classes. Notably, the classes have transliterated English names, (e.g. faitaa, puriisuto), while these sample characters are described with Japanese words.

Next comes little explanatory section on party balance. Players are encouraged to select their characters with consideration for the following:

Front line and back line balance. It’s preferable to have at least half the party be front line combatants. Because the Tabbit Magic-user and the Runefolk Shooter can’t stand on the front line, if the party is 3 or fewer people, only one should choose one of these characters.

A healing character. Either of the Dwarf Priest Fighter or Elf Priest Fencer should be selected to help recover damage.

A scouting character. The Lycant Grappler is recommended so the party has someone to search for traps and secret doors, and to disable traps and open locks.

A knowledgeable character. One of the Lycant Grappler, Elf Priest Fencer, or the Runefolk Shooter should be chosen as characters with wide knowledge to help solve riddles, or perceive the capabilities of monsters.

Each sample character is then given a four-page spread: one for art, one for commentary, and then a two-page character sheet. Putting in-line images of the art for all the characters would make this far too long. Happily, Group SNE has put all of these online in PDF form! Clicking on the links below will take you to the relevant PDF, where you can see the art, as well as a radar chart showing their capabilities in attack, defense, magic, support, utility, and ability to nova.

Human Fighter – “Charge and defeat the enemy. That’s how I help my friends.” Humans are the most numerous race on Raxia. This character fights with a sword on the front lines, and has the special combat ability “All-out Attack I”. It’s a great finishing attack, but leaves the character vulnerable, and so should be used judiciously. Humans have a racial ability called “Sword’s Grace/Alter Destiny.” Once per day, they can use the reverse side of a dice roll result.

Elf Priest Fencer – “Evildoing will not escape my sight! Repent, in the name of our god!” Elves are a long-lived race, but there are not so many of them. They have an affinity with water, and so can move and act in water without any restrictions for 1 hour. They are also strong against poison and sickness. This particular elf is a priest of the ancestor god Lyfos.

Dwarf Priest Fighter – “I’ll support you, so go on ahead. I’ll be right there with you.” “I won’t let you hurt my friends. You’ll have to get through me, first.” Dwarves are long-lived, though not as much as elves. They are short but stocky, and immune to fire damage. This character is a priest of Eve, the god who shields the Abyss. They have the special combat ability “Cover I”, which allows them to take an attack in the place of someone standing next to them.

Tabbit Magic-user - "Magic is great. Come with me, and you'll see that for real." As obvious from the picture, Tabbits are anthropomorphic rabbits. The original edition of SW had "Grassrunners," who were halflings in all but name. But as of 2.0, having more of its own history, lore, and content, Grassrunners were moved to Rulebook II, and Tabbits were given pride of place in Rulebook I as the plucky small race. Tabbits are skilled in magic and lore, and have a keen sense of danger.

Runefolk Shooter - "I'll protect you, sir. That's what makes me happy." ...Yes, Runefolk are maids. Or butlers, if male, but of course Sword World, as the premier domestic RPG, would find a way to satisfy the otaku thirst for maids. Runefolk are artificial humans created by an earlier magitech civilization. They look like humans, but their neck and other body parts are made of an artificial material. They have magitech such as a magisphere, and a gun that can shoot different kinds of bullets (including healing). Their special feature is Targeting, allowing them to always hit their targets.

Nightmare Magic Fighter - "If you're going to the Abyss, take me with you. I have some affinity with that place." Nightmares might be considered SW's tieflings. They are born from among the other races with a magical mutation called "Impurity." This gives them their horns and affinity for magic. But their resemblance to monsters makes them shunned by society, other than by other adventurers, who tend to judge by merit. They can fight and use magic, and can Transform so that their horns are bigger, their skin pale white, and they have other advantages. But also come with a weakness to silver and some other abilities.

Lycant Grappler - "Come on, I'll show you what I got...grr-RAWR!" Lycants are a race of people found only on Alfreim, where they live along with humans, elves, and so on. Lycants can transform their head into that of a beast, gaining strength and power, at the cost of being restricted to the Lycant language in that form. The Grappler’s special combat ability is Extra Attack, representing their ability to punch and kick. They can also attempt to throw their opponent, but they get only one attempt.

Having selected their character, the player next rolls for or chooses three statements about their history from tables that are not unlike 5e’s BIFTs, and then rolls for or chooses a reason to be adventuring.

After that, they need only fill out the character’s age, gender, name, and any distinguishing physical characteristics, and simple character generation is complete.

 

[Iosue]

Before I start, I'd like to emend an earlier post. I posted a link to a Fandom wiki for a Sword World 2.0 English translation. As I consider the Fandom wiki interface as proof that the Devil exists and that he hates us, it pleases me to provide a very nice alternative. The good folks on the Sword World 2.0 subreddit have completed translations on all the Core Rulebooks, a crapload of supplements, and some other resources, all in a very nice PDF format faithful to the originals. The translation is...a translation. Done by motivated amateurs using a combination of limited Japanese and machine translation, the quality is (in my professional opinion) a bit patchy. But I can't help but admire and applaud the pure gumption and hard work that has gone into this project, all for nothing but love for the game. If you are at all interested in Sword World, definitely give it a look. The translations can be found in a Google Drive here.

Now, on to "deliberate" character generation. Probably the best way to go through this is to actually make a character, and see how it goes.

Step 1 is to choose your race and origin. As we covered, the races are Human, Elf, Dwarf, Tabbit, Runefolk, Nightmare, and Lycant. You can choose your origin or roll it randomly. Your origin determines your initial skill package. "Skill package" is how I'm translating the Japanese ginou, which just means skill. But the names of the ginou are what we normally associate with character classes (e.g., fighter, sorcerer), so I think "skill package" is little more appropriate. Origins are often essentially the same as the skill packages, but written with Japanese words, while the skill packages are transliterated English. Humans can access to all skill packages, but other races are limited in their choice. The origins listed on the Human page (and their associated skill packages) are: Magitech (Magitech), Sorcerer (Sorcerer), Light Warrior (Scout and Fencer), Normal Person (no initial skill package), Mercenary (Fighter or Grappler), Priest (Priest), Conjurer (Conjurer), and Adventurer (no initial skill package, selectable only with the GM's permission). The other available skill packages are Sage, Ranger, and Shooter.

Along with your initial skill package, your origin determines your three Base Ability Scores: Skill, Body, and Mind. Each origin has a different array of these Base Ability Scores (even when other races have the same origin), ranging from 3 to 14, with most in the 7-10 range. Of special note here in the Human list is the Normal Person (Base Ability Scores of 7, 7, 7) and Adventurer (2d6 for each BAS). Finally, your origin also gives your your initial Experience Points. These experience points are used to buy additional levels of your initial skill package, or even to buy new ones. Almost all origins get 2,000, but a few have 2,500 and the Normal Person and Adventurer start with 3,000 (since they have to buy all of their skill packages).

We'll come to the skill packages in more detail in a later post. For the character I'm making, I decide to choose Human (for the greatest range of possible skill packages) and then to roll my origin. I roll a 6, which means I have Light Warrior origin. The Light Warrior is one of two origins that offer two initial skill packages. (The other one is the Elf Apothecary, which provides Sage and Ranger.) My BAS are Skill 10, Body 7, and Mind 4, and I start with 2,000 XP.

The next step is to determine my Ability Scores. There are six, lettered A-F: (A) Manual Dexterity and (B) Agility key off of Skill, (C) Strength and (D) Constitution key off of Body, and (E) Wisdom and (F) Spirit key off of Mind. Here you cross check a table to see what dice you roll for each ability score, roll those in order, and then add the result to the relevant BAS to get your final Ability Scores. Like this:

	Human​	Elf​	Dwarf	Tabbit​	Runefolk​	Nightmare​	Lycant​
A (Dexterity)	2d​	2d​	2d+6​	1d​	2d​	2d​	1d​
B (Agility)	2d​	2d​	1d​	1d​	1d​	2d​	1d+3​
C (Strength)	2d​	1d​	2d​	1d​	2d​	1d​	2d​
D (Constitution)	2d​	2d​	2d​	2d​	2d​	1d​	2d​
E (Wisdom)	2d​	2d​	1d​	2d+6​	2d​	2d​	1d+6​
F (Spirit)	2d​	2d​	2d+6​	2d​	1d​	2d​	1d​

A rather baroque system, I must say. In the actual book, by the way, the ability scores themselves are not in the table, only their associated letters. I guess to distinguish between your assigned dice to roll and the actual ability score value itself. Knowing the history of Sword World, it strikes me as a system striving to maintain the same experience as D&D's random characters, but a) allowing for choice of race and skill package, and b) ensuring that racial strengths and weaknesses are maintained without detriment to the chosen skill package. To that end, by the way, the book recommends rolling three sets of these ability scores, and then choosing the set you want most.

Look, if you're into Sword World, you're into rolling six-siders. A lot. I don't know what else to tell you.

Like D&D, your ability scores give you a bonus. Unlike D&D, there are no penalties. You get zero bonus for a score of 1-5, but every 6 integers after that gives you a +1. So 6-11 is +1, 12-17 is +2, etc.

So, as a Human, I roll my 2d across the aboard and get 8, 10, 7, 8, 7, 11. I'm doing this all randomly anyway, so I just go with those results. This gives me:
Human Scout/Fencer
Dexterity - 10+8 =18 (+3)
Agility - 10+10 = 20 (+3)
Strength - 7+7 = 14 (+2)
Constitution - 7+8 = 15 (+2)
Wisdom - 4+7 = 11 (+1)
Spirit - 4+11 = 15 (+2)

Seeing this in action, one thing that struck me is that with bonuses six integers apart, the math is relatively bounded. Someone more adept at probability math would have to confirm it, but I think that since resolution rolls are 2d6, which should describe a bell curve, that binds the math even more. Also, I have good stats for the skill package I chose while also rolling ability scores in order! I guess that's the system working as intended.

Next time, we look at skill packages!