Gamemastering advice on preparing adventures for Sword & Sorcery campaigns

[Tonguez]

For those that have watched the Mandalorian. Do you think it has a somewhat S&S feel to it?

The main character is just trying to get by in the universe and it's episodic in nature. The grogu story line obviously takes on more importance as the show goes on, but set that aside for the moment.

The episodes match possible adventure scenarios. For example:

1. Bounty hunting jobs.
2. Fetch quests.
3. Helping regular people in exchange for something he wants.
4. People he's crossed in the past coming back for revenge.
5. Escapes.
6. Break ins.

Contrast it with the old 80s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon which is also episodic in nature but feels different. The characters have a consistent motivation to get home. Their patron (the Dungeon Master) is giving them quests, they go out of their way to do good deeds for people.

Remember REH was a Texan raised in the old cowtowns hearing cowboy tales, they were absolutely a influence on his later S&S tales.

As to GM advice, I’d go to REH himself and his correspondence with Lovecraftm the most famouse quote is

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."

1 Barbarism is the natural state of mankind - People are ultimately brutish and self serving, only the strong survive.
2 Civilization is unnatural - morality is myth, Civilisation a decadent and corrupt lie and the ‘civilized’ NPCs are the worst cruelest people
3 It is a whim of circumstance - the world is uncaring, the only guarantee is what the individual makes themselves, dont plan go with the PLayers whim
4 And barbarism must always ultimately triumph - all victories are temporary, and no matter the good will earned, people will ultimately betray you for their own self interest

 

[hopeless]

I was going to say watch Conan the Destroyer, but I suspect that's not the kind of advice you'd want.

 

[Yora]

Yeah, saying "go watch a movie" is not exactly talking about adventure structures and gamemastering techniques.

For those that have watched the Mandalorian. Do you think it has a somewhat S&S feel to it?

The main character is just trying to get by in the universe and it's episodic in nature. The grogu story line obviously takes on more importance as the show goes on, but set that aside for the moment.

I think The Mandalorian draws heavily from the same pool of references that a majority of Sword & Sorcery works use. From what I've seen and remember, I don't think there's really anything that you couldn't use in a Sword & Sorcery adventure and feel out of place, with the one exception of carrying around a magic baby the entire time.
However, while it has plenty of great elements that could be copied, it's also lacking many pretty major things that I feel are quite important to make it feel like Sword & Sorcery. Sorcery and horrific monsters. In the end, it's a show made to be suitable for older children, like Star Trek shows in the 90s. It seems to be very tame and save overall.

To me, a significant factor in the feel and atmosphere of Sword & Sorcery is that it's often quite spicy. Sword & Sorcery worlds are worlds full with sex, drugs, cruelty, and violence. This can be horribly juvenile or serious and mature, and everything in between, but I think it's really one of the main traits that distinguishes Sword & Sorcery as a style. I guess for play at the table, best practice is obviously to judge the reaction of all players and dial in the intensity to something that works for the group. But when people sign up for a Sword & Sorcery campaign, they should have an idea what they are signing up for. Things get rowdy and things get ugly, that's the overall tone that informs most of the typical elements and themes.

 

[TimWest]

This does not only apply to places. Supernatural stuff also seems to be usually outside of clear categories that are understood by mortals. In a game system like later editions of Dungeons & Dragons, you have clear distinctions between a demon and and elemental. Or a demon and an aberration. I think Sword & Sorcery almost never makes such distinctions. They are all supernatural monsters that come from strange places unknown to mortals.
And with that in mind, I think a vaguely defined "Underworld" is the most you get in the way of other worlds or dimensions. Demons might come from a completely separate realm, but it's not a place that characters could visit. Instead, you more commonly have large unnatural areas or regions that are part of the same continuous landscape as the homelands of mortals. You reach those places not though magic portals, but why walking beyond the edges of the known world.

Yes, there are of course the standard lizard and frog-people, great apes and other large animals. But nothing medieval in my opinion (Dragons, Vampires, Unicorns etc.) and definitely not monsters that are known. Characters should not be encountering Owlbears and Beholders. Monsters and demons are unique beings.

To me, a significant factor in the feel and atmosphere of Sword & Sorcery is that it's often quite spicy. Sword & Sorcery worlds are worlds full with sex, drugs, cruelty, and violence. This can be horribly juvenile or serious and mature, and everything in between, but I think it's really one of the main traits that distinguishes Sword & Sorcery as a style. I guess for play at the table, best practice is obviously to judge the reaction of all players and dial in the intensity to something that works for the group. But when people sign up for a Sword & Sorcery campaign, they should have an idea what they are signing up for. Things get rowdy and things get ugly, that's the overall tone that informs most of the typical elements and themes.

I have these as elements in my setting but as you say it needs to be tailored to the players you have. It's not my intention to shock, rather to add a mature edge, not be edgy. It's the kind of thing that makes the world feel more dangerous.

For example in my game my character decides to help an NPC smuggle Areca nuts (which contain a nicotine like substance) into the city in exchange for access. That's the kind of morally dubious activity I would not expect to see in high fantasy. From my character's point of view people are going to be taking this kind of drug whether he's involved or not. I'm personally drawing the line at becoming a drug-dealer of sorts. My character is just being opportunistic in the moment. If someone hires him to round up drug smugglers he'll happily do that as well.

The reputation of S&S is that these elements, especially related to sex and nakedness are gratuitous but I don't know how much that is related to the imagery or the actual stories. We know the two often don't match.

I don't think these elements necessarily need to be tasteful though, that contradicts the danger and edge S&S is trying to invoke. There's an area where it can take place, somewhere between sugarcoating reality and gratuitous exploitation that's mostly intended to shock or arouse.

 

[Yora]

I think a good way to avoid gratuitousness is to ask yourself what you think you are trying to say by including the raunchy and gory things you have in mind. Are you making a point, or is it just mindless filler to make things more edgy?
While I generally tend towards saying that the GM should not be steering the players to play their characters in one way or another and simply have the world react to the PCs actions in ways that seem fitting for the environment and context, I think when it comes to things that could be exploitative or not, the best policy is to make it very clear one way or the other. Either the players see NPCs being outright horrible in the way they treat people under their power, or it should come across as quite clear that there's not much to worry about. It's the middle ground where things get slippery, and players might wonder if what they are getting described is what the GM wants them to be repulsed by, or what the GM considers "normal" for the world and wants the players to play along with.
Though with that in mind, part of the GM's duty is to be a conductor of the group, and to judge what works for the group as a whole, and rein in players that might be missing the hints and stepping over the line.

 

[Yora]

Here's a simple but effective piece of practical advice:

Chandler's Rule: "If the story runs out of momentum and you don't know how to move it along, have a man with a gun come through the door."

Fate or Savage World or something of that kind rephrased it as "When in doubt, ninja!"

This method doesn't mean that you have to start a random fight in the middle of a scene. The man holds a gun, but he doesn't have to attack. Maybe he has come to arrest or kidnap someone, or to rob something. Or he is running away from people chasing him, or looking for the characters to get help.
The idea is to put the characters into a situation of great danger that forces them to act immediately. If the scene had already stalled and didn't seem to go anywhere, then that scene had already served its purpose, so you're not really interrupting anything important at a really inconvenient time.

 

[Dioltach]

In S&S terms, that would be "a wizard with a demon-summoning staff".

 

[Aldarc]

Remember REH was a Texan raised in the old cowtowns hearing cowboy tales, they were absolutely a influence on his later S&S tales.

As to GM advice, I’d go to REH himself and his correspondence with Lovecraftm the most famouse quote is

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."

1 Barbarism is the natural state of mankind - People are ultimately brutish and self serving, only the strong survive.
2 Civilization is unnatural - morality is myth, Civilisation a decadent and corrupt lie and the ‘civilized’ NPCs are the worst cruelest people
3 It is a whim of circumstance - the world is uncaring, the only guarantee is what the individual makes themselves, dont plan go with the PLayers whim
4 And barbarism must always ultimately triumph - all victories are temporary, and no matter the good will earned, people will ultimately betray you for their own self interest

Which are lovely principles that apply to REH's Conan but not necessarily Moorcock's Eternal Champions or Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

 

[J.Quondam]

(Nothing to add right now, just enjoying the thread, thanks. Keep it coming! It's inspired me to read the old Conan comics, ftw. )

 

[ART!]

This is especially the case for magic IMO, the more you describe and define magic the less magical it becomes and more like a technology.

This is a very good point, i think, and I'm wondering what a GM could do to a very structured, defined magic system in a ruleset to make it less defined and less safe. Game like D&D and Pathfinder have very detailed, very well-defined magic systems. At the risk of nerfing spellcasters (assuming one wants to allow them at all in a S&S game - and I'm well aware some folks do not), I wonder if things like Wisdom saves when casting or using any magic, using the chaos magic tables more often, and things like that, would be simple ways to make magic feel more raw and dangerous.

For those that have watched the Mandalorian. Do you think it has a somewhat S&S feel to it?

The main character is just trying to get by in the universe and it's episodic in nature. The grogu story line obviously takes on more importance as the show goes on, but set that aside for the moment.

The episodes match possible adventure scenarios. For example:

1. Bounty hunting jobs.
2. Fetch quests.
3. Helping regular people in exchange for something he wants.
4. People he's crossed in the past coming back for revenge.
5. Escapes.
6. Break ins.

Contrast it with the old 80s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon which is also episodic in nature but feels different. The characters have a consistent motivation to get home. Their patron (the Dungeon Master) is giving them quests, they go out of their way to do good deeds for people.

I'd say any fantastical western can have elements that are useful to learn from for S&S.

Many pulp adventure writers had the good sense to not keep all their eggs in one basket, and wrote serialized and short fiction in many adventure and thriller genres, so there's definitely overlap in the tropes of S&S, westerns, hard-boiled detective yarns, etc.

As to GM advice, I’d go to REH himself and his correspondence with Lovecraftm the most famouse quote is

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph."

1 Barbarism is the natural state of mankind - People are ultimately brutish and self serving, only the strong survive.
2 Civilization is unnatural - morality is myth, Civilisation a decadent and corrupt lie and the ‘civilized’ NPCs are the worst cruelest people
3 It is a whim of circumstance - the world is uncaring, the only guarantee is what the individual makes themselves, dont plan go with the PLayers whim
4 And barbarism must always ultimately triumph - all victories are temporary, and no matter the good will earned, people will ultimately betray you for their own self interest

That's super useful, and I would broaden it out and say:

• Freedom and danger go hand-in-hand, and are the natural state of all beings.
• Civilization offers to trade danger for safety, but also trades freedom for oppression.
• Civilization subjugates you to the whims of fickle rulers.
• Freedom is the only way to truly live, but it can be brutish, ugly, and short.

I was going to say watch Conan the Destroyer, but I suspect that's not the kind of advice you'd want.

CtD is kind of my model for what I can hope for from a D&D or PF S&S game.