loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
Okay, now I can exhale, finally.
I need a drink.
I need a drink.
Swords under the Sun — Blades in the Dark meets Dungeon World
loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
It's now mere hours before the game goes live in Open Beta, but my work still isn't done! I've written a little article (?) about differences between Swords under the Sun (and also BitD) and D&D (and also Pathfinder, Savage Worlds and all "traditional" RPGs).
Coming to Swords under the Sun from D&D
loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
It sure would! Just not in any of it's current iterations (that I'm familiar with). There's a playtest rules set called Game of Darkness that's essentially Games of Thrones on the Dark (duh), which is close, but unfinished and still not quite what I'm looking for. Most of the other fantasy Blades hacks are aimed at something particular from a genre perspective that I'm not looking for. What I really want is just a straight Swords and Sorcery FitD game. Compared to the games I'm familiar with it would mean some pretty significant work on the magic side, plus some sort of interesting way to apply the structures of FitD to the rhythms of S&S play. I'll happily check Swords Under the Sun out and see how it works for me.
Manbearcat
Legend
Sounds terrible. Who would involve themselves with this indie hipster crap!
<clicks on Download Swords Under the Sun...clicks on $15 to Pay With Card>
I'll post some thoughts after I read it through.
<clicks on Download Swords Under the Sun...clicks on $15 to Pay With Card>
I'll post some thoughts after I read it through.
Manbearcat
Legend
@loverdrive
First blush. Some edit/clean-up.
Areas where it should be Doom, the C/P says Stress. Fine for Blades players, surely confusing for new players.
First blush. Some edit/clean-up.
Areas where it should be Doom, the C/P says Stress. Fine for Blades players, surely confusing for new players.
loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
Thanks, looking into it now, already found a couple of instances I've missed. What do you mean by C/P?
Manbearcat
Legend
Copy/paste. Figured you just pasted text (though your brain may have just ported Stress over in some places).
Alright, I've read through the material. Looks great. Very faithful and interesting intersection between the two systems and the artwork and prose are fantastic. I'll end up playtesting it at some point and I'll give feedback.
Some thoughts/questions:
1) The game isn't structured like Blades or Torchbearer/Mouse Guard. I figured it would be; Free Play (to figure out Adventure) > Journey/Adventure > Downtime. Curious about the decision to not go that route?
2) On that same note, I'm curious about Downtime Activity regulation. The Coin Economy isn't encoded like in DW and the Downtime Activity isn't regulated like Blades (2 + 1/Coin). How do you envision this sorting itself out and what was the playtest feedback?
3) I was wondering if you were going to reskin Heat and use the Entanglement system. You chose not too. Curious about that decision?
4) I don't see Training in Downtime. Curious about that decision.
5) Back to Coin. I don't see any rules around Coin (no derived Load like DW, no Stash/Vault like Blades) or service/equipment lists for Supply or Hirelings (which appears to be the Aquire an Asset Downtime move in this game). Curious about that decision?
loverdrive
Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
There was a structure, but it lead to "scores" often being two or three session long, so I've decided to drop it. Freeplay -> Score -> Downtime works really well when it all can be handled within a single session, but I feel like it starts to feel apart.
There is a possibility I'll add it back, though. I generally start my design process with throwing out things that I'm not 100% sure I'll need.
The most limiting factor of downtime is, well, time. Yeah, you can spend days and weeks tinkering with a long-term project, but Tot-Amon wouldn't wait for you to execute his schemes.
When both I or someone else ran the game I've never heard that someone had a problem with no downtime cap. The problem I ran into and now looking for a way to address is that people tend to not take downtime at all.
I didn't find a use for it, honestly.
I think it's boring
Services and equipment list is something that is in progress, but it wasn't on my priority list for playtesting materials.
GMMichael
Guide of Modos
Art on black background? Awesome!
Fiction-first? Awesome!
No initiative? Awesome!
No grid? Awesome!
No difficulty? Given that it's the only table I had to include in my game, this was probably destined to rub me the wrong way. I would probably do a lot of arguing with the GM/players instead of Being a Fan and Open Communication.
I'm looking forward to the live-action Youtube demo!
Fiction-first? Awesome!
No initiative? Awesome!
No grid? Awesome!
No difficulty? Given that it's the only table I had to include in my game, this was probably destined to rub me the wrong way. I would probably do a lot of arguing with the GM/players instead of Being a Fan and Open Communication.
I'm looking forward to the live-action Youtube demo!
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