| This paradigm represents
a generic Sword & Sorcery Fantasy implementation, which is a
"Lower" form of Fantasy. In general this means that characters
are less capable, Magic is less plentiful, mortality is higher,
and play tends to be "grittier". |
| Sword & Sorcery is akin
to High Fantasy, but the Magic tends to be toned down. In some
settings the two paradigms represent separate eras or ages. In
some settings a Sword & Sorcery paradigm evolves into a High
Fantasy paradigm over time, and in others a High Fantasy paradigm
collapsed into a Sword & Sorcery paradigm due to some disaster
or event. |
| EXAMPLE SOURCE
MATERIAL |
| Most sources for Sword &
Sorcery are literary, and include the works of Howard, Lieber,
and Moorcock, and several movies from the eighties such as
Conan, Ladyhawk, Red Sonja, Willow, and Dragonslayer. Sword &
Sorcery hasn't been much in vogue in recent decades, but aspects
of it can be seen in some of the writings of modern authors like
Brust, Gemmel, and Goodkind. Role-playing forays into this arena
are usually based on a literary source, and include versions of
Conan and Dragonlords of Melnibone, but there are some original
examples such as the Riddle of Steel. Also, the Kingdoms of
Kalamar setting for D&D can be played as more of a Sword &
Sorcery setting rather than as High Fantasy. |
| KEY NOTE: MAGIC ITEMS
ARE RARE |
| Magic Items of real power
tend to be very rare, and are frequently relics of a bygone (and
more powerful) Age. More prevalent Magic Items tend to be lower
powered and/or expendable. If a
character acquires an actual Permanent Magic Item (as opposed to
an Ephemeral Magic Item) with a useful ability they should
consider themselves lucky but will also likely need to defend
it from the avaricious. Often a character with some pluck that
is fortunate enough to acquire a useful Magic Item will go on to
make a name for themselves, and many such items have well known
histories surrounding them stemming from a string of notable
owners. |
| KEY NOTE: WEAPON
CONSTRUCTION IS SIGNIFICANT |
| Due in part to being a
warrior dominated paradigm, and lacking quantities of magical
weapons, subtle differences in the construction of mundane
weapons is often an important subject in Sword & Sorcery
campaigns. A GM should consider giving some weight to the
materials used to construct weapons and a few minor pros and
cons for good or shoddy craftsmanship. |
| KEY NOTE: SKILL
TRUMPS TRICKS |
| The order of Sword & Sorcery should be taken
literally. Magic is present but takes a back seat to muscle and
skill; in a direct confrontation, a swordsman will usually
defeat a Spellcaster. Magic is
often insidious and
capable of noteworthy effects, but unlike High Fantasy these
effects are rarely fast, or combat practical, or reliable.
On the plus side however few people have any defense against
Magic, or Magic Items of their own, so
Spellcasters have an effective near-monopoly on Magic. |
| KEY NOTE: BULGING
HEWS AND THIGHS CAN RUIN THE GAME |
| As a side effect of the
focus of the paradigm, high strength characters will tend to be
extremely prevalent in most Sword & Sorcery campaigns. There is
nothing inherently wrong with this, but it can have some
unintentional side effects that can do anything from destabilize
the game to outright ruin the GM's intended tone and feel.
|
| Aside from the boring
sameness of many meat puppet warrior types, one of the main
issues is that high strength allows characters to effectively
ignore Encumbrance, which allows them to strut around in full
plate as if it were flannel. Most Sword & Sorcery campaigns are
slanted at more of a bare-chested barbarian feel, and characters
strolling around with an ironmongery on their back is obviously
counter to that intention. |
| There are several ways to
control this behavior if a GM is so inclined. The most direct
way is to simply control the economy and equipment list in use
so that such items are either not available at all or are
extremely rare and ridiculously expensive to own and maintain.
This is a "natural" balancing technique and works well in most
cases. However a GM could alternately assess stiff detriments to
Armor use in the form of DEX, DCV, and/or Movement penalties to
discourage the trend. |
| Coming at the problem
from the other direction, the GM could do something a little
more drastic like change the cost of STR to 2 points per point,
or set the STR Maxima to 15. This kind of fix can cause
secondary issues, such as if the GM is using HERO Designer to
track characters, but it does work well to limit the number of
beef monkeys in a campaign. Care should be taken to balance such
a change against other Characteristics. |
| ASSUMPTIONS |
| The following options are
assumed to be in effect for this paradigm. |
| No
Formal Race Package or NCM |
|
X |
Formal Race Package with NCM |
| END
Cost = Active Points / 10 |
|
X |
END
Cost = Active Points / 5 |
|
Knockback |
|
X |
Knockdown |
|
Generalized Damage |
|
X |
Hit
Location Damage |
| No
Long Term Damage |
|
~ |
Injury & Impairment Damage |
|
Literacy Standard |
|
X |
Literacy Not Standard |
| Super
Skills Available |
~ |
|
No
Super Skills Available |
|
Combat Luck Allowed |
~ |
|
No
Combat Luck Allowed |
| No
Deadly Blow Allowed |
|
~ |
Deadly Blow Allowed |
| No
Armor Proficiency |
|
X |
Armor
Proficiency |
| No
Skill Maxima |
|
14- |
Skill
Maxima |
| No
STR Minima |
|
X |
STR
Minima |
|
Equipment Costs Points |
|
X |
Equipment Doesn't Cost Points |
| Bases
& Vehicles Cost Points |
|
X |
Bases
& Vehicles Don't Cost Points |
|
Followers Cost Points |
|
X |
Follower Don't Cost Points |
|
Superheroic CSL Conversion |
|
X |
Heroic CSL Conversion |
| No
Encumbrance |
|
X |
Encumbrance |
| No
Long Term Endurance |
|
X |
Long
Term Endurance |
|
Normal Damage Default |
|
X |
Killing Damage Default |
|
~: Used in moderation |
|
| HEALING: VERY RARE |
| Sword & Sorcery Fantasy
characters get hurt often and in fact will often have some
residual damage from previous encounters. Magical Healing is
usually pretty rare, and either not very effective or comes with
a cost even when it can be attained. However, it is not uncommon
for characters, particularly warrior types, to have a lot of
BODY and the Rapid Healing Talent. |
| STARTING POINTS: 50+50 |
| It is assumed that new
characters in this paradigm start with 50 Base Points and up to
50 points from Disadvantages. This value can be altered by the
GM at will. |
| This paradigm is expected
to be mid powered but cap out quickly due to a higher mortality
rate and lower power level. A GM can easily
kick start the campaign to a higher level of play by granting
Experience to characters to represent their
status as veteran adventurers when the campaign starts, but this
is not as common in this paradigm.
Similarly the GM could downscale the characters to represent
that they are somewhat green when the campaign starts |
| The following chart
vaguely indicates relative status levels by adjusted character
points. The status titles are not intended to have any literal
meaning; they are just intended to give an idea of the status of
a character with that many character points. |
|
Sheltered Neophyte |
25 |
25 |
0 |
50 |
|
Neophyte |
50 |
25 |
0 |
75 |
|
*Youngblood |
50 |
50 |
0 |
100 |
|
Seasoned Youngblood |
50 |
50 |
25 |
125 |
|
Veteran |
50 |
50 |
50 |
150 |
|
Seasoned Veteran |
50 |
50 |
75 |
175 |
|
Hero |
50 |
50 |
100 |
200 |
|
Champion |
50 |
50 |
150 |
250 |
|
Famous |
50 |
50 |
200 |
300 |
|
Legend |
50 |
50 |
250 |
350+ |
|
* Assumed Default |
|
| RACES: HUMAN CENTRIC FANTASY |
| This paradigm tends to be
more Human centric. This isn't to say that there aren't more
fantastic Races in existence; but if they do exist they tend to
be more rare, come in fewer varieties, and be less advantaged than in higher echelons of Fantasy. In
fact, non-Human races are sometimes depicted as having
significant flaws in addition to any advantages. |
|
|
| MAGIC SYSTEMS:
SPELLWEAVING |
| Numerous Magic Systems
are appropriate to Sword & Sorcery; also many Magic Systems can
be mixed and matched to good effect as well. |
| The Spellweaving,
Magecrafting, and Metier Magic Systems defined on this site are
flexible and scaled at a range more or less appropriate the
paradigm. There are several useful Magic Systems in print from
other sources that are good fits for this paradigm as well.
However, for convenience this paradigm assumes that Spellweaving
is in use by default. This form of Magic is very customizable to
suit several in-game traditions of Magic, both Arcane and
Divine. |
| As an option, Magecraft
is effective as a more aggressive and combat oriented Magic
System, but it is definitely at the higher end of a Magic System
suitable for this paradigm. The Metier Magic System is roughly between
Magecraft and Spellweaving in terms of its overall capability. GM's
desiring a little more Magic could swap in either one of those
Magic Systems without effort, or even incorporate any two or all
three into their setting. |
| Finally, Runeforgers are
often appropriate to this paradigm, but the GM will have to
decide how prevalent he wants to make them since they do
represent a source of Magic Items, which can be a concern to the
overall tone of the setting. |
|
|
| PROFESSIONS: CLASSIC
ADVENTURING |
| A variety of
Professions are appropriate to this paradigm, but not as many as
is more common in higher echelons of Fantasy. An interesting
trend in this paradigm is that people tend to be identified
more strongly by their nation of origin; this frequently
carriers over into the concept of their Profession. Thus
warriors from country X are likely equipped and fight similarly,
and are distinctive from the warriors from country Y.. |
| The GM is encouraged to
make Cultural Packages appropriate to their setting, and to make variations on generic
Professions to model their distinctness across cultures. |
|
|