Forum > Design, Development, and Gameplay
Looking for people to help me design a new s&s ttrpg!
Greg Bruni:
Here are some thoughts I had on this. Have you tried looking at some of the sword & sorcery games that are already out there and maybe altering some of the rules or mechanics that you don't like to try to fit your vision? Some that come to mind are BARBARIC!!!, Barbarians of Lemuria, and Barbarians VS. These are just some off of the top of my head. They all do the genre well, but in my opinion, some of their mechanic ideas need some adjusting.
As far as magic, I always liked how Robert Howard described it in the Solomon Kane stories. Basically N'Longa, Solomon Kane's african "side-kick", described that all magic comes from the realm of Angels and Demons, it is the intent and how the wielder uses it that corrupts them. Also, the hobby can never have too many sword & sorcery rpgs.
Black Plague Games:
I haven't heard of those games. I only know Modiphius' Conan setting/system.
Which mechanic ideas are you referring to?
Angels and Demons are a bit real world... as in: they come from real world religions. I am not sure in what shape or form I'm going to let religion play a role in my game/world, but I suspect a fairly minor role: gods (mono- or polytheistic) are revered in some places but they don't have any power over the material domain. Again: something I need to think about.
That final sentence is what I need to move on. Thanks Greg. Have a great day!
Greg Bruni:
Some of the things I see in these other "barbarian" games is for cinematic purposes, which I think is needed with the genre. I believe in Barbarians of Lemuria, when one rolls enough damage to "overkill" a minion or mook type enemy, they may apply the excess damage to an adjacent minion enemy. Barbarians VS. is a B movie style game about "northland" barbarians battling reptile invaders from space who are hellbent on enslaving their planet. It uses a dice pool system which can generate a lot of damage or high numbers to actions.
One of the things a lot of people seem to like about Barbarians of Lemuria is its career system. At first I thought it was a little too bare bones but in execution it is quite elegant and "refreshing" for lack of a better term. Conan had many careers throughout his journeys and therefore was accomplished in many things. This idea in this game tries to simulate that with ease on book keeping.
Basically each player chooses up to 4 careers at character creation and distributes ( I believe) 4 points amongst them. There are many examples of careers given, but players and GMs are encouraged to come up with their own. Let's say the player chooses, Hunter, pirate, and carpenter, and puts 2 points into Hunter and one point each into the other two. If the character was trying to track someone the player and the GM decide that doing so would fall under Hunter so the player would add two to his die roll along with his appropriate Attribute. Instead of having laundry lists of skills, like most games do, the careers cover broader ranges of what the character can do. It seems too simplistic, but it really is quick and elegant in play and hits the spot of "Rulings over Rules" type game philosophy.
Their are two retail versions of Barbarians of Lemuria for sale titled Mythic and Legendary, and there is also a free, bare bones version. If nothing else, one can mine all of these games for ideas. https://barbariansoflemuria.webs.com/earlier-editions
MadCarthos:
Dotting for interest!
You might also want to look into Beasts and Barbarians, a setting for Savage Worlds that is doing extremely well on the S&S game front. I am also enjoying By This Axe I Hack, a Sword & Sorcery variation of the Black Hack OSR ruleset. I am surprised by how expansive the magic system is in the last one, but none of the spells seem overpowered and there is always a chance for something to go wrong when performing magic. Not corruption, per se, but insanity might be an end result. Another game you can look into is Forgotten Tales of Sword & Sorcery.
I wonder if your magicians might be tempted to barter with demons? I'm almost certain that's how corruption would enter the world.
On a side note, there is a TTRPG (TTARPG?) that is being developed by the same company that put out the computer game Age of Barbarian which might be more in your line of interest. It seems to take place on a different planet: dinosaurs are prevalent, but definitely find some videos of the game on youtube as it seems to definitely satisfy that 80s Sword & Sorcery feeling. (the computer game, not the TTRPG which is still in development)
MadCarthos:
I am also developing a game with a Sword & Sorcery feeling, although the magic might be a little bit more powerful than traditional S&S genres. It's called Savages & Sorcery. It uses special d6 dice similar to the combat dice from the game Heroquest to resolve combat, but a few regular d6 and d12s are required as well. I am enjoying playtesting it. It has a classless system, meaning that characters are built from scratch with point-based "feats" called talents.
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