Ever it was that the descendants of mighty families would hold up in their stone halls, weaving their intrigues and...

Ever it was that the descendants of mighty families would hold up in their stone halls, weaving their intrigues and sowing the battlefields with our bones. Such was the nature of order, the world carved into fiefdoms by the swords of knights, watered by the blood of the conscripted and the sweat of toiling serfs. And such it would remain until the night of the new gods and their glittering starwind. Its shimmering warmth passing through wall and flesh, kissing the blessed among us regardless of heritage, awaking strange sorceries in our blood.

And now all has changed. What does a woman made of rock have to fear from a sword? What lord can make a knight who summons storms kneel before him? What binds a peasant who can fly to their field? A new day has come and with it a new war for the #GammaThrones.

Gamma Thrones is an endless fantasy saga hack of Swords Without Master (www.SwordsWithoutMaster.com) set in a pseudo-and-absolutely-not-rigorously-medieval world where upon one fateful night a burst of comic-book-style gamma radiation rained down on the many kingdoms granting random denizen wondrous powers and awakening ancient artifacts of super-science.

INFLUENCES

Endless Fantasy Sagas
For the ceaseless stream of fiction. For the soap opera style of editing that shifts our focus just as things are heating up. For the Gordian knots of intrigues and relationships.

MedievalPOC 
http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com
For the tireless defense against whitewashing history. For eidolons and simulacra.

Golden & Silver Age Comics
For fantastic powers. For gonzo disregard of sensibility. For eidolons and simulacra. 

THE UNKNOWN TRUTHES

Before the starwind, magic was not but chicanery and superstition. The noble families of the world plotted to advance their position acquire more lands. They held the power, some better than others, some more kindly than others, some more wisely than others. There was war, assassination, famine, and disease; but what stability there was, was held by the thrones of the world. 

On the night of the starwind, an interstellar ark shattered in orbit around the known world. The ship’s cracked engine core, suddenly unshielded and exposed, showered the planet with gamma radiation, awakening wondrous and monstrous powers in a small percentage of its inhabitants.

But that is not all that awoke. Buried deep within the planet are the ruins of lost civilizations where once mighty creations of super-science slumbered for eons until bathed in the starwind. Now they crawl towards the surface, many driven senseless by the corrosive effects of time. 

The remains of the ark still orbit the planet, appearing as new gods wandering the night sky and occasionally obscuring the sun during the day. It is a new dawn for those who inhabit the surface of the known world as the balance of power has been upturned by the strange new powers and abilities visited by the starwind’s blessing on a seemingly random selection of people. 

THE WORLD PHASE

Before play begins in earnest, gather your fellow players, lots of paper and materials to write and draw with. You will be mapping the known world.

In this phase there is no Overplayer or thunder. You will pass the dice and make demands of your fellow players as you would in a Rogues' Phase, but instead of demanding to see what Rogues are up to, you should demand:

• a border, town, or natural feature be drawn on the map.
• a place of historical significance be noted on the map.
• to hear of traditions or customs the originate from a specific spot on the map.
• to hear of a ruler, their family or the people they rule over.
• to hear of recent intrigue, old grudges, or important battles.
• to hear rumors of strange sorceries or awoken super-sciences.
• to have anything else of interest related to the land or its people spoke of or drawn upon the map.

You simply make a demand of someone and pass them the dice. They roll for their tone and answer the demand in that tone. Continue until someone request the end to the phase.

Stymies and threads still apply. If you roll a stymie when you have to drawn something on the map, you may, for instance, draw where it once was before it vanished or indicate that none such thing has ever existed.

Map Threads
Mysteries, Morals and any completed Motifs created in this phase are Map threads. They, along with anything written or drawn on the map itself (which is also considered a Map Thread), are available throughout the game and can serve any purpose threads normally serve.

As you play, when you have a Moral or a Mystery that directly relates to something on the Map, add that thread to the collection of Map threads as well.

MASTERS, ROGUES & ALL OTHERS

Instead of making a single rogue for this game, players should make a stable of at least three characters. You may have rogues among them, but you are now free to create masters and the mastered along with the masterless.

As your saga unfolds, the game will jump around from one storyline to another, changing scenes, characters, and Overplayer as it does so. The characters you personally make will not normally come in contact with one another, but will certainly come in contact with other players’ characters along the way.

The Homeland & the Price of Wandering
As a group at the start of the game, choose the three or four areas on your map you wish to play in first. Each player should make a character that starts the game in each of these areas. Each player may pick one of these areas to exclusively overplay. You need not make a character for an area you exclusively overplay. No two players should exclusively overplay the same area.

Masters and mastered characters must name their homeland among that which deserves a name. The masterless may name their homeland, but should draw a line through it. Though the masters and mastered are bound to their homelands in ways that the masterless are not, they may wander the world for a price.

Each time you play a master or mastered character and a motif thread is completed before you return to your homeland, place a tally mark next to the name of their homeland. Once you gain a third tally mark, draw a line through your homeland.

When a homeland has a line drawn through it is no longer considered deserving of a name for that character. It is no longer granted the affordances and constraints that come along with that.

After you initially make a character, you can only restore a homeland to a named list in play during a Discovery or Rogues’ Phase (see “That Which is Named” on pages 26 & 29).

Eidolons & Simulacra
If a character has been blessed by the Starwind, they must have at least one eidolon or simulacrum that is a character from the golden or silver age of comic books whose powers they possess. Not all characters need to be blessed by the Starwind. And indeed, not even all the characters with golden and silver eidolons need to possess powers, just as not all characters from those ages did.

Tricks & Feats Heroic
You have one trick and two feats heroic to divide among all your characters as you see fit. You may give them all to one, as you would a rogue in Swords, or you may spread them among all your characters. You may even give your glum feat heroic to one character and jovial feat heroic to another. Between sessions, should you desire, you can reassign your trick and feats heroic among your surviving characters however you wish.

THE RITUAL OF THE GRUDGE

If two or more players have characters that wish to do battle with each other, it must be done in a Rogues’ Phase. If you end a phase, you may declare a grudge and demand the next phase be a Rogues’ Phase in which your characters can have it out. The offer of death is always on the table during such Rogues’ Phases.

When you play out the Ritual of the Grudge, make demands that cede glory to your foe. “Show me how you repel my raging assault.” “Show me how you drive me to the brink of the cliff.” “Show me how you make me work for your blood.” Let the dice, the tones, and the threads determine the victor.

THE RITUALS OF THE ENDLESS SAGA

The Ritual of the Shifting Overplayer
Whenever you fill a Motif thread, it is the responsibility of whoever can end the current phase to do so, no matter how much you desire to see the current phase through.

The Mantle of the Overplayer is now passed to a new player who starts the next phase as a new scene at a new setting with different characters involved. This is done as you would start any phase in Swords by rolling for Overtone, choosing the phase, setting the scene, and letting peal the Thunder. The new Overplayer tells us who is there and why, but each player should make sure they have an appropriate character present.

The Ritual of Necessity
If you do not have a character who would be present in the current scene, take a moment to create one. This character will have no tricks or feats heroic to begin with, though you may grant them some between sessions if you desire. They start only with their own name on the list of that which deserves a name, but may add to that list in play (see “That Which is Named” on pages 26 & 29) or between sessions.

The Ritual of the Ceaseless Tale
Unlike Swords, there are no end game rules for #GammaThrones. At any point in which you should pass the Mantle of the Overplayer to a new player, as a group you may decide you are done for the current session. Next time you play, you will pick the game up where you left off, with a new Overplayer starting a new phase.

There are new rules for the Motifs in ceaseless tales:
• All threads, including Mysteries, Morals and Map threads, may be echoed in a Motif, not just elements from the previous Motif threads.
• Even the first Motif thread of a session must have one element that echoes a previous thread.
• The last Motif of a session and any threads that were echoed in the Motifs of that session are carried over into the next session along with the Map threads and any threads players preserve with their tricks.