A Tourney of Swords

A Tourney of Swords

Join me on this thought exercise: Imagine a televised, competitive Swords Without Master and tell me what it looks like to you.

I'm not interested in whether it's a good idea or not. And you don't have to describe the whole thing to me. Just consider this text from the rules...

"Together you will toil to craft an enthralling short story of sword and sorcery. The game is a fickle one. It will, at turns, aid you in this endeavor and stand against you. Keep this in your hearts while playing: your fellow players are your only true allies.

"All players share a responsibility to the story as both audience and creators. Create rogues that you want to know more about. Fall in love with them. Put them in wondrous and violent situations. And ache to see what happens next."

...and say a thing or two about how you might:
• Keep it fair,
• Keep it interesting to spectators,
• Make it profitable,
• Make it competitive,
• Or otherwise make it sporting.

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Here are my thoughts, which we can use as a springboard. Don't feel you have to stick to my vision, but for now, let's assume that it is both televised and competitive.

It's a team sport. Four or five players to a team, depending on the division. One player is the Overplayer, of course, just like you would have a player specializing as a goalkeeper in some sports. The rest are Rogue Players. Each team has their own personal stable of rogues they use, and probably have fan favorites. Like pro-wrestling, fans are at least as interested in the collective stories built around these rogues as they are the skills of the Rogue Players.

It's timed. Just as there are 100 meter dashes, 800 meter foot races and marathons, competitive Swords has different categories of timed games. Perhaps the shortest being the sword & sprint 20 minute game. Then the typical 45 minute game. Followed by the leisurely 90 minute. This allows networks to jump in after each motif card is filled with a short commercial break and keep the games inside their broadcast time slots.

It's judged on technicality and aesthetics. The games are scrutinized by a panel of judges. The judges have a strict criteria for awarding points. Criteria we could definitely start working out in the comments below. The criteria grant points for making aesthetic and narrative decisions the judges found interesting, beautiful and unique. And the criteria dock points for technical fouls where the game text wasn't followed correctly. The technical criteria can be completely objective. The aesthetic criteria should strive to appear completely objective, but will of course be subjective enough for fans to decry the judge's decisions.

It's pro. The relationship between the Swords we enjoy at our table and the Swords we watch is the relationship between pickup games of basketball and the NBA. The latter will clearly have more stringent rules in place to address concerns about fairness, time constraints, monied interest, and the spectacle of it all. And of course, the latter is going to sell you a shit ton of merch.


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Edit to make this more Swords like:

For those looking for a specific demand, roll a d6 and show me what you would want from this as a...

1. ...spectator.
2. ...Rogue Player.
3. ...Overplayer.
4. ...judge.
5. ...broadcaster.
6. ...sponsor.