Warning: Rambling Thoughts

Warning: Rambling Thoughts

I've been thinking about #Starward and #GammaThrones recently, and starting to stretch those old Swords design muscles again. (This is in no small part due to the wonderful reception the speed runs have received.) I've been thinking of them as campaigns that are essentially collections of thematically appropriate rituals.

But in truth, #GammaWorld messes with some really fundamental aspects of the game. It adds a new phase and thread, it changes the whole timing mechanism aspect of the motifs, and it eliminates the end game altogether. That's perhaps a bit more substantial than a campaign.

That World Phase and Map Thread are pretty nifty, though, and wouldn't be too out of place in Swords as an advance phase and thread, like like the Lore Phase and Thread or the Mark Thread.

What's really happening here is that I'm starting to think real earnestly about what a stand-alone Swords Without Master rulebook would look like and contain. And how to think about things like additional threads and more thunderless phases. Because there's a couple more I want to introduce.
https://twitter.com/Epidiah/status/1006605882904457216?s=19

Shounen without Master

Shounen without Master
About exactly two years ago, some people talked about how well shounen anime would work using SWM. I'm a little late to the party, but I've been on the hunt for a suitable rpg system for telling satisfying shounen stories for a long while now, and SWM would do it excellently.

The entire game would work, as is (with only some rare genres demanding a swap of tones). I do believe, however, that shonen tales would need at least the addition of Epidiah Ravachol's Ritual of the Ceaseless Tale and Ritual of the Grudge (both from #GammaThrones linked at the end of this post ) as well as the following ritual. Other thematic suggestions for using tricks/rituals/tales/phases follow the Ritual of the Next Power-up.

Ritual of the Next Power-up
In a shonen game, craft your Feats Heroic to not only characterize your character, but also to trace the steps of their developing levels of power throughout entire saga arcs. Since you may only use a single Feat Heroic once per session, you may use this ritual only once per session.

When your shonen is ready to manifest a new level of power, employ one of your Feats Heroic and resolve the dice as usual, but showcase a new aspect or manifestation of your style, form, power, species, gimmick, etc. Boldly announce the new manifestation, technique, or transformation using a unique evocative name, ideally in theme with your character’s other named manifestations.

Cross off the used Feat Heroic, but write the name of the new manifestation on your list of named. This new manifestation is now a part of your identity and available to you in the future whenever the need arises.
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In addition to what I see as the vital rituals above, a shonen game would also likely benefit from the following:
—the World Phase of #GammaThrones , if needed.
—frequent use of the Respite phase, the Ritual of Interlocution, and the Ritual of the Companion.
—Shonen stories should strongly encourage Shonen Players to frequently and freely add elements to their lists of named to enmesh their shonen in vast webs of characters (possibly including frequent use of Born in Fire as an Overtrick).
—Liberal use of Trooping and Scale ideas.
—Maybe use of the Ritual of the Binding Clan/Ritual of Nakama (described below).
—Finally, shonen stories usually need a ritual for flashbacks or other sorts of freeze-frame access to sudden dramatic motivation. This could work as a normal Discovery phase, but it is more poignant if it comes up immediately amidst the dangers of a Perilous Phase, with added dramatic weight of being the thing that makes the difference. Maybe the Ritual of the Backward Glance (described below).

Ritual of the Backward Glance
Whenever you employ the Ritual of the Telling Blow by standing to difinitively cast your dice, you may also invoke the Ritual of the Backward Glance by dramatically highlighting a brief flashback to a poignant moment or relationship in your shonen's, or the story's, past that has bearing on the present. If your roll results in a stymie, Moral, or Mystery, you may record one significant name from your flashback on your list of named.

Ritual of the Binding Clan/Ritual of Nakama
If all players agree, the shonen may be members of a shared crew, clan, family, guild, monastic order, or any other community can write that clan on their list of named. Each individual may remove it from their list, but the existence, culture, and philosophy of the clan itself is protected by the affordances and constraints as long as it remains on any shonen’s list of named.

Each session, the clan and its immediate situation is treated as a thread at the start of the game. Write and resolve the clan’s thread as either a dramatic question like a Mystery, or a Moral the clan aims to instill in its members.

Finally, members of the clan may choose a shared trick for the clan that works like an Overtrick for shonen whose list of named includes the clan. Good options for Clan Tricks are Compact, Undenied (with a Feat Heroic for each tone written for the clan, available to all clan members), as well as Haven, Ill Fate, Doom, or Born in Fire.

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As an example of how some shonen stories would work with SWM, One Piece would play wonderfully with the vital three rituals stated at the top, and the story would largely be comprised of Tales of Friendship (same effect as Romance), of New Beginnings, of High Adventure, of Teamwork (like High Adventure but with the Ritual of the Companion), of Wonder, of Fabulous Treasure, of Intrigue, of Pirates, etc. on into later Tales of Dangerous Seas, of Marines, of Giants, of Tragedy, etc.

DBZ stories meanwhile would thrive on the Ritual of the Grudge and the Ritual of the Next Power-up, the method for extending conflicts beyond single scenes (the Ritual of Duels and Dogfights from Starward) and the story would largely be comprised of Tales of Contests, Championships, and Mysteries, with frequent use of tricks such as Born in Fire, Adroit Prowess, and Unparalleled.

Andy Hauge, Tim Franzke, Nathan Black

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.