Here are the visual threads of our game during Gauntlet Con 2018. Jason Cordova Pawel Solowczuk V C Anders Smith

Here are the visual threads of our game during Gauntlet Con 2018. Jason Cordova Pawel Solowczuk V C Anders Smith
https://fictivefun.com/visual-threads-swm-gauntlet-con-2018/

Wow.

Wow. We started with epic Rogues (including a psychopomp of the gods) and opened in the realm of the dead, and went...well. You'll see just how far we went. Ready for some of the trippiest Swords you've ever seen?
https://youtu.be/OS-cx7n-zuI

Remnants, Year 2 Summer features two new characters in Geddy and Gaon.

Remnants, Year 2 Summer features two new characters in Geddy and Gaon. They are tasked with investigating a beast that shouldn't be around.
Jeff Beltran Larry S

https://fictivefun.com/visual-threads-remnants-year-2-summer/

Remnants, Year 2 Spring features Ysill, Mananan, and Raolla as they search for a hidden graveyard rumored to house...

Remnants, Year 2 Spring features Ysill, Mananan, and Raolla as they search for a hidden graveyard rumored to house the elusive blood lotus.
Ary Ramsey Lu Quade Tomer Gurantz

https://fictivefun.com/visual-threads-remnants-year-2-spring/

Year 1 on of the Remnants series is in the books and with it more visual threads.

Year 1 on of the Remnants series is in the books and with it more visual threads. Phillip Wessels Ary Ramsey Shawn McCarthy

Stay tuned as Year 2 fires up next week.

https://fictivefun.com/visual-threads-remnants-year-1-winter/

Here are the threads from Remnants - Year 1, Fall in visual form

Here are the threads from Remnants - Year 1, Fall in visual form

https://fictivefun.com/visual-threads-remnants-year-1-fall/

Another session of the Remnants series is in the books. This one turned a bit bloody.

Another session of the Remnants series is in the books. This one turned a bit bloody.


https://youtu.be/GyfI11EyYf0

I found a few morals lying round from an old game, I found them evocative....

I found a few morals lying round from an old game, I found them evocative....

* Don't cross the fat man!
* Do anything for shekels
* "Immortality" can only be bought at a cost.

Here's our game from last night featuring Blake Ryan Aaron Feild & Maria Rivera.

Here's our game from last night featuring Blake Ryan Aaron Feild & Maria Rivera. Scry away if your heart so desires. It also featured one of the #crowdsourcedrogues
https://youtu.be/woQB1M_8Wn4

Here's an extract of our game we completed a few days ago via Role Gate, good times.

Here's an extract of our game we completed a few days ago via Role Gate, good times.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ckoz5XaFHdPGWFwO1l7a5WpQoMbi9eFCaFP6eHzxM3Y/edit?usp=sharing

Evidence of a successful first game of Swords Without Master last night!

Evidence of a successful first game of Swords Without Master last night! We hacked (really, reskinned the tones) the game for use in my original folklore-meets-wuxia fantasy setting, The Blackwood. We're putting together an audio drama for the setting and this game was the perfect way to hone in on our characters and discover some juicy motifs and plot points for our writers.

The game is awesome but we definitely encountered some stumbling blocks on the way. A couple players are fairly new to RPGs (especially rules-light, narrative-heavy games), so the worldbuilding opportunities of the Discovery Phase kinda melted their brains. They rose to the challenge but it was a big adjustment on their part. They loved the challenge though!

We also found the endgame/reincorporation mechanics to be a little confusing, mostly because I as the Overplayer hadn't done enough reading and pondering for that stuff. All the same, it was a wonderful first game. Everyone wants to play again!

Rogues without Tales.

Rogues without Tales.
Oh man. Discord and the Scrying ritual makes me want a SWM ritual for an out-of-game impromptu invitation to create S&S micro-fiction. Something like a micro-rogue's phase challenge that people can invite and offer others (or play solo) in a setting like the Discord chat, G+ community, or casual conversation. Not even a scene, more like a single evocative in-character moment that one or more people can explore. Basically a spotlight, nearly context-less motif, or raw S&S cover art as a poster with a story but not a tale.

What are the minimum mechanics/structure necessary for empowering cool on-the-go micro-fiction? Should dice or a similar simulacrum set a tone for the reply or is that cumbersome/limiting? How should/could such a thing invite communal participation/affirmation and tie into other rituals and game modes in the SWM ecosystem?

How about this as a starter draft:
The Ritual of the Pregnant Moment
Share an eidolon for any ephemeral Moment you want to wrap in a shred of fictional flesh. Then direct a loaded challenge illuminated by the eidolon to a willing companion (or yourself) in the following form: "Who can show us an [adjective] rogue... [doing something]?" The challenge can be open or directed toward a specific person.

Whoever dares answer the challenge should roll dice to set a tone, and offer an incisive reply in the rolled tone, perhaps as the internal monologue of the rogue in question. Others may offer alternate responses. After a response, anybody else present may ... [?]

"Who can show us a blood-smeared rogue... wrestling with destiny" "Who can show us a sympathetic rogue... suffering for their irreverence." "Who can show us a famously brutal rogue... showing tenderness?" "Who can show us a broken rogue... wielding power."

(Embrace a pregnant pause between the described rogue and the task demanded, especially when the two deliciously contrast.)

More Ritual of Scrying Pondering...

More Ritual of Scrying Pondering...

Thinking about the name for the player who participates through the Ritual of Scrying. I'm tempted by Mage Player, to fit with the whole Rogue Player business, and to resurrect "mage" after I expelled it from the name of the thread. But I'm not entirely onboard with it.

While I ponder, I'm curious about your opinion. Do any of these appeal to you? Do you have a better one?

This is a writeup of a Discovery Phase quickstart.

This is a writeup of a Discovery Phase quickstart. This isn't something I normally do, which is strange as often there is a key mid-game Discovery Phase that melds the start of the game with the end.

I feel that maybe the Discovery Phase doesn't really let us see that much about the Rogues unless you allow a lot of colour around their investigations.
https://medium.com/@robert_carnel/the-golden-pass-between-the-theocracy-of-dumator-and-the-forests-of-the-fallen-has-a-famous-resting-7f0a0e1dd72c

I've written up an opening Rogue's Phase, generally I tend to come up with something after the characters are...

I've written up an opening Rogue's Phase, generally I tend to come up with something after the characters are generated so it reflects the world implied by their backgrounds but I also think it's useful to have situations that have already worked in the past and could perhaps work with a range of character types.

I have a couple more of these I'd like to share.
https://medium.com/@robert_carnel/the-palanquin-ambust-dad05984e5bc

Working on a ritual for those who enjoy watching Swords games on YouTube and Twitch.

Working on a ritual for those who enjoy watching Swords games on YouTube and Twitch.

The Ritual of Scrying

A thousand sorcerous eyes watch the rogues with keen and unfathomable interest—for rogues are disruptors of the delicate plots of destiny and wizards alike. If your eyes are among the thousand, you may invoke the Ritual of Scrying to peer across the astral plane and scrutinize the rogues while protecting your own eldritch machinations.

While watching a game of Swords Without Master unfold—but not participating as an Overplayer or Rogue Player—you may record Scrying threads. Scrying threads are aberrations, apocryphal versions of the Motif, Moral, and Mystery threads that you record based on your personal inclinations and observations of the game.

To prepare your Scrying threads, you will need a sheet of paper and a simulacrum. The paper must have room enough to scribe and sketch the visions as they come to you. Here you will record your observations and map the patterns they weave into fate's skeins. The simulacrum is an object of our world that reminds you of your wizard's souls. It will anchor you to this world as you journey into that of the rogues.

Cast now your soul across the astral sea to the realm of the rogues. Place yourself in their situation. Listen with care to the words of the players. Your sorcerous senses will bridge the worlds and present to you a rich vista. Heed the words and when you hear something worthy of a Motif, record it on your Scrying thread. The Scrying thread is yours and yours alone. So it matters not if the players also record the Motif. All that matters is what you have witnessed and recorded.

Likewise, when a Moral is rolled, you shall write your own lesson to be learned upon your Scrying thread and when a Mystery appears, you shall write your own question worthy of investigation. Undoubtedly these will not match those recorded by the Rogue Players.

Write your elements wherever and in whichever manner serves your arcane purpose. Leave room to add to it as the game progresses. For, unlike the Motif of the Rogue Players, the Scrying thread is not limited to a mere three elements.

When you hear the players narrate something that echoes an element on your own Scrying thread, record that echo and draw a silver cord connecting it to the original element. As the game progresses, the patterns in your web will begin to reveal themselves. But will you behold the truth before the game ends?

Upon the end of the game, recall your simulacrum and let it draw you back to your world. Now the contemplative work of the wizard begins. What meaning lies among your scrawl? What has been woven and how will it affect your own plans?

Compare your notes with fellow wizards so that you may glimpse theirs. What secrets have they uncovered?

Should you find yourself at the table as an Overplayer or a Rogue, you may take any three elements from a Scrying thread that are connected through silver cords and present them as part of a Destiny trick.

Anyone care to play a Tale over RoleGate?

Anyone care to play a Tale over RoleGate? It's a new asynchronous roleplay service that looks like it would work very well for SWM. I've started a game, password is "ep".
https://www.rolegate.com/swords-without-master

Sunday Swords Without Master at #Fastaval18

Sunday Swords Without Master at #Fastaval18
This in-character photo is all washed out and 90s and I don't even care! Squeezing a game into the last day of a con is always a great, especially when we can do it with a person new to the game and with such wonderful skill as Muriel. Not including character creation, the session was a whirlwind 50 minutes helmed by our Overplayer Jonathan Jung Johansen. I can't wait until next year!

Here's a ritual for the basic game!

Here's a ritual for the basic game!

Often when we're playing games and find ourselves in a spot unaddressed by the rules it is not because of the situation we are currently in, but because of some misunderstanding earlier in our play that sent us off course. It can take a while to notice something's gone awry and even longer to trace our footsteps back to the origin of our misadventure.

The purpose of this ritual is to give us room to make those mistakes and a way to right them once we realize we have. To let the stars guide us back to the path of our game.

The Ritual of the Astrolabe
When you notice that things have gone afoul of the rules and there is no clear path back to your original course, invoke the Ritual of the Astrolabe. The current phase ends immediately without concern for what is left to be done in the tale or at the table. Take a moment to stretch your thews and slake your thirsts. Once all the rogues have gathered again, the Overplayer makes a single Rogue Phase style demand of one of the Rogue Players that will show us how what was left unsaid is now resolved. Then start your new phase and proceed with confidence.

What might these bells be for? Celebration? Summoning? Keeping something out? Keeping something IN?

What might these bells be for? Celebration? Summoning? Keeping something out? Keeping something IN?
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4Rmn2