Swords of The Serpentine - Hardcover Role Playing Game Book, Pelgrane Press

Product Information

Swords of the Serpentine is a tabletop roleplaying game (RPG). It supports 1-7 players (with a sweet spot of 4-5) playing fantasy heroes inspired by sword & sorcery fiction, and one Game Master (GM) who keeps the adventure moving and plays the foes and supporting cast, also known as Supporting Characters. It’s worth noting that I have a secret plan to run a SotS game where physical violence is either impossible or is strongly discouraged, and so all of the real combat is done through subterfuge or through social, Morale-based combat. I probably wouldn’t want that for every game, but I can’t wait to see how it goes. You contracted the disease wetlung after almost drowning in a canal. This has turned you into a secret member of Eversink’s fungal hivemind the Drowned, absorbed into the collective known as “Colony”; you are happily content with this fact and probably don’t mind the occasional wet cough. You probably look normal, but wetlung has left you as more than human. As far as you can tell you maintain your free will, but you also have near-instant mental access to information from other members of Colony across the city. As the fungus grows within you, you continue to become more powerful and knowledgeable.

At the beginning of the GM Advice section, there are a few paragraphs introducing the concept of the X-Card, with a note to search for RPG Safety and Calibration Tools online. While the game presents tropes like being mentally dominated by sorcery, in many cases, characters have the option to take morale damage if they don’t want to be controlled by someone else, giving players a bit more agency when it comes to their autonomy. See the disease description (SotS p. 87) for more information about the Drowned, including their most common method of death. Created by the disease wetlung, the Drowned are humans who can be puppeteered and possessed by Colony, an underwater fungal hivemind somewhere beneath the city. They can instantly communicate with each other when Colony wishes and use this hivemind communication to focus on and efficiently eliminate one enemy at a time. The Drowned seek to put themselves in positions of influence and power, all the better to promote the fungal intelligence’s inscrutable plans. Some nice structural guidelines for solo play, differing levels of experience, or even playing a ghost if that’s your thing. As a city, it has the things you expect, which is to say, neighborhoods with stuff in them. This is the mandatory city format we have come to expect, and it delivers. Where it gets more interesting are the elements that hold the city together, and I’m going to talk about the five which I think really bring it to life because they are ever-present but also constantly changing based off context.

Fledgling

Beyond my issues with Gumshoe, I probably have only one criticism, and that is that I’m not entirely sure how this runs as a group game. The source fiction is well suited to one or two heroes, and that campaign is easy to envision. I’m less sure about a group of five. Now, to be fair, the book offers some solid suggestions for reasons for a group to be together, and they’re genuinely good, but I’m just less certain how that turns into play. Wealth is handled interestingly. To reflect the idea that character fortunes will go up and down, it’s a value that’s set at the start of a game. Technically, it’s a 1-5 rating, but practically it’s a -2 to +2 rating, with -2 being “super broke” and +2 being “rolling in it”. In addition to giving some fictional framing, any rating other than zero turn into an investigative ability that works like an allegiance with wealth or poverty. Going into SotS, it had a few elements going in its favor and a few strikes against it. Against it was the Gumshoe system, which I’d never quite synced with. I genuinely love how it handles investigation and clues, but for more mundane actions it uses a pool system combined with hidden difficulties, which is a combination I don’t enjoy. However, Gumshoe has also gone through numerous iterations since the last time I looked at it, so I had hope. Much more interesting to me are investigative abilities. For these, the rating may have story meaning, but the most important thing is the simple binary — do you have the ability or not? These abilities aren’t rolled, and instead are used as avenues to give the players all the information they need to proceed forward in the game. That is, when the players are in a scene, and there is some question regarding next steps, the GM is mindful of the things they might know, and leans on the investigative abilities to find the correct avenue to get that information in the player’s hands. 5 Drives (what is best in life?): To risk all for an ally, to conquering the weak, and to uncovering that which is hidden

Chapter Eight: GM Advice (examining tropes of the genre, how to structure mysteries, and allow for player improvisation and shared world building) Gonna be honest — this is more art than science. The idea — spend these points for cool effects — is clear, but the devil is in the many, many details. This is an area where the table needs to really be in sync — I can see a read of the game where the “free” clue is always very minimal, and there’s an expectation of spend. But I can also see a read where the free clue is cool and rewarding, and spends are bonuses rather than buy ins. Wealth is transitory. Heroes live for today; they may find great wealth, but they’re impoverished again before you know it. Money slips away or is squandered, and Heroes must seek risks to capture more.So, the city has old nobility and new money, which is not an uncommon divide, but what’s noteworthy is that they do a good job of communicating how the old nobility might be broke, but still VERY dangerous. Another one of the fun setting details is the Guild of Architects and Canal-Watchers. In a city that is constantly sinking and constantly being rebuilt, it would take almost miraculous effort to keep that city functional. The Guild of Architects and Canal-Watchers are all sorcerers granted special permission to practice if they internalize all corruption, to keep the city functional. This is a huge secret, and there is a special retirement home in the lower levels of the city for the most obviously corrupted and mutated members of the guild. Corpse Astray Investigative abilities: Intimidation 1, Taunt 1; Skullduggery 2, Spot Frailty 1, Vigilance 1, Wilderness Mastery 1 Investigative abilities: Servility 2, Trustworthy 2; Ancestry (Drowned) 5, Felonious Intent 1, Scurrilous Rumors 1

For comparison, a sovereign Hero has about 16 adventures worth of experience over a standard Hero, and a standard Hero has about 17 adventures more experience than a fledgling Hero. That’s enough of a power and capability difference to feel like you’re at very different stages of the Hero’s career. A fun scenario might be to run three adventures: one at standard level to showcase a threat or problem, then one at fledgling level to show how the threat or problem originated, and finally one at sovereign level to let your Heroes crush the threat once and for all. Social Combat in Swords of the Serpentine When words cut as sharply as a knife, you don’t actually need to carry a knife. Why GUMSHOE for Swords & Sorcery?– Kevin Kulp on the match of system to setting in Swords of the Serpentine. Description: Anyone will tell you that “the Drowned” is a ridiculous conspiracy and that the rumors aren’t true. Often, the person telling you this is already a member of the Drowned. The city was founded by refugees that signed a pact with a local minor god, and both the city and the goddess have grown in power, although the contract was signed so long ago that people have forgotten what all it entails. Even beggars in the city aren’t allowed to beg without selling something, which means they often sell stones that carry the “blessings of the goddess.”

A GUMSHOE roleplaying game of swords & sorcery!

If you are familiar with the Gumshoe system, a lot of this will feel familiar. If you are familiar with TimeWatch, it’s really familiar. But there are some quirks unique to this version of the system. In general, here are the basics: Gear is the most interesting of all. This is player defined, and is a list of 5 or more “iconic” items the character bears (and there’s a small mechanical bump for having them all on you). But what’s delightful is that these are truly freeform — they might be “My grandfather’s sword” but could just as easily be “My unwavering and poorly considered belief in the goodness of man”. I suppose one might call these descriptors, but framing these as gear is a lovely tough. Chapter 8: GM Advice. This is vitally important for GMs, and pretty darn useful for players as well, because it shows you how to structure play, run a game, make a game really fun, and tweak the rules when they aren’t quite right for your play style. GMs, please don’t miss this, and consider reading it more than once before your first game.

In the comments below, let us know if there are aspects of swords & sorcery in your own game that you’d add or change on this list. You have a number of abilities. Your rank in these abilities is expressed as a pool of points you can spend Drives (what is best in life?): To stand alone against danger, to gain another’s wealth, to buy respect with blood and steel Chapter Ten: The World (the nations that surround Eversink and how Eversink interacts with these nations, especially economically)

Sovereign

One interesting twist in the system is that it supports many maneuvers (disarms and whatnot) but does so in a fairly elegant way. Someone on the receiving end of a maneuver has the option of going along with it, or taking more damage. This brings some nice depth to an otherwise very straightforward system, and it also mitigates a lot of the potential problems that come with social combat systems and their use as coercion. The preparedness general ability allows you to roll to see if you have the right tool for the right job, without trying to plan for every eventuality up front