Sword’s Edge Publishing

Highlander was not only a go-to movie through much of high school and university, it was the inspiration for more than a few campaigns, most of which fizzled out. Much like James Bond, Highlander was a lone-wolf story, unsuited to group play. And unlike James Bond—wherein the central character can be divided into respective roles for each member of the group—the Highlander was a lone-wolf not because he could do it all, but because the central premise was that all immortals eventually had to kill each other.

Not great for group cohesion.

And back in the day, everyone wanted to play the immortal if we were going for a “Highlander and Pals” kind of game.

The one thing that we got right back then amid all the silliness and mistakes, was that one doesn’t need a special set of rules to play Highlander.

There is nothing intrinsic to the Highlander world—not skill, technology, or particular abilities . . . other than immortality—that requires specific mechanical systems to mimic.

I’ll come back to immortality, just let me run with this.

I haven’t played a huge number of RPGs, but I’ve played enough. I could run Highlander in all of them.

Highlander is about immortality and the culture of immortals. Those are abstract notions. Could they be replicated using mechanical rules? Of course they could. Do they need to be? Not any more than the differing cultures of Tudor England and post-Golden Horde Russia (what is that period called?) require differing mechanics.

For the most part, the “rules” of the immortal culture can be broken. The fact that even the Kurgan respects them means nothing. If he really wanted to, he could. The fact that he does not is the only shading in an otherwise black & white, simplistic portrayal of evil.

“But,” you say—or at least, the voice in my head says . . . shut up voice in my head before I hurt you by jamming this pointy stick in my ear! . . . ow!—“But immortals only die when their heads are cut off. That needs to be represented mechanically!”

Ah, immortality. There’s the rub!

Wait. Really? Why? Every game I’ve played has rules for death and dying. The only difference is the narrative explanation of death. Damage from wounding did slow down immortals. They might even appear to be dead for a few moments should the injuries prove traumatic enough. Immortals feel pain, after all. So as they are being damaged, apply the rules for damage. When the immortal character reaches the death threshold for the rules, the head comes off.

Simple.

“But,” you say, “the system I use has hit locations/targeted strikes/aimed shots and what if character makes a called shot to the neck? That cuts off the head and game over!”

Actually, no, and the reason for this is right there in Highlander. Let me give you a hint: “My cut has improved you voice.”

The hit was scored. Damage was done as per the rules. If the rules say that’s an insta-kill, sure, why not—insta-kill. Follow the rules, and if it is not an insta-kill, there is an explanation for why not. For added points, have a call back to that. If it’s an NPC, have the cut improve his/her voice, à la the Kurgan!

So go ahead and play that Highlander game, use whatever rules system you are comfortable with.

And playing contrary to myself, if you want something that might smooth out the mortal-immortal tension, consider using something like Muntants & Masterminds 2E (or, even better, the recently released DC Adventures! Pure awesome!), in which the immortal character must actually pay for invulnerability and immortality, while the other characters can spend those points making their mortal character uber-cool.

My thoughts on Highlander here.

Go buy DC Adventures here.

Now that Dark Horizons has concluded, things are going back to their quiet default. This isn’t because SEP is getting buried. It is actually SEP is about to resurface, if only temporarily.

Those of you hanging around here will know that I’m working on a role-playing game system called Sword Noir. While I haven’t been as diligent in my posting about that design as I could be, the discussion over at the Accidental Survivors forum and the play-testing that has been done so far has helped me to hone the initial concept and mechanics.

Along with Sword Noir, I’m working on a game called Kiss My Axe: Thirteen Warriors and an Angel of Death. As one might guess, this is going to be a Viking role-playing game. After some design prototypes and discussion, I’ve settled on a hack of the Sword Noir rules themselves.

So there are two actual games coming from SEP, hopefully in the near future. I would like to say that Sword Noir will be available before the end of 2010, but that is an optimistic forecast. The mechanics are still in the play-test stage, and the book itself still requires writing.

Let’s say that you can expect Sword Noir coming first quarter of 2011, and Kiss My Axe soon after.

If you are wondering what these games will be like, this part of the introduction should give you some clues.

The inspiration for the creation of this game comes from Tim Gray’s Jaws of the Six Serpents and published by Silver Branch Games. It is an excellent sword & sorcery RPG. It is based on the PDQ system designed by Chad Underkoffler over at Atomic Sock Monkey Press. Further inspiration was provided by The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Dixon—another foray into S&S–Fate 3.0 by Robert Donoghue, Fred Hicks, and Leonard Balsera—which provides a more generic game that can be easily focused to represent almost any genre—and Lady Blackbird by John Harper from One.Seven Design—which is a kind of pulp/steampunk adventure and system all in one.

You can find the discussion of the game design here.

You can read Dark Horizons here.

Continued from Thirty-four: the Testimony of Madison Sinclair

Thirty-five: Samarkand

Hansen wasn’t high up in the Chamber, but he was high enough to know what had happened in Kathmandu. He had heard about the success of Blackout, then the removal of all parties by Tangible Stream. He had been part of the recovery team, and now he was part of the section created to learn the truth.

And in Samarkand he was going to find it. Or at least some small part of it.
[Read more →]

Continued from Thirty-three: Station

Thirty-four: the Testimony of Madison Sinclair

Boyle, Rudi, Cody and Kane were all there, looking like they were ready to go hard, but they weren’t moving at all. The Bedouin, he turned to me—and I have to say he looked pretty freaked out—and he said: “We have a problem, Mr. Sinclair.”

And it was the guy who was standing there who was the problem. I would have known that no matter what the Bedouin said. This guy, he was in a short-sleeve hospital gown, bed sheets wrapped around his waist like a bare ass embarrassed him or something. He had no hair—no hair that I could see—and the IV tubes were still taped to his arms, but they’re hanging down and dragging along the ground. It’s weird, you know, that he pulled them loose from their bags or bottles or whatever, but not from his arms. That must have been some fucking good tape.
[Read more →]

Here are the monthly sales totals for last week. All of these were through RPG Now/Drive Thru RPG (OBS). I’m seriously considering going exclusive. I mean, my main drivers are to other sites that provide better percentages, but my sales are mostly through OBS. The multiple sales venues do not seem to be making up the shortfall, even when averaged over a year.

In other news, Dark Horizons is done. Thursday, August 5 will see the penultimate chapter—which is actually the final showdown in Kathmandu—and the following Thursday is the final chapter—the denouement. I’m going to go through and fix what I can before I release it for sale. Yes, I will release it for sale as both a PDF and print paperback. That should be interesting.

Also, expect an announcement in the next little while. There might be some SEP action in the fourth quarter of 2010. Fingers crossed.

Without further ado, the sales figures!

August Sales (all channels)
Blood and Guts 2: In Her Majesty’s Service 1
Khorforjan Gambit 1
Modern Dispatch 120: Cyber-state Avatar Toolkit 1
Qalashar Device 1

Total Sales
Albenistan
Albenistan: Election Day (Modern Dispatch 113) 19
Khorforjan Gambit 78
Qalashar Device 91
Raid On Ashkashem 128

Covert Forces
Canada’s Combined Security Reconnaissance Section 72
Covert Forces 97
Covert Forces Redux 102
In Her Majesty’s Service 110

Modern Medieval
Gunpowder Plots 73
Man-At-Arms Advanced Class 36
Mercenary Advanced Class 39
Spy Advanced Class 34

Roles & Classes
Capable Hero 84
Combat Hero 83
Counter-Terrorism Assaulter 95
Covert Hero 92
Spec Ops Recce 93
Special Operations Marksman 93
Talent Trees Assembled 68

Treasure Chest Unlocked
Gems 66
Incense 7

Other
Cyber-state Avatar Toolkit 22
Line Zero 28
Relief Effort 45

Continued from Thirty-two: En Route

Thirty-three: Station

Mads holstered his SIG. He couldn’t believe the action had ended. Everything had passed in a blur, like fast-forwarding through a DVD. Heather leaned against the SUV blocker she had driven, breathing hard, C8 carbine held loose. Mads slid over the hood of the wrecked sedan, mimicking Boyle’s slick move a moment earlier.

Then the Bedouin’s voice came over the comm. “Incoming trouble. Contact imminent.”

“Bundle up the package.” Boyle handed Mads a pair of flex-cuffs. “It seems this is all far from over.”

[Read more →]

You noticed right? I mean, someone out there actually cares, right? Chapter/episode/part 33 of Dark Horizons is coming at you soon. The problem? It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t sound right. I finished it (2100 words of it) and then realized: this is the climax. This is it.

And it fell flat for me.

This is going to be a problem. I’m re-working it now, trying to get it going in media res while still linking it to the previous chapter. I really don’t know if I’m ever going to get it to feel tense enough, to get it climactic, which is what it needs to be.

So hang in there. It’s coming. I hope it will meet the expectations of the couple of hundred loyal readers that are showing up here (and possibly more whom Google Analytics does not count chewing through this on RSS. . . yes, I am optimistic).

I’ve also lost a lot of enthusiasm for Mundus Novit as a project because it has been out a couple of weeks and the publisher hasn’t bothered to do any marketing or promotion. Nothing. Not even posts on messageboards. Given that lack of support, it seem clear to me that Mundus Novit is going to sink into obscurity. I guess it is good it took so long to get released. If this had happened half-way through Dark Horizons, I can’t imagine bothering to finish the story.

But I will. Honest, I will.

In which I continue to answer questions from the Power 19.

It’s interesting the aspects of game design that did not inform my design choices so far, and also those that I am not interested in considering. My game experience and interest remains—it seems—firmly traditional, with some sprinklings of novel ideas.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

I’m afraid it’s traditional and uninspired. Roll 2d10, add modifiers, hit the target number or better to succeed. Pretty basic stuff.

The thing that is different than True20 or Savage Worlds is that the modifiers are based on the character’s qualities. Qualities are ranked descriptors, like Good Pickpocket or Great Death to the Four Corners Gang! If the player can explain how the quality applies to the situation, the player can use that modifier.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?

I honestly don’t know if it does. This is where I am firmly in the traditional game headspace. I’m not sure how a resolution mechanic could reinforce the core concept of Sword Noir. I’m sure there are those out there who could. I’m not one of them.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?

Players design “Pivots” for their characters, which are goals or other character quirks that helps to define the character. When the character completes a Pivot, the character gains an Advancement.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

As with 11, I don’t know if it does. Given that the Pivot need not relate to the core concept of Sword Noir, but rather illustrates something about the character, I tend to think it does not. Perhaps this is not desirable in some schools of thought, but the concept—which was inspired by the mechanics of the Shadow of Yesterday—just seemed cool to me.

Continued from Thirty-one: Cascade Effect

Thirty-two: En Route

Heather gripped the wheel of the SUV. Hastily acquired by Gurung and his network of contacts, it had only minimal upgrading and no armour. She felt vulnerable.

With the engine off, she waited on a small side-street. The target, so far, had revealed relatively good security instincts. He varied his schedules, he varied his routes, and he maintained bodyguards—unobtrusively. He did all the right things. It wouldn’t help him. They knew where he spent much of his day.

And that evening, they would get their target.
[Read more →]