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Broken Tigers: A Sword Noir Adventure

In a city of memories is a city of violence.

A fantasy city in darkness illuminated by a strange blue light

I’ve released another adventure for Sword Noir 2E. In it, the PCs go back to Everthorn and East Reach outside the walls to face a piece of their past.

Traditional wisdom says one cannot go back to one’s home, because one cannot travel in memory. To forget one’s past is to forget one’s self, but the past is always a trap for the present. Of course, you’ve never been one to let good advice ruin a bad plan. An old friend is in trouble, and no matter what trap the past has laid, you’ll help them if you can—and you are certain that you can.

Broken Tigers is a 45-page PDF adventure for Sword Noir: A Role-Playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery (Second Edition) with 6 pre-generated characters for use by the players. While the adventure does not require the use of Sword Noir, the narrative characters and some situations are based on that system and would require modification to use with another.

You can purchase Broken Tigers at itch.io.

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Speaking Of Winter’s Silence

Some of you may have noticed that SEP has released a few Sword’s Edge adventures recently, as well as updating two Sword Noir adventures to 2E. I’ve just finished the first draft of a third and original Sword Noir adventure that I hope to have out soon.

Betrayal is part of the game.

The client claims to be a mythical figure of legend, exiled from his body, inhabiting that of another until he can regain his sanctum sanctorum. Whether you believe him or not, he’s got gold and he seems ready to spend it. You know it means trouble, insinuating yourself into the world of the guilds and their wealthy members, but trouble is always part of the bargain. And the client’s story is only the tip of a very cold and very dark iceberg.

Hopefully that gets you in the mood and gets you excited. Another Sword Noir adventure is in the works, though I have done nothing other than write down some conceptual notes. I intend to get that to you as quickly as I can.

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Sword Noir Second Edition Kickstarter

Are there those who only get their information on my work from this website? On that possibility, here’s your cue to go and back Sword Noir Second Edition on Kickstarter.

Sword Noir Second Edition is a clarification, update, and tightening of the existing rules rather than a wholesale change. If you own the original Sword Noir and it works great for you, you likely don’t need this version. If you own the current Sword’s Edge, you will see that Sword Noir 2E is very similar—Sword’s Edge was derived from Sword Noir, and with Sword’s Edge having had its update, I wanted to update Sword Noir to bring it back in line with the basic Sword’s Edge rules.

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Everthorn: The Centre of the World

A once proud city, the centre of an empire, has fallen into disrepute. Its empire gone, its power diminished, it remains a vibrant commercial and cosmopolitan crossroads for trade from around the known world. Its gold still shines, but its streets are darker than ever.

This is Everthorn.

Everthorn is the default setting for Sword Noir and was presented in the original core rules. With the completion of Sword Noir 2E, now would be an excellent time to reconsider Everthorn, re-work it, and present it anew. While the mechanics attached to the setting would be Sword Noir 2E, that system is abstract enough to allow easy adaptation of Everthorn to any setting seeking a major port city in which the PCs find themselves enmeshed in dark and gritty adventures for questionable patrons.

Everthorn: The Centre of the World is one possible project slated for a vote on my Patreon.

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Sword Noir 2E Adventures

Finding the lost love of a shattered criminal. Becoming pawns in the struggle of an undead necromancer to regain his former powers. Getting trapped in a complex web of betrayal and underworld politics.

All of these are adventures for Sword Noir. Farewell, Something Lovely was presented in the core rulebook for Sword Noir, while the Kheufer Scrolls and Crossing the Millers were released as stand-alone adventures. With the completion of Sword Noir 2E, now is an excellent time to update these adventures—both the writing and the mechanics.

Sword Noir Adventures update is one possible project slated for a vote on my Patreon.

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Patreon-izing

As Sword’s Edge slowly moves towards completion and delivery to its backers, I have been using what time I have to get some other projects in order. Right now, both Lawless Heaven and Face ‘Splosion are ready to go. These are Sword’s Edge adventures designed for convention play, meaning they are one-shots with prepared characters, although they could be introductions into longer campaigns if so desired. Right now, I am working on the Nor’Westers, which may get a new name for its release, and is different than the other two releases in that it is a campaign, though one built of the truncated summaries I use to run adventures, which I tend to lump together as one-pagers.

Along with these three Sword’s Edge products, I have a Centurion and a Nefertiti Overdrive adventure that I could release, as well as a possible second campaign product (a covert special forces campaign set in modern Africa) that could be completed.

You may wonder about this flurry of activity. It is because I am intent on exploring another type of crowdfunding – Patreon. Unlike Kickstarter, Patreon is a subscription service in which one pays a specific amount per month or per release. My intent is to set mine to “per release” and to release adventures as well as some other items at a planned rate of once per month.

As it stands, I’ll have three months (possibly four) covered, and I intend to keep that buffer going – so I will always have some extra time in case there is a month in which I am unable to get a product completed. Each product will be around 20 pages. The idea is that they will be provided to backers of Patreon. Depending on the amount of money I am making on Patreon, the products may then be sold elsewhere or they may remain available only through Patreon. Along with adventures, I intend to offer game supplements – such as an Egyptian history and culture supplement for Nefertiti Overdrive and a Sword Noir supplement for the new version of Sword’s Edge – and fiction – I am toying with the idea of a serial novel along with speculative fiction short stories.

This will happen once Sword’s Edge reaches its backers as a PDF. I don’t want to put a date on that as all is going well and I don’t want to raise expectations only to then have to dash them.

I’ll be talking about this both at the SEP Google+ community and on Twitter.

I hope that you’ll be kind enough to support me on Patreon when the time comes. If you like what I do, it is a way to make sure I keep producing.

You can find the SEP G+ community here.

You can find me on Twitter here.

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This Is How (What) We Do It

After having a fair break with minimal pressure following the success of the Sword’s Edge Kickstarter, with the payments in, project management has started. But that’s not all. There are a bunch of other projects on which I am working, and here’s a general overview of what I’m working on and what stage it’s at.

Sword’s Edge: So the text is off for editing, and I have both the indexer and the fulfillment locked in. Right now, I am finishing off the setup for BackerKit and once that is running, this will move to project management, which means long periods of monotony punctuated by spurts of effort.

Fiction Commission: I can’t say more until this happens, but I am updating a fiction commission that I had thought was done. That’s okay, because the reason for the revision is one I whole-heartedly support. It has kind of changed how certain characters should be impacting on the story, but it is totally manageable and I’m happy with how this is turning out.

More to follow when I can.

“Lawless Heaven”: This is going to happen. It is actually very close to being in presentable form. Unfortunately, I won’t have portraits for the pre-made characters, but I do have some art for the book and most of the text is written. I will be doing some tweaking with it before it is released, but it won’t actually hit the public until after Sword’s Edge is released as a PDF – which will likely be November 2017, a month after the Kickstarter backers get theirs.

“Face ‘Splosion”: Another Sword’s Edge adventure, this time a science-fiction high octane actioner heavily inspired by Borderlands and especially Borderlands 2. Like “Lawless Heaven,” this will be released after Sword’s Edge hits the public, but this requires more work. The adventure and pre-made characters are all ready, but I need to write the other text that will be included, like an introduction, an explanation of the genre, and a discussion of the intended setting in case this will become the intro to a wider adventure.

Head Crushers: Another role-playing game, but this one is at the intersection of Nefertiti Overdrive and Sword’s Edge. Its default is fantasy, and it was designed to replicate the Skull Kickers comic, which was itself based on RPG sessions. The writing on this one is done, but it’s going to sit on the backburner for now, though I have plans to release it.

The Wall: And yet another RPG, but this one far and away from anything I’ve done before. Rather than fast, high octane action, the Wall is much more about creating narrative scenes. Its subject – the difficulties of being a foreign occupier in an unfriendly city – screams for deep thinking and drama rather than hacking and slashing. The mechanics on this one are ready, but there is a lot of writing to get it ready to hit the public. The intention, though, is there.

“The Nor’Westers”: This is a Sword’s Edge campaign set along the North West Company’s fur trade route in Canada in 1810. This campaign is made up of short scenarios, and so needs to be fleshed out more with lots of supporting text. This will likely be the last of the Sword’s Edge supplements that will be put out as it needs the most work. This is very much a backburner project. Once Sword’s Edge is out, this will take a higher priority.

Sword Noir: I paused on the updates for this, my first RPG, but much of the mechanics revision is done. There is a lot more, though, because the included setting of Everthorn needs much more work than the SN mechanics do. For now, SN is going to follow Sword’s Edge, but with its own special differences. Everthorn, however, needs a very major overhaul in regards to characters, and I have considered releasing the mechanics separate from the setting.

Nefertiti Overdrive: The historical addendum to this game is growing, but I am still in the middle of research on the 25th Dynasty. This is scheduled to happen after Sword Noir is done, so likely not for a while. A cool part of this project is that I have an actual Egyptologist who has agreed to review my work. For those who wanted more history in their insane action, this should go a long way to scratching that itch.

Crowd-funding: One of the ways in which these projects might see fruition is through Patreon. I have been toying with the idea for a long time, and I think as a system it works better for me than Kickstarter. All of the projects listed could be Patreon projects – some of which might be released in components rather than a single work. I need to get enough in order that I will have a regular release schedule, so this is not something that will likely happen for a couple of months, but I think it makes sense. It is also a way to release my games and supplements in advance of Sword’s Edge hitting the public.

So, yeah, I’ve got a few things on my plate.

Whew!

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State of the Edge

I’ve finished updating Sword’s Edge. I mean I’ve really finished. As in the Ashcan Edition has been sent off to the printers. This doesn’t actually mean that Sword’s Edge will be soon available at discriminating retailers near you. Those Ashcan Editions are specifically for Breakout Con in Toronto, running 10-12 March 2017 at the Holiday Inn at Yorkdale. I’ll be running three sessions of Lawless Heaven, my love letter to Korean action cinema using the updated Sword’s Edge rules, and the Ashcan Edition will be available there.

It’s an Ashcan Edition because it is not entirely complete. It has not been professionally laid out. It has not been professionally edited. It has not been professionally indexed. Does it need these things? Maybe not. The original didn’t have any of these. I would, however, like to have these, so I’m looking at costs and strongly considering Kickstarting once again. This would likely happen in April or May, but we’ll have to see.

Lawless Heaven is also done. Not only is it done in the sense that it is ready for me to run, it is also done in the sense that it could actually be published. If I Kickstart, it will likely be a stretch goal, because I would dearly love to have portraits for each of the characters and maybe some other art and a stretch goal might afford that. Otherwise, if Sword’s Edge heads out into the wild without Kickstarting, Lawless Heaven will likely follow it there.

So now I am working on updating Sword Noir: A Role-Playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery. Most of the mechanical changes will follow those from Sword’s Edge, but there are also some idiosyncratic parts of Sword Noir – like Flaws, Reputation, and the magic system – that will need to be fit into the new rules. We’ll see how that goes.

Wish me luck!

And if you are at Breakout Con, come and say hi!

You can find out more about Breakout Con here.

You can find out more about Lawless Heaven here.

You can register for a game of Lawless Heaven at Breakout Con on Friday at 20:00, Saturday at 14:00, or Sunday at 11:00.

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Updating the Sword’s Edge

So much time with so little said, but that is because I have been working.

Honest.

With the start of a new course right around the corner, I haven’t wasted the two months I took off from my MA program. Starship Commandos is right around the corner and a few months after that will be an updated version of the Sword’s Edge System, now just titled Sword’s Edge RPG. I had started to update Sword Noir and then realized I really should update the core before I did the variants. Sword’s Edge is the core of both Sword Noir and Kiss My Axe, so they will be updated after Sword’s Edge is out. Since I will be studying at the time, that work will go slower, but it will get done.

For now, I have a cover for Sword’s Edge and soon will have a first draft version that will be shared around to a preview audience.

I have been quiet here, but busy elsewhere.

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Sword Noir Rising

This weekend I’ve had a couple of moments in between preparing for a move in early August. It’s mostly been in the morning along with my coffee, so it’s been pretty productive. At this point, I’ve completed updating the mechanics section in Sword Noir, and I’m delving into the GM section. This will give me a chance to discuss explicitly the sharing of narrative control I use in my games. I was much more clear in Kiss My Axe about how I run Sword’s Edge System – as it became known – and this will give me a chance to do so in Sword Noir.

by Ed Northcott

I am also thinking about removing Everthorn as part of the core book and publish it separately along with the different adventures written for it – the intro adventure in Sword Noir, the Kheufer Scrolls, and Crossing the Millers. Given how abstract Sword Noir is, the setting and series of adventures might sell better separately. It wouldn’t be system neutral, but I think it could be an excellent resource for any RPG.

This won’t be appearing any time soon, because I believe that very soon my quiet moments are going to be fewer and farther between. That said, I’ve finished a freelance assignment, have put Starship Commandos in for layout, and am updating Sword Noir, so I’ve been pretty productive on my break from my MA program.

On a side note, updating Sword Noir has reminded me that I actually really like the system. I think I’m going to get back into running it after leaving it for about five years.