Song of Swords: McDojo edition

Pretty fun.

I'm in bed on my phone or I'd do some fights with you in the roll20.

Combat can be as quick as a simple chop or as complex and technical as pushing the tip of your blade into an armored joint while levering against their sword tip to keep it from pressing into your neck.

With the exception of one or two logic hiccups here or there the combat almost writes itself for you and most of it can be recreated in an actual fight.

Combat is very easy to learn btw.

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Guys how does hilt push work? If I hilt push and opponent who who is doing a simultaneous Parry/Attack, what happens? Does his attack get cancelled because it's no longer legal, and in that case what happens to his dice?

Just don't fall prone ;)

To clarify, I have initiative and he successfully parries my attack. He's also declared an attack, but it hasn't resolved yet.

I'm curious, does anyone else homebrew SoS to use for their setting? One of the main reasons I went with SoS is that the mechanics fit the feel I wanted to give for my setting pretty well, and I felt confident with creating playable races through it too

If an attack is cancelled half the dice return to their pool

Alright, good. I guess now the question is just if a Hilt Push actually does cancel an attack.

I'm not sure how well a "viking" campaign would work. Let's see...

Armor-wise you'd be reduced to mail and plate helmets, generally speaking, with shields being super mandatory for your continued survival.

Weapon wise:

Swords would be hemmed down to the old arming sword type, maybe falchions to represent large seaxes.

Hand axes, battleaxes and dane axes would be the meat of the axe section.

Arming Spears, Spears, Half-Pikes, possibly some sort of glaive round out spears/polearms.

So you'd be pretty limited in terms of weapons and armor, but I guess that's sort of the point. Feels like a very "pure" experience with not a lot of crazy shit.

Since this is McDojo edition i figured I'd share the technique i show cased verse Khopeshfag since only about 15 people saw and jimmy wasnt one. So if you read the TZM section youll notice they count as extra dice and intiative AND these are cumalative when you feint. Normally this just means you have a big activation cost to feint to their juicy unarmored foot. But what if you instead feinted from a bonus to a bonus? There are only two of those strike:lower arm and thrust:chest. If you do both of these you pick up 2 dice and 2 initiative. If you go strike to thrust you pick up 3. Of course you absolutely dont want to do this if you cant hurt them badly on a 2 bs hit or so.
Alternatively if you have good form feint you can go from hands to a +0 Tmz and its like you got a free feint off while they still had to pay the 2 dice.
Its a good way to give yourself an advantage in a Red/Red or steal iniative sitatuion but will not help you if your opponent has the devil's own luck.

Notably if you combine this with tall1, bloodthirsty, and swift sword you can generate + 7 dice

I've shoved bits and pieces of the melee combat system and injury system into my homebrew. It works to an extent, although it doesn't really look like SoS considering my players are around level 40 for D&D equivalent. Still works pretty well, makes the game for fighters less of a "whack guy with sword oops he has 1 HP left and retcons you from existence".

>forgetting javelins
Norsemen used javelins prolifically.

You're right of course. Javelins and other missile weapons. Longbows, maybe those goofy throwing axes?

Since when did norsemen use throwing axes? Weren't those purely frankish? And, separately, African and native American?

I can't speak for the other two but the native Americans (at least the ones where I live) didn't really develop axes and tomahawks until the French brought boarding axes ashore. Prior to that they were mostly all about spears and clubs. The stone axes were actually an imitation of the steel axes the French brought, because they couldn't all trade for a real one.

The French also introduced them to blowjobs, scalping, and drinking with every meal. Wew lad.

>blowjobs
I find it hard to believe that this didn't arise independently in pretty much every human civilization.

I know the Francisca was a stereotypically Frankish weapon, but I think throwing axes were fairly widespread.

Huh. Did you have any sources on that? I haven't heard about it before in other contexts.

The Norse never used franciscas and even the Franks had abandoned them centuries before the first Viking raids began.

I could witter on all day about the subtle variations in Viking-era swords, but from a game mechanics point of view the range of distinct equipment choices is rather slim.

That said, it would be nice to see seaxes and langseaxes added to the wargear lists. I've often thought a neat add-on for SoS would be equipment packs focusing on a given date/culture, covering what wargear was available and adding any new options not in the main book.

If you like the idea Jimmy I can provide data/sources for western/northern europe 6-13thC.

>That said, it would be nice to see seaxes and langseaxes added to the wargear lists. I've often thought a neat add-on for SoS would be equipment packs focusing on a given date/culture, covering what wargear was available and adding any new options not in the main book.

That's been a planned thing almost since the beginning, actually. Japan and China get brought up a lot for it too.

Homebrewing SoS for the Dominions 4 setting is on my list of projects I might do some day but probably won't get around to.

throwing clubs?

They should also probably come up with some organizational categories for the weapons that are already there. It seems that just have a huge list causes choice paralysis in the casual backer.

I use my own settings, but with SoS mechanics.

>That's been a planned thing almost since the beginning

Grand, forgive my defective memory though it is a shame the concept didn't make the kickstarter.

Pre-Columbian America/ Native Americans would be another cool one. Macuahuitls, stone clubs/spears/arrowheads, lassos, Tlinglit wood armour and the like.

Damn it Jimmy, why aren't you shilling?

I have a welding thing today, I'll relaunch when I get home.

HOWEVER
We are also holding a general Q&A on Plebbit on Wednesday, it looks like, so if you have any juicy lore questions or other things you want to force me to answer, you'll have your opportunity to do it and have it preserved for posterity.

WEW

I'm trying to brew Mass Effect with ballad and sos.

Make sure to shill hard. If you actually get some coverage toward the end that would be nice, but as it is, it looks like all those stretch ideas Bones asked us for won't be happening.

The Kicktraq projection is more optimistic, but I'm not sure how trustworthy it is. The lower bound seems feasible, but I wouldn't expect to get anywhere near the upper bound without some serious media coverage. Kicktraq, after all, doesn't know that this is a community where the core fanbase was pre-existing and active enough that many/most donated quite quickly, so is probably expecting a more substantial rise towards the end than I am.

>flat and fertile

u-unf.

So I'm thinking of a campaign set in Dace where the players are members of the various mercenary companies, at the part of the timeline where each company is claiming city-states and territories, and they have the opportunity to diplomance and fight their way across the country, and maybe eventually side with Gizka when she comes in to kill everyone.

Good idea y/n.

n

Remaining tournament fighters, please call roll in the thread when you are around and able to do battle.

The $150 art commission add-on is gone! At least it saves me from making a regrettable life decision.

If I ever see Gizka in a campaign I am going to immediately kill her just to suck in the sweet Jimmy/waifufag tears

Gunther here, around for the next 3 hours, after 5PST tomorrow, all day wednesday.

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what

Our last semifinals match is underway! The winner makes it to the finals!

>#6 Gunther Alder vs #11 Lorea Mendoza

As a heads-up, regardless of how this tourney turns out, I'm planning on running a follow-up tournament with a blanket ban of hobos, and fixes of obvious rule holes (BURD ARMOR EFFECTING TOU). Hopefully people will turn up for more fechting fun, and hopefully it'll turn out less stressful and salty than Hobofest 2017.

>obvious rule holes (BURD ARMOR EFFECTING TOU)
What's this?

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Sweet, I'm in.

Don't worry, there are still the $300 iconic character ones.

Burd armor can be enhanced at """significant""" gold cost to boost STR or END.
Not specific factors thereof, but the base attribute. This boosts the derived attributes as well, as a consequence.

Well yes, how is that a rules hole? Seems to be working as intended

And Burd is not today's word, it seems.
Lorea's body only briefly slows as she hits the water, heavy armor soon dragging her down to the sea floor. Food for the crabs.

This battle is over!
>#6 Gunther Alder vs #11 Lorea Mendoza
Victor: Gunther Alder!
Method of Victory: A level five pollaxe spike directly into the brain.

We have our three finalists!

I don't find it personally to be a hole, just very powerful.
Not that TOU or AV has matters much at 26 PCP.

I still don't get what this guy's fucking problem is. Everything seems to come back to him being mad about humans enroaching on Zell property and culture, but everything we've actually seen suggests that Zells are the ones who invade human territory and pirate their stuff. Is it really just that he's a massive racist or is there more to it that I'm missing?

Literally Zell Hitler.

>three finalists

Enough duels! Time for a mélee!

From the roll20: "The three finalists will each fight each other 1v1. If someone wins 2-0 and they're the only one, they win. If one fighter goes 0-2, they're out, and the remaining two fight a final 1v1. If the result is all three fighters get 1-1, then we'll go to Helian Sudden Death."
Sorry, this still isn't technically a tourney.

It's a mix of things, because he used to work for the humans in the Krajina and basically they treated him and the other Zells like weapons. Then they broke free, and now he wants revenge. I think it's less that he hates humans in particular and more that he's angry and insecure about being the creature of a human power. He desires control over other people because he fears being controlled.

Were you not paying attention the last three days? Gunther Alder and 19 are our finalists from the original roster. Zabaz is our finalist from the latecomer roster!

The three finalists will each fight each other 1v1. If someone wins 2-0 (or more matches than the others), they win the tournament! If a fighter goes 0-2, they're out, and the remaining two fight a final 1v1. If the result is all three fighters get 1-1, then we'll settle it once and for all in a Helian Sudden Death match. The winner of that match will win the tournament.

For the purposes of this final round robin, a simultaneous double kill counts as a loss for both fighters! Beware of throwing red!

Our three finalists are:
>#6 Gunther Alder
>#5 Gandicze, Subject 19
>#19 Zabaz - Izagoni “Duelling-Priest”

Now that Burd vs Burd has been removed from the timeline who are you personally routing for in the Tournament?

I think Gunther is the most likely winner, while I'd be pleasantly surprised to see Zabaz knock everyone over

I guess now that we know Trains can bleed maybe 19 is the underdog now?

The entire ocean is zell property. Humans building boats is encroachment. The violence against zells in certain regions is intense.
Zellish religion, zellish customs, zellislava are all culture. The zells that breed into ports and naturalize are lost. The elvish blood may breed stronger, but the mind becomes lost. Some zellish populations worship Genosus - the sun! Not the dragons that bore them into this world.

etc.

>I guess now that we know Trains can bleed
My money's on Zabaz. He fought and defeated Lorea in a non-canon fecht. With a khopesh!

But he's not fighting Lorea. I like 19, oddly enough. I used to have a slightly autistic love for trains, maybe that's flaring up again?

19 ain't shit compared to the khopesh. Cheer Zabaz! Khopesh deserves the lore spot. Think about the options here
>random hobo with a polaxe
>random burd hobo with a polaxe
>khopeshfag himself
Khopesh is the only one that could even be considered an actual character

He saw the Dutch reclaiming land from the sea and that was the final straw.

I think 19's player said he had a different character that would actually get the lore spot if he won. A rogue Burdinadin trying to found his own little enclave in the middle of the Dacian salt flats, I think? Could be wrong.

I did not intend to cause such vitriol and furor.
19 fights not for himself but an idea. I put more on the page than stats. I built to win, yes, but, well, I suppose that's it, isn't it?

Forgive me.

please gods yes

>I did not intend to cause such vitriol and furor.
>I built to win,

>Forgive me.
No.

Again we come back to this.
>let's have a tourney to put a character in the book! It'll be fun!
>better build a bunch of minmaxed murderhobos explicitly to win

You fucking people.

Give them Hell 19

To be fair all of Jimmy's NPCs are average fat people that sit around sipping Harjubucks coffee all day and they have 10's in half their stats

That's because Jimmy spends too much time fucking little greek boys to know how his own game is supposed to work.

>STR 8
>STR 10
>STR 8
Whoever wins, Vosca loses.

Game theory.
If no one powergames, we all have fun.
If everyone powergames, less fun is had and tears are shed but it shows the gaps and exploits in the rules.

If anyone but you powergames, you are almost guaranteed to lose and can't get into canon.

Oh, cool! Didn't have time to get a character ready for the last one, but I'll make sure to have one ready this time.

There is a difference between making a character to win and murderhoboing to make an incredibly unfun character for maximum advantage.

Burds enter a feedback loop of being essentially invulnerable.

a min-maxed burd in super armor, sure
a human with the same stats in bulletproof armor is only slightly weaker

A human can get more CP, so he's arguably stronger.

then there's no feedback loop of being essentially invulnerable
only for min-maxed murderhobos is this a problem

I don't think you know what the words feedback loop mean.

Yeah, that was the wrong term. However, it's fucking stupid that your skin grows harder because your suit has motors in the joints.

Spoken like a man who has never worn a suit with motorized joints.

This is a pretty big and important thing.

I guess not. Hmm.

spoken like a man who was never sodomized by lepers in an azerbaijani prison