Song of Swords: I Can Barely See Anything Past My Swag

Last time (a while go) on Song of Swords:

ChevaucheeAnon demonstrates his game and plans a Tattered Realms version
Polish fencing RPGs
Coffeemancer returns to write his comic plz fulfill my draw request Nordic caffeine man

Song of Swords is a realistic fantasy tabletop RPG that draws inspiration from historical fechtbuchs, weapons and armor. Its combat system is fast and it can be used for both fantasy and historical/mundane settings.

Call of the Void is a pulpy sci-fi tabletop RPG about fighting space-nazis and hunting giant whales with harpoons made out of the moon. Its combat system is more modern, based in the early 20th century, but can probably handle combat up to the present day.

Here's a .rar archive with the newest version of the rules as well as all related current working documents. At this time the latest version is v1.9.9:
mediafire.com/download/12xqm1p2q69m392/Song_of_Swords.rar

Here's a walkthrough on creating a character
paste2.org/aKfOBmWJ

Here's a walkthrough on weapon schools for SoS 1.9.9 with examples
paste2.org/6OyOsFM3

Here's Ballad of the Laser Whales' latest version: mediafire.com/download/xx124xua1bi8sfu/CoTV Ballad of the Laser Whales Alpha 1.1.pdf

Here's a wiki detailing SoS's fantasy setting, getting filled up bit by bit as Jimmy reveals more details:
tattered-realms.wikia.com/wiki/Tattered_Realms_Wiki

There's also a roll20 room where new players are encouraged to try the rules, test new rules, and find game breaking issues: app.roll20.net/join/346755/hRKd4w
The room might be empty, but the people who teach the game still browse the thread frequently. If you're looking to learn, post here in the thread. We also play Guy Windsor's card game Audatia in the room.

The Legend is lost somewhere in an opium den.

Other urls found in this thread:

youtube.com/watch?v=l-6QknAOsVo
mediafire.com/view/dbug84mn9ipz7mv/Blade-of-the-Iron-Throne-v01.pdf
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falx
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhomphaia
twitter.com/NSFWRedditGif

So, important thing to decide from here on out.

Should future fechts be hosted on /qst/ instead of here?

What a silly question no one should use /qst/.

I'll also repost the Din inquiry from the end of the last thread in case Jimmy shows up.

You're funny. I kill you last in the next fecht.

Tomorrow I'm going to bite the bullet and start learning Ballad of the laser whales and try to port my version of Bagworld to the system.

What magic systems are there now in Ballad and Song?

We have blood magic for now

/qst/ seems better suited for fechts

Oh yeah because we have SO MUCH ELSE to do in these threads better move that shit out of here right?!

You don't participate in fechts anyways. If we have nothing to do in these threads, maybe we don't need them.

There's no real need either way. Fechts are not Quests, and there's a few neat features on that board. I'd say there's no need to switch over for the occasional Fecht.

Fechts are not Quests, this is true. However, they are similar enough in appearance that moving them may help to avoid autismal fa/tg/uys ruining them with shitposting frenzies.

Has anyone ever complained about SoS running fechts?
If they start to the fechts can still be moved. I'd keep them here for now.

I agree.

>Has anyone ever complained about SoS running fechts?

It's happened a few times, yeah. Mostly shitposters trolling the thread.

youtube.com/watch?v=l-6QknAOsVo

SoS is back baby!

I LIKE SWORDS

Nobody is going to completely stop autism rage. If the mods step in, then move. Otherwise we continue as before.

Are Gladius and Spatha hilts just wood? Or do they have some sort of plate at the base of the blade?

>tfw Sarah Gizka is Donald Trump

>Month 1:
Literally who?

>Month 2:
AHAHAHAHA look at her trying to compete, she doesn't even have any policies

>Month 3
Stop talking about Gizka, she'll ceiling soon.

>Month 5
Oh Jesus Christ we have to stop Gizka, where did all of her support come from

>Month 6
FUCK
FUCK
FUCK

>Month 7
Please Captain Gizka, don't kill me, I have a famil-*BANG*

Fuck no. We're playing a TTRPG system, in that TTRPG's thread, and often Jimmy's detail something about the setting's lore.

Gizka is a tiny brown woman. Donald is a giant orange man.

Gizka is the ultimate waifu. Donald Trump is such a supreme husbando that Japanese women are literally making videos begging him to invite her to his victory celebration.

Because they secretly want to make japan great again

...

MAJA

What the fuck is that?

...

Everyone loves Roman-era cavalry helmets with their total face mask. Is there any evidence that they were worn in battle, or are they parade pieces?

Honestly my family, I think face masks would be pretty impractical in battle but I'm not exactly a scholar of antiquity.

It's a traditional Japanese form of armament. Can you not tell?

A recent poll revealed that 90% of Russians support Trump because he reminds them of Putin

As far as I know the golden masks were explicitly parade pieces, and designed to make the emperor who leaded them look badass.

That said, I really don't know if there was a battle version. Maybe there was. Didn't other cultures use that kind of masks before and after late romans did? Slavs and steppe people come to my mind, persians too.

I think the Persians had something like that. I'm not sure. The Japanese definitely had at least partial facemasks for battle, so I'm sure it would work in battle to some extent.

You mean a mempo?

I wonder who could be behind this mask.

The goddamn Tengu did 9/11 AND the Perry Expedition.

I wonder

But that projection will magically attract swords like a magnet, focusing 100% of the kinetic energy directly into your soul!

Good thing asians have no souls.

They probably support him because we don't like any other candidate.

I was directed here by someone who claimed that you guys might be able to help me.

I have this setting (see my shitty PDF.) it's a rip and mix of several sources, mostly BloodBorne and Lovecraft. no trick weapons, even less steampunk than BB, lower average tech level than Lovecrafts early 1900s work. around late victorian I think...

it's been suggested that Song of Swords might be a good system for it. how well does this game handle innistrad/bloodborne/VanHellsing stuff?

Could work. Depending on the timeframe you might want SoS or CotV, which is for more modern stuff.

As for how well the game handles this sort of material, I think Jingo released a bloodborne themed expansion a few months ago just to show that it could be done. You're probably in the right place.

Let me give this document a read.

>Let me give this document a read.
honest review please?

people tell me it's non-specifically good and I find that both irksome and difficult to believe.

>please tell me my work is shit so I can work on improving it...

not knowing anything about the system(yet) I like the look of this, any chance of necromongery/mancy as a GM resource?

ME TOO, BUT I LIKE SPEARS BETTER, YOU WANT TO JOIN FORCES?

>FORCES
Better not be hyping up that leverage, son.

Based on your description, Song or Ballad both would fit, I think.

Reading the document, it gives a strong stalker vibe. You might want to give stalker the scifi rpg a read to plunder stuff.

There's not much magic in the game, and there probably won't be until the kickstarter. Which is Soon(tm).

>You might want to give stalker the scifi rpg
any idea where I can get my hooks into that?

>kickstarter
what?...like seriously? cool...

Didn't we have Zombie stats for the Sulla fecht? I remember them being very intimidating.

Well supposedly Jimmy and his crew are finally getting their shit together to finally get the final polishes done I hopefully expect it done by august. More likely end of the year.

You could ask in the PDF share thread, I've seen a STALKER rpg there before
There also is another, official STALKER rpg, that is based on Roadside Picnic, I only have a watermarked copy of it though.


Reading now.
The first think I noticed: What is the wall? Right at the begining at the end of >Monster Level you mention the wall like it should be known, but it is the first occurence of the word in the document.

I'll continue reading, and gather what I find

Yeah, stalker the scifi rpg is the official one. drivethru has a pdf of it. Don't think anyone has a watermark-less version of it.

Oh, alright. Thought it had an other name, and the one posted here from time to time was the scifi rpg or something.

Read through this for extra Bloodborne.

There's some necromancy that's supposed to be possible with the Pyromancy magic in the prebuilt setting, so yes.

Ops and Tactics, dropping the bants.

I'd put >side-quests in a GM section of the book, bloodbrewbro

Do you lose Points of a track on flavours of corruption after frenzying at 20 points, or have you essentally turned into a monster at that point?

I really like Blooddied Rally.

Have a look at Blade of the Iron throne maybe.

eh fuck. I thought I have it. Shit.
Maybe someone else can supply it.

mediafire.com/view/dbug84mn9ipz7mv/Blade-of-the-Iron-Throne-v01.pdf

Thanks senpai, love you

You are welcome, sweet roll

just lost my job

>What is the wall?
unspecified monolithic stone blocks grey or white in color

awesome

>Do you lose Points of a track on flavours of corruption after frenzying at 20 points, or have you essentally turned into a monster at that point?
not sure yet, that was an unrefined system when I shelved this project.

>Blade of the Iron throne maybe.
and that is a what???

>and that is a what???
Our lovable yet retarded cousin.

Wow. Sorry dude, losing a job sucks.

>MAJA
Make America Japan again? I mean, I'm not opposed, but why?

I like the Dread Insight bit. Looks like you've got an alright campaign setup here. I don't know how deeply you plan things normally, in your position I'd run it with what you've got now.

My condolences, bro.

Blade of the Iron Throne is another game, very similar to Song of Swords because they're based on the same system.

I rike it. Song of Swords would indeed be a good system for the feel you're going for. Punchy, but simple enough (in theory) that you can stay focused on the horror.

And wheel skeletons. Be aware this document came from all hallows eve in 2014, so it may need to be reworked.

It's just what their hats say. Guess they shouldn't have exported the labour to China

And lethal, making tension maintenance easy.

Exactly. Look at grues. In some systems, players would look and say, "Dayum, that's scary, it can shave off like 10 HP per hit, minimum." In SoS, "If that thing hits me, I'm going to go septic and die."

Infection is a horror game unto itself.

Are there any kinds of swords where the handles are as long as the blades? Barring some kind of spear that probably exists, I'm thinking of something more in a longsword category.

I've seen some Nordic greatsword examples. I don't have a picture, but I remember one particularly long and thin Danish example that had a hilt almost as long as the blade. There's also the Nagamaki, if you want to go with Japanese weapons.

The Chiense dadao, Thai lanna, and some Burmese dha might also fit in here. Possibly a bit on the small side in many cases though.

I was thinking European but thanks anyway, dudes.
Have something I found when googling 'Danish Greatsword'

What are the advantages of such a hilt? Simply greater leverage?

The japanese also had something of the sort, the nagamaki. In europe that kind of thing seemed kind of rare. The closest thing was probably the swedish svardstav, but that's really more of a polearm with a sword-y head.

Also nagamaki.

>>>Blade of the Iron throne maybe.
>and that is a what???
Yeah, wanted to post the pdf, but I didn't have it anymore. Like another user said, its similair to Song of Swords, but Blade is actually a finished product. Some kind user has uploaded it here

>but Blade is actually a finished product

Though for what it's worth, it's also much less distinct. A huge part of the combat engine has been taken pretty much 1:1 from RoS, particularly the maneuver section.

There's the amazingly sexy Japanese nagamaki type swords.

Is there anything missing from Ballad that need to be put in? The only thing I can think of chemical weapons like LOST/mustard gas and triangle bladed trench knives, though the latter might be in there, I haven't checked. I hope it is.

Depends on what scale you're aiming for, but cohesive ship fighting rules would be neat, given how prominent they are in the setting.

The Dacian Falx was normally about equally divided between the wooden haft and the very nasty forward curved blade. They were a bit like the lovechild between a greatsword and a bill, giving the Romans no end of headache and battlefield arm amputations.

The Thracian Rhompaia had a much straighter blade that was only slightly curved but was fairly similar overall. The blades tended to be a bit longer than the haft, but some of the shorter ones were also about equal in terms of blade/haft length.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falx
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhomphaia
.

can someone give me the cliffs notes on how combat works in this game?

I like this monster, it's sufficiently frightening to give the players pause for thought and to really encourage them to keep the healer alive.

>Undead
>WHEEL SKELETONES
>dammit I need new pants...

but does it handle monster-fights well?
like, BBs Blood-Starved Beast, or Dark Souls Capra Demon, or Demons Souls Phalanx or Armored Spider?

I have almost zero mechanics or system in there, and also literally zero experience running or playing RPGs(aside from playing quests) to me it looks like not enough planning by long long stretches. I don't even have a [country] map or a country name though one person said they'd run it calling the country [Kos] because the BB-DLC

as to other mechanics, here, have a pic of the "Signs of Hunters Past" an idea I stole from the old Hobo Runes that got expanded by the SCP people free and clear.

it's been a while since I worked on this, if I could get a drawfag to give me cover-art, and get the omph to get started on it, and get a cracked copy of Microsoft Office I'd probably start working on that and a table of contents...

>have a pic of the "Signs of Hunters Past"
and the other one...

Basically it's a built around a kind of resource management. Both fighters have a pool of d10s (called the Combat Pool/CP) that represents their skill in combat, so more dice->better fighters.

Each combat round is subdivided into two actions, first and second, which happen simultaneously for both combatants. At the beginning of each action, each combatant takes a freely chosen number of their CP dice and spends them on a maneuver of their choice. There are maneuvers for pretty much everything you might want to do in a combat. There's one for just swinging your axe at the enemy, one for blocking an attack with your shield, one for using a hooked weapon to pull away your opponent's shield, and so on.

After both fighters have decided which maneuver they want to use and how many dice they spend on it, they roll the invested dice and compare the results against a Target Number (TN) dependent on their equipment (nimble weapons usually have a low TN, big heavy ones a higher one). Each die that beats that TN counts as a success, and the combatant that has more successes wins the exchange and resolves the effects of their maneuver. You can also sometimes spend CP for certain additional effects, like putting extra strength behind your swing and the like.

Then you repreat this in the second action, though this time both combatants can only use whatever CP they didn't spend in the first action. So it's important to conserve your CP, and gauge how many you want to spend in each action. After every second action, i.e. the beginning of each new round, the CP of both fighters is refreshed.

Example: Albert and Bob get in a fight. Albert decides to spend 7 CP to use the Thrust maneuver with his sword, targeting Bob's head. Bob spends 9 CP to use the Block with his shield maneuver to deflect that thrust. They roll, Albert gets 3 successes, Bob 4. Bob wins the exchange, so Albert's attack is nullified as an effect of the Block maneuver.

Continuing the example: In the second action, Bob uses his remaining 5 dice to use a Swing with his axe at Albert's groin. Albert tries to counter that by using a Parry maneuver with his sword at also 5 CP. They roll, Bob gets two successes, Albert gets 1. Bob wins the exchange and his attack hits Albert in the groin, at which point you check whether it causes a wound and how bad it as. Afterwards (assuming Albert is still standing) a new round begins, and both combatants have their CP refreshed.

Speaking of wounds, the game also doesn't use HP or anything of the sort. Instead, any successful attack causes a distinct wound, the severity of which depends on the quality of the hit, the stats of the attacker and their weapon, and the stats of the defender and their armour. Smaller wounds usually cause the victim to lose some of their CP, giving their opponent a greater advantage to leverage, while worse wounds can cause significant bloodloss, disable or destroy limbs, or even cause instant death.

Basically, you have a pool of dice that makes up your combat pool. There are two parts of a round. You spend your dice between maneuvers on those two rounds. The best way is to give an example.

Longsword Man is fighting Bastard Sword Man. Both have 15 dice. Longsword Man is attacking, so he puts five six dice into a cutting attack at the other guy's face. Bastard Sword Man parries with six dice. Both sides roll at once, using Target Numbers derived from their weapon stats. Different weapons are good for different things. Longsword man had two successes, but Bastard Sword Man has three. Therefore the attack was defended against, and Bastard Sword Man has the initiative. He thrusts with nine dice, and Longsword Man parries with the same. This time longsword man fucks up, and Bastard Sword Man rolls three more successes than him. This means the attack went through. After adding up the damage of the weapon, successes from the attack, and the guy's strength, Bastard Sword Man did ten damage. This is compared to longsword man's toughness and armor, which is 8 in total. Therefore a level 2 wound was inflicted to Longsword Man, and he becomes weaker. Because two rounds have passed, both dice pools refresh to full, minus the wound penalties Longsword Man took. It's fairly simple and quick once you get the hang of it, and there are a number of tricky maneuvers you can do if you want to get advanced.

Monster combat goes much the same way, except they sometimes require extra damage to inflict wounds, and have nasty abilities and powers. I confess I haven't done much monster fighting, as I'm more a fan of person on person.

If both choose to attack, does the action of whoever gets less succsesses get canceled? Because that would make Blocking or parrying seem inferior at first. Hows that balanced? Or do both resolve, and the one with more successes just does more damage?

Also: How does initiative work? Since I kinda think announcing what you do as last woul be the best thing, since you know what your enemy does and can take that into account-

>If both choose to attack,
Whoever attacks first will likely kill the other. If the second one survives that, then his attack will likely hit the first. If you throw Red/Red, and they both end up attacking at the very same time, then there's a high chance that both will die. SoS is a very lethal system.

There's a simple initiative system for that. At the beginning of a fight, one fighter gains Initiative over the other through a blind betting system. In a double-attack scenario whoever currently holds Initiative will have their attack resolve first. Usually Initiative goes to whoever won the last exchange.

So in effect that means that most of the time, the combatant with Initiative will be attacking, while the one without will be defending. If the defense is successful, Initiative switches to the defender, who can then attack in the next round. Another important thing is that even an unsuccessful defense still lowers the quality of the hit you suffer, potentially turning a devastating blow into just a glancing scratch. By comparison, a completely unopposed attack is usually far more devastating.

So if both combatants try to attack at the same time, it's very likely that the fighter without Initiative will be wounded before their own attack resolves, which will severely weaken or outright cancel their attack.

That said, there are still situations where responding to an enemy attack with one of your own even without Initiative can still be worth it. For example, if the enemy attack is rather weak (e.g. just a few dice with a light weapon like a smallsword) and your armour is good, and can risk taking the enemy attack on the chin to hit them back while they can't put up a defense.

Alright, thanks very much for explaining

Initiative is a binary thing. You have it over someone, or you don't, at least in a melee fight. You need to gain it at the beginning of a fight or through a maneuver, otherwise you'll hit second in a dual attack situation. There are some maneuvers that allow you to try, like stealing initiative or performing a simultaneous strike and parry. These have dice costs or are more dangerous though, so blocking is always a safe and reliable option too.

In a larger combat round, where people are running around and one guy is shooting and another is behind cover and two people are having a duel in the corner, declaration happens from slowest to fastest, and actually resolving the actions happens from fastest to slowest. Melee rounds are resolved much faster, and there the person with initiative declares first. He does have some tricks to throw the defender off balance, like feints, if he so wishes.

Note: because of the sorrows of being a work in progress, the turn system I described isn't in the actual pdf yet. It's in the game Call of The Void, which is Song of Swords but with guns, and was made during a delay in development. Both systems are compatible though, and the much improved initiative system for larger fights is being ported to SoS for the next release. Everything you need for individual melee fights is in the core book, but the system for larger fights with multiple people in different bouts with some shooting is much more confusing and worse.

If you want to play SoS, download both books and use the combat chapter from Call of the Void. It's annoying, but your pain will be temporary.

>as I'm more a fan of person on person.
hey man, thats your fetish. I got no place to judge...

all righty then, just seems I'll have to just run up a monster wound chart for things.

>Therefore a level 2 wound was inflicted to Longsword Man, and he becomes weaker. Because two rounds have passed, both dice pools refresh to full, minus the wound penalties Longsword Man took. It's fairly simple and quick once you get the hang of it, and there are a number of tricky maneuvers you can do if you want to get advanced.
you think the damage cards from Warmachine would compare well or work as a way to keep track of that sort of thing?(see bottom left of pic)

questions for the Gurus
how does the system handle Dodge-Rolling, Dashes, or other similar shenanigans?

dual wielding?

Blunderbusses?

more than 2 combatants?

stuns, stunlocks, and guard breaking?
(for the unfamilliar, this is Souls terminology for attacking a defender till they run out of stamina[dice?] to spend doing anything and taking advantage of the lapse while they recover)

Wounds in Sos have three values. A Level Two Piercing wound might have like 5 Pain (Temporal Removal to CP, until it's healed), 4 Stun (One Time CP removal), and 8 Bleed (Bleed rolls at the end of each round. If you get to 1 Health, all your stats are halved, and your CP pool suffers. At 0, you faint, and at -(yourHealthstat) you die)
Some wounds have additional effects, like, forcing a Disarm roll, or a knock out roll. Some outright kill you, and some might dismember you.

>how does the system handle Dodge-Rolling, Dashes, or other similar shenanigans?

There are currently four (and a half) ways dodging is incorporated. There's one maneuver for simply ducking and weaving to avoid an incoming attack. This is usually less likely to succeed than using a shield or suitable weapon to parry and is hindered if you're wearing particularly heavy kit, but the advantage is that it's always available no matter what. And with some dedication you can build a character to be maximum dodgy to the point where they're harder to hit than even a guy with a big honking shield.
Next there are two more maneuvers for either hopping backwards to extend the distance between yourself and your opponent, or for weaving in closer into their range. They work much like a regular dodge, but have more dire consequences if you fail.
Finally (this is the half) there's a certain talent called Roll With It. With that, if you do end up getting hit, you can opt to drop and roll to take some of the impact out of the hit, potentially saving your life but still putting you in a bad spot.

>dual wielding?
Is in, but does not give you any automatic passive advantage. You still usually have to decide which of the two weapons you want to use for a given attack. Usually it's used to have two very different weapon profiles available at the same time (e.g long hefty axe in one hand, a short nimble dagger in the other), or to use one weapon primarily for parrying and the other for attacking (e.g. the classic rapier+main gauche combo)

>Blunderbusses?
Are in, and dead killy. Unless the target is wearing significant armour, that is.

>more than 2 combatants?

Can be done, but is currently fairly awkard, though also quite detailed. Three to four people at a time is sort of doable, but anything more becomes a major headache. Fortunately the devs are currently looking to implement some major streamlining in that regard, in which case the combats will just be handled sequentially between two people at a time.


>stuns, stunlocks, and guard breaking?
Are sort of in. One of the three primary effects of any given wound is Stun (next to Pain and Bloodloss), which immediately subtracts CP from the enemy, and may cause them to fall prone. Some particularly heavy weapons may even inflict Stun on any hit, not just wounding ones. If you look at it from a certain perspective, most combats actually boil down to trying to stunlock the enemy. You try to get an initial small temporary CP advantage over your enemy, then leverage that to hit them again before they can recover for a bigger CP advantage, and then keep on going like that until you get in a fight-ending hit (though often that's just a matter of landing two or three good hits in a row). Guard breaking is also kind of represented. If the enemy likes to Parry with their weapon a lot, you can try to use the Beat maneuver to knock it aside and leave them open for a followup attack. If they instead use a shield, you can either try to pull it away by hooking a hooked weapon behind it, or to bind and force it aside with your own shield, or to just try to outright hack it apart with a mighty hew.

>Blunderbusses?
Once in my game, my players were defending a wagon fort from a knight's charge. One of them killed at least four of them with a single shot. They're not overpowered, just quite deadly if they hit right-