Song of Swords: Rats in the Walls

Last time on Song of Swords:
Fauna of the Void
Minor states of Rahoo
GF lottery campaign continues
Sheets and more sheets

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. Inevitably, you will always have that one gay ass zell in the party everyone works together to kill.

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 MEGA folder 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:
mega.nz/#F!S89jTT7J!ozFi9GvzaFGHfBa59Ik2-Q

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

Ballad weapons and calibers converted to their real world counterparts: paste2.org/Hp7eDsa7

Sexy pictures from the devs showing what the guns in ballad were based on: mega.nz/#F!R4Bh0JxB!NCf0FyXqxcmaE2mG3YZKxw

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.

Fascists and Commies making plans together, mass hysteria!

Other urls found in this thread:

scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2117.htm
twitter.com/AnonBabble

>not even any mention of burds in the OP

THEY'RE CURSED
CURSED I SAY!

>godendag and pole flail are both STN 7 now
Where's that peasant swerve image when you need it?

...

I've got an idea for CotV mass combat. Shared dice pool (called Tactical Pool) from which all members of the squad can take points for tacticool actions, coordinate and do other stuff in group. TP = Tactics (Foot) of all squad members + Tactics (Foot) of the leader (if any). It doesn't refresh automatically, only when squadmates take time to communicate and work together. Generally TP can be spend on actions involving timing, coordinated movement, distraction, aiming, shooting, positioning, etc.

For example Giving Orders lets the leader to assign TP to a single action such as taking cover, moving, shooting specific target, etc. Character receiving orders and acting on them gets +1ADR for 2 rounds to act faster in earlier phase and +X speed bonus for resolution of actions in the phase he performed his orders.
After 2 rounds or successfully executing the task this bonus is lost.

Another use for Tactical Points is active defense of squadmates with parries, blocks or pushing them from the way of danger. Moving behind the backs of squadmates using them as meatshield and cover bonus is other way to benefit from shared TP.

What do you guys think about these additions?

Finally, Valkyria Chronicles in tabletop form.

I know basically nothing about games design, but it sounds fun to me? So long as it's not bloated and overdesigned.

>gamefinder lottery makes the recap

Clearly one of my players made this thread.

You're joking, right? Infinity is literally Valkyria Chronicals in tabletop form.

Thanks.

way to sell me on infinity

how mass are we talking?
sounds more PC's commanding their own squads and less two armies meeting on a field

>Kutna Hora

hey I've been there

>how mass are we talking?
From squad small tactics to battles between armies. Concept can be scaled up for big battles and sieges if need be.

Thassa lotta bones.

>WELCOME TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH MOTHERFUCKER, THE CATECHISM NEVER ENDS

Who is the bigger asshole, Eredin, or Rade Sark?

To gauge this, Eredin would probably need more than twelve lines of dialogue in a 300 hour trilogy of games.

Sark has a human side, and is pretty cool to his girlfriend. Eredin is just a dick.

Sark inspires love in men. In at least one man.

Thanks, cardinal bones.

Eredin is intergalactic elf Hitler. Rade is international elf Hitler.

>intergalactic
more like interdimensional
God. Those books got some sort of weird that I really did not foresee early on.
Fucking interdimensional alien elf eugenetic programs. I tell ya.

Did coffee pioneer that helmet design or did the official art come first?

that dang ol diddly ol thang i'll tell ya what

>did the official art come first
yes

I'd look into this further if all of my extra time and money weren't devoted to a different miniatures game.

I'm unsure. Coffee have been drawfagging from the very start of SoS.

Eredin and his guys are pretty much pure evil. Sark and his guys at least have some principles. Drosaico seems like a pretty upstanding guy, actually.

Is Jimmy a legit wizard? Can I invoke him for muh sigils?

I think Jimmy is too young to be full fledged wizard

>So long as it's not bloated and overdesigned.

Why are you in a SoS thread? There's nothing for you here.

I cannot be a wizard, I have a sense of right and wrong.

I like it. I'll work on getting a system of it whipped up.

Prove it. Prove you are not just a scorpion perched upon out backs.

Suffer not the witch to live, user

So I'm trying to work out a magic system for a more historically based fantasy game - i.e. instead of Vosca and Genosis and all that, it's actually set in France and the HRE and magic should be derived from a "real" source. Posting this here because /sos/ has always impressed me with its verisimilitudinous creativity.

The things needed for the story is that the magic of Arthur, the Song of Roland, etc was real, and then it went away. It comes back in the 1600s.

Where does it come from? Why did it leave, why has it come back? How does it work? Is it based off of souls, nature, God, what?

Feel free to ask questions, I'm just looking for some people to help me churn through ideas.

I still need to get around to actually reading Arthurian myth, but one thing you could do is have magic be relic-based. Like, Excalibur was actually magically empowering, the Holy Grail was sought for whatever magic properties, etc.

I think that object-based magic will certainly be a part, but the question is still, where do the objects get their power from?

In GURPS Technomancer, magic returns to the world in 1945 when Oppenheimer accidentally casts a ritual by saying "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" when the first atomic bomb is detonated. This allows magic and technology to exist side by side. In that setting, demons are real and people can summon demons, but no one has been able to summon an angel, or confirm that God exists by any means. It leaves it as an open question as to what that implies. Maybe you can do tha ttoo, by simplying not answering some of the deepest questions. Having something that just works, and is mysterious, will help it feel magical and not scientific, while saving you the trouble of worrying about a consistent canon.

I don't mind not answering some things, or having an answer but not telling everyone else, but as it is I have nothing really set in stone for me to work with.

Unfortunately I have a crushing need to develop systems instead of just going "Magic, ain't gotta explain shit"

Well then, what effects do you want the magic to have in the game? What's it capable of, and what can it never do?

Well, I can't, because I am that. Definitely. A vicious, vicious snek.

But I am not a wizard. I consider myself a Catholic Mystic--I've dabbled in some occult stuff because that's what disenfranchised 20-something alcoholics do where I'm from.

>catholic
>dabbling in occultism

isn't that a sin or something

>known drinker
>known liar
>worried about committing further sins

So, a Rosicrucian?

I feel like pleasures of the flesh and misleading your fellow man is a different tier of sin than dabbling in memetic blood rituals

The deeper theological and metaphysical mysteries of your own faith are often unorthodox, sometimes heretical, but rarely an outright sin.

I don't think Catholicism forbids drinking entirely.

except Catholicism explicitly prohibits even a belief in witchcraft

Not as explicitly as you'd think, but yes. I've never pretended to be a good catholic. I'll talk to a priest about it sooner or later.

Memetics isn't even occultism anymore, it's just applied shitposting.

I think you are conflating a great deal of things.

I think you're conflating a great deal of things yourself.

Oh yeah? Well I think I'm a great thing and you're conflated!

Well I think you're overly-inflated.

Why does Gizka wear that fugly cuirass instead of something more comfy? Eskarne seems to do fine without a big dumb breastplate.

No he's not. It's explicitly said in The CCC
scborromeo.org/ccc/para/2117.htm

>Eskarne seems to do fine without a big dumb breastplate.
Well, that she is a ODin could have something to do with it. Them not being able to wear metal without losing focus and receiving pain and all that.

And that's toned down, back in the day it was contrary to doctrine to even believe in it.

It still is because it talks about "abusing credulity" implying you're being an asshole just by talking to people about it.

I'm sure being the greatest spear fighter period also helps

Gizka is very nearly the peak of what a human swordsman could possibly be in terms of technique, reflexes, and agility. She still can't dodge a bullet, or avoid an arrow that she doesn't see coming, and she fights on battlefields for a living. No amount of skill can prevent an arrow from hitting you in the back during a hectic melee. Armor is a necessity for someone like her.

As for why the armor is of a cheap ugly sort--it actually isn't cheap. Her armor is very expensive and precisely fitted, but she spent extra to achieve this while making it look like ill-fitting cheap armor. That's harder than it sounds. Thus an enemy facing the Gizka Company has an additional hurdle: Any of the hundreds of goons they face could actually be Sarah Gizka in her bland, unadorned armor. You could be facing some mook, or you could be facing one of the greatest swordsmen alive.

On the subject of Eskarne--she could wear a gambeson or such, but unlike Gizka, Eskarne would actually rather die than spend thirty seconds putting one on. Too much trouble, and they're unpleasantly warm. Death usually takes less than thirty seconds. Seems like a fair trade to her.

>Gizka is very nearly the peak of what a human swordsman could possibly be in terms of technique, reflexes, and agility

Do you ever get tired of fapping to your waifu

1: No.
2: What I've said is simply true, Gizka is supposed to be the nigh-perfect CP-beast.
Not quite there. PCs should be able to eventually overcome any canonical character, but she's almost there. If she were taller, she'd probably have it in the bag.

Yet despite all of that, she could be easily killed by half a dozen guys with crossbows. There are some things against which skill at arms is no defense. Armor is your proof against missiles and unexpected blows.

That's not saying not to belive in magic or evil spirits and shit though. What it's saying is that using magic, any type, for whatever reason, is contrary to the faith, and you shouldn't even mention it to people.

I'm gonna commission porn of Gizka, just to fuck with you.

>half a dozen guys with crossbows
Is there any problem that can't be solved by half a dozen guys with crossbows?

Yes. If the problem is a dozen guys with crossbows.

Probably the Doctor Doom of Vosca is a problem you can't really fix with a half a dozen men with crossbows.

"A dozen guy with crossbows" confirmed as Vosca's "A hundred good men!"

In context credulity indicates The Church's position is that the occult, on top of being a trap for curious souls invented in hell to damn people, doesn't actually do jack shit.
After all why give people anything if they can damn themselves for free?

Didn't popes summon demons all the fucking time though? What kind of occultism were you getting into that was actually sinful?

The point of Magic is that it is not just technology.
Technology is applied knowledge, but let's be a bit stricter and say that it is applied science, as defined by the scientific method.

The fundamental dogma of empiricism is that phenomena are reproducible and follow unchanging laws.

If you want to have Magic, just make its functions and rules irreproducible and inscrutable.

>Excalibur
The scabbard was really where it's at.

"mystic" and "occult" are not synonymous
Note which Jimmy used.

Also, the doctrine you posted mentions only "recourse to demons" and other invocations through charms or baseless "traditional cures."

There is nothing forebearing the use of magic or ritual through angels, or of more inward means/ends.

for a friend

>The point of Magic is that it is not just technology.

QFT, I hate this "Sanderson's Laws" shit fantasy has been going through for a while now. Magic is supposed to be fucking magic, not Wacky Science.

Problem with that is that in a game it's damn hard to make rules for. And in books it can quickly make the reader feel like there's an ass-pull for every problem.

That's why you use magic exclusively to create problems for the protagonist.

>not letting people play as wizards
No fun allowed

That was book-writing advice, not GM advice.

But there are protagonists on opposite sides, and each of them has someone on their side that has magic! Their "side" is admittedly "France" or "The Ottomans" rather than "their buddy Joe the Archmage" but still.

I'm okay with wizards who have powers of illusion and divination. Is it enough for you or you always have to shoot bright colored magic stuff and deal damage?

Sometimes you can just let them explode people, ala Bayaz from The First Law.

You read terrible books

Whoa, they're pretty awesome books.

Nah

Well now I've been thinking about Matchlockpunk and Matchlock Magic all day. Thanks assholes.

I guess we're friends now because I was so excited to read this when it dropped I somehow didn't save it.

Thanks user

>fucking everything is TN 7 now
>Arming spear now as good or superior to arming sword in every single regard

LOOKS LIKE SPEARS ARE BACK ON THE MENU BOYS

>-2 Durability
>+25% Cost
>Worse than Steel
>Worse than Iron
I don't yet follow Song of Swords legitimately, so feel free to call me a retard, but why would you ever pick a Bronze weapon outside of it being better than nothing?

You're a retard. But you're right. There's no reason to take anything but regular steel unless muh roleplay or the GM setting the game in, say, Ancient Greece

>but why would you ever pick a Bronze weapon outside of it being better than nothing?
That's a good reason though. Your culture hasn't discovered Steel yet and produces poor quality Iron. What else would you do?

It's not supposed to be balanced, and not everything is allowed in all settings or games. Because somebody once said they wanted to make a bronze age game, the Opaque Boys put that in.

Same thing with guns, different armors, all the equipment in general. It's assumed that your GM isn't a doormat that allows gun kata Ninjas with magic weapons in their 1500s game.


Are gun kata ninjas possible outside of Ballad?

Not in anything so crunchy I believe.

So Zell whores are a given. Ohanedin, even, seen plausible. It'd be a weird set of promises but a pimp could pick up a couple of basque qts, if he played his cards right.

But how do you find a Burd bird? Could such a lady of the night even survive in the broad world?

All "rituals" actually call demons, all of the occult is demonic.
Angels can be asked for protection and intercession through prayers, that's it.
Mysticism is distinct from the occult but both you and Jimmy are misunderstanding how. St Therese of Avila, Meister Eickart and St John of The Cross were Christian Mystics, nothing they did could ever be misunderstood as the use of occult power.

Hey.
Sorry to interupt, but /asp/ hema is dead, Veeky Forums hema is dead and dogshit, I think some of them were in those thread before they made a thread on asp. Anybody know where did they go ?

If it just could be good wrestling discussion, but it doesn't even have that...

Sorry man, don't know. I saw some hema threads here on Veeky Forums some time ago, but don't know if it were before or after /asp/ became a thing.

>Jimmy is literally a witch in denial
This may actually be the funniest thing ever.