Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells by Diogo Nogueira is a role playing game supplement published by Old Skull Publishing. This is a self-contained rules lite sword & sorcery role playing game system. It is derived from The Black Hack and could be considered to be an OSR game. The supplement is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 50 page Pay What You Want PDF from RPGNow, as a Pay What You Want softcover print on demand book – with a minimum cost of $3.07 to cover materials at the time of writing – and a combined PDF and softcover bundle, again with a minimum cost of $3.07. The PDF is the version reviewed. Two pages are the colour front and rear covers, five pages are the front matter, one page is the Table of Contents and one page is the Open Game License.
What is This? is a brief paragraph stating what type of game this is and how it is inspired.
The Core Mechanics covers the fundamentals of how the system works. the true core mechanic is a d20 roll against an attribute, called an attribute test. These can be affected by difficulty modifiers and can sometimes also be resisted, may have advantages or disadvantages or be pushed.
Usage Die is how limited resources are handled. When a roll of 1 or 2 is made on a usage die, it drops to the next level, going from d20 down to d4 using standard dice. A resource can start at any level. Once the d4 is eliminated, the resource is used up.
Luck Rolls are based on character archetypes and follow the same chain as Usage Die; 1 or 2 is also considered to be a failure. These die are reset after the end of an adventure.
Character Creation covers, naturally, character creation. Characters have four stats – Physique, Agility, Intellect and Willpower – which is less than many D&D based games. 3d6 are rolled, in order of the skill’s appearance on the character sheet, to determine the value of each. Those only used to modern systems – which are far more generous when it comes to determining attributes – may well get a bit of a shock with this.
The next step in character creation is choosing an archetype, which determines a characters hit dice per level, luck die, prime attributes and special abilities. There are three archetypes; Warrior, Specialist and Magic User. These can then be refined by a character’s Vocation; such are not listed, but when a character performs an action within their vocation, they get a bonus.
Next are six d6 tables of complications designed to make a character’s life more difficult. Two complications are rolled for. These complications may also be used to improve a Luck Die.
The final steps in character creation are starting wealth, equipment lists and rules on encumbrance.
Players’ Turn covers movement and distance, time and initiative. Distance is defined as close, nearby, far and distant; this is not a battlemap based system. Time is divided into Action Time and Narrative Time. Essentially, Action Time is used for such as combat.
Attacking covers combat. This includes criticals and fumbles, saving throws, dying, healing (difficult; the system essentially lacks magical healing, so time is needed instead) and bonuses had by powerful enemies.
Spellcasting has a list of things that can go wrong with spells when they are cast and 50 spells. These have names and a brief description; spells do not have levels.
Magic Items are rare in the setting; they are basically artefacts, and often dangerous ones at that, from a previous era. Characters will not stumble over artefacts at every step; these are focal points for campaigns.
Opponents has a list of potential opponents, each of which has a name and brief description of their abilities. The Referee is advised to not call monsters by their common names, but describe them in vague terms with strange names. This section also has a table for reactions as well as information on morale and random encounters.
Levelling Up explains that characters go up a level after completing a number of adventures. This number is dependent on their current level. The system does not use experience points.
Finally, Appendix A: Adventure Idea Generator has a number of tables that can be rolled on to generate adventure ideas.
The final page of content is a character sheet.
Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells in Review
The PDF is decently bookmarked, with the major and minor sections linked. The bookmarks could have been slightly deeper, by going to individual tables as well, but the supplement is short enough that this is not needed. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth. Navigation is decent.
The text maintains a single column format and appeared largely error free. There are small snippets of prose at the beginning of various sections that add flavour. There are various black and white illustrations, up to full page in size, which would, except for the colour front cover, appear to be stock. The illustration’s style, despite coming from different artists, are all generally similar so, despite being stock, they fit together well. Presentation is also decent.
Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells looks like a pretty simple, easy to learn, system. It should be possible to start from scratch and be able to have a character and play the game in a very short period of time. There are also optional rules available in Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells – Addendum.
Those who are most familiar with systems such as D&D 3.x/Pathfinder may well find this system a bit of a shock. The lack of healing magic makes combat much more dangerous. The lack of magic items will also come as a surprise. The (low) potential to have four attributes all with a score of 3 will not help. Players who want the sort of balance and, frankly, easy treatment of characters seen in newer games may, as a result, not like this at first glance. Which would be a shame.
Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is a nice, easy to learn and play – but difficult to survive – system that can be checked out for free by clicking here.
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