Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells by Diogo Nogueira is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Publishing and Gallant Knight Games. This is based on Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells and is the core book for a science fantasy game. It is covered by the Open Game License and, as a result, some parts are considered to be Open Game Content.
The supplement is available from DriveThruRPG as a 456-page PDF. Two pages are the front and rear covers, two pages are the inside covers, three pages are the front matter, one is the Table of Contents and one the Open Game License. There are two addition one-page PDFs; a character sheet and a vehicle sheet. These are both image heavy sheets.
The supplement starts with five pages of comics.
The Foreword explains that dreams of the technology of the future were more impressive than the reality and that this system is science fantasy, not science fiction.
The Preface explains that the game is based on Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells and is intended to be a simple set of rules.
Chapter 1: Introduction explains that the game is rules light, OSR inspired, what’s needed to play (it uses d20 and d6), how to play and what’s in the book.
Chapter 2: Character Creation explains the character creation process with examples. Characters have four Attributes, Physique, Agility, Intellect and Willpower, which are determined by rolling 3d6. Players then create a Concept for their character, one that fits within the intended style of play. Four examples of species are given – humans are dominant, thanks to the Cleansing Wars when the Leader of the Galactic Overlords almost exterminated all the others.
There are four Archetypes to choose from. The Tough is the strongest person, based on physical strength and constitution. The Nimble is a fast and agile person based on quick reflexes. The Smart is the intelligent one, focussing on technology and machines. The Gifted is weak in combat but has special powers to make up for this. Complications are determined using d6 tables, as well as equipment and derived stats.
Chapter 3: Equipment and Credits covers this. Equipment is divided into different categories. Mundane equipment is the easiest to get and is what starting characters are limited to. Covered here are the different categories of equipment and its durability. Weapons, armour, equipment, drugs and services come in this section. Advanced Technology is harder to get and cannot be bought in the normal fashion. These are treated in a similar manner to magic items in fantasy games. Recharging them when they run out of power is difficult and all have benefits over normal equipment. Finally, strange artefacts are the legendary items created in a precursor era. These are powerful and have drawbacks to use. There is a simplified encumbrance system and credits – money – is an abstract concept rather than requiring bookkeeping. Buying items requires rolling under a credit number, and there can be bonuses and penalties to this. Finally, characters lose credits before the start of an adventure and there is a table of ways to lose them.
Chapter 4: Rules of the Game covers rules outside of combat. The core mechanic is an Attribute Test. A d20 is rolled against an Attribute and to be successful the roll must be lower than the character’s Attribute and higher than the Difficulty. There are instructions on how to use a character’s Complication and Concept and when to roll dice; being an old school game, dice rolling is less common, especially in social interaction. Action and scene resolution, using NPCs, the abstracted distance measurement – distance is in categories, such as short – and time are covered, as well as sanity and madness and character advancement. The game uses levels, but doesn’t use experience; a character has to complete a specific number of adventures to advance a level. The number required increases as the character gains levels.
Chapter 5: Combat contains the combat rules for the game. This includes movement, actions, critical hits and fumbles, cover and concealment, blocking attacks, multiple attacks, both a “flurry of blows” and weapons that can fire many times at once, as well as fleeing. There are rules on manifesting spells and psychic powers, damage, death, healing and hazards and other dangers.
Chapter 6: Sorcery and Psychic Powers covers the “magic” of the game. Only The Gifted can use these and the difference between the two only affects the backlash and corruption tables used. How powers are used and gained, and the consequences of things going wrong are covered. There are some sample powers, tables for creating arcane artefacts and some sample artefacts.
Chapter 7: Vehicles and Starships covers combat for these, including combat between vehicles and characters, armour, weapons, shields, repairs and different actions for the crews. Some sample vehicles and starships are then given and ways in which they can be modified. The costs of owning a starship, and a table of how the characters could have acquired such an expensive and comparatively rare item are given, together with travel, exploration and a table of things that could go wrong during a starjump.
Chapter 8: Running the Universe is a series of random tables. First, there are ten d6 tables for describing the universe. Next are six d10 tables for the history of the universe, followed by ten d10 tables of jobs related to major powers of the universe, then five d10 tables of rumours related to wonders of the universe. Next are notes on technology; in the current time, truly advanced technology is rare. Either it was destroyed during the Cleansing Wars or the Galactic Overlords keep it for themselves. Following this are details on creating the universe on a sector basis, with details on how to do this. Next there are example sectors. Each sector is given a description, several themes and a number of random tables; d66 hex contents, d20 visions, 2d6 encounters and d10 adventure opportunities. Next is a title generator, which has a 5 column d100 table for generating titles to things. Following this is an adventure idea generator, which has six d66 tables; adventure goals, locations, antagonists, supporting cast, complications and rewards.
Chapter 9: Aliens and Other Creatures discusses the roles of creatures and NPCs, states that fights may not necessarily be fair and has a table for determining an opponent’s reaction. Random encounter, opponent statistics and mobs of opponents are followed by a list of sample opponents. After this are tables for randomly generating new creatures.
Mission: Escape from the Skull Prison is an adventure suitable for beginning characters, especially as it starts with them locked up, which is a bad thing to have happen when a campaign has been started. There are various random tables and the prison itself is detailed, together with NPCs and monsters encountered and a suggestion as to further adventures.
Appendix E: Example of Play is what it says it is; an example of how the game is played.
Appendix O: Optional Rules has alternative attribute generation measures, daring points, adventuring companions, drunken luck, one on one play, quick rules for wars and twists of fate for when luck runs out.
Appendix I: Inspiration has examples of media and games that inspired this system.
The Epilogue is thanks to the backers of the project.
Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells in Review
The PDF is bookmarked but often not as deeply as it could be and the Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and a few minor errors were noted. There is a lot of black and white artwork, up to full page in size. Some of it is definitely stock but some may be custom. In a few places, the artwork’s bounding box can be seen. Presentation is decent.
This supplement isn’t as big as it might look from the page count, as it’s in digest format. A glance at the page count would seem to put a lie to the rules light philosophy of the system, but it genuinely is rules light. There are no skills and a lot of stuff will need coming up with by the players and GM, as the system lacks a lot of crunch. Most of it revolves around either attribute tests or role playing. Random tables are a major part of the system as well; pretty much everything relies on them to some extent, whether to create something or to determine what’s been encountered. This is a very much on the fly system.
As far as science fiction to science fantasy goes, this is definitely on the extreme science fantasy end of the spectrum. Magic is real and has a big effect on the setting – the base setting has a definite feel of being influenced by Star Wars, which is noted as being an inspiration. It’s also at the grittier end of the scale, as it’s essentially a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fantasy future. Evil Overlords rule the universe, even if they overthrew the First Sorcerer. Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells is an interesting rules light OSR-themed system and it can be found by clicking here.
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