[Swordbearer] Ken Rolston's Review from 1983

[Lev Lafayette]

A little something that I scanned tonight for your reading pleasure :)



Swordbearermakes lots of sense


Reviewed by Ken Rolston (Dragon, Issue #71, March 1983)


The overall effect of reading the rules to SWORDBEARER is like the
feeling you get when you tug vigorously on a door handle, only to have
someone come along and point to the word "Push" on the door. You feel a
little silly at discover­ing how simple and sensible the solution to
your problem really was.


There are good things to be said for almost all of the different FRP
game sys­tems in print today, but only for Heritage USA's Swordbearer
would I choose the words "intelligent, logical, and full of sensible
advice." The designers, Arnold Hendrick and Dennis Sustare, are obvi­
ously experienced and sensitive to the limitations of current systems;
they have addressed many of those limitations with some new and more
satisfying solutions. By their handling of magic, character development,
and game mechanics, and their common-sense guides to develop­ing
superior campaigns and gamesmas­ters, they have produced a thought­
provoking and imagination-stirring fan­tasy role-playing system.


In some ways Swordbearer resembles Chivalry and Sorcery in its overall
flavor; though far less encumbered with detail and not as slow-moving as
C&S, it seems to have a convincingly medieval feel to it. Swordbearer,
like C&S, is a sophisti­cated system - sophisticated not in the sense of
"complex" (though it is not a particularly simple system), but in the
sense of "experienced, polished, and knowledgeable." Like all rule
systems it is dry reading, but the intelligent, com­mon-sense treatment
of fantasy role­playing is particularly appealing when contrasted with
other systems.


The style is generally sober, unlike Tunnels and Trolls or RuneQuest.
Some­times the "gamespeak" is almost incom­prehensible in its search for
concise but unambiguous specificity, and occasion­ally the exposition
suffers from a lack of the illustrating example that might make sense of
all the rules talk - but such is true of most FRP systems. Where the
writing is best is where the writer is speaking from experience about
how to create and maintain a campaign or about how to be a better
gamesmaster. Where the writing is most interesting is where a different
and compelling solution is given to an old problem of FRP rules design.


One unusual feature of Swordbearer is that the system does not use
money. "Instead," as the rules put it, "each char­acter has a social
status level, and a character is assumed to have funds and powers
appropriate to that status." As the authors observe, this is far closer
to the medieval model than dollars-and­cents American capitalism, and
anyone who has seen characters waltzing around with 300,000 gold pieces
will particularly appreciate the aptness of this invention.


This is essentially a minor detail, how­ever. The major virtues of the
rules in­clude a self-consistent magic system with an appealing
atmosphere of ritual and drama, an unusually detailed char­acter
generation system, and the finest advice, common sense, and experienced
wisdom on gamesmastering ever col­lected under one cover.


>From the outset, new gamers are told that it will be easier to begin
without the magic systems, adding magic as the campaign develops - a
simple and re­markably sensible idea for all FRP novic­es. The magic
itself is divided into two disciplines: elemental magic, the simpler and
less powerful of the two, and spirit magic, somewhat more imposing. 


The use of elemental magic involves recognizing and harnessing the power
of "elemental nodes" which represent the pure essence of each of the
seven elements: fire, metal, crystal, water, wood, wind, and
light/darkness. The procedure for using the nodes to power spells is
simple in concept, but rather more involved in practice. Nodes may also
be used to enchant items by an extension of their more common use in
spell casting. The elemental spell list is fairly limited in power and
variety, and does not seem to be open-ended.


The rules do not allow for specific character classes, but characters
are generally specialized in one or two spheres of knowledge or
technology. A character who specializes in elemental magic alone may be
interesting, but would not be a major threat to anyone until he has
quite a bit of experience and a goodly supply of elemental nodes to his
credit. On the other hand, someone who doesn't rely solely on the use of
magic may enhance his other specialties with a little magic skill and
have a versa­tile and well-prepared character.


The use of spirit magic depends on "spirit nodes," which can only be
found in living creatures. There are two kinds of spirit nodes:
"live" (found in live crea­tures) and "dead" (those from once­living
creatures, which can be captured at the instant of the creature's
death). A mage can even use his own spirit nodes to employ spirit magic,
if he is willing to risk exhausting or destroying them - a rather
serious measure, best saved for an extreme circumstance. The four "hu­
mors" of spirit nodes - vitriolic, phleg­matic, choleric, and melancholy
- cor­respond to the four subdivisions of spirit magic. This realm of
magic contains more exotic spells than the elemental magics -
werecreature, polte'rgeists, charm, vampire, Uch, and other such
powerful enchantments.


The magic system has a very convinc­ing and dramatic atmosphere that de­
velops from the mystical yet plausible premises. The technology of
magic, when viewed from a character's point of view, is consistent and
sensible. There is a feeling of elemental and spiritual ener­gies at
work, along with a satisfyingly medieval yet fantastic air of arcane
lore. It feels right for magic users to speak of "chaining elemental
nodes through a sequence of dominance" to power a spell. It wou Id be
very easy to get into the role of a minor wizard in this system ­there's
much more involved in spell cast­ ing than "wave, wave. . . boom!"


In the excellent Book VI section, "Gamesmaster's Guide," the designers
have specifically addressed practical problems encountered by most expe­
rienced gamesmasters. There is remark­able insight into the common
problems of gamesmastering; lucid analysis of many gamesmastering skills
that most good GMs must develop unconsciously or by trial and error (if
at all); and simple suggestions that address such complex problems as
the dramatic structure of scenario design.


For example, the treatment of "Maps and Travel" from Book VI will warm
the heart of any GM who has ever tried to run a wilderness campaign.
Guidelines for creating "regional" and "locale" maps are given, with a
comprehensive and uni­form sense of scale. A very detailed
terrain-classification system suggests how to note relevant variations
in topo­graphy on maps. For instance, this extract from the Swordbearer
rules' treatment of watercourses:


"Major(ss) streams are swift-run­ning, and have cut a bed into the land
that leads to soft sides, rocks in the streambed, etc. Although water is
rarely up to hip deep, the banks con­tribute to the crossing problems.
Minor (s) streams are even shallower, and the streambed is easy to
cross, although care with horses or vehicles may be required. Streams
are not navigable in any sense."


In the terrain-classification system, vegetation is graded in nine
levels from flat plains of sand, snow, or salt up to the density of true
jungle. A chart is provided to quickly give travel rates in hours per
league when crossing a particular type ofterrain with a specific
vegetation class. The travel rate is given for cross-country, trail,
unimproved or improved road con­ditions, and whether by foot or by
horse; also, visibility in leagues is given. For example, in elevation
class B, major mountains, above the tree line (vegeta­tion class3),
visibility would be2 leagues, and cross-country travel on foot would be
at the rate of 5 hours per league; on horseback on a trail in the same
condi­tions, the rate would be 3 1/2 hours per league. If the major
mountains were densely forested (vegetation class 7), the visibility
would be 0 leagues, and cross country travel on foot would be at the
rate of 7 1/2 hours per league, while on horseback on a trail the rate
would be 4 1/2 hours per league.


Book I of the rules contains the char­acter generation system - fairly
straight­forward, yet handling character abilities, skills, outfitting,
social status, and back­ground in a very satisfactory way. Book II
covers combat in a detailed system that is carefully structured with a
war­gaming flavor; it offers a number of action options, tactical
maneuvering, and is a fairly serious attempt to capture the atmosphere
of melee combat.


Book III and IV, describing elemental magic and spirit magic, and Book
VI, the gamesmaster's guide, have already been discussed. Book V is the
"Racial Index," with a nice selection of both familiar and unique
creatures. The text describing each creature contains useful hints about
the nature and culture of the intelligent races, and good notes on
animal behav­ior and combat accompany a nice se­lection of mundane
beasts forwilder­ness encounters.


Swordbeareris well designed, inex­pensive, and in many ways an improve­
ment over existing systems. Now, the dif­ficult question: will anyone
play it? It is hard to imagine how anyone could break the stranglehold
that the AD&DTM game and RuneQuest have on the FRP rules market. New FRP
game systems come out, enjoy a brief place in the sun, then virtually
disappear, occasionally leaving a small coterie of dedicated fans to
maintain the counterculture. The key to Swordbearer's success will only
in part be determined by its quality; the major ingredients ofsuccess
are aggres­sive marketing and superior product support. Heritage must do
everything it can to get the rules into the hands of novice and veteran
gamers; the box de­sign is a poor step in that direction, but the price
- a mere $10 - is attractive.


Scenarios and supplements of superior quality must be made immediately
avail­able; a dramatic and well-developed module illustrating how to
create and organize a scenario is a crucial step in establishing
Swordbearer as a real can­didate to supplant a gamer's current sys­tem,
or to be a beginner's first system. Swordbearer's sophistication may
work against it, ironically enough. there are many more simple FRP game
systems on the market, and there will be many who prefer a more simple
system. 


Whether or not you adopt Swordbearer rules for your campaign, however,
you will find it a worthwhile buy and interest­ing reading. It is a
quality product - a complete FRP system with many original and
intelligent ideas. If it receives ade­quate product support, it may rise
up through the ranks of aspiring competi­tors and join the big boys of
FRP.