The art for the game consists of images from the Swansong Tarot, available from the Prince of Darkness Games website. They are neat images, and go a long way to establishing the tone of the game, which seems mystical and profound.
Character creation is a point-buy system, where higher attributes cost more points than lower ones. On my first read, this looked complicated, but in practice wasn’t so. Character creation took about 5 minutes, and I understand there is a character generator available for download to speed this up by handling the point calculations. Players are given 100 Character points with which to design characters. These points can be used to by Primary stats (physique, Agility, Psyche) Traits (such as Might, Markmanship or Magick), Skills (player defined) Perks (guild membership, contacts and so on) and Talents, including magickal one (several magical Talents are given as examples.) Your character’s Ego is their driving personality, and is linked to a particular card in the Tarot deck. If you draw that card during play, it has certain effects based upon the card. Each character also has a Quest, their long-term goal and focus for their presence in the game. This may be something like “Stopping the evil Overlord” or “Exploring Ancient Ruins.” Experience points are earned by following these goals.
The game system is handled through three types of checks. Task checks non-contested use of the character’s Traits. When this occurs, the GM sets the difficult for the check, which ranges from 1 (Easy) to 10 (nearly impossible.) The player draws a number of cards equal to their most appropriate trait, and the GM draws a number of cards equal to the difficulty. They each play their highest card. If the player wins, the character succeeds, and if the GM wins, the character fails in that task, and takes a grievance. If someone gains more grievances than their Essence, the character is effectively out of the scene, having become fed up with their failures. The Major Arcana always count as being higher than any other card, except other Major Arcana.
Contested tasks are handled in the same manner, only the GM draws cards for the NPC contesting the character’s actions. Combat is similar to contested checks, but is handled in a different manner.
Fate checks are used when the character’s luck is more important than their skill. They draw a number of cards set by the GM, and if they draw any cards of the same suit as the one associated with their Ego, they succeed.
Particularly good descriptions merit the character’s flair, a pool of points that can be spent to hold onto a high card (often a Major Arcana) for use in later checks. They may also burn flair to move the game into s scene of their choosing, which is a neat narrative trick to get players to direct the flow of the game.
Some of the Major Arcana also have extra effects associated with them, and when they are played (either from using flair to during checks) these effects come into play. The Death card, for example, allows the player to kill a faltering NPC, which is otherwise tricky to do. This implementation of the meanings of Major Arcana is one of Swansong’s best features.
GMs also have their own version of flair, called dark flair. These represent the GM (in the role as the game’s Prince of Darkness), and are spent in similar fashion. There is a list of things that players do that earn the GM dark flair, such as being boring, pronouncing long, rambling narrations, or playing the Devil card at any time. While this seems to promote an adversarial relationship with the players, I think it is intended to keep the game moving at a brisk pace.
Combat is handled via the cards, and is a more in-depth version of the contested check. Characters involved in the melee can choose tactics, like Mighty Melee Attack, or Cast a Spell. The chosen tactic dictates which Trait the player uses to draw cards for the combat. Grievances are handed out after the cards are played, and characters taking enough grievances will be knocked out of the combat. The final fate of those knocked out is left to the victor.
Note that there are no spell lists to memorize, as each “magical attack” can be narrated by the player in any way, in keeping with their magical talents. Throwing a Fireball or teleporting the enemy into a star are handled the same way; it’s the end result that counts, not the individual mechanic used.
Once characters have accumulated an amount of Experience points set by the GM (the default suggestion is 15), the characters undergo a Cosmic Judgment, a scenario that determines whether the meet their quest or not. Afterwards, the characters all gain a new quest, “Defeat the Prince of Darkness,” the exact nature of which may be something like “doing away with poverty” as easily as “locating and killing the actual Devil.” Otherwise, Experience points are spent just like character points, allowing the characters to change as they grow.
There is also an interesting Celtic Cross Tarot spread section to aid the GM in scenario design. What cards are where in the spread have different meanings for the new scenario. This is a fascinating implementation of the Tarot, and again a strong suit for the game.
The last section of the rules is a basic run-down of all of the 78 cards in the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, and what they mean in both upright and inverted stances. There are also stats for NPC and a selection of monsters.
Swansong looks like it would be a lot of fun to both play and GM. The Tarot card concept is intriguing and well thought out, feeling like an integral part of the system rather than something bolted onto a normal game. I do wish there was a setting attached to the system, even a simple one done in broad strokes. I’d also like to see an expanded section on the extra powers of the Major Arcana. As it is, only a handful are given explicate powers, and while these are neat, more powers would add depth to the game.
Swansong is a great value for its price. It may not be to everyone’s tastes, but as a Tarot-based game, it’s reasonably well done and surely though-provoking to experience. I imagine it would work best with a group of players familiar with the Tarot and its nuances, but the system is straight forward enough that even novices would be able to understand the system and have fun using it.
If you’re at all interested in either Tarot or RPGs, I recommend Swansong. It’s a little dry to read, but I’m betting the play experience will be deeply rewarding.
In consulting DriveThruRPG we've come up with a number of products which we think might be related, but some might be inaccurate because the name, Swansong, is so short. Nonetheless, take a look, as purchasing through the RPGnet Store helps to support RPGnet.
