Broadsword is a tasty greasy treat of a cheesy sword & sorcery mini-RPG, and by far my favorite of Deep 7's '1PG' games.

Overview

First, I have to mention how great the cover art for Broadsword is. It just screams 70's & 80s comics, movies, and books from a much maligned genre. Looks like Conan, Red Sonja and Valeria all ready to do battle on Thundarr the Barbarian's world (though the Moon isn't broken), huge eyes of a mysterious sorcerer peering at our heroes of chainmail bikinis and battle axes. All pdf games should have such high quality, cool covers.

Broadsword fills a great niche - a pick up sword & sorcery game based on the cheesy side of barbarian fiction, movies and comics. Stuff like Thongor and the later 'villian/ sorcerer/ monster of the month' Savage Sword of Conan, Ator the Fighting Eagle, Red Sonja, Hawk The Slayer, and all the Conantic novels all compacted into a simple five page set of rules. When you don't want the emotion and literary critique of Sorcerer & Sword (Adept Press), or any of the crunch of Mongoose's Conan or Malhavoc/Fiery Dragon's Iron Heroes, Broadsword is just the thing.

The Game System

Character creation and game system are covered in one page, and a second page presents them again in more abrupt language, along with a half page character sheet (which is reproduced two per page at the end of the rules). The '1PG System' consists of four primary stats rated from 1-3, a few secondary stats, and additional self-explanitory skills adjusted by genre. In play, you total your Stat and Skill, and roll equal to or less the combined number on a single d6. 1 always succeeds, 6 always fails. Weapon damage is a static number by weapon, melee damage is modified by your Brawn, and the combat system uses "Blood" (hit points) and armor reduces damage. About as rules light as it gets for a standard Stat + Skills system, and very fast paced in play.

It takes about ten minutes to generate a warrior-barbarian style PC (or big bad NPC) - a bit less for mooks and monsters, and a bit more for a Sorcerer. Making the characters more unique than other 1PG characters is where Broadsword really shines. It gives the overly formatted 1PG rules and expendable PC's a lot of spark (and more longevity) with the Advantage system and free form Sorcery rules. Advantages act like powerful feats or class abilities - an extra attack per round, natural damage resistance, animal friends, super leaping, etc. Staples of the genre, just short of super powers, and Advantages mean your character is heroic-level competent right from the start. The system is so good, it would be worth buying Broadsword to use the Advantages in other 1PG games - Full Clip, Six Gun or Daisho games would greatly benefit from them.

Sorcery takes another page, and is really meant for player character Sorcerers. The GM's are encouraged to wing it a bit with the advice provided in the nine (!) scenarios included. Sorcery is dangerous business as well - rolling a '6' (16+% of the time) results in backlash for the caster.

Scenarios

Nine very short scenarios are included, each taking a page. Three are stand alone, and the remaining six form 'The Crimson Chronicles', a group of adventures high on jungle fighting, pirates, big monsters, betrayal, and gold. They tend to be a bit 'railroady' - the PC's need to end up as slaves one or more times, or need to be a bit more heroic than the self-serving lowbrow S&S adventurers tend to be, as well as a bit more trusting. But the basic plots are enough to form more free form adventure seeds or relationship maps if the players jump the rails.

Conclusions

Broadsword could have used a bit more editing (mostly on the Advantages page), but it serves it's purpose well. I ran a one shot game with one player / one PC, and after I took two minutes to maximize the PC's abilities, we were off and running a Savage Sword style adventure. With my notebook page of houserules, I'm set to convert my running Tunnels & Trolls game to Broadsword with it's minimal dice rolling and faster combat. (I'm a member of the 1PG Yahoo! group, so I'll put the file up there at some point.)

I feel the 1PG system could have used overhauling somewhere along the line, as it really works best with the teen horror movie game it was originally designed for (Shriek). On the other hand, the rules are so short, you can easily house rule a bit, or whip up a page of your own to replace them if you like to tinker. (I do, and prefer 'roll high' games with target numbers, and it's very easy to change to this.)

If you're a fan of other 1PG games, you need Broadsword. The Advantages will make PC's in other games more unique and less throwaway. I could also see a great Thundarr game coming from the combination of Broadsword and Hero Force. At $3.95, it's worth it even if you only use it one time or for the occasional one shot. It would also make a great game to introduce people to gaming. The only drawback is that it's not written for kids - there are enough lines referring to wenching and killing that I'll write up my own page before my young players use it for a game.

Style: 4 (3/ Average +1 for the great cover art)

Substance: 4 (3/Average +1 for pick up and play S&S, +1 for Advantage system, -1 for some editing/formatting mistakes)