That's what you'll find in this amazingly brief downloadable role-playing game. Broadsword is a stroke of genius in a four-dollar package covered with scantily clad barbarians.
It’s a super-simple game system that’s so campy you can’t resist it. No charts. No lengthy tables. Heck, hardly any rules at all (five pages total). But there’s something special about it, something ineffable in its unashamedly Conan-esque style. Call it nostalgia gaming. Call it retro-roleplaying. This is what fantasy gaming used to be (or should've been), back in the days of Tunnels & Trolls and Lone Wolf choose-your-own-adventures: fast and fun.
Make no mistake. This is not a deep game. You can forget any notions of back story, inner motivation or character development. Here you have a game system that can actually be explained over the phone. It’s not meant for long campaigns with immersive storytelling. It’s meant as a painless way to roll up a sword-slinging butt-kicker and charge into a horde of bad guys. Which you can do in a matter of minutes.
Unfortunately, the brevity that makes Broadsword shine is, well, a two-edged sword. The spell section is basically a few paragraphs of hand-waving about making up your own spells. The combat section contains the obligatory weapons list, but not a scrap of equipment, which will leave your players wondering what to do with their starting coins.
The good news is that if you're reading this, you're a gamer, and you've got stacks of other games to scavenge equipment and spell lists from. You’ll have to improvise. Maybe a lot. But that’s sort of the point. Just grab a cold one out of the fridge, spend five minutes rolling up a character, and start bashing your way through one of the nine adventures included. (Yes – not just one or two, but nine adventures. Each one is a mere page, and really not much more than an unmapped story outline with monster stats. But they’re good.)
I would have gladly paid an extra dollar or two for a little more material. But part of the kitschy appeal of Broadsword is that it’s only four bucks. You’d be hard pressed to find a decent cheeseburger for that price.
I struggled for a while over how highly to rate Broadsword. It's not flawless, but come on, that’s not the point. After much hand-wringing, I finally yielded to my inner fifteen-year-old and gave this game the highest marks. It delivers on its promise of cheap, furious, sword-swinging fun.
And really, that’s priceless.
