 Goto [ Index ] |
Indeed, Chapter One: Sword & Sorcery points out that while “the original influences trace back through Fritz Leiber and Michael Moorcock to Robert E. Howard’s pulp creations and further into the shadows of history … the actual sword & sorcery genre as seen in comic-book form arguably begins in comic-strip form with the exploits of a character held in little esteem by the comic fan of today: Prince Valiant.” After the Golden Age of Comics, comicbook publishers came up with a few minor heroes like The Shining Knight and The Viking Prince, but there really weren't any major titles in the Sword & Sorcery genre until Marvel Comics got the rights to produce Conan stories, which gained major acclaim under author Roy Thomas. That success led to several Conan knock-offs, but the most successful comic title after Conan was DC's The Warlord, drawn and written by Mike Grell. Since the 1970s, Sword & Sorcery titles in comics have enjoyed limited success, but there have been many titles, frequently based on licensed properties.
Chapter Two: By Steel & Spell goes over what distinguishes a Sword & Sorcery adventure from a standard M&M game. Given that superpowers of a sort often exist, the mechanical differences are minimal. The real differences are in “background and personality.” S&S stories often feature human-level characters, so the book presents three levels of play: Heroic (talented normal characters usually presented in a mean and gritty setting, with characters built on a Power Level of 6), Cinematic (the 'average' S&S character, built on PL 8) and Epic (demigod-level characters built on the standard Power Level of 10 or even higher). It starts reviewing character builds with the six attributes and what feats are best for a character who favors a certain ability- for example high-Dexterity characters often get feats like Dodge Focus and Improved Initiative to stress their specialty. Next Chapter Two reviews certain skills that are appropriate for the campaign or (like Computer) totally inappropriate. Certain genre options are suggested here, like with the Climb skill you can take a +5 difficulty penalty to maintain your dodge bonus to defense while climbing. The book also gives Gamble (Wis) and Navigate (Int) as new skills.
New feats are presented and emphasized, given that most characters will have no actual powers. Some of these are taken from other M&M books (that are noted in the text). The last new feat is called Veteran Fighter, where you can spend a hero point and add an extra combat effect to a success on a hit roll, like making the target dazed, exhausted, etc. This is great for simulating the kind of advanced maneuvers a warrior gets essentially free in the CONAN RPG, but as a single feat it may be overpowered. On the other hand, if you're in a Heroic game and don't have many points for feats, this choice may be useful for creating exactly the sort of veteran fighter it implies.
The Powers section concentrates on magic, which is the main “power” used in S&S worlds. A major difference between Sword & Sorcery and D&D is that while S&S magic is of potentially epic scope, it tends not to be easily used in combat, as opposed to D&D, which is based on the assumption that PC magic-users will be participating in combat. Thus one option suggested is for “magicians” in this setting to only have access to the Ritualist feat, a variation on the Inventor feat that allows one to create one-shot rituals that take some time to set up. On the other hand there are some Epic fantasy characters (namely Arion, Lord of Atlantis) who are powerful combat magicians. Thus for such games the book advises using the Magic power straight from the M&M core rulebook, where you link several powers together with the Alternate Power setup and call them your spells. On that score, this book presents two variations on the Magic power for the genre. Well, actually the text starts by saying two and then presents three. Magical Mastery is like the original version of the Champions Variable Power Pool, allowing 5 power points per rank that can be reassigned by spending an hour on some appropriate activity, like prayer or researching arcane tomes. Sorcery is like magic from the classic stories: It is mechanically the Magic power with the Flaw Fatiguing. There is also an optional Flaw for Corrupting, so that if a natural 1 is rolled to resist Fatigue or to use the power, the character gets a villain point, and if he gets a number of villain points equal to his Power Level, he is taken out of the game. Wizardry is the Magic power with the Distracting and Check Required Flaws (i.e. the character normally loses his Dodge bonus in spellcasting, unless an Extra is taken, and requires a Knowledge/arcane lore check each time it is used).
This chapter also presents Racial Abilities packages for serpent-men, giants and the like. It also lists “Super” Skills for more of those CONAN-style stunts; these are built as Powers or Alternate Power arrays with the Training descriptor. There is also the Riastradh ('warp-fury' from the Slaine series) which is basically an Alternate Form that grants Growth 3, among other things. Certain other abilities like Cat Feet (a form of Silence) can be built as “super-feats” by taking an existing Power and taking it down to rank 1; the point here is that if said Power is redefined as a Feat, it becomes an innate ability that cannot be nullified but also cannot be pushed with an extra effort action.
After briefly reviewing some of the power Drawbacks that (rarely) come up for Sword & Sorcery characters, the book gives a list of medieval-era equipment. Since the setting is going to be more primitive than a modern world, the book suggests not requiring PCs to pay for mundane equipment, mundane meaning that it isn't a unique item like the firearm that the 21st Century time traveler brought along with him when he got trapped with the primitive screwheads. After this you get full templates for not only “beastkin” S&S races but more familiar Fantasy races like Elves and Dwarves, and even Dhampir (usually half-vampires, but possibly touched by something... else). As in modern HERO System Package Deals, the packages aren't free points and the bonuses don't allow a nonhuman to exceed campaign power limits on stats- they just list the stats and abilities you have to buy up (or down) to be a member of a certain race. The packages include things like Living Constructs, like Golems (or the Eberron Warforged), who as unliving beings do not have Constitution scores, and while they buy back those points must also buy a 30 point Immunity to effects that require a Con roll. However not having a Con roll also means that constructs cannot push for extra effort, cannot recover from injury and must be repaired. Then the book has brief writeups of professional (class) templates and some well-illustrated Archetypes (sample characters) of all three power levels, including the Silver-Tongued Rake, the Mighty-Thewed Barbarian, and the self-loathing Cursed Wanderer who relies on his evil magic sword to boost his deficient physique.
Chapter Three: The Sword & Sorcery Series is a GM's chapter, starting with Villain Archetypes much like the PC Archetypes just presented, except for concepts like the Black Knight or Giant Chieftan (sic). But with these the text also presents “Variations and Capers”; for instance maybe the Black Knight is an unholy warrior who has a few ranks of Magic or Hellfire Control. Stories involving him may be a direct challenge to a PC, competition for mercenary jobs, or even trying to redeem a former ally from the path of darkness. Next you get a list of stock minions for the typical Amazon, Cultist, Soldier, etc. (for the villain or hero who took the Minions feat). In presenting monsters, the book emphasizes that true monsters are rare in Sword & Sorcery and thus PCs who encounter one for the first time might have to make a Will save to avoid being shaken. The chapter also presents templates (like 3rd Edition D&D) that you can add onto existing beings, such as Giant (for any creature) or Lich (for making an existing sorcerer an Undead). After this it goes over brief stat writeups for supporting cast archetypes, some of whom, like the Barbarian Princess, are more combat-ready than others (like the Damsel in Distress or Blind Oracle). Then the chapter reviews some low-level magic items appropriate to the setting. It is mentioned that the typical magic item in an S&S story is more of a plot device than anything a hero gets to hang onto; frequently a sword enchanted to slay a certain beast will shatter upon delivering the deathblow or something.
On the subject of crafting a proper Sword & Sorcery adventure, Chapter Three mentions that heroes are usually selfish individuals who usually do good by accident: “These tales are punctuated by violent battles and avoid strong moral undertones.” Nevertheless, the book says that the basic story structure resembles that of The Hero's Journey as described by Joseph Campbell, even though Campbell's version usually emphasizes those moral or spiritual undertones. But essentially, the hero is “called to adventure” by some event that shakes up his status-quo; he finds aid or allies along the way, experiences tests, undergoes a literal or figurative “descent” that he has to prevail against in order to defeat his final foe or challenge, after which he returns home to some form of reward. In actually running the game, the book stresses the need for constant action and movement. To this end, it presents an optional system for stunts (or 'stunting' like in Exalted). The definition is: “A stunt is an action in combat that falls outside the normal bounds of the rules.” Thus the player describes just what the character is trying to do and how, and the GM picks the most applicable mechanic for attempting the action. Then they give several examples. For instance, a “Defensive Twist” allows the hero to position himself between two opponents and then slip so that they end up attacking each other. Mechanically this is a reaction move that requires you to make opposed Dexterity checks with each foe; if one or both fail against you, they attack the other person. If you fail against a foe, he gets +1 on attack and damage against you on his next attack. It is also mentioned that you can use an Acrobatics or Bluff check instead of Dexterity.
This chapter also goes over more tropes of S&S, like the CONAN book: Characters tend not to keep much in the way of possessions, due to the vagaries of their lives. They are often barbarians or “honest thieves” presented in contrast to a decadent civilization that seeks to manipulate them. Sorcery is often dangerous to the sorcerer himself. And the setting is not very politically correct. Thus the book gives brief advice on raising “delicate issues” like slavery and sexism, stressing the need for open communication with players as to what is appropriate.
Then Chapter Three reviews common “series frameworks” for setting up a Sword & Sorcery campaign, in terms of the appropriate starting power level for each setting, what character creation should involve (e.g. in the 'To Sail the Seas of Blood' pirate game, a PC needs to have ranks in Swim), and sample adventures. One of the frameworks is the “Strangers in a Strange Land” based on the popular theme of modern heroes or superheroes being transplanted into a medieval or “savage” world, dealing with both culture clash and the lack of modern equipment. A variant on this is to take an existing superhero setting and adapt it to a fantasy world, which is one of the options given in the next chapter.
Also, Chapter Three gives mass combat rules, for when “massive battles between nations erupt in a crimson sea of slaughter.” As in some other RPGs with mass combat rules, Warriors & Warlocks goes over the size factor of each unit based on either the standard Time and Value Progression table in the core rules or the Military Unit Size table on page 96 of this book, which is based on that system. There are also modifiers given for Green, Trained or Veteran unit quality, each unit having the stats Attack, Damage, Defense, Toughness, Initiative and Morale. Most of these are as per the main rules. Morale determines a unit's staying power in combat, with checks made mainly if the battle is not going well. Not only is there a battlefield scale, there is a time scale called battlefield rounds, where each round is 20 times the length of the standard six second combat round (i.e. two minutes). Within this system, various options are possible, including flanking, defensive posture and so on. The unit can even split, dropping to a lower force multiplier but gaining the advantage of flexibility (for instance, in order to flank). Damage causes disruption to the unit due to the chaos of combat, and imposes penalties similar to those inflicted on a damaged character (plus penalty to morale rolls).
Chapter Four: Sword & Sorcery Settings gives us various developed settings for an S&S game using M&M rules, starting with Green Ronin's famous Freeport, which was of course already used for various open-source RPG books. The common thread between Freeport and M&M's main Freedom City world is the existence of the Serpent People, who ruled the world in its ancient days and plot to seize it again. Freeport, like D&D's Forgotten Realms, has a lot of “D&D type” races (which I guess would explain why the rules chapters have race writeups more appropriate to D&D than proper S&S) and also has an Age of Sail level of tech with primitive gunpowder items, navigation tools and such for pirate/swashbuckler adventuring. The town of Freeport has always been a refuge for pirates and sailors ever since the fall of the Serpent empire, and much of its political history has been a struggle to stay independent and to maintain the trade routes that allow for independence and prosperity.
Likewise the “superhero turned fantasy” setting Freedom's Reach is actually introduced in the M&M sourcebook Worlds of Freedom. In this reality, Earth's humans were genetically manipulated by a race like Star Trek's Preservers, who gave the potential for superpowers very early in the race's history, thus history on this world is dominated by the struggles of superhumans who naturally draw followers and authority. At the same time, actual gods and magic exist, and the last attempt of some supers to create an Atlantis-type community blew up when they tried to challenge the power of the gods. Right now civilization is represented by the Freedom's Reach free city, which is ruled by a council of mages and also backed up by fantasy versions of Freedom City's Freedom League (thus Dr. Metropolis is a city elemental, and Johnny Rocket is another elemental being “neither truly man nor woman”.
Finally you have the Lost World setting, which looks much like other examples of its type- it's not exactly in the center of the earth and not exactly its own dimension, but seems to be a parallel Earth (somewhere between Pangaea and modern geography) that is rarely accessible from Earth. In this book, it's because the Preservers intended it as a prison for the Serpent People, although many human cultures (and even aliens) managed to find the place and thus influence it. Currently the closest thing to major powers are a Nova Roma colony founded by soldiers from the time of Marcus Aurelius, and an Incan colony ruled by a virtual deity who is “Power Level X” and invincible as long as he stays in his domain.
SUMMARY
What makes Warriors & Warlocks so cool is that it it shows how the already great potential of a Sword & Sorcery campaign works with the flexible Green Ronin version of the D20 System, in particular the book's use of variable power levels to represent various types of S&S heroes. By contrast, in the CONAN game, you start off as 1st level and will probably never get to be as great as Conan, but might still get fairly respectable in your own right, as opposed to Hero Games' The Valdorian Age, where you're not Conan the Destroyer. You're not even Grace Jones. You're that weedy little thief who would stab the bad guys after Conan had already cut them down.
So this idea ultimately works even better in presentation than it does in potential. Although again, this isn't D&D and it isn't the CONAN d20 game. The streamlined rules of the M&M system mean that you're not going to get the same level of "grit" that you would expect from other Sword & Sorcery titles on the market. On the other hand, this book IS intended to represent the comic stories where S&S meets the superhero genre, like Arion or The Warlord, and the M&M rules in conjunction with the rules given here result in a very fast, flashy game perfectly in keeping with that style. So this might NOT be a better Sword & Sorcery game than CONAN, and it also requires the Mutants & Masterminds corebook to play, but Warriors & Warlocks is still well worth getting to get the best of both worlds.
Style: 4
Warriors & Warlocks benefits from the usual high production quality of Green Ronin material, and from the authors' respect for the action-oriented flair of the source material.
Substance: 4
This book gets a high recommendation for a good treatment of the Sword & Sorcery genre that also works with the Mutants & Masterminds game system.
