Category Archives: Swords Against the Shadows

Swords Against the Shadows, the End is Nigh!

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As I type we are in the last two and half days of the Swords Against the Shadow’s Kickstarter.

The main rulebook was funded in seventy two minutes! So in the remaining time we’ve been busy funding stretch goals that are going in a separate book/pdf called, Swords Against the Shadows. So this means backers get two for the price of one books!

Here’s the work in progress cover by Dan Barker, who will be colouring the final piece.

So far we’ve funded nine stretch goals, which cover things like rules for Companions, an adventure generator, a Age of Sail settting and two adventures.

Now in the final days of the Kickstarter, we see the end of the world approach. The human world that is, as the Serpent Folk who have long scemed in the Shadows come out of it to reclaim thier world in the Snake Bite setting. The final set of stretch goals detail the Serpent Noble character class, if you and your players fancy playing “evil” and being in the driving seat of the Serpent Take over, part of which plays out in the adventure The Fall of Domios. Once we fund those, the campaign rounds out with more character classes (conversions of the remaining exotic character classes from Crypts and Things, and the Necromancer) before making the OGL portions of the game available as a Text Systems Resource Document.

But quick time is running out.

Last Seven Days of the Swords Against the Shadows Kickstarter

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This time next week, our highly successful Kickstarter for our Swords and Sorcery RPG will be over.

Funded in 72 minutes of launching, we’ve smashed through one set of stretch goals, and I posted another set two days ago, of which we’ve already funded one.

As well as the main rulebook, backers will get another book, The Swords Against the Shadows Companion in PDF/POD which contains the following funded stretch goals.

  • Fiendish Folio. Another 25 monsters for the game.
  • Gazetteer of the Jewelled Coast. More details about the example setting.
  • The Tower of Shadows, an introductory adventure.
  • Adventure Generator. A series of random tables to quickly generate Swords and Sorcery adventures.
  • Companions. Party is a bit low on player characters, or one or two players in need of NPC help? This article will not only give tables to create companions randomly, but also some guidance on how to run games for one to two players. 
  • Sails and Sorcery. A second example world, of Golden Age pirates versus a sorcerous secret society that seeks to drown the current Empire of Sail and start the world anew. 

Here’s the cover of the Companion, which is in the process of being fully coloured by its artist Dan Barker.

Swords Against the Shadows now on Kickstarter

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Swords Against the Shadows is a tabletop roleplaying game of epic Swords and Sorcery heroes and anti-heroes pitted against the evils lurking in their world’s shadows. Fight demons from the Outer Dark, and oppose the schemes of malignant Sorcerers, to protect the small pockets of civilisation that survive surrounded by hostile wilderness.  Use the game to recreate thrilling fantasy adventure tales, as told by authors such as Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, and Clark Ashton Smith.

The game is based on the popular pick-up-and-play Black Hack 2nd Edition, modified to meet genre expectations. If you are familiar with the World’s Favourite Roleplaying game, you’ll be right at home here and find much to like in this wonderful rules-light, fast-playing rules set.

The book is 80 pages long, in an A5 softcover format, with black and white illustrations throughout. It features this marvellous front cover by Jon Hodgson. 

At the time of writing, the Kickstarter funded in just over an hour on the first day, and the first three stretch goals have been funded.