Sword Worlds Rewrite?
- Thread starter RogerMc
- Start date
It is indeed - though note that it is a complete re-write, not an update.
Of course!
First a couple of general thoughts:
Despite some major issues with the importing of post-1110 info from GURPS Sword Worlds (and the lack of acknowledgment for the authors of that book although I am sure there are legal reasons for that) the MGT1 Sword Worlds is mostly excellent.
The one thing - and from reviews I am not alone - I didn't like is that MGT Swordies seem just way too Viking and that it is a bit silly imagining people wandering around with battle-axes and byrnies in the 56th century.
The GURPS book I think got this just right - the Aesirism and Sagamaal are there but is not taken to extremes.
After all why should the 56th century descendants of 41st century Scandinavians (and Germans and Vilani) be any more (or less) religious than their 21st century Scandinavian ancestors are now?
Aesirism should be there in the background just as Christianity is in current day Scandinavia and Germany - a smallish minority live their lives by it, a larger minority pay literal lip-service, the majority are atheists, agnostics or have their own pick n' mix belief system but are to some degree culturally influenced by Aesirism without regarding themselves as Aesirists.
So yes bigger settlements will have an Aesirist shrine and cities a temple (and possibly a neo-Lutheran church and a Islamic mosque - there being significant Muslim minorities in Germany and Sweden now - etc) and there will be some clergy identifiable by runic medallions or whatever but you don't really need a whole career for them.
In fact what might work would be an add-on career like the Solomani Monitor and Home Guard options in Classic and Megatraveller - your typical Aesirist doesn't spend whole terms just Aesiring but does have a bolt-on parallel semi-career which gives him maybe an additional 0- or 1-level skill per term served in their real career, a chance of an Aesirist life event and maybe an additional benefit roll or two.
And if this gives the Aesirist PC an unfair advantage vis a vis characters not getting those extra skills make them pay a tithe of 10% of all their income and have them occasionally forced to go off and do a special mission for the local shrine.
(The same principle should also I think apply to Psions particularly in the Imperium where nobody can plausibly be a full time psionic adept or psi-warrior or even wild talent).
Despite some major issues with the importing of post-1110 info from GURPS Sword Worlds (and the lack of acknowledgment for the authors of that book although I am sure there are legal reasons for that) the MGT1 Sword Worlds is mostly excellent.
The one thing - and from reviews I am not alone - I didn't like is that MGT Swordies seem just way too Viking and that it is a bit silly imagining people wandering around with battle-axes and byrnies in the 56th century.
The GURPS book I think got this just right - the Aesirism and Sagamaal are there but is not taken to extremes.
After all why should the 56th century descendants of 41st century Scandinavians (and Germans and Vilani) be any more (or less) religious than their 21st century Scandinavian ancestors are now?
Aesirism should be there in the background just as Christianity is in current day Scandinavia and Germany - a smallish minority live their lives by it, a larger minority pay literal lip-service, the majority are atheists, agnostics or have their own pick n' mix belief system but are to some degree culturally influenced by Aesirism without regarding themselves as Aesirists.
So yes bigger settlements will have an Aesirist shrine and cities a temple (and possibly a neo-Lutheran church and a Islamic mosque - there being significant Muslim minorities in Germany and Sweden now - etc) and there will be some clergy identifiable by runic medallions or whatever but you don't really need a whole career for them.
In fact what might work would be an add-on career like the Solomani Monitor and Home Guard options in Classic and Megatraveller - your typical Aesirist doesn't spend whole terms just Aesiring but does have a bolt-on parallel semi-career which gives him maybe an additional 0- or 1-level skill per term served in their real career, a chance of an Aesirist life event and maybe an additional benefit roll or two.
And if this gives the Aesirist PC an unfair advantage vis a vis characters not getting those extra skills make them pay a tithe of 10% of all their income and have them occasionally forced to go off and do a special mission for the local shrine.
(The same principle should also I think apply to Psions particularly in the Imperium where nobody can plausibly be a full time psionic adept or psi-warrior or even wild talent).
CHARACTER GENERATION 1
I've made most notes on chargen so I''ll break these comments up and maybe spread them over a couple of days.
Homeworlds
Firstly roll up some characters using MGT1 book and you'll find most of the party will be from Narsil.
This may make crude demographic sense as Narsil has a pop code of 10 and in fact most Sword Worlders do live there but it is kind of boring to roll Narsil after Narsil with the same background skills.
Simple fix - keep main table as is but amend the High Pop Sword Worlds sub-table to:
Gram 2-4 (was 2-3)
Narsil 5-9 (was 4-10)
Sacnoth 10-12 (was 11-12)
You should still still end up with more Narsils than anyone else but probably not an entire party of them.
Unusual Sword Worlds need more thought and if you are going to include them in the table then you also need to give them background skills.
Firstly how Swordie are worlds like Caliburn that have actually been Imperial for 5 and a half centuries?
Secondly how do you explain Sword World characters originating from lower tech worlds under a strict Imperial interdict like Asgard?
Thirdly if you are going to have lost Sword Worlds as origin worlds Faldor should be on the table as the late Andrew Keith did a book on it that should be available legitimately via the FFE Apocrypha 3 selection and where the dominant culture is descended from Swordie colonists.
And if a Swordie sounding name is the main qualifier there is an Odin and a Tyr in the Trojan Reaches as well...
Lastly the Metal Worlds have zero pop for a reason and shouldn't really be origin worlds.
I've made most notes on chargen so I''ll break these comments up and maybe spread them over a couple of days.
Homeworlds
Firstly roll up some characters using MGT1 book and you'll find most of the party will be from Narsil.
This may make crude demographic sense as Narsil has a pop code of 10 and in fact most Sword Worlders do live there but it is kind of boring to roll Narsil after Narsil with the same background skills.
Simple fix - keep main table as is but amend the High Pop Sword Worlds sub-table to:
Gram 2-4 (was 2-3)
Narsil 5-9 (was 4-10)
Sacnoth 10-12 (was 11-12)
You should still still end up with more Narsils than anyone else but probably not an entire party of them.
Unusual Sword Worlds need more thought and if you are going to include them in the table then you also need to give them background skills.
Firstly how Swordie are worlds like Caliburn that have actually been Imperial for 5 and a half centuries?
Secondly how do you explain Sword World characters originating from lower tech worlds under a strict Imperial interdict like Asgard?
Thirdly if you are going to have lost Sword Worlds as origin worlds Faldor should be on the table as the late Andrew Keith did a book on it that should be available legitimately via the FFE Apocrypha 3 selection and where the dominant culture is descended from Swordie colonists.
And if a Swordie sounding name is the main qualifier there is an Odin and a Tyr in the Trojan Reaches as well...
Lastly the Metal Worlds have zero pop for a reason and shouldn't really be origin worlds.
steve98052
Mongoose
I know from having sold an article (only one; I was a slacker) to SJ Games JTAS (and reading their writers' guides) that all their work is published as "work for hire", meaning that the company is legally (in terms of copyright) the author, not the person who actually did the writing. So maybe that's a part of it. Or maybe it's just because the number of authors who have worked on Traveller is so large that credit where credit is due would require several pages of acknowledgements, which is too much space in print.RogerMc said:
Anyway, I'd still like to see Hans and Loren get some kind of credit, or at least a few words of tribute as a memorial.
steve98052
Mongoose
That's why I mentioned Hans [Rancke-Madsen].RogerMc said:
I started an article about Knorbes, and he used some of my material in a Regina Subsector book he worked on, but apparently the Sword Worlds book didn't sell well enough to convince SJ Games to do another subsector book, or maybe Traveller books in general were not selling well enough. In any case, Hans abandoned his Regina book.
I got sidetracked on something else and never finished my Knorbes article either. If I ever finish it, however, I'll include a dedication to Hans.
Loren accepted my one paid piece of Traveller writing, a 2001 JTAS article about a resourceful girl seeking passage on the player characters' starship. Seeing it in physical form is one reason I'm excited about the Grognard book and digital supplement.
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