This is the setting for Swords of the Serpentine. Published by Pelgrane Press, it is swords and sorcery roleplaying game of daring heroism, sly politics, daring thievery, incriminating secrets, feuding houses of the nobility, rampant corruption, and bloody savagery, set in a fantasy city full of skullduggery and death, inspired by the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber and Robert Lynn Asprin’s Thieves’ World story anthologies. Now being a roleplaying game published by Pelgrane Press, it uses the GUMSHOE System, and to be honest, the GUMSHOE System was specifically designed to handle investigation-orientated roleplaying and the last genre that you would expect the GUMSHOE System to handle is swords and sorcery. Of course, since it does use the GUMSHOE System, it means that if a Hero has points in a particular Investigative Ability, he will always be able to find clues related to the ability, and if he has points in that ability, can gain further clues, and then it is up to the players to interpret the clue or clues found to push the story along. Yet alongside that, Swords of the Serpentine mixes in social and physical combat so that the Heroes can defeat their opponents through wit, guile, and intimidation as well as with a blade, and with sorcery powerful and easy enough to tear a tower apart, if the sorcerer is prepared to accept the corruption to both his body and soul. All of which can be enhanced by points spent from an Investigative Ability, if the Game Master agrees it applies and it fits the story. And all of which takes place in a city that is an even more fantastic, more swashbuckling, more flagitious version of Venice, and in which, there is scope and encouragement for the players add details so help develop the world around their Heroes.
A Hero in Swords of the Serpentine, much
like a Player Character in other GUMSHOE System roleplaying games, is primarily
defined by two types of abilities and their associated pools of points. Investigative
Abilities, such as Servility, Felonious Intent, Scurrilous Rumours, Corruption,
and Tactics of Death, enable a Hero to find clues related to the ability and
when spending points from their associated pools, to gain bonuses of various
types. This includes increasing the amount of damage inflicted, increase the
effectiveness of a General Ability, gain temporary Armour or Grit, create a
unique special effect, and more. Investigative Abilities are divided across four
Professions—Sentinel (a cross between a private investigator and a ghost
hunter, because they can sometimes see ghosts), Sorcerer, Thief, and
Warrior—and a fifth category, Social. A Hero can have ratings in any of the
Investigative Abilities across the four Professions as well as Social, or
specialise in one or two. One or two points in an Investigative Ability is
enough to get by, but a maximum rating of five is world class.
The General Abilities include Athletics, Bind Wounds, Burglary, Preparedness, Stealth, Sorcery, Sway, and Warfare, as well as Health and Morale, and can go as high as fifteen. At a rating of eight or more though in a General Ability other than Health and Morale, a Hero is an expert and qualifies for a Talent. For example, Athletics grants ‘Dodge’, the capacity to try and dodge attacks; Preparedness gives ‘Flashback’, enabling the player to narrate how his Hero set up a secret plan or contingency for just the exact situation right now; and for Stealth, ‘Where’d She Go’ enables a Hero to slip out of a scene and reappear again at an opportune moment.
In addition, a Hero has Allegiances and
Minor, But Iconic Equipment. Allegiances are with factions within the city,
like the Ancient Nobility or The Guild of Architects and Canal-Watchers, and
can be spent like Investigative Abilities. Minor, But Iconic Equipment is gear
that a Hero will nearly always have that in part will define who he is, but
will not provide any mechanical benefit. He will also a handful of Adjectives
to describe who he is and three Drives, what he believes to be ‘Best in Life’.
To create a Hero, a player chooses a
Profession. He defines both Adjectives and Drives. Then he assigns points to
his Hero’s Investigative Abilities, the total amount determined by the number
of players, a standard set of points to General Abilities, divides another set
amount between Health and Morale, and assigns points to represent his Allegiances,
both Allies and Enemies. Alternatively, Swords of the Serpentine does provide some
ready-to-play templates.
Name: Tregeller Bordignon
Profession: Secret Keeper (Thief)
Adjectives: Small, Acquisitive, Curious, Slippery, Bemused
What is Best in Life?: Knowledge for knowledge’s sake, the perfect barb, a
party
ALLEGIANCES
Nobility 2, The Guild of Architects and Canal Watchers 1 (Enemy)
INVESTIGATIVE ABILITIES
Social – Charm 2, Liar’s Tell 1, Nobility 1, Taunt 1
Sentinel – Laws & Traditions 1
Thief – City’s Secrets 1, Ridiculous Luck 1, Scurrilous Rumours 1, Skulduggery 1
Sorcerer – Forgotten Lore 1
Warrior – Spot Frailty 1
GENERAL ABILITIES
Athletics 3, Burglary 4, Preparedness 8, Stealth 8, Sway 5, Warfare 2
HEALTH (Threshold 3): 8
MORALE (Threshold 4): 10
ICONIC GEAR
Antique fan, the finest frock, lockpicks, little black book in code, ancient
coin
Mechanically, Investigative Abilities can be used in two ways. One is to find
clues and follow leads, the other is to spend points to trigger powerful
effects. For example, to use Laws & Traditions to create an abstruse law or
ordinance that applies in the moment or Prophecy to be able to put your hands
on some easy wealth, know when to sneak into a building unobserved, gain a use
of the ‘Flashback’ Talent from Preparedness or to know the best course of
action in a fight. Points from General Abilities are spent as modifiers to a
simple roll on a six-sided die to beat a Target Number. The latter applies to
combat as well, the Target Number determined by the defendant’s Threshold for either
Health or Morale, typically three or four. For each three points the roll
exceeds the target, the attack can affect an extra target, and a result of five
or more higher than the target indicates an attack is a critical and inflicts
an extra die’s worth of damage. However, combat in Swords of the Serpentine is not
just physical. It is also social and sorcerous, and besides using the Warfare General
Ability in a fight, a Hero can use Sway and Sorcery to attack as well, depending
upon the situation. But that is not all. Damage can be boosted by spending points
from Investigative Abilities. For example, Charm or Scurrilous Rumours might be
used to undermine an opponent in a Sway attack; City’s Secrets to manoeuvre an opponent
onto a crumbling bridge or slippery cobblestones to add to damage inflicted by
Warfare; and Know Monstrosities to identify a creature’s weak spots in a Sorcery,
Sway, or Warfare attack. Plus, attacks do not have to inflict lethal damage.
With a Manoeuvre, a Hero could inflict a condition upon an opponent, for
example, temporarily blinding them with a Sorcery or Warfare attack or tricking
him with Sorcery or Sway attack.
Truth be told, the GUMSHOE System has never
been renowned for its combat system, but even the expansion from one form of
combat—physical, to three, with the addition of Sorcery and Sway, adds depth and
options to how a Hero handles a situation. Yet Swords of the Serpentine goes further.
The use of Investigative Abilities to augment and add damage in combat opens up
numerous different ways in which a Hero can fight and more, it elevates Swords of the Serpentine into a cinematic style of play that is perfect for its Swords
and Sorcery genre.
Whilst Prophecy and Spirit Sight are not
exactly passive Investigative Abilities in Swords of the Serpentine, Sorcery is
magic put into action, and it is the Corruption Investigative Ability that
makes it both powerful and dangerous. Sorcery is either learnt from the hidden remnants
of the long-dead Serpentine empire that once stood upon the site where Eversink
now stands or because the sorcerer has been possessed by or is host to a demon,
spirit, or small god. Sorcery typically either does Health or Morale damage
(but can do both) and for each point in Corruption, a Sorcerer has knowledge of
a particular Sphere of magic, such as ageing, blood, curses, earth, lightning,
love, luck, necromancy, statuary (which is more powerful than you think when
you take into consideration the fact that Eversink is rife with funereal
statuary), and so on. Rather than just giving a list of spells that might fit
under this sphere or that sphere, Swords of the Serpentine allows a sorcerer to
cast any spell he wants that his player can justify as working within that theme
and the Game Master agrees. It can even be used to explain how a sorcerer’s
Investigative Abilities work as well, for example, using Athletics to leap
across a street from one roof at another, but explaining it working because the
sorcerer creates a temporary bridge that only he can run across.
However, unique and powerful effects
require a player to spend points of Corruption and then his Hero deal with the
consequences. Corruption can be spent to inflict exceptional damage to one opponent
or target anyone within range or it can be used to cast unique and powerful
spells with a sorcerer’s spheres of magic. Swords of the Serpentine does not
include a list of ready to cast spells, so instead, casting a spell of this
type is a matter of negotiation between the player and the Game Master to
determine the cost in terms of Corruption. Immobilise a merchant vessel by
binding it with seaweed using the Plants sphere? Make two deadly enemies fall
in love the next time they confront each other with the Love sphere? Enable
your party to breath underwater into order to access a submerged building by
drawing from the Water sphere? All possible, but all require the use of
Corruption as does the laying of sorcerous traps and the laying of glyphs.
Unfortunately, the Corruption must be
assuaged. This can be done in one of two ways, either ‘Internalised’ or
‘Externalised’. If Internalised, with a Health test, it changes something
physical about the Sorcerer, but if ‘Externalised’, it can affect the Heroes’
morale or sickens and pollutes the reality in the immediate area, scarring it in
a way that can be seen with Second Sight. Sorcerers who do internalise their
Corruption may be tolerated, even accepted if they are members working of the Guild
of Architects and Canal-Watchers.
This though is the basics of Sorcery in Swords of the Serpentine, the players
expected to grasp the advanced rules in time. This includes rituals, astrology,
true names, curses, and traps. Further, Swords of the Serpentine suggests
optional ways in which sorcery can be used in the roleplaying game. One is to
use charms and trinkets instead of casting spells, whilst another is to replace
Corruption with Thaumaturgy. This shifts sorcery to a more rigorous, even ‘scientific’
form encompassing alchemy, mesmerism, and poisons. The result is the magic of
such thaumaturgists is less showy, but also much such inventive.
Gear and wealth are mostly abstracted, though
there is a list of various items including arms, armour, poisons, charms, and
magical objects. In terms of support for the Game Master there is a good
selection of NPCs from across the social spectrum as well as monstrosities that
suit the urban setting of Eversink and its surrounding wetlands. Including
haughty duellists, snivelling lackeys, and back-alley leeches—and delightfully,
a flock of watch-geese, alongside animated statues, the batrachian chugguts
from the surrounding swamps, the doppelgangers known as the Faceless, Penanggalan,
and others, there is a subtle feel to these adversaries, lurking threats more
than rampaging monsters.
The advice for the Game Master is also good, cover character creation,
Investigative Ability expenditure, how to create mysteries and leads, and
constructing adventures and customising the roleplaying game. There is a
lengthy description of Eversink, covering everything from the fact that its
buildings are constantly sinking and the nature of the goddess Denari to divinity
and divine power and sumptuary laws and ‘Sinkish Law’, with food, drink,
climate, sports, history, and more detailed in between. Each of its districts
is described and accompanied by a plot hook for the Game Master to develop and
the various possible Allegiances and enemies that the Player Characters can
have, are also examined. One of these does include The Triskadane, the city
government which a Player Character could actually be part of, seemingly
randomly selected—as is the custom—to run the city. There is a surprisingly
lengthy (actually only two pages) discussion on the importance of trade to the
city and an overview of the threats faced by Eversink. Further, given the focus
of Swords of the Serpentine upon the city of Eversink, the other surprise is the
chapter on the nations beyond the city. Again, quite lengthy, but included because
the Heroes might need to visit, but definitely come back, and because they may be
somewhere where Outlander Heroes come from.
Rounding out Swords of the Serpentine is the scenario, ‘Corpse Astray’. This throws
the Heroes straight into the action aboard a vessel bound for Eversink, but under
attack by pirates! Designed as an introductory adventure, this gives a chance
for the players to get their first experience of the rules and begin to explore
just what their Heroes are capable of, as they deal with a cunning plan of
revenge that has hijacked by someone else and turned into an even bigger threat
to Eversink. It is nicely Machiavellian for starting scenario, but actually includes
a note at the end of the first for the Game Master that if the players decide
that their Heroes want to run off and join the pirates to go with it and have
fun! But also save the rest of the adventure for another set of heroes!
This note is indicative of the style and the writing in Swords of the Serpentine. From the start, there is advice for the Game Master and player
alike from the start. It is direct about the roleplaying game and what it does,
it suggests campaign frameworks—a favourite being ‘Bookhounds of Eversink’, a
nod to Bookhounds of London for Trail of Cthulhu, provides quick
references at the start of every chapter that make everything easier to grasp, there
are boxes of designer notes, Game Master advice, and player advice throughout,
and so on. And honestly, these boxes of notes and advice are brilliant, full of
ideas and history and background to the roleplaying game. For example, the
designer notes on the Sentinel explain that their original name was investigators,
which the designers decided was a terrible name for a hero in a swords and
sorcery adventure, but tells the reader that the Profession’s Laws and
Traditions ability is fun because it grants them narrative control to declare
something legal or illegal, whilst the Spirit Sight ability provides insight
into ghosts and demons granted by no other Profession, and lastly suggests with
a change of theming, the role could be turned into that of a paladin, whilst
the Designer Notes on using Preparedness as a combat ability has an amusing story
from the playtest. All of which gives Swords of the Serpentine a much lighter
and more informal tone, as if the designer is chatting to the reader, and it makes
the rulebook such an engaging read.
Physically, Swords of the Serpentine is very well presented. The artwork varies
a little in quality, but is generally good. The writing is excellent.
Swords of the Serpentine is the most engaging and exciting, and actually
accessible of the GUMSHOE System roleplaying games from Pelgrane Press to date.
Yes, it does use the GUMSHOE System, which is designed to handle investigative roleplaying,
but it shifts the action and focus away from that to one of swords, sorcery, and
secrets in a fantastically Florentine city combined with play that encourages,
even demands inventive input by the players, yet keeps everything else mechanically
simple. Swords of the Serpentine is a superb roleplaying game that does swords
and sorcery in way that you would never think possible, giving the GUMSHOE System a swagger you never thought it was capable of.
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