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Friday, June 9, 2023

Swords Against Sorcery: Claw the Unconquered in Action

 After the first playtest session of Swords Against Sorcery, the Bronze Age of comics Sword & Sorcery rpg I have been working on, I went through 1975's Claw the Unconquered #2, by Michelinie and Chan, and broke it down in game terms just to see if I thought the rules as I'm currently envisioning them could handle it.  Here's one fight scene from that issue.

The story up to this point: Claw and a former would-be assassin turned ally Gofflok climbed a rope to escape dog creatures and find themselves in a floating city. A beautiful maiden, Myrallya, appears and welcomes them to K’Dasha-Dheen. She invites the two to her palace to partake in food and rest. As the two visitors are eating, Myrallya reveals that her city hangs suspended between two separate planes of reality. It also grants its inhabitants immortality but this enchantment has to be renewed through the sacrifice of a god. Since no gods are available, the two men are informed that they will have to suffice...

With so many blades pointed at him, the guards are clearly out to intimidate. Claw's player makes his reaction roll of his dice in his Might Attribute and Swords Domain, counting a 5-6 as a success. Claw succeeds! Now it's on, He's going to enter combat, despite the odds.

The GM says since the guards still have the drop on him, they attack first, meaning Claw will react to their attack. Claw's player plans an acrobatic evasion that will morph into an attack, and wants to use Daring+Deeds for the Reaction. The GM agrees, but adds he'll have a penalty of -1 die for being seated. The guards attack as Tough foes, meaning 2 successes are need to avoid their attack. 

Against the odds, he succeeds! Now, it's his Action, and he uses Might+Swords to make his attack roll, looking again for 2 successes as they have a Tough Defense too. It works and the guards sustain Blows.

It's Grofflok's turn and he gets his Action first thanks to the Surprise Claw gave the guards. His coming up behind his target assassin-style, rolling Cunning+Swords for his attack with one die bonus.

The two continue to fight side by side, getting in some different maneuvers:

Claw uses Daring+Swords to improvise a ranged attack. Then, he uses Might+Swords to heave a piece of furniture in their way, spending a couple of Momentum he's generated from extra success in this scene to get catch multiple guards in its delaying condition.

Anyway, that's one way all that could have gone.

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