Green Ronin's Sword Chronicle Now Available

The Chronicle game system was the system which powered Green Ronin's A Song of Ice & Fire tabletop RPG. While ASOI&F is no longer available, Sword Chronicle is a setting-neutral ruleset with a similar feel.

There have been some small changes to things like how amour works and a few other things, but if you played ASI&F this will be familiar.

 PRESS RELEASE

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You’re no adventurer. You may have shaken blood off your sword after plunging it into an unholy beast, but the real monsters stalk the world’s thrones. You may have studied the unspeakable secrets of magic, but affairs of state have secrets that are no less horrifying, for they can turn a nation into a million-limbed juggernaut of war.

You belong to a noble house, and its fortunes rise and fall with your actions. You’re a lord, a knight, a servant in the shadows, or perhaps a sorcerer-sage, bound to a dynasty of rulers. A vassal’s honor binds you to obey those above your station, and the responsibilities of privilege make you well aware that your lessers prosper or suffer according to your will—or if you fail, in spite of it. Your people are yours to protect, but the world is yours to conquer. You’ve committed your house to the Sword Chronicle.

Sword Chronicle is fantasy roleplaying in Green Ronin’s Chronicle System, now customized for you to bring in your own worlds of intrigue-laden fantasy. Within this book you’ll find the following:

• A classless gritty fantasy roleplaying game, where words can be as powerful as weapons—and weapons enforce your words.
• Character creation that gives the heroes specific positions in a noble house of their own design.
• Rules for the fantasy ancestries of elves, dwarves, and ogres, and frictionless game systems for playing a character of multiple ancestries.
• Grim, dramatic combat where death is a risk, but profit comes from ransoming your noble enemies.
• Revised and reorganized intrigue rules for the Chronicle System, to give socially oriented characters real power.
• Mass combat rules fit for sieges and conquests.
• Subtle, powerful magic for the Chronicle System.
• Introducing the Shattered Era setting.

 

[TheIdeaOfGood]

Hm...I kinda feel like checking it out. I am not (well, no longer) a fan of GoT, but this sounds like something I could wrap my head around.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hm...I kinda feel like checking it out. I am not (well, no longer) a fan of GoT, but this sounds like something I could wrap my head around.

Yeah, that last TV season did a good job of making the license a lot less enticing for many.

This does sound good.

And hey, if A Dream of Spring ever comes out (I know, I know, but even if we see that other one, the series isn't over at that point), there's already an RPG system ready to go for it, when presumably a fair number of folks will get back into the series.

 

[Superchunk77]

If you want to run a Birthright campaign, this is the RPG to consider IMO.

 

[Haldrik]

The Chronicle game system was the system which powered Green Ronin's A Song of Ice & Fire tabletop RPG. While ASOI&F is no longer available, Sword Chronicle is a setting-neutral ruleset with a similar feel.

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There have been some small changes to things like how amour works and a few other things, but if you played ASI&F this will be familiar.

 PRESS RELEASE

---

You’re no adventurer. You may have shaken blood off your sword after plunging it into an unholy beast, but the real monsters stalk the world’s thrones. You may have studied the unspeakable secrets of magic, but affairs of state have secrets that are no less horrifying, for they can turn a nation into a million-limbed juggernaut of war.

You belong to a noble house, and its fortunes rise and fall with your actions. You’re a lord, a knight, a servant in the shadows, or perhaps a sorcerer-sage, bound to a dynasty of rulers. A vassal’s honor binds you to obey those above your station, and the responsibilities of privilege make you well aware that your lessers prosper or suffer according to your will—or if you fail, in spite of it. Your people are yours to protect, but the world is yours to conquer. You’ve committed your house to the Sword Chronicle.

Sword Chronicle is fantasy roleplaying in Green Ronin’s Chronicle System, now customized for you to bring in your own worlds of intrigue-laden fantasy. Within this book you’ll find the following:

• A classless gritty fantasy roleplaying game, where words can be as powerful as weapons—and weapons enforce your words.
• Character creation that gives the heroes specific positions in a noble house of their own design.
• Rules for the fantasy ancestries of elves, dwarves, and ogres, and frictionless game systems for playing a character of multiple ancestries.
• Grim, dramatic combat where death is a risk, but profit comes from ransoming your noble enemies.
• Revised and reorganized intrigue rules for the Chronicle System, to give socially oriented characters real power.
• Mass combat rules fit for sieges and conquests.
• Subtle, powerful magic for the Chronicle System.
• Introducing the Shattered Era setting.

I am unfamiliar with the mechanics but if Schwalb has a hand in them, they are probably robust.

Flavorwise − the political intrigue and international affairs − characterize what the "Master tier" (levels 9-12) in D&D should be about. Building palacial strongholds, founding influential colleges, evolving religious institutions, consolidating guilds, heading armies, and so on, come with challenges to rival other institutions in this kind of setting.

Some cultures will be democratic, so it isnt always about a "throne" or a "noble", sometimes it is a seat in the council, but the challenges of running a government well are true for any group of people.

 

[ruemere]

Sounds very interesting. I dislike GoT, and yet I still long for a well made system for urban/court intrigue.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Flavorwise − the political intrigue and international affairs − characterize what the "Master tier" (levels 9-12) in D&D should be about. Building palacial strongholds, founding influential colleges, evolving religious institutions, consolidating guilds, heading armies, and so on, come with challenges to rival other institutions in this kind of setting.

"Should" is a strong term. A lot of people, including folks I played with, resented the idea in D&D and AD&D that you'd spend multiple levels fighting orcs and ogres and giants and infiltrating tombs, and now you were ... management. I think that sort of play should be supported, but not mandated.

Or, it should form the core of its own game, as it is here.

 

[Haldrik]

"Should" is a strong term. A lot of people, including folks I played with, resented the idea in D&D and AD&D that you'd spend multiple levels fighting orcs and ogres and giants and infiltrating tombs, and now you were ... management. I think that sort of play should be supported, but not mandated.

Or, it should form the core of its own game, as it is here.

Heh, I didnt mean to "should" on other people.

I was thinking about the 1e D&D tradition of getting followers and heading institutions at the "name" levels, from levels 9 to 12.

Also, at this level, player characters are powerful enough to defend themselves personally against rivals, and have experienced enough of the gameworld setting to have a feel of who is who and what is what within the setting.

So, for example, running a city makes alot of sense when players are familiar with this city and neighboring cities, and even have a sense of who else is out there in other parts of the world.



Finally, just because the heir can now sit on the throne, doesnt mean the heir wants to. Abdication is also a part that deserves support for players who want their characters to continue to adventure without responsibilities.

But even the playboy Iron Man his a founder of an important institution: his tech business with many high level employees.

 

[Augreth]

If you want to run a Birthright campaign, this is the RPG to consider IMO.

Exactly what I was thinking!

 

[Paragon Lost]

Let's hope they do a revision of some of the combat mechanics. They're some serious balance issues from my reading and reading reviews of game play. I do own all of the GoT's material and it's actually a fascinating system but as I said there does appear to be some mechanics balance issues.