Why you should play Sword World
If you knew me in real life, you’d know I do not like Dungeons and Dragons. I never did. I can never shut the fuck up about how much I dislike it and all my friends are sick of my tirades already.
In my opinion, 5e is the best edition so far, but it is not a good game. It’s merely okay. If you have fun with it, that’s fine, you do you.
I’m also of the firm opinion that it’s a terrible game for beginners.
I’d say what makes or breaks a beginner game is a) a simple enough rule system with not too many dangley bits but enough crunch to it so that beginners have some material to sink their teeth into.
5e has too many dangley bits, is too complex in some parts (especially when it comes to spells) and lacking in substance in other parts.
For more advanced players, character options are very limiting, which I think a lot would agree with.
In my mind, the only real reason I feel that 5e is so prevalent is brand recognition and accessibility. It’s just fucking everywhere, which is by and large due to hasbro’s big boy bucks.
So yeah, I have plenty of issues with 5e and DnD in general. DnD really kept me wanting for a fantasy RPG that I could actually enjoy... and by sheer coincidence, I found it:
Sword World 2.0, the greatest Fantasy RPG I have played so far.
Sword World is a Japanese tabletop roleplaying game that has been around for a long long time. SW1.0 originally released in 1989. Its setting was based on the Record of Lodoss War Setting. Lodoss War was originally a DnD B/X campaign the author of the book had. They released replays of the game in a magazin, then switched systems multiple times mid-campaign, before Group SNE and the Author developed their own system. That system was not Sword World. Sword World was developed alongside it, though.
Sword World was inspired by DnD’s basic premise, Tunnels and Trolls game play, and some other games such as Rune Quest and Battletech of all things.
Sword World 2.0 came out in 2008, updating the ruleset of 1.0, introducing it’s own original Setting (named Raxia) and a lot of very cool shit.
In essence, Sword World 2.0 does a lot that DnD 5e later tried to do, but in my opinion it does it way better and it did it for the last 33 years. Surprisingly, not all that much has changed with the base mechanics of the game, which I think is a testament to how great 1.0 was already.
Sword World is a 2d6 class-based system with a heavy focus on multi-classing.
Basically, classes in Sword World are a bit more slimmed down, for the most part consisting of some skill proficiencies and maybe a few automatically acquired feats or access to spells. There are also some classes where each level gives you a class feature you pick from a big list, all centered around the central gimmick of the class.
Compared to what a 5e class has, Sword Worlds classes are ultra-light weight.
Though, other than DnD where having just the one class is the default, you are heavily encouraged to pick multiple classes.
The idea is that you combine classes to create your own personal play style. This makes Sword World have a “build-your-own-class” kind of approach, which is great.
The core set comes with 15 classes, supplements introduced 9 additional classes. If I did my math correctly, that comes out to roughly 10626 combinations of 4-class-combinations, which is pretty mental.
From my experience so far, most class combinations are absolutely valid and playable, so just pick what looks cool together and make what you want to make.
The game comes with 3 different combat rule sets (Simple, Standard and Advanced), which allows you to customize the game to your group's tastes.
No grid combat, but advanced can be played very easily on a grid.
Instead of having a fixed list of skills where you pick what skill proficiencies you have and stuff, you just add an appropriate class level to your roll. Each class comes with a list of skill proficiencies that they inherently have, but you can use a class for more at the GMs digression.
Spellcasters are probably one of the most notable differences for people who play DnD, because there is no vancian casting.
No need to pick “known” and/or “prepared” Spells. No spell slots. No ‘spell levels’. None of that shit. Spellcasters in SW have a spellbook unique to their class, and just know all spells up to and equal that class level. Each spell has MP costs listed, and then you just pay the MP cost to cast that spell.
That’s it.
In short, Sword World is a more streamlined and easy to pick up system compared to 5e, while offering a lot of depth with its relatively simple mechanics.
If I had to describe the setting, I’d compare it to FFXIV A Realm Reborn.
It’s a classic fantasy setting, with elves and dwarves and goblins and all that good shit. It also has a lot of more unique races, such as Soleil (who are humanoids blessed by the god of the sun and can do photosynthesis) or flourite (who are basically living sentient rocks).
Aside from the usual fantasy sword and sorcery stuff, there is also magitech, which makes it very final fantasy.
There was the great catastrophe 300 years ago, toppling the mighty and technologically advanced Al Menas Empire. The world was thrown back into the dark ages, civilization is still trying to recover from the catastrophe. Players take the role of adventurers who hunt monsters, explore ruins of long gone civilizations and salvage artifacts of forgotten ages.
Now, sadly, there is no official western release of Sword World, and literally because of DnD’s stranglehold on the market, there are no plans to bring it over in the foreseeable future.
However, there is a very dedicated fan translation team working on SW2.0 with all of its supplements. Core rules are complete since early 2021, and a lot of the supplemental play material has been completely translated since.
The project is on-going, aiming to finish SW2.0 and then go over to 2.5.
Go check it out and experience one of the best RPGs I have ever seen.
Most of the rules translated are up on the fan translation wiki, with more being added regularly: http://swordworld.shoutwiki.com/
