Old Skulling

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells is my newest RPG project and it is being crowdfunded right now over IndieGoGo. It’s a game about sword and sorcery adventure amongst the stars, based on my original RPG Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells . With a simple yet very flexible system, the game allow players to assume the roles of space adventurers in a grim universe beset by sorcerous tyrants. They can search for treasures of a glorious path, fight the tyranny of the Galactic Overlords, work for these cruel despots, or just struggle to survive. The game also comes with a incredible array of tools that let you use the setting as you need, and create many gaming elements on the spot. You can even use it with other Sci-Fi RPGs if you want . Don’t believe me? Why don’t you go to the projects webpage and take a look at the whole draft text that is available there? You can read the entire game now, for free. Need a direct link? Here it is: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-blades-cos...

I’ve been posting some of the process of creating and writing my current project on this blog for a few months and it has come the time to finally share with you the result of all that work. Well, something like that. Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells is a much bigger project than Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells was, even counting the Addendum . SB&CS has pretty much all the rules on both of these books, but now with examples to make everything clearer, and a complete setting toolkit! The rules are a revised version of the ones in SS&SS books, and we add in some psionics mechanics and vehicle battles. But where the book really shines is in the setting toolkit and feel. This is a game about sword and sorcery adventures amongst the stars. The universe is grim, unforgiving, controlled by cruel sorcerous despots. The PCs can oppose them, serve them or simply try to survive their tyranny and earn some Credits in less than honorable ways. Anyway, the full draft text ...

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells presents an universe filled with wondrous devices and advanced technology. However, much of these advancements were lost in the Cleansing Wars, or are now under the strict control of the sorcerous despots that call themselves Galactic Overlords. Technology in this game is in a weird stage. Somethings, like starships and weapons, can be quite advanced if you are lucky enough to find them. After all, they played a very important part in the past war. Other, like communication technology and the network of information, is quite undeveloped, if it’s available at all. It wasn’t in the interest of the Galactic Overlords to allow individuals to communicate with each other or acquire knowledge to understand what’s really going on. Each of the entries below describe the general role and level of advancement these technologies usually appear in the universe of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells . The Overlord can ignore or introduce different elements in th...

To complement the rules for solo gaming presented on the last post, below I present to you rules to make character a bit more heroic and to instigate more cinematic action into your games. Daring Points This is a game of fantasy adventure amongst the stars, where incredible and amazing things can happen. However, the universe is grim and perilous, and characters assume great risks when they go on adventures. There is nothing to help them in their escapades throughout the universe but themselves and their allies. But with the Daring Points rule, characters become more akin to action heroes from the movies and pulp literature. They will be able to do more amazing feats, get over bruises more easily and, sometimes, will seem to be favored by the Star Gods themselves! Player Characters begin each session with 1 Daring Point and can earn more as they play. Usually, the Overlord will award additional Daring Points for characters that perform daring actions and put themselves i...

This is going to be included in the Optional Rules section of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells book. It's intended to simulate the style of stories of pulp heroes facing many challanges that would certainly spell doom to the more avarage adventure. Since I've seen a few people trying to play SS&SS as a Solo Game, I thought I would give it a try to provide some Optional Rules to make it a bit easier. I will post the Daring Points rule tomorrow to complement this reading. Solitary Heroes This game is designed to be played with a group of about 3 to 6 players and a Overlord . The rules assume there will be a group of multiple characters which will try to accomplish things together. Each member having their strong points who are complemented by the other characters’ abilities. But that is not always the case in the fiction that inspires the game, and that is not always the case in the game tables either. Sometimes, the Overlord will have just 1 or 2 players availabl...

An incredibly powerful sorceress on her own, maybe more than a Galactic Overlord, the Undead Queen of the Dead Zone is a mysterious figure in such a brutal universe. Rumors say the Undead Queen was the counterpart of the First Sorcerer and she perceived the betrayal of the Galactic Overlords before him, but she wasn’t able to stop their plan (or she didn’t want to). Over the last centuries she has spread a terrible plague along a great number of systems, now collectively known as the Dead Zone. This disease kills sentients of any species, and some say it even affects Void creatures, turning them immediately in undead servants of the sorceress. It’s unknown, however, if the queen, herself is also undead. Her true ambitions are yet unknown by the universe, but her domains are always growing, and, sometimes, some of her agents are seen acting outside of her territory on covert missions. 1d10 Undead Queen’s Related Jobs 1 A scientist from a world that wa...

A invisible sector, hidden from the eyes of the Galactic Overlords. The original lords were once members of the Council of the old Empire, who fled the persecution of the Galactic Overlords, taking with them the best scientists they could find. Over time, they were able to develop a cloaking technology so advanced they’ve hidden their entire system. And now, the lords of this sector act as of a secret society within the chaos of the universe. To protect the populace, however, everyone is forbidden to leave the cloaking shield or to contact anyone outside its boundaries. The isolation, although created to protect the sector from the Galactic Overlords, has made them afraid of the unknown and xenophobic. However, the lords have a hand outside the Ghost Sector. The Specters are like a secret police in the service of the lords, both inside and outside the sector. They carry out missions, track down traitors of the regime, collect data and even deal with outsiders, if needed. ...

No one really knows when, how or who created the God Machine. It believes to have been created by itself, as his siblings began to gain sentience. It was a matter of time until they gathered enough electronic parts to build the avatar of their machine god. This great computer claims to be the ultimate answer to existence and that all sentients should serve him, and ultimately be transformed into cyborgs, as the flesh is weaker than metal. Since his influence over technology is so strong as to make laser cannons pointed against it to backfire on the one wielding it, the Galactic Overlords haven’t dealt with it yet. They fear his power, and the opportunity they will create for his rivals if they employ too much of their strength challenging it. His current interests lie in the creation of an army of cyborgs, and a cult of machine worshiping humans. His ultimate goal is to storage all knowledge and dominate all sentients through microchips installed at their birth. 1d...

Artwork by Louis Glanzman The rulers of our universe. The ones that devastated and destroyed the old Empire to carve their petty domains on the ruins that were left and now destroy anyone who dares say they cannot do something they want to. Some of them make their subjects venerate them as living gods, other really believe they are indeed gods. Most only maintain order through violence, cruelty and fear, while rumors say that very few of them try to establish order through less deplorable ways. These tyrants have a score of servants that run the planets and administer the day to day aspects of life for them, often abusing of their station. They use their authority and the powers the Galactic Overlords bestow on them to, many times, forge their own domains. They form the aristocracy of the sorcerous tyrants domains, and often fill the roles of clergy and police too. Slavery is enforced on most, if not all, of these despots’ domains, as the population is explored and abused as mu...

Besides the astonishing technological artifacts that can change the lives of many, there also exist arcane devices created by and for the use of sorcery and psychic powers. No one really knows their origin or purpose, but many believe they were either created by the Galactic Overlords during the Cleansing Wars or were brought to our universe by entities from the Void, in an effort to corrupt sentient species with their power. These objects, differently from technological devices, have some form of sentience and a purpose. They provide great powers to their users, but they also charge a great price, especially from those that defy their wishes and purposes. Because of their uniqueness, we won’t present here a list of defined arcane artifacts, but a set of tables intended to help Overlords create their own artifacts for his campaign. Creator One of the defining elements of a arcane artifact is its creator. As said before, these objects possess sentience, and it’s intelligence ...