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- Heroes, Villains and Swords and Sorcery
Posted by : Unknown
Apr 19, 2014
Sword and sorcery, at its core, is pulp, meaning the heroes are big damn heroes and the villains are big damn villains. The rest are mooks, as we have started calling them. The genre has themes that are prevalent in it that makes the stories so much fun. The themes should be looked at for an understanding, of what kind of characters will fit best in this world.
While Robert E Howard is the most known example of the genre, his works are not the end all be all to the genre. There are other authors and movies that have contributed to the genre. Just like most GM's, I have recently begun the genre immersion part of my campaign building. Reading, Google-ing, and watching movies that relate close to the genre. Plus, since I want it a bit darker, I have also looked at some of the base elements of horror, in fantasy settings. Here is my short list of movies, thus far, that have helped me put together some ideas. A mood lighting if you will:
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
In the Name of the King: Two Worlds
Conan the Barbarian (2011)
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Destroyer
The Beastmaster
Solomon Kane
Fire and Ice
Willow
Dawn of the Dragon Slayer
Midnight Chronicles
Krull
Deathstalker (1, 2, 3)
Dragonslayer (1981)
Legend
Themes
- Good versus Evil - Its black and white when dealing with evil, but not so much when dealing with good.
- Heroes are not likely - at first you are a pig farmer in a terrible countryside until...
- Heroes tend to keep it personal - ...Vong Guul Dark Sorcerer of Tir Nok and worshiper of the evil snake god shows up and kills your family. Now you will hunt him to the ends of the earth and once you kill him, peace falls over the land for a limited time.
- Villains are big - Vong Guul was just a peon, the big threat shows himself and forcibly married your wife who thought you was dead. Next adventure please (sequels)
- Counter Society - Society is bad m'kay. People of simple cultures tend to be better people. Cities make thieves and empires make villains.
- There are exceptions - Sometime cities can produce a true hero after some altering event that causes him to question his country's motives.
- Men are heroes women are scantily clad and sometimes heroes - Pretty straight forward there. Female heroes in S&S can be especially neat as they are often unexpected by male dominated culture and if seen in a supporting role they are almost always critical to the hero's success.
- Heroes travel alone - Except they don't. Sure the story focuses on Cragnar of the Wildlands. But Cragnar is assisted by his best buddy (a ridiculously greedy thief), a "skilled" warrior (playfully mocked by Cragnar but a very skilled fighter in the classical sense), and usually some sort of extra that covers the healing arts and some random stuff. S&S sometimes feels like you can't play it up with a party at a table but really watch the movie and look for those support characters, they may not kill as much but they are always memorable.
- Gods don't care - this is mainly because most of the original writers in the genre were atheists, but it can be refreshing to see. In games faith tends to be constant or at least in the background heavily and usually on the side of good, in S&S it'd different. They look at how too much faith leads to zealots and persecution. Faiths that are active are seen as evil, or too good to be true in some cases. Again unless its a barbaric ancient faith or druidism, that's the stuff of hero support characters.
- Life never gets better - you do not get knighted, you get vast amounts of riches you waste on booze and good times. And if life does "get better" like becoming king it just sucks in a different way. Warrior kings almost always begrudge their position and feel limited by the structure of government that says the hero can not enter the field of combat.
- Magic is scary and rare - Pretty straight forward here too, it is often used as a tool of villains. Most heroes use brains and brawn.
- Prophecies! - It was foretold of your coming eons ago by a mad blind woman who would ritually burn herself for visions. And guess what happens, they are so vague they always conveniently come true. If you want a great example watch the In the Name of the King movies. If you don't, watch them anyways, both are pretty good.
- Heroes usually don't have jobs - lets face it most of them don't, or if they did before adventuring it's back to the humble beginnings thing again. They generally don't forge their own weapons or have trade skills like so many D&D characters. They have adventurer skills and some negotiation skills to try to pawn the golden idol they found in that temple for a new ax.
- Weapons and armor are disposable - Throw your sword at that beast you can always get another.
- Heroes have a reason to be heroes, even if that does not always make them "good guys" - Straight forward, nothing new here anti-heroes welcome so long as you can get along with your crew. no lone wolves.
Villains
Lets start with villains. They are going to be GM category only. In the past, I have been pretty open to people playing character loyal to the evil forces, at the start of the game. My problem with this is they never seem to break away, so I am not letting that happen this time. If, in character, you have a damn good reason to cross your friends to help evil that's one thing, but I do not want you to then start playing a kindhearted savage turned civilized man in 2 sessions, that now wants to make his people convert to his new faith in society or die. If you do I will attempt to make the party do my dirty work for me. If that fails, I will send heroes after you, until I have taught you the error of your ways. To quote my threat from Star Wars, if it gets out of control, flying space rancors with force powers.
Heroes/PC's
Pay attention to the themes of S&S. This is pulp play it up a bit, I will be letting bennies flow for heroism and brazen acts of courage (sometimes called stupidity). I have themed bennies to only be used to give an ally a bonus to encourage teamwork. Use them and narrate how you will help even if it a shout of encouragement. For example, I spend a bennie to let Murdock roll soak and the flavor is my character telling his to duck just in the nick of time. To keep the pulp theme, I will play up combat scenes and add environmental things to play with, but if I didn't say there was a tankard of ale, ask me. Maybe there is one, this game is going to be more about the fun of story telling with fast hard combat rather than rules brokering. That's part of the reason I went with Savage Worlds.
My favorite characters from this table came from Legend of the Five Rings and I think that's because they made more well rounded characters with the 20 Questions presented in the book. So I provide these questions for my players to answer in a Google doc for me. I encourage this for GM's and players alike as it defines somethings about who your character is beyond numbers and as always because I think more personal, answer in character.
20 Questions for Asamon: The New Age
- Who are you? What lands do you hail from stranger?
- Who are your parents? Brothers and sisters?
- Why should I hire you? What skills have you?
- How will I recognize you when we meet? Do you have any peculiar mannerisms?
- Why do you travel these lands? What is your quest?
- Whom do you call brother/sister?
- What is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?
- What do you think of civilized people? And of the tribesmen?
- What of your own place of birth, what do you think of them?
- What do you know of love?
- What of your family? Any children?
- Do you have any prejudices?
- What kind of companions do you travel with? Or rather what do you look for in companions who travel with you?
- What is your favorite and least favorite things?
- What is your greatest ambition? Would you give it up for another?
- What faith do you find comfort in?
- What is your worst fear?
- How do you feel about magic?
- Who were you before Chaos descended? Where were you when it happened? What have you been doing since?
- How will you die?
From Guillaume Nonain:
ReplyDeleteMonsters are Giant Animals: adventures have more human foes than monstrous beings. When they do, monsters are usually large sized versions of dangerous animals: giant snake, colossus gorilla, elephant-sized spider etc.
This is a great point, nature sometimes joins the fight and when it does it's big. So play it up make them Wild Cards. Giant (insert creature name for area) comes crashing through the (terrain), and it looks pissed!
Delete