In January 2015 we presented Swords and Sorcerers, a bargain-priced collection of RPGs inspired by the sword-and-sorcery tales of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and others — fast-moving, often violent stories of sword-swinging heroes, colorful settings, headlong action, and dark magic. These were games of swordplay in many fantasy worlds and even in modern times — famous and lesser-known, classic and new — a huge range of settings and action, all united by the exotic color of sword-and-sorcery fiction.
We presented five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $42) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- Two Shadow, Sword, & Spell rulebooks from Rogue Games — Basic (retail price $7) and Player (retail $7): Human-centered pulp fantasy a la Howard, Leiber, Gardner Fox, Jack Vance, and other great writers. The Player guide adds lots of extra options. (See below for even more SS&S books.)
- Crimson Exodus 2nd Edition (Radical Approach, retail $16): This unusual FRPG brings sword-and-sorcery flavor to a dynamic low-fantasy dungeonland of orcs, elves, and dwarves.
- Sword Noir (Sword’s Edge, retail $7): A tasty and amazingly effective cross of dark fantasy with hardboiled film noir. (Think of Glen Cook’s Garrett PI novels and Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos.)
- Nod (Simon Carryer Games, retail $5): Three pages of rules, five sheets of cards, and in moments you’re weaving a tale of a barbarian in the mysterious city of Nod.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also go our entire Bonus Collection with eight more titles (retail value $72):
- Barbarians of Lemuria — Mythic Edition (Filigree Forge, retail $17): The heroic RPG of post-apocalyptic sword-and-sorcery in a gorgeous 211-page color edition.
- Two more Shadow, Sword, & Spell books from Rogue Games — Expert (retail $7) and Gamemaster (retail $7): Expanded rules and new methods for the pulp fantasy game introduced in our Starter Collection.
- On Mighty Thews (Simon Carryer Games, retail $5): The quintessential indie game of S&S storytelling — simple yet perfect.
- Sorcerers of Ur-Turuk (Arion Games, retail $15): Cast dark magic under burning skies in this D6-System game of Persian-style myth and desert culture.
- Legacy: War of Ages (Battlefield Press, retail $10): There can be only one in this 1993 game of techno-gothic swordfighting immortals.
- Katanas & Trenchcoats, Episode 1: Welcome to Darkest Vancouver – Ultragoth Edition (Ryan Macklin, retail $5): It’s really, really dark — so, so, so unbelievably darkity-dark. Plus, it’s written by dozens of your favorite designers, and oh boy are they DARRRK. This Ultragoth Edition is exclusive to this offer! It’s just like the Basic Edition and the next five editions, but it’s a new edition because it has ULTRAGOTH on the cover!
- Shadow, Sword, & Spell: The Stew (Rogue Games, retail $7): Yet a fifth SS&S book, this savory culinary adventure gives new meaning to the term “mystery meat.”
In a thief-infested slave bazaar in Shadizar this collection would cost you US$115, nearly as much as the captive prince soon to be auctioned as a slave and shipped out on a Hyrkanian galley transporting a legion of Turanian janissaries in an assault on the lair of Khauran pirates smuggling Black Lotus drug out of the jungle-ridden island of Giant’s Obelisk, said to be guarded by a mysterious iron demon and its weird mistress, a Kushite sorceress who — anyway, it would cost $115.
