Sword Chronicle is the spiritual successor to the Game of Thrones RPG in that it uses the Chronicle System to bring to life a feudal fantasy world.
Unlike Game of Thrones, Sword Chronicle takes a more typical Tolkien/D&D route with fantasy races, and that’s where this early look at the game from Green Ronin takes us.
Except, Sword Chronicle takes a leaf from Pathfinder and avoids using the term race and goes with “ancestries”. As it happens, this is a technique developer Malcolm Sheppard has used before.
First, the term “race,” traditionally used for these fantasy peoples back in the dawn of the hobby, had to go. I had personally abandoned the term in other work back in 2010, in a White Wolf project where I insisted on the use of “peoples.” In my role as Modern AGE developer I used “peoples,” as well, before settling into ancestries as the preferred term in the Threefold setting. Ancestries seems to be what Paizo’s Pathfinder opted for as well.
Sword Chronicle will back in support for characters and NPCs with multiple ancestries. In the game, you can have been brought up by humans after being abandoned by your elf and dwarf parents.
The core rules will support human, elf, dwarf and ogre.
Players begin with two ancestry points to assign during character generation, and more are available as part of Sword Chronicle’s Destiny Points.
Green Ronin takes a look at dwarves in their intro.
Dwarven culture values artisanship and concrete achievements over social niceties. In settlements dominated by dwarven social mores, smiths, stoneworkers, and other artisans may be part of the nobility, and lords may even be asked to produce a masterwork in their trade to qualify for leadership. Dwarves may possess more sophisticated technologies than other peoples, but are notably less interested in the study of nature. Dwarven communities practice some agriculture, but usually prefer to trade for things that grow.
We’re also shown some of the benefits that characters with a dwarf ancestory might have. One is Blood of the Citadel which is an exclusive.
Blood of the Citadel
Ancestry (Dwarf)
The legacy of the citadel dwarves flows through your veins. Each time you make a Cunning roll to practice a trade involving working metal, stone or other solid minerals, or to identify the value and properties of anything made largely of metal or jewels, you may re-roll a number of 1s equal to your Awareness rank. Whenever you are attacked by fire or heat, increase your passive Endurance by 2. Finally, add +1B to Warfare rolls when attacking, defending, or fighting in fortifications.
Do you play the Game of Thrones RPG and are you looking forward to the Chronicle System expanding into more traditional fantasy?
