Shadow, Sword & Spell: Basic (Revised) (2011)

From publisher blurb:

You hail from a world awash in conflict, danger, and threats. You might be a thief due to your knack for picking the pockets of rich merchants in Gravinia while evading the blades of the competition. You might be a raider selling your sword to the highest bidder and fight for any or all as long as the silver flows. You might even hail from mysterious Cal’athar and have an affinity for arcane forces, using them to work spells outside the realm of Man.

In Shadow, Sword & Spell: Basic, you create a character embarking on an adventuring career. Some event or desire, drives you to thumb your nose at your lot in life and seek out a destiny of your choosing. Society holds no bounds for you and you choose the life you want to live. Why should the only wealthy be wealthy? Why should only the baron own his own land? You want that — and more — and by Azathoth’s Radiance, you will!

In Basic, your character adventures and grows, becoming not only stronger, but more influential. Over time, a character can acquire not only wealth but power. Your influence and fame enables you to command armies, rule a kingdom, influence society — but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Basic gets you to this point, if you survive it…

Written by Richard Iorio II (Colonial Gothic (1st - 3rd Editions)) and James Maliszewski (Thousand Suns) as well as powered by 12°, Shadow, Sword & Spell has everything you need to run games inspired by the greatest pulp writers of our time.

Changes to "Revised" edition:

CHARACTER CREATION
The character creation section has received a well-written revision to the basic game mechanics. The mechanics themselves have not changed, but the way they are presented and some of the examples have. This revision has not only made them more clear and easy to understand, but remove any confusion found when reading through the 1st Edition. The overall layout and presentation, however, have remained the same. These changes are more wording and styling changes that, while subtle, sure make a difference in ease of reading.

SKILLS AND HOOKS
The skills and hook section have been revised and expanded. The intro has been changed slightly to make it clearer. There are five new skills in the revised book which include art, craft, herbalist, merchant, and ride. The hooks have been expanded by adding examples and methods of using them in-play. Again, these changes are most welcomed and make the core rulebook that much better.

ECONOMY AND GEAR
The weapons pages of the economy and gear section have been modified slightly with a slight expansion and alteration to the armor, shields, and helmets section. The mechanics have remained the same, but their stats have been altered to something more believable. The layout and presentation have remained the same.

ACTION
The action section has probably received the largest amount of revision. This section has been expanded upon and utilizes an improvement to the layout by shuffling some of the individual groupings around for a better flow. There are also many new or expanded mechanics which include initiative, tactics, possible actions, throwing, movement, called shots, ranged combat, dramatic success, use of armor and shields, moving/lifting/pushing, and poisons. Not that this section required a change, but the new and expanded mechanics are a wonderful addition and help provide more options for game-play.

THE MAGICAL ARTS
All references and mechanics revolving around Arcane spells has been removed as they only appear in the Expert Core Rulebook anyway, this includes the Sanity numbers (which were all 0) for the common spells.

GAMEMASTERING
The gamemastering section has remained relatively unchanged.

SETTING
The setting now includes a new and improved map along with the introduction of trade guilds.

MUNDANE THREATS GREAT AND SMALL
The mundane threats section has received an improvement to the presentation to the way some of the stats are presented.

CREATURES
The creatures section has received an improvement to the way some of the stats are presented along with the occasional change to descriptions.

ADVENTURE
The included adventure module has remained mainly unchanged.

APPENDIX
The appendix now includes a complete sample character creation bringing all of the mechanics together so that you can see how the process works.