Just One Sword
A downloadable game
You have ascended the mountain, your sword sharp and your empty coin purse begging to be filled. The tower looms in the distance, but a light bursts forth from the base as a door opens. A dark, hooded figure steps out, challenging you. Against this sorcerous darkness, you realize you only have Just One Sword
JUST ONE SWORD is a 90-page, OSR-Inspired Solo-RPG about delving into ancient dungeons and forgotten tombs to collect the treasure and return home triumphant. It is inspired by the greats before it such as:
- Worlds Without Number
- Dragonbane
- Ironsworn
It includes a full list of rules to help the solo-player experience the joy of playing an old-school game where death or glory are the only two options.
FEATURES
- Classless character creation involving a background and a tragedy
- Ability Checks that use 2d6+ATR Bonus system inspired by PbtA games (Full Success, Partial Success, Failure) so that the story is always driven forward
- Additional Character Advancement options outside of XP for Treasure including exploring and cleverly avoiding fights.
- Survival Mechanics
- 30 Non-Combat Skills to choose from that add +1 situational bonuses to your Ability check.
- 10 Combat Skills to help make combat more interesting
- Player facing d20 combat - Roll to hit, and then roll to block or dodge.
- Modified combat rules to make sure you live to tell your tale!
- Region Designer
- Settlement Designer
- Dungeon Designer
- Encounter Designer
- Treasure Generator
- Full Bestiary that diverges from the classic fantasy to give a more "sword and sorcery" Conan-vibe.
- A full list of 36 folk-magic styled spells that rely on herbs and proper preparation. You don't just wake up with "Turn Undead," you have to actually prepare it.
- A full oracle system that includes an Aspect+Theme, a Tarot-inspired Concept roll, Adventure Seeds, and even names, goals, careers, and more!
This is, and will always remain, a FREE PRODUCT for anyone and everyone. It is also compatible with monsters, spells, and other effects from other OSR games like BFRPG or WBFMAG.
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Development log
- Minor Updates15 hours ago
Comments
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Any chance of an epub version?
This looks very interesting
For Saves (page 6), I assume you mean 16 or higher on a d20 and not on 2d6+bonus, right? Maybe have a unified mechanic for both (saves and skills) rolls, like 10 or higher to save.
Answering my own question: on page 13, it says to use a d20 for combat and saves. Not sure if it's a great idea to mix PbtA and d20 mechanics in the same game. I recommend sticking to one or the other. Check World of Dungeons by John Harper to see what I mean.
Good catch! Saves and combat are both d20's, which I mention on Page 13. I should definitely edit that to be more clear. I wanted them both to have that OSR swing to them while skills were on the bell-curve.
Page 26:
INCOMING DAMAGE
Can you explain why damage works differently for player characters vs NPCs or monsters? If I deal 1d8 damage with a sword to an orc, shouldn't an orc with a sword deal 1d8 damage to me?When the player character is hit, modify the damage dealt per die by dividing it in half and rounding down, then summing it together to get the total damage.
This is simply to make combat more survivable. If the enemy dealt damage at the same rate you did, you wouldn't survive your first encounter most likely
Hey would you be interested in me making some (free) cover art for this? I love your Just One Torch solo booklet and wanna contribute if I can. If you're interested DM me on twitter or discord :)
Absolutely! I will message you on Discord