Blade of the Iron Throne

330 Pages·2013·6.58 MB·English

“And on this throne of black iron, there shall be seated
the great king of bloodshed and murder,
and he shall be as a god unto slayers of men.
And all who do his work in the lands shall be called his
blades,
and they shall strive to become alike him,
and be feared and revered amongst their lesser
brethren...”
The Forlorn Tome of Du’Karrn
ISBN: 0-29882-89386-9
Copyright © 2013 Iron Throne Publishing
Blade of the Iron Throne and all associated names, characters, logos, marks, and illustrations are © and TM
2013 Iron Throne Publishing, Phillip Jones and Michael Heider. All rights reserved.
All artwork © and TM 2013 Iron Throne Publishing. All rights reserved.
The World of Xoth, and all related characters, names, places, items, plots, settings, descriptive text and con-
cepts are copyright (C) 2008-2013, Morten Braten and Xoth.Net Publishing. They appear in this work with
permission.
Permission granted to copy the character sheets and tables from the Appendices for personal use.
CREDITS
Written by Phillip Jones and Michael Heider
Production Manager: Ian Plumb, Griffin Grove Media
Layout: Ryan Maguire, Griffin Grove Media
Editing and Proofing: Vicky Gemmel
Passion Attribute description: Matthew Terry
ITP Logo and Cover Design: Tommaso Galmacci
Cover Art: Courtesy of Robin Olausson
The World of Xoth is featured courtesy of:
Morten Braten and Xoth.Net Publishing
Special thanks to Paul Sharratt for providing the model for the
Blade Sorcery mechanics.
Special Thanks
To Jake Norwood, creator of The Riddle of Steel, the game that
inspired this work, Mary my wife, and to Gordon Lepp, a great
gamer and my best friend, I will always miss you.
Playtesters
Jon Hyams, Ian Plumb, Lucas Gonasalves, Antti Piipponen, Alegz
Obernigg, Robert Davis, Paul Reinwald, Mattia Corsini
Table of Contents
Introduction 7
Mechanics 9
What is a Role-playing Game? 10
What kind of RPG is Blade of the Iron Throne? 11
Basic Rules - Checks 11
Dice Types Used 11
The Major Checks 12
Attribute Descriptions 17
Characters 21
I - Talents 22
1. Sorcery 23
2. Culture 24
3. Attributes 26
4. Skills 26
5. Proficiencies 27
6. Assets 27
II. Other Details 28
III. Character Creation Example 28
IV. Creating your own Talent Table 32
Training 35
Skills Overview 36
Skill Descriptions 36
Assets Overview 48
ASSETS DESCRIBED 48
Proficiencies Overview 68
PROFICIENCIES DESCRIBED 68
OFFENSIVE MANEUVERS DESCRIBED 71
DEFENSIVE MANEUVERS DESCRIBED 83
Character Progression 88
PASSION ATTRIBUTES 88
Melee 97
I. Melee Combat Overview 98
1. LIMELIGHT AND THE COMBAT ROUND 98
2. THE ORDER OF A COMBAT ROUND 101
3. STEPS 1 & 2: STANCES, INITIATIVE, AND SURPRISE 101
4
4. STEPS 3 & 5: THE EXCHANGE 105
5. STEPS 4 & 6: DAMAGE 107
6. TERRAIN CHECKS 112
7. FATIGUE IN THE COMBAT SCENE 115
II. Defense 116
1. EVASION 116
2. DEFENSIVE ACTIONS 118
3. ARMOR OVERVIEW 119
4. ARMOR TYPES 120
5. BARBARIAN CHIC (OPTIONAL) 121
III. Ranged Combat 122
IV. Mounted Combat 127
1. Rideby Melee Attacks 129
2. Jousting 130
3. Mounted Archery 130
4. Barding 131
V. Animals in Combat 132
VI. An Example of Melee Combat 139
Travel and Health 143
I. Travel, Scene Framing, and Scene Requests 144
II. Encumbrance (Optional) 145
III. Health 146
1. HEALING AND WOUNDS 146
2. FALLING DAMAGE 147
3. GENERIC DAMAGE 148
4. POISON 148
5. PAIN - IT’S JUST A SCRATCH! (OPTIONAL) 150
Sorcery 153
I. Sorcery Overview 154
1. THE SORCERY POOL 155
2. TAINT 156
3. THE LESSER MYSTERIES 158
4. GREATER MYSTERIES 165
5. ARCANE SECRETS 171
6. COMBINING SORCEROUS EFFORTS 180
7. DUEL OF WILLS 181
8. EFFECTING MULTIPLE TARGETS 185
S&S Gaming 187
A Sword & Sorcery Overview 188
5
THE WORLD OF SWORD & SORCERY 188
FAITH AND THE DIVINE 189
MAGIC AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN SWORD & SORCERY 190
THE RACIAL MAKEUP OF SWORD & SORCERY 191
HEROES AND VILLAINS IN SWORD & SORCERY 192
THE SWORD & SORCERY TALE 194
20 Tips for running your Blade game! 197
Xoth 205
Xoth Overview 206
THE PEOPLE 206
The Gods 215
The World 220
Drugs of Xoth 234
Appendices 237
Wound Tables 238
CLEAVING DAMAGE TABLES 238
PIERCING DAMAGE TABLES 245
BLUNT DAMAGE TABLES 251
SWUNG PIERCING DAMAGE TABLES 264
MELEE WEAPON TABLES 272
Melee Weapon Tables 272
PUNCHES AND KICKS 284
ANIMAL WEAPONS 285
MISSILE WEAPONS 287
Weapon Quality 288
Enchanted Weapons 288
NPCs 289
Beasts 300
Supernatural Menaces 306
Bibliography 311
The Precursors 311
The Pioneers 312
The Founding Fathers 312
The Emulators 314
The Defenders 316
Glossary 318
Index 323
6
Introduction
Eleven years ago today Jake Norwood and team were wrapping up develop-
ment of their revolutionary RPG, The Riddle of Steel. The following March the game
was released at GAMA -- and the first print run sold out. A second printing soon
followed and it is this version of the game that most players remember so fondly.
The fact that we’re still talking about a game that was released nearly eleven
years ago, a game that hasn’t had any official material published for it in the last five
years, a game that still has an active community behind it, is testament to the origi-
nality of Jake’s game. What attracted gamers to it all those years ago still holds true
today -- player-driven story and detailed, realistic combat mechanics producing a
true Narrativist-Simulationist hybrid that appeals to players and referees alike.
About two and a half years ago the trosfans community broached the sub-
ject of a successor game in earnest. Over the years many had asked whether a new
version of TRoS could be produced, one that addressed the inconsistencies preva-
lent in the first edition. Issues over ownership and copyright ruled out that option
and so the idea of a successor game was introduced. Ninety threads and nearly two
thousand posts later every aspect of TRoS has been picked apart and alternatives
suggested.
Upon this maelstrom of ideas order needed to be imposed. The greater pool
of concepts needed to be gleaned, the numbers winnowed, until a coherent whole
was formed. Who better to do this than two of the communities’ most active con-
tributors? Phil and Michael had a clear vision for an RPG that worked seamlessly
within the classic genre of Sword and Sorcery fiction.
Today, with Blade of the Iron Throne they have produced a successor to
TRoS that has none of the anomalies, none of the inconsistencies, none of the gaps --
yet retains a clear link to TRoS through player-driven story and demanding, realistic
combat scenes.
If Conan were to pick up a role-playing game, he’d choose this one.
Ian Plumb – December 2012
7
A battered, gut-weary handful of hunted men – ruthless, half-wild
outlaws hounded by killers as remorseless as themselves. Shivering in
their dirt and blood-caked bandages, they rode on in grim determination,
thoughts numb to pain and fear – although both phantoms rode beside
them – intent on nothing more than the deadly necessity of flight. Flight
from the hired bounty killers who followed almost on the sound of their
hoofbeats.
They were well mounted; their gear was chosen from the plunder of
uncounted raids. But now their horses stumbled with fatigue, their gear
was worn and travel-stained, their weapons notched and dulled from
hard fighting. They were the last. The last on this side of Hell of those who
had ridden behind Kane, as feared and daring an outlaw pack as had
ever roamed the Myceum Mountains.
No more would they set upon travellers along the lonely mountain
passes, pillage merchants’ camps, terrorize isolated settlements. Never
again would they sweep down from the dark-pined slopes and lay waste
to villages on the coastal plains, then dart back into the secret fastness
of the mountains where the Combine’s cavalry dared not venture. Their
comrades were dead, fed ravens in a forgotten valley countless twisted
miles behind their bent shoulders. Their leader, whose infamous cunning
and deadly sword at last had failed them, was dying in his saddle.
They were all dead men.
And night was upon them.
Karl Edward Wagner, “Raven’s Eyrie”
8
Chapter I
Mechanics
“Ushered before it, they prostrated before this throne
of iron, its visage as black as the ravaged souls of those
votaries before it. But its stair granted none its purchase;
It was an ebon boon that none could claim unless first
claimed by it…”
- The Forlorn Tome of Du’Karrn
Mechanics 9
What is a Role-
playing Game?
Role-playing is about being creative and having fun. It involves getting together
with friends to write a story, perhaps joining around a campfire or a dining room
table to spin some tall tales.
Role-playing games (RPGs) are stories in which you create one of the main char-
acters and the story around that character. The rest of the players create stories
around their own characters. The “referee” (or more simply “ref”) brings those sto-
ries together. The referee can be thought of as the “director” of the story.
In most RPGs, the referee will - with input from you, if you desire to give any -
describe a world or setting. You and your friends will play the protagonist and char-
acters in this world, guiding your characters through the story that you and your
friends create.
Each player plays a different character, and each character interacts with each
of the other characters. Role-playing, in this sense, is very much play-acting in the
mind. You imagine what the referee describes. Then you imagine your character’s
response to that situation, and describe that to the ref and the other players. They, in
turn, each do the same with their characters.
In most games – board games, card games, and dice games – there is a clearly
defined way to win and a clearly defined way to lose. Typically, winning is the goal
of the game. In role-playing games, the concepts of “winning” and “losing” do not
exist. Your goal as a player is to help create a story and to have fun. You may give
your character other goals, but the success of your character does not determine any
sense of “winning” or “losing.”
Like life, it’s not so much whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.
That’s all well and good, you say, but what actually goes on? What do these “char-
acters” do?
Most of the time, characters are involved in adventures; adventures of the type
that are immortalized in adventure movies and serial novels. In one game, the char-
acters might be a group of secret agents trying to save the world from nuclear de-
struction. In another, you might play a rebel force trying to overthrow an evil star-
spanning empire. You might play a group of warriors in eleventh century Europe,
or King Arthur’s knights, or Superman, or Batman, or an original character of your
own creation - in any world you choose.
Like all games and many RPGs, Blade of the Iron Throne involves elements of
chance, skill, and strategy. These three elements are tightly related.
10