Diogo Nogueira is an author I love. He has the passion, the knack and the will to breath life into awesome projects, like his Old Skull games, now under the mighty distribution of Gallant Knight Games.
Nogueira's games are refreshing experience with an Old School spirit: you fins sorcery, you find deadly enemies and GM fiat, along with super fun and flexible modern rules.
Solat Blades and Cosmic Spells is another gem after the acclaimed "Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells" (now through the rewriting process since Sb&Cs is the first incarnation of the Old Skull's system second edition, more deep and specific).
Star & Sorcery... and Heavy Metal!
Nogueira is an 80s/90s movie passionate, he is a great artist and loves comics / books with strong themes.
Solar Blades shines because it feels the right way to put a sci fi game nowadays, when we already have our modern alternatives for mid/hard scifi (Starfinder, The Expanse AGE, Coriolis, Infinity RPG): Nogueira recreates a strong feeling and style.
The galaxy reached a high level of progress and technology, but the Galactic Overlords started cleansing the "aliens" and squashed everything down into a post-apicalyptic sci fi era. Each Overlord (the name for the GM as well) controls a sector and its sign is clear: maybe an Overlord which is master of illusions will control a sector through mind altering influences, while a foul Overlord connected to science experimentations would rule with the aid of chemical plagues and technological authority.
The game has some sort of metasetting, with enormous amounts of inspiring tables: each sector if briefly introduced to let the players grasp the main themes, then some options to roll are given to create planets, stations and features.
You feel like you are oppressed by the powerful Overlords, you feel like traveling between planets is highly dangerous but still necessary, since resources are scarce, legendary artifacts await somewhere and you might simply be in need to scout a new area for survival.
Technology has been squashed down to a 90s like cyberpunk thing, so you have bulky PC screens, you obviously have much more portable communicators or old school notebooks, but you still need to go there with a physical hacking kit to repair/alter a PC and you still need to be relatively in range to send a message.
These are crucial parts to understand the mindset: with everything taking time, having the right starship, a right contact to purchase ammo or the right traveler to send a message in time!
Everything is basically an adventure hook or, at least, an interesing fair amount of time spent with some nice NPC.
This is all about weird hair styles, patched starships, unique fixers, funny aliens with weird habits... But it is even about serious racial issue, oppression, poverty, thrill seeking.
The high contrast is strong and it is a segnature mark of Nogueira's style.
Basics
When it comes to rolling dice, this game is damn easy and rewarding. You have 4 attribuites (Physique, Agility, Intellect and Willpower) with scores going from 3 to 15 at the very beginning.
Since we are in an old school spirit, we are not rolling to convince someone or to discover lies, i.e. That's mostly challenging the player while enhancing the RPing experience.
When we seriously need to avoid failure, we make checks: roll a d20 and HOPE to get a number equal to or lower your relevant attribuite.
ALL checks have a difficulty assigned to it, usually in between 1 and 5. Difficulty is basically a lower threshold and, in order to fully succeed on a check, is to roll a number that's equal to or lower your attribute AND higher than the difficulty. Feels weird, but it's definitely brilliant! I.e., if you have an Intellect of 14 and you need to recall difficult knowledge, the GM might apply a difficulty of 3. Your d20 roll must be within 4 and 14.
If you roll within the difficulty range, you fail with some fail forward consequences (maybe you do not recall the knowledge, but you remember someone who might do); if you fail by rolling above your attribuite score, the failure is absolute.
This adds tons of depth and a great mean of customisation.
Then, some elements, like your concept (a key sentence describing your PC) or specific abilitiea might grant you Positive or Negative Die. Positive Die lets you roll one more d20 and choose the result you like.
The Negative Die lets you roll one more d20, but the GM gets to choose whatever result.
When you fail a check, you can Push the Roll, meaning you can immediately describe how you try again: if you fail, though, GM has basically absolute leverage on the outcomes.
Along with a brilliant luck roll mechanic and a funny and abstract Credits system (based on your buying power), this game offers a simole yet super funny and flexible mechanics to represent almost any situation.
No Class, Thanks!
Nogueira's unique design is based on archetypes, along with an optional rule to mix things up.
There are four archetypes, each with four and functional abilities: here's where the game reveals its action oriented nature, which is a nice addition. Yes, because you can basically customise everything and you need a bunch of mercenaries/smugglers/skill mongers to grab some credits, in order to be something more. You must get your hands dirty.
The Tough is a weapon expert / brawler getting a higher amount of Vitality; The Nimble is the agile one, with a knack for specific activities; The Smart knows stuff and learns to know more; The Gifted senses and manipulates the supernatural. You can mix them up as you see fit to create your hero.
The Concept helps defining your concept, allowing you to get some Positive die; the Complication interacts with the Luck mechanic, adding a nasty consequence in exchange of a point of Luck (read, one more chance to get randomly out of trouble).
You can learn additional abilities through the story: while some of the archetypes' abilities get better with levels, you can search for a hidden academy to learn special attacks, look for a specific trial to gain some stone skin, or train in a wildland to get a totemic guide. Anything. There are guidelines, but it is all up to the table, adding extra quests and travels for each party member. Nice thing, another way to generate story hooks out of nowhere.
It's a Kind of Magic!
While technology is obsolete but usable in an analog-ish way, Sorcery (or Psionic power, your choices with different narratives) is absolutely powerful and risky. The Gifted can call the mysterious forces of the Void to alter the reality, with great risk in case of failure. The brilliant idea here comes from the fact that you, as the "caster", choose the Power Level of the socery, thus altering the variables. Sorceries are presented as generic powers you can reskin and customise; on the mechanical side, some elements are presented like "...for PL rounds..." or "...up to PL creatures...". That is your decided power level, the amount of Difficulty you want to apply to the roll in order to gain the wanted effect. To add further depth, you take some damage while casting spells with a Power Level far above your character's level.
In case of failure, the Void or your own mind will backlash and you'll find yourself in trouble, with your powers hindered, heavily disabled, damaged or worst.
The magical side of the game doesn't end with your powers: there are artifacts / relics ready to be found and possessed, but their power has a cost as well. You can't just tap into the mysterious powers of a relic: you will soon become corrupted, enthralled, or worst (oh, worst is always my favorite!).
Expect deadly artifact powers, mysterious keys, granting access to lost temples to Forgotten Gods or weird items leading to hidden sectors. You, as a character, will need to balance sanity, common sense, ethics and personal achievement in every single choice regarding special powers, being them your own stuff or derived from mystical alien relics.
Everything has a price, everything is story, Nogueira knows it very well.
Generate your Universe!
Along with awesome tables to generate campaigns (funny "story editor" to create villains, adventure titles, rewards etc), there are tables for each individual sector. You can just roll dice on a hexagonal map (literally) and see where and how planets are placed in the sector. There are ways to determine travel directions, etc.
Each sector, as above, has its own flavor, with gigantic hooks to recreate it. There are tables to create legends, stories and background elements to enhance the brutal and grim setting feel.
Unbelievable. You can just scroll the book, roll a couple of dice and find yourself traveling through your own imagination, designing universes, enemies, cospiracies... Awesome.
Spaceship
Yes they are right there. We are plenty of models, improvements, guidelines, complications, chance of going just BOOOOM and die, fast travel.
All of this packed up for a super fast space combat with brilliant rules for scaling (like a dreadnought fighting a personal vehicle).
You have roles, as players. Each character will cover one at a time and can make checks to change parameters: the science officer might rebalance shields, engineers might boost the engines, pilots can make twists and turns. The good thing here is that you basically stay within the boundaries of the regular system, so you are not playing another game while in space: at the same time, some gamey elements add depth and the feel of a unique moment, without bogging the game down. Kudos.
Beasts
The bestiary section is full of creatures, beings, cultists and hooks. The simplicity of their sheets is all you need to push them into the pit, focusing on their behaviour and rolepelay aspect. Combat is basically identical to any other test, so you just roll to hit, make maneuvers, hopefully resist to powers and add some d6s for damage.
Monsters and adversaries can easily be reskinned and a functional creature lab is right there to help you create unique creatures with unique powers.
Again, simple, effective, funny.
Options? Yeah!
The Appendix offers inspirational material and options. You have rules to make the game more gonzo style, to mix archetypes, add some special game currency, etc. Just take a look right here and you'll find some other trinkets to customise your campaign!
This game is basically endless. Not only you can easily create a multifaceted universe, but all the adventures you can randomly generate or the ones you'll discover with your players when they are lookiny for something to teach their characters new stuff will remove any need of anything more than this book and a bunch of dice.
This game has style. It provides a uniqur 90s feel with nice twists for modernitya, both from gameplay and in game stuff.
You'll always find what you're looking for thanks to thousands of table entries and optional material, wether you're in need of ideas for a small group or inputs when the main story just doesn't work.
Players will feel completely free and engaged: grab a starship, improve it, search for stardust in order to fast travel, solve the issue, get the credits, move on. You, as a GM, can easilybe follow the flow, quickly improvise a complication or just focus on the ones provided by the PCs!
This is the ultimate sandbox sci fi game with a old school spirit, where ancient relics, sorcery, foul beings and corrupted Overlords dot the galaxy.
This is a game written by a passionate man and gamer, nonetheless an extraordinary artist.
Get it. Now.
Get Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells on DriveThru RPG!!!
Nogueira's games are refreshing experience with an Old School spirit: you fins sorcery, you find deadly enemies and GM fiat, along with super fun and flexible modern rules.
Solat Blades and Cosmic Spells is another gem after the acclaimed "Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells" (now through the rewriting process since Sb&Cs is the first incarnation of the Old Skull's system second edition, more deep and specific).
Star & Sorcery... and Heavy Metal!
Nogueira is an 80s/90s movie passionate, he is a great artist and loves comics / books with strong themes.
Solar Blades shines because it feels the right way to put a sci fi game nowadays, when we already have our modern alternatives for mid/hard scifi (Starfinder, The Expanse AGE, Coriolis, Infinity RPG): Nogueira recreates a strong feeling and style.
The galaxy reached a high level of progress and technology, but the Galactic Overlords started cleansing the "aliens" and squashed everything down into a post-apicalyptic sci fi era. Each Overlord (the name for the GM as well) controls a sector and its sign is clear: maybe an Overlord which is master of illusions will control a sector through mind altering influences, while a foul Overlord connected to science experimentations would rule with the aid of chemical plagues and technological authority.
The game has some sort of metasetting, with enormous amounts of inspiring tables: each sector if briefly introduced to let the players grasp the main themes, then some options to roll are given to create planets, stations and features.
You feel like you are oppressed by the powerful Overlords, you feel like traveling between planets is highly dangerous but still necessary, since resources are scarce, legendary artifacts await somewhere and you might simply be in need to scout a new area for survival.
Technology has been squashed down to a 90s like cyberpunk thing, so you have bulky PC screens, you obviously have much more portable communicators or old school notebooks, but you still need to go there with a physical hacking kit to repair/alter a PC and you still need to be relatively in range to send a message.
These are crucial parts to understand the mindset: with everything taking time, having the right starship, a right contact to purchase ammo or the right traveler to send a message in time!
Everything is basically an adventure hook or, at least, an interesing fair amount of time spent with some nice NPC.
This is all about weird hair styles, patched starships, unique fixers, funny aliens with weird habits... But it is even about serious racial issue, oppression, poverty, thrill seeking.
The high contrast is strong and it is a segnature mark of Nogueira's style.
Basics
When it comes to rolling dice, this game is damn easy and rewarding. You have 4 attribuites (Physique, Agility, Intellect and Willpower) with scores going from 3 to 15 at the very beginning.
Since we are in an old school spirit, we are not rolling to convince someone or to discover lies, i.e. That's mostly challenging the player while enhancing the RPing experience.
When we seriously need to avoid failure, we make checks: roll a d20 and HOPE to get a number equal to or lower your relevant attribuite.
ALL checks have a difficulty assigned to it, usually in between 1 and 5. Difficulty is basically a lower threshold and, in order to fully succeed on a check, is to roll a number that's equal to or lower your attribute AND higher than the difficulty. Feels weird, but it's definitely brilliant! I.e., if you have an Intellect of 14 and you need to recall difficult knowledge, the GM might apply a difficulty of 3. Your d20 roll must be within 4 and 14.
If you roll within the difficulty range, you fail with some fail forward consequences (maybe you do not recall the knowledge, but you remember someone who might do); if you fail by rolling above your attribuite score, the failure is absolute.
This adds tons of depth and a great mean of customisation.
Then, some elements, like your concept (a key sentence describing your PC) or specific abilitiea might grant you Positive or Negative Die. Positive Die lets you roll one more d20 and choose the result you like.
The Negative Die lets you roll one more d20, but the GM gets to choose whatever result.
When you fail a check, you can Push the Roll, meaning you can immediately describe how you try again: if you fail, though, GM has basically absolute leverage on the outcomes.
Along with a brilliant luck roll mechanic and a funny and abstract Credits system (based on your buying power), this game offers a simole yet super funny and flexible mechanics to represent almost any situation.
No Class, Thanks!
Nogueira's unique design is based on archetypes, along with an optional rule to mix things up.
There are four archetypes, each with four and functional abilities: here's where the game reveals its action oriented nature, which is a nice addition. Yes, because you can basically customise everything and you need a bunch of mercenaries/smugglers/skill mongers to grab some credits, in order to be something more. You must get your hands dirty.
The Tough is a weapon expert / brawler getting a higher amount of Vitality; The Nimble is the agile one, with a knack for specific activities; The Smart knows stuff and learns to know more; The Gifted senses and manipulates the supernatural. You can mix them up as you see fit to create your hero.
The Concept helps defining your concept, allowing you to get some Positive die; the Complication interacts with the Luck mechanic, adding a nasty consequence in exchange of a point of Luck (read, one more chance to get randomly out of trouble).
You can learn additional abilities through the story: while some of the archetypes' abilities get better with levels, you can search for a hidden academy to learn special attacks, look for a specific trial to gain some stone skin, or train in a wildland to get a totemic guide. Anything. There are guidelines, but it is all up to the table, adding extra quests and travels for each party member. Nice thing, another way to generate story hooks out of nowhere.
It's a Kind of Magic!
While technology is obsolete but usable in an analog-ish way, Sorcery (or Psionic power, your choices with different narratives) is absolutely powerful and risky. The Gifted can call the mysterious forces of the Void to alter the reality, with great risk in case of failure. The brilliant idea here comes from the fact that you, as the "caster", choose the Power Level of the socery, thus altering the variables. Sorceries are presented as generic powers you can reskin and customise; on the mechanical side, some elements are presented like "...for PL rounds..." or "...up to PL creatures...". That is your decided power level, the amount of Difficulty you want to apply to the roll in order to gain the wanted effect. To add further depth, you take some damage while casting spells with a Power Level far above your character's level.
In case of failure, the Void or your own mind will backlash and you'll find yourself in trouble, with your powers hindered, heavily disabled, damaged or worst.
The magical side of the game doesn't end with your powers: there are artifacts / relics ready to be found and possessed, but their power has a cost as well. You can't just tap into the mysterious powers of a relic: you will soon become corrupted, enthralled, or worst (oh, worst is always my favorite!).
Expect deadly artifact powers, mysterious keys, granting access to lost temples to Forgotten Gods or weird items leading to hidden sectors. You, as a character, will need to balance sanity, common sense, ethics and personal achievement in every single choice regarding special powers, being them your own stuff or derived from mystical alien relics.
Everything has a price, everything is story, Nogueira knows it very well.
Generate your Universe!
Along with awesome tables to generate campaigns (funny "story editor" to create villains, adventure titles, rewards etc), there are tables for each individual sector. You can just roll dice on a hexagonal map (literally) and see where and how planets are placed in the sector. There are ways to determine travel directions, etc.
Each sector, as above, has its own flavor, with gigantic hooks to recreate it. There are tables to create legends, stories and background elements to enhance the brutal and grim setting feel.
Unbelievable. You can just scroll the book, roll a couple of dice and find yourself traveling through your own imagination, designing universes, enemies, cospiracies... Awesome.
Spaceship
Yes they are right there. We are plenty of models, improvements, guidelines, complications, chance of going just BOOOOM and die, fast travel.
All of this packed up for a super fast space combat with brilliant rules for scaling (like a dreadnought fighting a personal vehicle).
You have roles, as players. Each character will cover one at a time and can make checks to change parameters: the science officer might rebalance shields, engineers might boost the engines, pilots can make twists and turns. The good thing here is that you basically stay within the boundaries of the regular system, so you are not playing another game while in space: at the same time, some gamey elements add depth and the feel of a unique moment, without bogging the game down. Kudos.
Beasts
The bestiary section is full of creatures, beings, cultists and hooks. The simplicity of their sheets is all you need to push them into the pit, focusing on their behaviour and rolepelay aspect. Combat is basically identical to any other test, so you just roll to hit, make maneuvers, hopefully resist to powers and add some d6s for damage.
Monsters and adversaries can easily be reskinned and a functional creature lab is right there to help you create unique creatures with unique powers.
Again, simple, effective, funny.
Options? Yeah!
The Appendix offers inspirational material and options. You have rules to make the game more gonzo style, to mix archetypes, add some special game currency, etc. Just take a look right here and you'll find some other trinkets to customise your campaign!
This game is basically endless. Not only you can easily create a multifaceted universe, but all the adventures you can randomly generate or the ones you'll discover with your players when they are lookiny for something to teach their characters new stuff will remove any need of anything more than this book and a bunch of dice.
This game has style. It provides a uniqur 90s feel with nice twists for modernitya, both from gameplay and in game stuff.
You'll always find what you're looking for thanks to thousands of table entries and optional material, wether you're in need of ideas for a small group or inputs when the main story just doesn't work.
Players will feel completely free and engaged: grab a starship, improve it, search for stardust in order to fast travel, solve the issue, get the credits, move on. You, as a GM, can easilybe follow the flow, quickly improvise a complication or just focus on the ones provided by the PCs!
This is the ultimate sandbox sci fi game with a old school spirit, where ancient relics, sorcery, foul beings and corrupted Overlords dot the galaxy.
This is a game written by a passionate man and gamer, nonetheless an extraordinary artist.
Get it. Now.
Get Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells on DriveThru RPG!!!
Love this game! Here's hoping to see more posts on your blog about it!
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