Hey all! Attached here is the new Swords Against Heaven iteration. I’m really excited to share it with everyone. If you like the survival horror martial arts of The Raid, the frenetic party combat of RWBY, and the kinetic sword arts of wuxia, read on...
First caveat is to please look at this as a Playtest. I’m still handling how to finesse and fix all the balancing for now. But I like what I’ve done so far and feels like an evolution of my design.
Go check it out here: https://remarkable-grass-3e9.notion.site/Swords-Against-Heaven-Laws-Manual-2573d5d4937280059324c44f8303a1af?source=copy_link
Attached as well is the Character Sheet, make a copy!: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13Rf4rrAki7_U0y-79BntMolkKcNN2wgVoRSp8zJjv9M/edit?usp=sharing
Finally, I’ve updated the Temple of Peregrination to include the new conversion: https://www.patreon.com/posts/temple-of-module-139781999
A Note On Inspirations
Swords Against Heaven did not initially start out as a D&D 4e-like. At least, not completely. It started out as an attempt to do gritty heroic mortals from Exalted but in NSR, and with a somewhat tactical combat system inspired by FFT, and a Skill System inspired by Disco Elysium.
I think I strayed considerably from that due to my bias for 4e. After running the game through multiple playtests, I’ve realigned what I’ve wanted to do with SAH, I believe. While still a game with considerable amounts of 4e DNA, I’ve mostly grown to accept that the 4e crowd will not look on this game favorably. It is more Exalted than it is Dungeons and Dragons.
So I go with that.
I think now the major inspirations for the game is Exalted 1e + Disco Elysium + Final Fantasy Tactics + Gamma World 7e. It’s gritty and dangerous and lethal but you can eventually gain magicks, technicks, and connections that will let you survive. More importantly, you will need your Party.
I’m eschewing “Fourthlike” for now from this game. Someone over on Bluesky once wrote this game as “Maoist Wuxia”, which I do love (as someone organized into a Maoist Organization in the Philippines). I don’t know if I’d call this an Exalted-like, as this is too low powered (at least, in the beginning) for something as high-flying as Exalted (2e? 1e can get a bit gritty at times at least).
Every new thing derives from this change. The main thing I’m keeping from D&D 4e is the, honestly very grounding and very dangerous concept of Healing Surges, which stay as Spirit.
So What Has Changed?
There’s been a few major changes that I’d love to talk about. I won’t go over them in detail: you should be able to see it immediately. For example, the Statistics work differently. Morale is gone (and slightly subsumed by Spirit). Guard and Ward are gone now as well.
The Skills
Each Skill is now no longer unattached from their Attribute. Similar to Disco Elysium, your Root determines the Base Rating of your Skill. A STR 3 means your Physique starts at 3. This means when you roll a Physique Check, you know exactly what numbers you’re looking for.
Dev Note—As much as I love the Attribute + Ability paradigm of White Wolf Games, I found it ugly to write in modules and mechanics. It felt unnatural to me, and was my only gripe. “Roll Labor” for me feels better than “Roll Strength + Labors” and it’ll be good for layouts in the future! Additionally, I didn’t want players to be going around trying to look for 2 different things on their Character Sheet.
Renames
A few Skills have been renamed.
Doctrine is now Communion. I think Communion conveyed the feeling of the Skill better.
New Skills And Transfers
Then, a few new Skills have been introduced. Particularly, 4. One for each Attribute.
Labor covers physical exertion. Physique stays as endurance.
Violence covers melee combat.
Finesse takes over dextrous movement and mobility, while Coordination is used for motoric ability and ranged combat.
Awareness is now a MND Skill.
Meditation is now a HRT Skill.
Grimoire is now a MND Skill.
Third Eye is now a HRT Skill.
Statistics
Health is now 3 + Physique.
Spirit is now 3 + Physique or Meditation, higher of the two.
Move is still 2 + Finesse.
Speed is now rolled every start of day (for purposes of social encounters, exploration, and combat). It’s always [Awareness + Meditation Check] + 3.
The Hex
I’ve also largely shifted over to Hex Grids. You can still play the game on square grids, though now it will be following the 4e style of very diagonal being just 1. I like the ease of Hex Grids and the Mystic Numerology of a six-sided hexagon. It creates for very natural looking movement and fights!
The Clash
Tactical Violence has been changed up a bit as well.
Along with the realignment back to Exalted ideas, I also went ahead and looked back at the attacks, defenses, and so on. One of my major inspirations for this game is The Raid—a martial arts film with such good choreography, I sometimes forget that it feels like a Survival Horror Video Game at times. I think the dialectic between Survival Horror and Kinetic Martial Arts is a potent and ripe space that I want to go into.
And so I wanted to model the back-and-forth. I looked at one of my favorite Skirmish Wargames for inspiration: Endless Fantasy Tactics. And looked back at an old version of the attack system I did for Gubat Banwa.
What I came out with is the Clash system.
Every Attack Die an attack thrown. Every 4+ a Hit. Every 6 a Critical Hit.
Every Defense Die a guard raised. Every 5+ a block or a weave—a Guard.
Every Guard cancels a Hit.
But Critical Hits cannot be Guarded.
This is the core of the new combat system. Remember that this is all done with d6s only, as a core limiting line.
This means throwing 4 dice is the character launching four sword strikes. Throwing 4 Defense dice is four guards attempted. 2 of those might be clean hits, but rolling 1 Guard might mean the first attack was guarded, but the other clean hit cuts through, drawing blood.
The math has been fixed to make this as conducive to tactics as possible, but there is still swinginess that comes with non-linear probabilities and maths. This is by design—these massive sudden swings cause excitement and danger. I don’t want combat to be solved outside combat—I want whatever build-plan you have readied to not survive contact.
Weapons, Armors, and Items have all been adjusted accordingly. Armor for example now gives Soak (previously Vigor) every Realignment. Magick Armor gives no Soak but grants Ward and extra magick attack. Your weapon type now determines what Skill you use for the roll!
Thanks to the Skills-first design of this newer iteration it’s become easier to grant bonuses as needed. +1 to a Skill is pretty big in the math, but not enough to completely break it!
The Social Conflict
There’s also now rules for Social Conflict—something I felt was surely missing from the game and was the main thing missing from making it an Exalted-like. The Social Conflict was largely inspired by the seminal Social Influence system of Exalted 3e, with a lot of tweaks to streamline it completely and to make it parallel to the Clash. It is now a cascade of Points and Counterpoints, arguments and Insights to read Attachments and leverage Emotions. Check it out!
The Cultivations
Cutivations have been changed accordingly. Please do look at them.