Swords Against Madness – Details, episodes & analysis

Rayya and Kalmek clash as the Gorum awake and swarm the party from within the facility, while Trassi soldiers hunt them from without, and Mormont makes a desperate escape attempt.

This episode includes custom monsters found in the Bestiary page of the SvM homepage, as well as the villains Kalmek, Yanghu, and Mormont, and includes my custom hacking rules below.

The Dungeon Map

This adventure takes place in Yanghu’s Gorum Showroom, described here:

Computer Hacking

I have adapted rules for computer hacking from White Star: Swords and Wizardry in Space, Galaxy Edition. Miria as a magic user with a background as a spacer has 2 points in Technology, and +1 from her intelligence, means that she can hack a computer on a 1-3 on a d6.

Rayya struggles under Mormont’s mind control as he debates to which faction he wants to sell out Miria. An unfortunate communication and a careless intruder cause danger to awaken on every side. Making escape seem increasingly more perilous by the second.

This episode begins a fast and furious dungeon crawl designed using the Five-Room Dungeon method, and includes another custom moster to face the Gorum. Both are included in the SvM homepage bestiary,

Combat Automaton

These robots are proficient with all manner of weapons. They are built to show off the Gorums’ combat prowess, but in an emergency, can ramp up to a suppression mode to contain them instead.

Combat Automaton: HD: 3; AC: 4 [15]; Att: weapon or 2 electric fist (d6 plus stun); SV: 15; Special: shock; MV: 9; AL: Neutrality; CL/XP: 3/60

• Shock: A creature hit by an electric fist attack must make a save or lose its action next round.

The Map of Yanghu’s Gorum Showroom

1. Tech Room & Entrance: Alien Communications tech, window overlooking 3, high-tech medkit. Mormot has an encampment here. As is Miria’s gear and Olan’s sword.
2. Cryo Chamber: Each dot represents a cluster of 3 pods. There is a hole entrance in the bottom right corner. A total of 48 Gorum are kept here in stasis. Any damage to a pod will automatically cause the Gorum to be revived.
3. Demonstration Arena: Open, lots of drains on the floors.
4. Robot Room: Contains 3 Combat Automatons, swords, laser rifles, plasma pistols, and neural maces. I will use hacking rules derived from White Star: Swords & Wizardry in Space for any actions related to the robots.
5. Lounge: Doors locked; Mormont has never been in this room. Contains 5,000gp in pressed bars and a decanter of endless water (treasure rolled randomly.)

All doors in this dungeon are nanolaced titanium with crystal windows, they are hard to smash but their pistons are weak and can be broken. A character familiar with starship and space habitat systems can attempt to hack the door with a 2-in-6 chance of success.

Image created using HeroForge used in accordance with their EULA

Rayya, Olan, & Miria fight for their life against giant centipedes, we learn about Rayya’s history with the church, the PCs are stalked by a man with a grudge, and find their way barred by an enemy who declares Miria and all she stands for Heresy.

This episode features a new NPC villain that I rolled up using the same character statistics as a Player Character.

Mormont

Mormont is an apostate from the Order of Stars: he has learned and seen too much of the Truth of the Trassi Syndicate, observed too much greed an Hypocrisy in the Aldean Church, seen too much selfishness in the Cult of the Master to believe in much of anything other than himself. He will happily sow Chaos and Discord for any faction against any faction if the price is right… and if he can serve his own agenda, all the better.

Mormont: HD: 4d4 (11hp); AC: 9 [10]; Att: dagger (d4); SV: 12; Special: Magic use (See below); MV: 12; AL: Chaos; CL/XP: 6/300; Abilities: Str 8 Int 14 Wis 14 Dex 12 Con 12 Cha 13

• Magic Use: Mormont is a 4th level Magic-User, who has the following spells in his spellbook: 1st Level: charm person, detect magic, protection from evil, read languages, read magic; 2nd level: invisibility, knock, mirror image;
• Gear: amulet (worth 103gp), backpack, dagger, spellbook, staff

Miria finishes the task of slaying the Gorum, and struggles with the guilt of destroying helpless foes. As she struggles with her thoughts she makes a bond with a psisquid, and is then interrupted by a call from an old enemy.

In this episode we discuss the use of alignment in OD&D and Swords & Wizardry and why it matters. We also continue to feature the Gorum, shared in the Bestiary section of the SvM homepage.

Discussing Alignment

In segment 2 of the episode, I discuss Alignment including how it was used in AD&D.. I mentioned my casual retroclone project Ruins & Redcaps, and reproducing (and re-arranging) the rules of AD&D using modern information design in a way reminiscent of Old School Essentials. Here is a downloable excerpt on Alignment from Ruins & Redcaps.

For purposes of a campaign with only a Law-Neutrality-Chaos axis this can be expressed as a linear scale from 6 to -6 using row 0 of the Alignment table.

In any case, I don’t want Miria, Rayya, & Olan to slip too close to Chaos, but after this, Miria is definitely sitting somewhere around -1.5.

Yanghu

Yanghu is a smuggler captain of the Trassi Syndicate and former business partner of Miria’s. He is the one who shot her down, but she can’t remember why. Yanghu is a cruel Ogre Magus who loves to gloat.

Yanghu: HD: 5+4 (44hp); AC: 4 [15]; Att: portable laser cannon (4d8) or boarding sword (d12); SV: 12; Special: Magic use (See below), regenerate 1hp/round; MV: 12/18 (flying); AL: Chaos; CL/XP: 7/600

• Magic Use: Yanghu can fly, turn invisible (per the spell), create a 10-foot-radius circle of magical darkness, change into human form, cast sleep and charm person once per day, and cast a Cone of Frost with a range of 60 feet to a base of 30 feet, causing 8d6 damage to any caught within (saving throw applies).

Map of Nar

I’ve drawn a map of Nar for an upcoming Hex Crawl!

Each hex is about 6 miles, but the terrain is mostly hilly jungle. I’ve marked a few locations with images:

• 0903 is the location of the Village of Nar and the Church.

• 0602 contains the Cloister of the Order of Stars.

• 0402 includes the Pit of the Gorum.

• 0401 includes the local Volcano, Guluke, and the secret Shrine of the All-Knowing.

The wreck of Empyreal’s Coin is just to the South of the peninsula 0405 (not shown, as I have to import a sunken flying saucer into CC3+).

Random Encounter Tables

Here are my Hot Springs Island inspired random encounter tables:

Rayya, Olan, and Miria set out to acquire a magic dagger from a local miser to use against the immortal space barbarians known as the Gorum. This drags Miria into the religious cold war that runs through the Island’s culture.

This episode includes a brief battle using the deadly and fast grappling rules from Swords & Wizardry, and I opt to use the more granular B/X Morale Rules. Much of this episode is dedicated to exploring the nuances of the Island’s culture as produced by consulting the Mythic GM Emulator.

NPC VIllain: Kalmek: HD 2; AC 9 [10]; Atk: Shillelagh (1d6); MV: 12″; AL: C; ML: 7; CL/XP: 2/30; Str 12 Int 11 Wis 8 Dex 10 Con 11 Cha 8

Kalmek is a local miser who has lived off of his Grandfather’s adventuring loot for decades. He thinks himself better than the Islanders and derives all self-worth from his influence in The Church and the legacy that has let him live in luxury.

Miria awakens in a hut at the edge of the ruined village, covered in blisters, and discoveres that she may well be living on borrowed time, and so is the A.I. on her ship, The Empyreal’s Coin. As a madman plots her death, she stands before the council of the village to tell them a terrible truth about their beliefs…

In this Episode, we establish some custom rules for radiation poisoning, and give Miria the strongest possible incentive to see her escape this planet. Her vessel’s AI might be able to help, except it only has 16 minutes of operational tiem remaining. Olan and Rayya become her reluctant guardians, and the Mysterious “Master” awakens the Gorum to slay Miria before she interferes with his machinations.

The Gorum

• Hit Dice: 1+2
• Armor Class: 5
• Attack: weapon (1d6)
• Saving Throw: 18 (special)
• Special: Immortality, Resilience
• Move: 12
• Alignment: Chaotic
• Morale: 10
• Int: 6
• No. Appearing: 1d12
• Challenge Level / XP: 3 / 60

Brutal and vicious, the Gorum are members of an immortal legion created for an interstellar war. They were found too uncontrollable, and often too stupid to be useful, and were banished to prisons across the cosmos. No matter how many times one is cut down, unless their brain is destroyed by a directed magical attack, they will always return to life in 1d6 turns, often more hideously scarred and insane. If they are left bored, hungry, or thirsty for too long they enter into a state of suspended animation that breaks when the opportunity to sate their appetites presents itself. The Gorum always roll twice for every saving throw and take the better result. They are not affected by poison or any effect that causes instant death.

Additional Credits

I am extremely blessed to have Simon Williams, creator of the epic solo RPG / Storytelling podcast Legend of the Bones as Empyreal.

Miria, Rayya, & Olan make a break for freedom as the carnage continues in Yanghu’s Showroom.

The chaos continues in one of the most insanely busy dungeon crawls in which I have ever been either the player or the GM. It includes multiple NPC villains, Orcs, Kobolds, Lizard-Men, as well as two custom monsters found in the SvM Bestiary.

The Dungeon Map Where to Get Scifi Rules for Swords & Wizardry

For the purposes of creating science fiction adventures in Swords & Wizardry, I will be borrowing some material from White Star: Swords & Wizardry in Space, Galaxy Edition, which you can get here (affiliate link). Read my review of it here. Or see records of my latest White Star campaign here.

I am going to steal some of my other systems, especially the systems for starships and space battles using RPGPundit Presents #100: Star Adventurer, which you can get here (affiliate link). You can see my review of it here. And you can read the records of my old solo campaign Starfarer here.

Combat Automaton

Combat Automaton: HD: 3; AC: 4 [15]; Att: weapon or 2 electric fist (d6 plus stun); SV: 15; Special: shock; MV: 9; AL: Neutrality; CL/XP: 3/60

These robots are proficient with all manner of weapons. They are built to show off the Gorums’ combat prowess, but in an emergency, can ramp up to a suppression mode to contain them instead. While in suppression mode, the robots strike with electrified fists that deal 1d6 damage, and the target must save or lose their next action.

Miria gathers new allies, and tries to buy time as the radiation begins to consume her. Rayya and Miria draw up plans for war. Two new allies join the party, each separately seeking ways to do penance.

This episode includes some much-needed downtime where Miria recruits some new party members and seeks medical attention for her radiation poisoning. It includes some detailed notes on how I use the Mythic Game Master Emulator.

Undeadwood Weird West RPG: Dead Man’s Dice Preview Version is my complete and fully playable Western fantasy TTRPG. This version does not have the GM Toolkit, the advanced magic rules, or the complete Wonkatonkwa County Gazetteer, but it is everything you need for pulpy and gothic cowboy adventures.

Get it on DriveThruRPG

Heroes and Homelands is an OSR retro-game that features simplified magic, an advantage/disadvantage system, and expanded wilderness adventuring rules that make it a smooth-fast playing experience.

More importantly it is designed as a rules-hacking toolkit! Every section is optimized for easy cut & paste and editing. Making it a perfect base for writing your own customized game.

Get Heroes & Homelands on Itch.io

A summary of the first 10 episodes of Swords Against Madness.

Miria, a space-faring smuggler crash-lands on the world of Orbus, near the Island of Nar. Nar is a poor former colony of a failed Oligarchy full of conflict between its two religions, and is plagued by seeming indestructible monsters.

Miria steps right into the conflict by giving them the holy words she guessed had been engineered into the Island’s older faith by star-faring criminals, and thanks to horrible radiation poisoning, finds herself racing against time to fulfill a prophecy, hunt down an old space pirate associate, end the clash between faiths, and slay monsters, with the help of a pair of teen-aged misfits.

But her disruption to the culture of the Island paints a target on her back, and she is kidnapped by a sorcerer-assassin called Mormont, who attempts to sell her to Yanghu, the space pirate who shot Miria down. This leads to a terrifying clash between Mormont, the party, a vicious miser with a grudge Kalmek, a hit squad of Space Pirates, immortal space barbarians accidentally freed from cry-stasis, and combat robots.

Miria and her teen-aged friend Rayya manage to barely escape with their life, stealing a spaceshipin the process,

Miria, Olan, & Rayya make a desperate ploy not just to escape Yanghu’s showroom, but to escape in style… but the Gorum are still hunting, and the lizard-man starfighter pilot Sshosk is still between them and freedom.

This episode features transcripts thanks to the openVINO tool kit for Audacity!

The Weapons I’m Using

I have created a set of simple science fiction weapons that the Trassi Syndicate use based on the material in the various Sci-Fi games I have used to inspire the game’s Sci-Fi rules. The prices represent the fact that the materials used to create this equipment cannot be bought on Obros.

Weapon TypeRangeDamageRoFWeightAmmoPriceElectro-Laser60ft*d8!11/2 lbcharging500gpHeavy Pulse Laser120ft*4d8118 lbs365,000gpLaser Assault Rifle240ft*d8!34 lbs242,000gpLaser Pistol120ft*d10!21 lbs8800gpShotgun80ft*2d624 lbs2350gpSniper Laser500ft*d12!18 lbs41,200gp* there is a -2 to attacks beyond this range; the weapon can fire no farther than twice this range.
! indicates an exploding die; on the highest value on the die, roll again and add the next die to the previous total.

Electro-Lasers: draw ambient electricity from the environment. They can be fired once per round only. On a damage roll of 1 they require a round to recharge before the next attack.

Heavy Pulse Lasers: are heavy, bulky weapons that emits rapid-fire streams of laser fire, and can either grant the wielder a +2 to hit or make an attack against all enemies in a 30ft. cone. The ammunition is a backpack battery.

Laser Assault Rifle: An assault rifle can use up 12 rounds to deal 4d8 damage in a fully automatic burst and gain a +2 to hit this uses up all attacks in the round.

Shotguns: are at +2 to attack a single target. It can be used to attack up to 3 targets at once as long as they are within 5ft of each other.

Armor ArmorArmor ClassWeightCostNanoweave Fabric7 [12]1/2 lb.1,200gpLight Composite Armor6 [13]4 lbs400gpMedium Composite Armor4 [15]8 lbs800gpHeavy Composite Armor2 [17]16 lbs1,600gp

Nanoweave: does not require a proficiency in armor to wear, and does not interfere with magic.

Composite Armors: All count as light armor, any class proficient in leather armor can wear Light or medium composite armor, andy calss capable of wearing chainmail may wear heavy composite armor.