System(s) 2d6 System | Genre(s) Fantasy | |
Publication date 1989 (1st edition)1996 Complete edition | ||
Sword World RPG (ソード・ワールドRPG, Sōdo Wārudo Āru Pī Jī) is a Japanese role-playing game created by Group SNE. 10 million copies of the related books including rulebooks, novels and replays have been sold. The game was first published in 1989; the current edition, known as the "Sword World 2.0", was published in 2008.
Contents
Sword World RPG's system was given the name 2d6 System in 2003. Scrapped Princess RPG and Dragon Half RPG's system are also 2d6 System, though the games are only partially compatible.
System
Sword World RPG's classes are called ginou (技能, lit. skill). Each ginou has packaged a number of skills. It is considered as a hybrid system between class system and skill system, so it is often called class-skill system.
There are 8 classes (Bard, Fighter, Priest, Ranger, Sage, Shaman, Sorcerer and Thief) for Player Characters and 2 classes (Dark Priest and Dragon Priest) for only NPCs. 5 major races (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf and GrassRunner) can become PCs. GrassRunner is a diminutive race similar to a hobbit and halfling.
The game uses only two 6-sided dice, as other polyhedral dice aren't common in Japan. Each 2d6 dice roll is translated into a more wide range of random numbers by using a Rating table. The Rating table is used for damage rolls, damage reduction rolls and such. An excerpt of the Rating table follows.
Key number is equal to weapon/armor's requirement strength, or power of spell. Heavier weapon/armor is stronger.
Setting
Sword World's setting, Forcelia, includes Lodoss Island (of Record of Lodoss War) and Crystania continent (of Legend of Crystania). However, the largest continent, Alecrast (often featured in Louie the Rune Soldier) is the main setting. Forcelia is an ordinary fantasy world heavily influenced by games such as Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest. For instance, the GrassRunner race is similar to D&D's Halfling and several magic systems (spirit magic, sorcery and divine magic) are similar to RuneQuest's.
Rune Soldier is Sword World RPG's novel and anime. Over a hundred light novels or replays (session logs) have been published.
Magic systems
All magic systems in Forcelia are called mahougo (魔法語, lit. magic language, magic tongue) based upon belief in the power of words. Each magic system has a proper language system as follow, and the language has magic power in itself.
^a - Every character can use common magic (weaker cantrip of High Ancient sorcery) by the use of commercial magic devices and the chant of the keyword in common language.
^b - Songs with lyrics in the ancient language of High Ancient sorcery.
Sword World 2.0
The newest edition Sword World 2.0 (SW2.0 for short) was released in April 2008.
System
There are 15 classes (Bard, Conjurer, Enhancer, Fairy Tamer, Fencer, Fighter, Grappler, Magi-tech, Priest, Ranger, Rider, Sage, Scout, Shooter and Sorcerer). It uses only two 6-sided dice as with previous editions.
Setting
It has a new campaign setting named Raxia. There are 8 races (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Rune-folk, Tabbit, Nightmare, Lilldraken and GrassRunner) in the rulebooks #1-3.
Replays
Group SNE pioneered a new book genre called replay. Replays are RPG session logs arranged for reading, similar in style to light novels. The first replay, Record of Lodoss War, is a replay of Dungeons & Dragons. From that time, replays became popular in Japan, and not only with RPG gamers. Several characters and parties in replays are as popular as characters of anime (for example, the beautiful female elf Deedlit in Record of Lodoss War, who was played by the male science fiction novelist Hiroshi Yamamoto).
Sword World replays are popular, too: about 10 series and over 40 books of original Sword World replays were published until 2008. Since 2008, more than 30 series and over 80 books of Sword World 2.0 replays were published, as of 2016 September.
Video games
There have been three role-playing video games released by T&E Soft officially based on Sword World. These were Sword World PC for the NEC PC-9801 in 1992, Sword World SFC for the Super Famicom in 1993, and Sword World SFC 2: Inishie no Kyojin Densetsu for the Super Famicom in 1994. These were multiplayer video games and early attempts at recreating an open-ended, table-top role-playing experience on video game platforms, being set in the same world of Forcelia and implementing the same rules and scenarios as Sword World.
In 2009, Sword World 2.0 was released for the Nintendo DS handheld game console as a role-playing visual novel adventure game that attempts to simulate the full experience of playing a tabletop RPG. The game features branching plot paths and multiple endings, as well as virtual dice rolls that partially determine the events, character parameters, and enemy encounters.