Embark on a thrilling sword & sorcery journey with The Sword of Cepheus 2E
The Sword of Cepheus, 2nd Edition will allow you to dive right into these exciting tales and take the role of the heroes and anti-heroes wielding swords and sorcery in such settings.
A sorcerer blasting his enemies with the power of his mind. A muscled barbarian wielding a flaming sword against the local tyrant’s thugs. A gladiator who freed himself from slavery wanders the land, righting wrongs and smashing villains. Big muscles, big swords, eldritch sorcery, powers of the mind, eldritch beasts. From Burroughs to Howard to Moorcock to Lovecraft to Italian Peplum films to those dreaming of outlandish post-apocalyptic worlds, heroes raise swords against corrupt nobles, inexplicable sorcerers, and alien monstrosities.
The Sword of Cepheus, 2nd Edition will allow you to dive right into these exciting tales and take the role of the heroes and anti-heroes wielding swords and sorcery in such settings.
Adventures await!
What is The Sword of Cepheus?
The Sword of Cepheus, which first edition reached Mithral Bestseller status on DriveThruRPG, is a tabletop roleplaying game in the triple “Sword” genres: Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, and Sword and Sandal.
- In Sword and Sorcery, often-amoral protagonists face vile sorcery and horrid beasts as they complete awesome adventures for gold and glory.
- In Sword and Planet, humans finding themselves on barbaric or decadent alien planets use their superior brawn and valiant hearts to win fame, fortune, and the heart of an alien princeling.
- In Sword and Sandal, often set in a quasi-Biblical or faux-Roman world, men and women with sharp wits and strong sword-arms fight mythological creatures and overthrow tyrants.
The common threads of all three genres are the blade-wielding protagonists who use their brawn, as well as brains, to fight foes both supernatural and mundane and undertake hair-raising, violent adventures.
There are three main themes to The Sword of Cepheus: Gritty Heroism, Dark Sorcery, and an Open World.
Gritty Heroism means that a skilled character is well above a normal person in power and ability. An expert swordsman in good armor can defeat many lesser warriors in armed confrontation. They will parry their opponents’ weapons and strike true at their bodies. However, they are still mortal. An ambush, sneak attack, poison, or other underhanded tactic will put them in grave peril. A lucky arrow can still strike them, though good armor will mitigate part of the impact. Battle and strategy matter. Even a so-called "mighty" character must think before they act, and lesser foes can defeat the heroes.
Dark Sorcery implies that magic is unreliable and often corrupting to those who use them. Doubly so for any "magic items". Any spell can fail, and any ritual has a certain risk of dire consequences. Using magic can horribly warp a sorcerer's soul and body. There are no teleporting supermen throwing fireballs around in The Sword of Cepheus. Rather, there are sorcerers weaving subtler spells and conducting risky arcane rituals. The same goes to monsters - while often easier (on paper) to slay than those of traditional D20 games, they pose a danger to those who try to confront them - even skilled heroes.
The worlds of adventure The Sword of Cepheus is designed to emulate are Open Worlds. The world does not scale with the characters; a moderately skilled character can try and tackle horrible monsters, at a serious risk, while an expert adventurer can still face a challenge against "weaker" foes. The players choose the risk level; there are no scaling "challenge ratings" here. Scouting, information gathering, and knowing when to run away are important in The Sword of Cepheus. This also means that lightly or moderately skilled characters can adventure, shoulder to shoulder, with highly experienced veterans, and still make a difference both in and out of combat without being totally overshadowed by their expert peers.
The Sword of Cepheus also draws inspiration from old-school science-fiction roleplaying games. It shares many similarities, in terms of game mechanics, with them. Materials from old 2d6 rulesets, including the Cepheus Engine Core and Cepheus Deluxe: Enhanced Edition are easily compatible with The Sword of Cepheus with only a moderate amount of adjustment.
