the sharpest sword does not exist

Laid low by a hilariously awful sinus infection, but it looks like Gawain and the Green Knight Kickstarter made it. Really appreciate everyone who backed it, and I look forward to getting copies out. There’s a limited number of hard copies available, but there still plenty left if you’re still thinking about it.

I’m still thinking about Arthurian stuff and also have been still reading through Troika so here’s another background.

Swordreeve

As King Arthur rises with centennial slowness from the waters of Avalon, the descendants of his subjects struggle to hide away his dreadful weapons–Rhongomyniad, Carnwennan, Wynebgwrthucher, but most of all Excalibur, the most unwelcome of the Lady’s gifts, sublimated into something stranger and more dangerous than even the most magical of swords by the telling of its tale through the ages. Swordreeves are responsible for this task, faced with both the willful power of the waking King’s weapons and the people who use them despite his return.

Possessions

• A longsword. Ornamental and bound into its scabbard with red ribbons — might be magic and might be simply fancy, but nothing can seem to unsheathe it. Damage as club.
• A samite mantle, marking your trade.
• A spool of strong red silk ribbon.

Advanced Skills

• 3 Crafting – Bladesmithing
• 2 Scabbard Fighting
• 2 Spell – I CUT WITH THE BLADE OF A KING
• 1 Spell – I BALANCE THE WORLD ON THE EDGE OF MY SWORD
• 1 History
• 1 Etiquette

Special

When you sheathe a sword, no one will be able to draw it unless you give them permission. Particularly powerful occult beings may be able to force it open with a Skill check, but they only get one shot — if they fail, it means they cannot draw it under their own power. Analogous actions for other weapons (wrapping a spear, unstringing a bow, removing an axehead from its haft) work the same way.

Spells

What if spells deal damage to the caster like weapons, rather than static Stamina cost.

First Order Spells

Roll	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Damage	1	1	1	2	2	3	4

Second Order Spells

Roll	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Damage	2	2	3	3	5	7	9

Third Order Spells

These are disastrous spiritual weapons. Starting characters probably shouldn’t have them — spells are things you find in a lich’s vault, or quarantined in a secret day gouged out of history, or tumbling in the deepest, emptiest spaces among the million spheres.

Every time someone casts a given third order spell, they gain a permanent and cumulative +1 to damage rolls suffered when casting it.

Roll	1	2	3	4	5	6	7+
Damage	6	8	12	16	18	24	36

I CUT WITH THE BLADE OF A KING

First Order Spell

The sharpest sword is made of nothing and cuts everything. Evoke the edge of Excalibur by tracing a line with your finger. Small and precise movements cut or damage as a knife, medium ones cut or damage as a longsword, while broad slashes are destructive and difficult to control, cutting and damaging as a greatsword. Can make up to three cuts each time the spell is cast; the spell ends immediately if the caster stops extending their forefinger.

I BALANCE THE WORLD ON THE EDGE OF MY SWORD

Second Order Spell

Evoke the blade of Excalibur to perform a single act that could be completed with an incredibly sharp and strong longsword on a single object or creature in shouting distance — slice a rope, wound an enemy, hack through a wooden door.

I CLEAVE THEE AS GOD CLEAVED THE LAND FROM THE WATERS AND THE NIGHT FROM THE DAY

Third Order Spell

Manifest Excalibur to sever anything within line of sight — a chain, a bridge, a life, familial bonds, a line of succession. Particularly powerful occult beings, objects, or phenonena can make an opposed skill check to resist being severed, and the Referee should be thoughtful about whether or not it makes sense for this spell to apply if the use is particularly metaphorical, esoteric, or spectacular – you probably couldn’t sever a lake in a meaningful way for example, and cleaving the Moon wouldn’t do more than leave an impressive mark.