Swords of Strange Aeons

important. For instance, if you visualize your character

as an elven huntress who wields a magic bow in and
communes with the spirits of the dead, you may choose
the following traits: Elf, Huntress, Magic Bow, and
Spiritu alist.
Next, circle the single tra it that most sums up
what your character is about who she is and what she
does. This will be your characters Key Descriptor. The
relevance of this will be noted later. For the purposes of
demonstration, let us retu rn to our previous exam ple
above and say that the trait Hu ntress will serve as that
characters Key Descriptor. Circle that trait.
Finally, you will need to make a note of your
characters initial Madn ess Rating. This will be zero,
unless you have chosen traits that pertain to so rcery,
eldritch lore, or other perversions. If this is the case,
add one to the initial Ma dness Ra ting of ze ro for each
such trait possessed.

What This Is
Swords of Strange Aeons is a rules-light fantasy
role-playing gam e of bo th high adventure and eldritch
weirdness at the tail end of time, as the sun wa nes in
the final d ays of Earth.

Defining a Character
All charac ters are defined b y traits. Traits are
simply words or short phrases that a re used to define
your character by determining what they will be good at
doing during actual play. There are two different basic
types of traits used in game s of Swords of Strange
Aeons Broad Traits and Narrow Traits.
Broad traits are those that encompass a wide
variety of possible actions by virtue of their scope. For
instance, the trait Dextrous can feasibly be linked to all
actions that require a deg ree of agility or hand-to-eye
coordination, from slight of ha nd tricks to sw ord
dueling. Races, cultures, and occupations are often
embodied as broad traits. Broad traits cover a lot of
ground but, due to the lack of focus associated with
such traits, they grant players a relatively sm all die roll
bonus during actual play.
Narrow traits are those that have a very tight
focus, encom passing only a small body of possible
actions. For insta nce, the trait N ecro ma ncy can only
feasibly be linked to actions in play that involve, w ell,
Necromancy. Specific areas of study and aptitudes a re
most com monly em bod ied as narro w traits. While
narrow traits are not, by nature, as widely applicable as
broad traits, they make up for their narrow scope by
granting a relatively large die roll bonus when a player
calls upon them .
W ith regard to equip ment, it is assu med that
characters have at their disposal any mundane tools or
weapons that it makes sense for them to have (e.g., a
character with the broad trait T hief is assum ed to
have things like a set of lock picks in his possession by
default). Uniq ue or signature equipm ent, how ever, is
always represented by either a broad tra it (e.g., Holy
Sword) or a narrow trait (e.g., Dagger of Orc Slaying).
If any piece of equipment is not represented by a tra it,
then th ere is no thing rema rkable about it.
At this time, you need to choose four traits that
accent the features of your character you consider most

The Core Mechanic

When a character attempts to do something
and is opposed by either the environment or another
character, they are initiating action. To resolve action,
the player w ho in itiated it rolls 2d12 . O ne d ie is light in
color and one dark in color. The light die is referred to
as the Action Die and represents the effort put forth by
the character initiating the action, while the dark die is
the Difficulty Die and represents the opposition to the
character who initiated th e action.
When rolled, if the Action Die result is eq ual to
or higher than the Difficulty D ie result, the player rolling
the dice narrates the outcome of the action. If the
Difficulty Die is higher than the Action Die, the player of
the opposing force (oftentimes the GM) narrates the
outcome of the action. Tha t said , the resu lt of ea ch d ie
can be altered, a s discu ssed below .

Additional Complications
Die roll results may be imp acted in a number
of ways based on the narrative environment, character
traits, and even characters p ush ing the lim its of their will
to influen ce the outcome of actions.
For each broad trait possessed by a character
that could aid them when initiating an action, add one
to the Action Die result. Add three to the Action Die
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resu lt for each narrow trait a character possesses that

cou ld aid them when initiating an action. Further, if the
Key Descriptor of a character initiating an action comes
into play and the first Action Die roll result is not to their
players satisfaction, their player may re-roll the Action
Die but the second result must be kept and treated as
final, even if it is lower.
If the opposing force is another character and
that cha racters broad traits cou ld fea sibly aid their
efforts to oppose an action, add one to the Difficulty
Die result for each such trait. Likewise, for each relevant
narrow trait that such a character possesses, add three
to the Difficulty Die result when resolving an action. If
such a characters Key Descriptor comes into play and
the Difficu lty Die roll result is not to the players liking,
he may force a D ifficulty D ie re-roll from the player who
initiated the action but the second result must be kept
and treated as final, even if it is lower.
If the environment is acting directly against a
character who is performing an action, the GM may
add a point to the Difficulty D ie for each environmental
factor in play. For example, if it is a dark and stormy
night, the GM m ay add one point each to the D ifficulty
Die result for the stated environmental factors Dark and
Stormy.
Finally, a player character can choose to push
themselves to the ed ge o f reason to resolve an action
in their favor (note that using magic always requires a
character to make this sacrifice). When doing so, they
roll an extra d12 green in colo r, this time . This is their
Madn ess Die. The result of this die can be substituted
for the result of the Action D ie, thou gh risking on es
mental he alth does h ave conse que nces.

Combat and Injury

If the goal of a ac tion is to cause injury to
another character, the exact am ount of injury cau sed is
determine d by th e resu lt of the Action D ie.
There are five different hea lth statuses that may
apply to a character, three of which add to the result of
the Difficulty Die. The five health statuses are:

Uninjured (The character is uninjured)

Scuffed Up (+1 to the Difficulty Die)
Wounded (+2 to the Difficulty Die)
Grievously Wounded (+4 to the Difficulty Die)
Out (The character is knocked out or killed)

If the Action Die result is exactly equal to the

Difficulty Die result, the target character is Scuffed Up.
If the Action D ie result is 1-2 higher than the D ifficulty
Die result, the target character is Wounded. If the
Action Die result is 3-6 higher than the Difficulty Die
result, the target ch arac ter is Grievously W ounded. If
the Action Die result is 7 or higher than the D ifficulty
Die result, the targ et ch aracter is Out (dead or knocked
unconscious a s the narrating player sees fit).
Conversely, in situations where a character
may be inju red by an op ponen t or the environme nt if
they fail their roll, the exact result of the Difficulty D ie
determine s the inju ry dea lt.
If the D ifficulty D ie result is exactly 1 mo re than
the Action Die result, the character is Scuffed Up. If the
Difficulty Die result is 2-3 mo re than the A ction Die
result, then th e cha racter is Woun ded . If the Difficulty
Die result is 4-7 more than the A ction Die result, then
the character is Grievously Wounde d. If the Difficulty
Die is 8 or more than the Action Die result, then
character is merely Out (dead or knocked unconscious
as the na rrating player sees fit).
Multiple insta nces of the same health status
are cumulative. For example, if a character is Scuffed
Up, then receives another Scuffed Up result, they
become W oun ded . Further, a m ore serious injury
always takes precedence over a lesser injury. For
example, if a Scu ffed Up character rolls a result that
imparts a sta tus of G rievously Wounded upon them,
they im mediately beco me Grievously Woun ded .
Healing health statuses is a simple affair. For
every eight hours that passes in the game, a health
status is staged down by one. For example, our
Grievously Wounded character is simply Wounded after
eight hours passes, and Scu ffed Up after 16 hours pass.
He is comp letely Uninjured after 24 hours pass.

On the Edge of Reason

Whenever a characters Madness Die is rolled,
if it produces a result that is greater than a characters
current Madness Rating, increase that rating by one
point. Such an increase should be accompanied by an
in-game display of psychosis maybe a momentary
display of extreme anxiety or perhaps ju st qu ietly
withd rawing from the w orld for a moment.
When a characters Madness Rating reaches
12, they have become incurably insane. Exactly how
that insanity manifests in the moment (e.g., entering a
fugue state or fleeing from the scene while laughing
and stabbing anybody who gets in the w ay) is ultim ately
up to the narrating player, as d etermin ed b y the resu lt
of action resolution.

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There are two notable exceptions to the rules

for hea ling disc ussed on the previous page.
First, when a character has been killed as the
resu lt of being knocked out during action resolution,
they stay dea d, barring the intervention of magic. M agic
can, if successfully applied and the narrating player
wishes it, restore a characters dead body to life in a
com pletely uninjured state.
Second, magic can be used to simply heal a
character who is injured, assuming successful action
resolution and that the narrating player wishes the
injured character to be healed. The exact nature of the
healing is left up to the n arrating player.

later time (i.e., when they find new special equipment

and choose a trait to represe nt it). Furth er, cha racters
may gain additional equipment traits during actual play
by discovering special equipm ent (the n ature of said
equipment being determine d by th e G M).
Charac ters may also gain both new broad and
narrow traits unrelated to equipment with focused study
and effort. Genera l guidelines a re given below, but the
GM should feel free to elab orate on what exa ctly
counts as study in their own Swords of Strange Aeons
campaigns (e.g., uninterrupted book learning versus on
the job training under a skilled tradesman). Further,
different kinds of traits may require different kinds of
study as the G M d eem s fit.
For every week worth of game time (i.e., time
that passes in the game world) that a given character
spends studying for at least fou r hours a day, th ey gain
the opportunity to learn a new broad trait. A sta nda rd
2d12 roll is made per the core resolution mechanic,
with the number of traits already possessed by the
character added to the result of the Difficulty Die. If this
roll is successfully resolved in the cha racters favor, their
player ma y ad d a new broad trait. If the roll is failed,
nothing is learned, but another two weeks of study will
earn the player another roll (and so on).
For every month w orth of ga me time that a
given character spends studying for at least four hours
a day, they gain the opportunity to learn a new narrow
trait. A standard 2d12 roll is, once again, made per the
core resolution mechanic, w ith the num ber of traits
already possessed by th e cha racter add ed to the resu lt
of the D ifficulty D ie. If this roll is successfully reso lved in
the characters favor, their player may add a narrow
trait. If the ro ll is failed, nothing is learned, but another
month of study w ill earn the player another roll.
No te that it is generally not possible for a given
character to possess more than one trait represen ting
species (e.g., Elf, D wa rf, Dragon, etc). Individual GMs
may choose to allow exceptions to this rule, how ever,
as this is u ltimately their game.

Sorcerous Pursuits
In Swords of Strange Aeons, sorcery can serve
to bend reality to ones own w ill, but as mighty as it is,
even sorcery mu st obey laws.
First, in order to cast any sorcerous spells, a
character must possess a sorcery-related trait either a
broad trait that could con ceivably pertain to many kinds
of sorcery (e.g., Mage, Sorcerer, Wizard, etc) or a
narrow trait that pertains to sp ecific types of sorc ery
(e.g., Ice Mage, Illusionist, Necromancer, etc) will do.
Indeed, a character may possess both broad and
narrow traits related to sorcery b ut they only need one
such trait in order to ca st sorcerous spells.
Second, as m entio ned earlier, ca sting ma gic
spe lls always requires a chara cter to risk their sanity.
Sorce ry in Swords of Strange Aeons is an unbelievab ly
powerful force, but it is also a dark, sinister, force that
warps those who wield it too free ly. Ultima tely, those
who call too often upon the eldritch forces of sorcery
are driven into the thro es of m adn ess.
Finally, calling upon pow ers of magic, risking
sanity aside, is not without hazards. If a character
attem pts to use magic and the action is not resolved in
her favor, the narrating player may choose to invoke
less than favorable results.

Character Evolution
As is the case in many role-playing gam es,
characters in Swords of Strange Aeons will change over
time a s they tra vel the w orld.
One of the most common ways a character
may change is with regard to what signature equipment
they carry. Notably, it is possible for a character to lose
equipment represented by a trait during actual play. If
this happe ns, the character is left with an open trait
slot that m ay be filled with a new equ ipment trait a t a
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