Some big changes to Sellsword, a one-page OSR ruleset, recently and none of them necessitated by a playtest (though I’m eager to get it to table). In brief...
1. Overhauled the layout.
Old Butterick said Minion is a bad font choice because it’s an automatic font choice. As Calibri is to Word, Minion to Adobe. Except Adobe users are supposed to have their aesthetics about them, so it’s a graver sin.
So, inspired by the 24XX games I went for a condensed sans serif, similar to Futura, but a little rounder. It’s Proxima Nova, and I’m sure Butterick would have his qualms.
I also replaced the Souvenir headings (another automatic font, pulled straight from classic D&D) with something more Western-tinged. But hopefully not too Western tinged. It’s a delicate, challenging, and fun balance between maximum readability and theme/flavor. At times like this, I’m jealous of Mothership. A game that’s set in the future feels like it has endless graphic design choices. And, based on the incredible looking third-party content, I don’t think I’m alone in that.
In addition, I justified everything to the left and left a jagged edge (no edge-to-edge justification). It’s not quite as pretty, but I think it improves legibility. This feels like another milestone in my formatting journey. (The last milestone-- using the baseline grid-- is getting easier, more embodied. Next is using a layout grid.)
2. Removed Attack, Defense, and Initiative “sub-stats”.
A little post-mortem is helpful for me on this one. Let’s retrace our steps.
In the initial design, I included a “Defense” stat to account for Armor; Defense was equal to Armor or DEX, whichever was higher. I wanted a single block on the sheet that the Players could ALWAYS point to when they got attacked. To quote the GLOG:
Consolidate ruthlessly. Turn two rolls into one, turn one roll into none... Prioritize simplicity over realism.
So we had Defense. I felt like that was an outlier on the Character Sheet, so I added Attack. So that was two combat “sub-stats” derived from the core stats. Then I decided to make HP based on Willpower. That left Wits. I wasn’t going to have initiative rolls, but I decided to include it (Wits based) so, that way, every core stat had utility in combat.
But, as I mentioned, I changed how Armor worked...
3. Changed Armor
I really wanted piecemeal armor. It takes up more inventory space, it makes your Character easier to picture, and it extends the noob stage by extending the time it takes to get fully equipped.
However, if I’m avoiding modifiers (even baked in modifiers) I didn’t want new pieces of Armor to increase your Defense. I wanted that number to be fixed. But there is one number that already increases and decreases: HP. So I decided Armor simply increases your HP. For a few years, I’ve been defining HP as “your ability to avoid injury” and baking Armor into that equation makes perfect sense.
I can think of some instances where it doesn’t make sense. For example, poison or a brain-altering effect would bypass Armor completely, so it doesn’t make sense that Armor would extend their HP in that circumstance. But remember the GLOG...Prioritize simplicity over realism!
We’ll see in the next playtest whether this works well or not.
4. Changed Weapons
I’ve struggled with one vs two hand weapons. I don’t want any weapon tags, which makes it impossible to notate whether a weapon requires one or two hands. It also doesn’t allow for dual wielding.
Then I came up with a simple solution: if you wield a weapon with one hand, you can use a shield. If you wield a weapon with two hands (or wield two weapons), your chance to crit is doubled. This covers a lot of edge cases (a hand and a half sword wielded one or two handed, a javelin as a one-handed range weapon, dual wielding knives) in very few words. Players & Narrators will still have to bring a dose of common sense though. Like, they can’t use a bow and a shield simultaneously.
5. Stats can’t advance past 16.
Originally, I had the cap on stat advancement at 18 (3d6). But that just feels too high. Since it’s a roll under system, that leaves a 10% chance of failure. If you’re lucky enough to roll an 18 (less than .5% chance) so be it. But the advancement system is already susceptible to abuse (write down 20 “memorable moments” and boom, +4 to a stat) and I don’t want to make it any easier for the occasional ugly player.
6. Updated the Character Sheet
As I mentioned, I removed Attack, Defense, and Initiative. So those got chopped from the Character Sheet. I don’t love the new layout (I wish the Character Portrait was oriented vertically) but it works for now.
Also, I added HP values to the sheet. The “HP = Willpower divided by 4, rounded up” calculation isn’t terrible, but it could be way easier. So I just listed the numbers out. The 3d6 spread is also more obvious this way.
Wrapping Up
Alright, I think that does it for now. I’ll leave us with some ongoing thoughts:
- Would rolling 1d6 for HP be simpler? Simpler, maybe. But it would also be swingy, and it would make Willpower less crucial. All-in-all, probably not a good choice.
- Should I eliminate WITS? Writing it out, the answer seems obviously no. How would foraging, fixing gear, inspecting artifacts, etc. work? It just happens? That feels less fun— less gritty— for my liking. Also, the three stats in Into the Odd and its spawn also felt a little too slender to me-- like the Characters lacked specificity. Though ITO is a huge inspiration to me.
- Should HP be based on your HIGHEST stat? That would mean most Characters would have about same HP. The explanation would be that you use your strength, agility, cleverness, or mental endurance to avoid damage. Which I do like. But it would also double-reward already strong Characters. Instead, should HP be INVERSELY related to your highest stat? I like the notion that the weakest, slowest, most dimwitted characters have incredible resolve in combat.
OK, last thing for real. Typing those out was very helpful. I confirm: HP is based on Willpower (plus Armor) and will remain so. WITS is staying in.
If you’d like to playtest Sellsword yourself, here’s the free PDF. Let me know how it goes!
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