Sword World RPG is a Japanese tabletop 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 updated edition, known as the "Sword World 2.0", was published in 2008; the current edition "Sword World 2.5" was published in 2018. 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.
Sword World RPG (original edition)
System
Sword World RPG's classes are called ginou. Each ginou is a package of skills for that class. It is considered a hybrid system between a class-based system and a skill-based system, and is often called a class-skill system. There are eight classes for player characters and two classes exclusive to non-player characters. Five major races can become PCs. GrassRunners are a diminutive race similar to a hobbit or 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.
2d6 / Key number
0
5
10
15
20
50
2
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
failure
3
0
0
1
1
1
4
4
0
1
1
2
2
6
5
0
1
2
3
3
8
6
1
2
3
4
4
10
7
2
2
3
4
5
10
8
2
3
4
5
6
12
9
3
4
5
5
7
12
10
3
5
5
6
8
13
11
4
5
6
7
9
15
12
4
5
7
8
10
15
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 and the continent of Crystania. However, the largest continent, Alecrast is the main setting. Forcelia is a typical 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 are similar to RuneQuest's. Rune Soldier is Sword World RPG's novel and anime series. Over a hundred light novels or replays have been published.
Magic systems
All magic systems in Forcelia are called mahougo 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.
Magic system
Class
Language name
System's name
Sorcery
Sorcerer
Kodaigo
High Ancient
Spirit magic
Shaman
Seireigo
Silent Spirit
Divine magic
Priest
Shinseigo
Holy Pray
Dark magic
Dark priest
Ankokugo
Demon Scream
Dragon magic
Dragon priest
Ryūgo
Dragon Lore
Common magic
kyoutsūgo
Common magic
Bard's songs
Bard
Juka
-
- Every character can use common magic by the use of commercial magic devices and the chant of the keyword in common language.
- Songs with lyrics in the ancient language of High Ancient sorcery.
Sword World 2.0/2.5
The new edition Sword World 2.0 was released in April 2008 and revised in 2012. In 2018 Sword World 2.5 was launched.
System
There are 15 classes. It uses only two 6-sided dice as with the previous edition.
Setting
It has a new campaign setting named Raxia. There are 8 races in the rulebooks #1-3. ;Original races in Raxia
Tabbit - A bipedal rabbit race who are travelling around the world.
Rune-folk - An artificial humanoid race who have a desire to serve the other races by instinct.
Nightmare - They are mutants of other races and are born with the gift of both fighting and magic. However, because it is believed that their souls are distorted and polluted, Nightmares are looked at askance.
Lilldraken - A race of bipedal dragon-folk who like commerce and peddlery.
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. 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. In 2009, Sword World 2.0 was released for the Nintendo DShandheld game console as a role-playing visual noveladventure 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.
