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RPG Ideas — Swords

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is swords, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of swords there’s nine of them in our Mage Forge collection of 250 magic items for Fifth Edition along with dozens of other magic weapons of various kinds and hundreds more designed to make your games more amazing and immersive. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here. You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Winners win by not losing out on the week that was! Learn about some easy entry RPGs, explore pass/fail game systems and enchant your world with new spells plus our weekly hangout, a live chat with an industry pro and live game play rounds out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here. Preorders are open for our Mage Forge Deluxe Box Set of 250 Tarot Sized Magic Item Cards for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. You can snag add-ons too including our entire digital library for a mere fraction of the total value. Enter the Nerdarchyverse here!

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

Swords was a fun live chat topic. As soon as it was proposed as a topic it got me thinking about swords in the different media I’ve enjoyed over the years like these:

• Power Sword (He-Man)
• Sword of Omens (ThunderCats)
• Blackrazor (D&D)
• Stormbringer (Elric)
• Narsil (Aragorn)
• Sting (Frodo)

These swords are famous and have become characters in the stories themselves. There is no reason you can’t use swords to help tell stories in your own games. The Heron Mark blade from the Wheel of Time series is a nonmagical sword but it gives you a peek into the world.

Do you have your own version of a Heron Mark blade?

From our games

• Last Breath (Kenna)
• Drukal the Fang of Drasusgino (Skegz)
• Elana Pathwa +0 silver longsword/+4 vs. undead

Two of these items appear in the our successfully funded Mage Forge product, which you can preorder here. Last Breath was from my streamed D&D game the Scarlet Sisterhood on YouTube. The sword Drukal the Fang of Drasusgino is from my Court of Wyrms game, which isn’t a streamed game but one of our home games. The first was a gift from Kenna Hollythorn’s grandmother, which made the sword extra special to the character. Next was the sword Skegz the artificer acquired for passing a test. Skegz learned the sword belonged to an esteemed knightly order. Later in the game when the party was headed to the city this order operated out of Skegz became very nervous about the trip. He was concerned the sword might get him into trouble or become confiscated from him. Later he was granted official knighthood in the order.

A specific sword can be a sign of an omen, the source of a quest, a mark of prestige and more. The next time you randomly roll a +1 longsword for treasure, think about where it came from or who made forged the blade. There is a section in the Dungeon Master’s Guide for customizing magic items in the magic item section. These will tie the characters into the world and possibly spark new adventures from the +1 longsword they just received.

From Ted’s Head

I think it is probably obvious but I love swords. I have loved swords for a long time. I even bought my first sword for display in Disney World while on a high school trip. It was $60 and I was happy about the purchase even though I knew I had to work 10 hours cutting grass to make that kind of money.

If this topic was entirely written by me I would spend a huge amount of time talking about some of my fantastic experiences with the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts. This is when I spent time training with the German longsword. It is an art I have recently just gotten back into and truly love.

I could go on to tell you about the vast amount of characters who wielded a sword or swords over a long career of mostly playing martial characters both in tabletop RPGs as well as LARPing. But I am sure a lot of this can also be seen in some of our videos and live streams. Instead I am going to create a couple of magic swords. One is based on my previously mentioned LARP experience and one based entirely on a recent TV show I watched.

Eagle Blade

Sword (shortsword or longsword), rare (requires attunement)

The sword is beautifully made. The cross guard is an eagle’s wings spread out as if in flight and just above the cross is the full eagle’s head with its beak facing out. Out of the top of the head springs the gleaming metal blade. The metal is worked so immaculately that you can see the individual feathers. The grip of the blade is the legs of the eagle ending in the pommel gripping an egg shaped opal.

While attuned to this +1 magic weapon you can use your bonus action to draw magic from the blade. Doing so causes eagle wings to emerge from your back. The magic of it causes your gear to shift and accommodate the wings. For the next hour you have a fly speed equal to your walking speed. After you do so you must wait until you finish a long rest before you can do so again.

This blade was inspired by the sword a friend made for me a long time ago. I used this as my off hand weapon for the first LARP I went to about 20 years ago. As sentimental as I am I was not able to throw this away. Until now. It was so torn up and battered I could hold onto it no longer but in its prime it was amazing. The brown duct tape was cut into hundreds of triangles to give it the perfect layers of feathers. My friends could make some amazing pieces of art we fought with.

The next up is an item inspired from a TV show. As I do not want to give spoilers I will let you guess and if you get it right I will confirm. But just in case you are still planning to watch the show I will not reveal this awesome scene. The blade is quite shocking.

Bolt Blade

Any sword, rare (requires attunement)

This sword is in fact not a sword but instead a ring or bracelet stylized or decorated with bolts of lightning. Several versions of this sword exist. You can call forth a blade of pure lightning into your open hand, no action required. It appears in the hand of your choice and the color of your choice. The weapons damage is converted to lightning damage. In addition you deal an addition 1d6 lightning damage per attack. The blade vanishes should you be disarmed, but as long as you are still wearing the ring or bracer you can call forth another requiring no action.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Nerdarchists Dave and Ted focused on fantasy swords and primarily D&D for their editorials but as I mentioned during the live chat I get a kick out of swords presented in other genres and games. In some ways those who chose to carry swords in these sorts of settings demonstrate a different level of bad assery when you consider their contemporaries wield guns and even things like laser rifles!

Swords stand out and mean something more or at least different in stories where they’re not commonplace like they are in the fantasy genre. American troops were issued swords all the way through World War I with the last sword issued to US military personnel in 1918. Says something about swords in particular compared with other historical melee weapons, huh? Even in science fiction stories swords bring something different to the table whether it’s to exhibit exceptional combat skill like the warriors in the Dune stories or as symbols of something greater like the Jedi from Star Wars.

One of my favorite RPG characters is Tabitha, the warlock I played during Ted’s Dungeons & Delving campaign. Swords were a huge deal for this character whose backstory includes waking up (coming back to life, really) with no memory of her past and a sword clutched in her hand as the only clue to the mystery. Mechanically she sucked at wielding her greatsword but carried it at all times and held other sword wielders in high regard.

In my real life outside of RPGs since becoming a homeowner I feel compelled to get myself a sword too. Every nerd’s house ought to display an awesome sword, right? All things considered when I pull the trigger at some point I’m thinking a great Excalibur replica sword from the movie of the same name is the one. Classic! Do you have any swords on display in your home? Share your sword owner’s wisdom with me and give me some tips and insights into your favorite swords and until next time, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — One of the most iconic magic weapons in D&D history of course found its way into Magic: The Gathering’s Adventures in the Forgotten Realms expansion. Sending creatures to the graveyard is par for the course in MTG so the Vorpal Sword has a big scabbard to fill. How about when a creature equipped with this head-lopping sword deals damage to a player that player straight up loses the game right then and there? [Art by Caio Monteiro]

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