News, Swords of the Serpentine
Swords of the Serpentine Free Downloads and Resources
Here you’ll find official materials as well as useful game resources and play aids created by the Swords of the Serpentine community. A link to a third-party site doesn’t mean that we agree with or endorse all of the opinions on that site.
- GUMSHOE 101 – Kevin Kulp’s helpful overview of GUMSHOE.
- Giving Out Clues in GUMSHOE – GM-facing advice on the most central element of a GUMSHOE game.
- How to Read the Rules – A quick start guide to Swords of the Serpentine.
- Three Things About Eversink – An overview of the more flavourful aspects of the Swords of the Serpentine‘s city setting.
- Exploring Bookhounds of Eversink – Kevin Kulp looks at five different ways you might set up a SotS Bookhounds game in Eversink.
- Strange Bedfellows: Manipulating Politics in Swords of the Serpentine – Kevin Kulp on the tools players can use to manipulate political factions.
- Social Combat in Swords of the Serpentine – Kevin Kulp explains the robust and fun social combat systems in Swords of the Serpentine that let you defeat a foe without laying a finger on them.
- The Cost of Corruption – Sorcery in Swords of the Serpentine – Kevin Kulp explains how sorcery is both narratively and mechanically expensive in Swords of the Serpentine.
- The Eversink Post Office – Emily Dresner with an article about The Great and Distinguished Eversink Guild of Letter Deliverers (aka the Post Office).
- The Iconic Hero: Fantasy Classics in Swords of the Serpentine – Kevin Kulp looks at modelling classic fantasy heroes, such as Robert E. Howard’s Conan.
- The Iconic Hero: Elric of Melniboné in Swords of the Serpentine – Kevin Kulp looks at two ways to play Michael Moorcock’s classic antihero.
- One-Hero Play: Two-Player Adventures in Swords of the Serpentine – Kevin Kulp on the changes needed during character creation for a one player, one GM game.
- Swords of the Serpentine guidelines – Collected guidelines Kevin Kulp and Emily Dresner used when writing the game.
- Why GUMSHOE for Swords & Sorcery? – Kevin Kulp on the match of system to setting in Swords of the Serpentine.
- Words of the Serpentine: Finishing the Book – Kevin Kulp on reviewing the print proofs and the home stretch.
- What Kind of Hero Are You? – Swords of the Serpentine has any number of ways to be a hero. Kevin Kulp looks at some of the options.
- Swords of the Serpentine Hero Generator – Matthew Breen’s online tool allows you to build a character from scratch, or randomly generate a starting template for inspiration. Export a finished sheet as a PDF, or create a short-form stat block.
- Four Heroes: Your Swords of the Serpentine source for pre-made heroes – Kevin Kulp’s short series featuring sample Heroes for each profession.
- Four Heroes 1 – Sentinel, Sorcerer, Thief and Warrior pre-generated characters.
- Four Heroes 2 – More Sentinel, Sorcerer, Thief and Warrior pre-generated characters.
- Four Heroes 3 – Six pre-gens, as used for The Dripping Throne adventure, featuring Sentinel, Sorcerer, Thief, Warrior, pre-gens along with two mixed profession preg-gens, Sorcerer / Thief, and Sentinel / Sorcerer / Thief.
- Matthew Breen has designed some fantastic resources on his website:
- Swords of the Serpentine Hero Generator – Build a character from scratch, or randomly generate a starting template for inspiration. Export a finished sheet as a PDF, or create a short-form stat block.
- Adversary Builder – Create stat blocks for Adversaries and Monstrosities. Use existing Adversaries as a template, or start from scratch.
- Triskadane Deck – Deal a hand of cards to populate the Triskadane, Eversink’s secret ruling council. The membership of the council and their faction affiliations can help determine the political climate of the city.
- Name Generators – Generate names for people, professional societies, thieves’ guilds, and more.
- The Dripping Throne – An adventure seed for one or two game sessions by Kevin Kulp.
- Sin-drinker – An(other) adventure seed for one or two game sessions by Kevin Kulp.
- Rebellious Factions Part 1 – Kevin Kulp with advice, NPCs and adventure seeds using the first six of Swords of the Serpentine‘s factions.
- Rebellious Factions Part 2 – Kevin Kulp with advice, NPCs and adventure seeds using the first six of Swords of the Serpentine‘s factions.
- Eversink Villains – Over on her blog, Emily Dresner has a series of villainous ‘Sinkish NPCs, along with accompanying plot hooks:
- #01: Silvio Langella, Enemy of Stephanos Everywhere
- #02: Gaspar Bruni, Lord of the Hermitage Mailroom
- #03: Insanity Forrest, Mad Mage of the Sea
- #04: Ventura Rotunno, the Prince of Pants
- #05: The Cult of Vetyx, God of Riches and Honor
- #06: Clive the Barbarian Attacks!
- #07: The Nautilus
- #08: The Vampire of the Opera
- #09: The King of Harbor Approach
- Kevin Kulp runs Sots for ENWorld’s Morrus and Peter – PodBean link * YouTube link
- Kevin Kulp’s Twitter play-by-poll thread
- Twelve-Sided Stories’ Blades of Eversink follows the exploits of sellsword friends in the city of Eversink.
- Follow Commander Pulsar’s intrepid Denari’s Half Dozen on YouTube or Twitch
- Gnome Stew‘s Jared Rascher reviews SotS
- Zoar Game Geek‘s SotS review
- The Walking Mind – Rob Donahue’s SotS review
- SotS on RPG.net
- Twelve-Sided Stories talks with SotS writers Kevin Kulp and Emily Dresner
- Dicegeek talks SotS and giant shark movies with Kevin Kulp