Let's Play Lordsworn! Part 1: Setup and prologue
This is one of the first solo games I’ve ever bought. It came in one of those Itch bundles, and I never got around to playing it. Let’s change that!
Lordsworn was created by Marren MacAdam (Marrensmusings). It’s a GMless narrative rpg for 1+ players meant for a single arc, inspired by Elden Ring and the light-souls genre. We control characters called Lordsworns, people who survived the Cataclysm, an apocalyptic war between gods, and are trying to get back home.
Most importantly, you will be fragile, shattered creatures clinging to each other for survival in the face of a dying world.
What stories will you tell? Will you return to fanfare as heroes, turning the tide for your home and helping it rebuild? Or will your death be like so many others – an unmarked grave and a name forgotten?
(...)
You’ve ever thought about the “little guys” in high fantasy who get so quickly swept away or killed off to propel the heroes onwards? You want to play out those small, broken lives of the “insignificant” individuals, the soldiers on the walls of Helm’s Deep, the knight of House Stark who just wants to see their family again, or the listless, yet loyal, soldiers that serve Godrick and the other demigods in Elden Ring.
The game is divided into 4 phases:
- Crafting the backdrop: this is where we create our backstory. Which dead god we used to serve, details about our home, the backdrop, and the company.
- Creating your company: we create the also dead Lordsworn captain of our company, our own Lordsworns, and choose the difficulty level (affects Morale).
- The journey home: the meat of the game. Eight random events happen during the journey. We narrate how our Lordsworns deal with them, then resolve each scene with a roll.
- The epilogue: the company either makes it home or is broken. Different endings depending on the resolution.
All rolls and prompts in the game use the most loathsome dice invented by mankind, the d4. 3d4, for that matter, as the game is based on Caltrop Core. If you hate, say, the heat, imagine playing this game in July (January if you’re upside down), on asphalt at noon, and you’ll understand my relationship with the d4.
I will persevere. Lordsworn, give me strength.
Backdrop
Let’s start by fleshing out our Lordsworns’ dead god and their Home.
Pantheon D4: 1 = Arate Pantheon Arate GodD4: 3 = Mavos the Mighty. Goddess of Strength, Warfare, Wisdom, and Fire.
What was your God’s motive for going to war? D4: 1 = Mavos was always first amongst Her peers to rise to any challenge. She would bury a kingdom at the smallest slight, let alone one as grave as this war of Her fellows, meeting it as She always has – with might.
What effect has your God’s death had on the world? D4: 3 = Where once sagacity governed, now blind folly reigns. Humanity, bumbling through a darkness without Her guiding hand, staggers towards their own self-destruction.
What Godmark, the result of such proximity to your God, now blesses your body? D4: 2 = The armour you once wore has fused itself to your flesh, becoming part of you. You are grafted with the strength of steel and its burden.
What was your Home called? D4: 2 = Cada
What is unique about your Home’s geography? D4: 1 = The Meeting Grounds, a stadium-like opening in the great forests that surround your Home. Here the mightiest of beasts, from moose to bears to direwolves, gather instinctively to settle disputes.
What was your Home known for? D4: 1 = The Gymnasiums, dozens of structures dedicated solely to the perfection, elevation, and veneration of the various martial arts and sports honoured by Mavos. Annual competitions bring onlookers to ogle at human might.
The Captain
D4: 2 = Nature Table 1 D4 Nature: 2 = Opportunistic. An opportunistic leader who saw the change to ascend the ranks in an uncertain new world order. Their followers are similarly driven by ambition and greed.
D4 Opportunistic tables Symbol: 1 = A Powerful Eagle Colours: 4 = Blue and Purple Motto: 2 = We will persevere.
I thought it so funny that I rolled the same thing I wrote back there when complaining about the dice that shall not be named.
The Lordsworns
Now it’s time for the main characters, the Lordsworns who survived the Cataclysm. Solo players should go with 5.
There are 26 archetypes, 13 Hearts and 13 Spades drawn from a deck of cards. For each character, we draw an archetype and roll 3d4 for their 3 Aspects. After that, we choose a name (or roll on the Names Table, there’s one for each archetype) and pick pronouns.
7 of Hearts: Noble Knight
3d4 Aspects
Aesthetic Feature: 1 = Well-kept, ornate armour and a beautiful face you’ve taken care to always protect.
Keepsake: 1 = Book of etiquette and chivalry, a gift from your parents.
Equipment: 4 = Warhammer.
D4 Name: 3 = Athalos Gallant
Pronouns: They/them
7 of Spades: Eagle Eyed Sharpshooter
3d4 Aspects
Aesthetic Feature: 1 = Simple leathers dyed in your homeland’s and clawmark scars from a hunt.
Keepsake: 4 = Golden locket you wear around your neck, a picture of your paramour and a small protective inscription inside.
Equipment: 3 = A repeater long rifle and a bowie knife.
D4 Name: 1 = Sven Strider
Pronouns: He/him
9 of Hearts: Wandering Spellblade
3d4 Aspects
Aesthetic Feature: 3 = Coins of many lands woven into your armour and strange, extravagant jewellery.
Keepsake: 4 = A favour from a sweetheart awaiting you Home, a religious symbol for “Safe Travels”.
Equipment: 1 = Rapier and silver casting staff.
D4 Name: 1 = Jor’ilt Chekrov
Pronouns: He/him
Queen of Spades: Fervent Follower
3d4 Aspects
Aesthetic Feature: 4 = Simple straw hat to keep the sun at bay and a hand-me-down, ratty old cloak.
Keepsake: 3 = A letter sent from your family that managed to reach the battlefield, a reminder of your worldly ties.
Equipment: 1 = Blessed flail.
D4 Name: 4 = St. Quieteria of the Stone
Pronouns: She/her
10 of Hearts: Scarred Medic
3d4 Aspects
Aesthetic Feature: 1 = Large twin ravens tattooed on your face, a sign of your graduation as healer, and hollow eyes with a kind smile.
Keepsake: 4 = Uniform of a hospital you served at in your Home, where the sick and wounded await your skilled and kind hand.
Equipment: 4 = Estoc.
D4 Name: 2 = Xoti Apollin
Pronouns: She/her
Morale
Morale value changes depending on the events during the journey phase. It can never go higher than 8, and if it reaches 0, our Company is broken.
This is how we decide the game difficulty. The suggested starting Morale is 8, or 6 for hard mode. I’m going with 8.
I think this is quite enough for this first session. There’s a lot to work with already. I think a prologue to put this all together would be cool as an introduction.
Prologue
Lightning pierced the air to strike down their blue and purple banner of the Soaring Eagle.
The skies split open as spears of lightning rained down, the earth burned with a raging fire, and Captain Lusich lay dying before the Company.
When Mavos the Mighty fell, the light inside all Her Lordsworns went out, leaving only a hollow, icy pit in their souls. The enemy seized the moment to turn the tide of battle, as Mavos’ own Lordsworns turned on each other. Brothers and sisters slain their own.
Athalos clung to their chivalric codes, trying to instill order to tame the chaos. Their hammer swung wide, unleashing what remained of Mavos’ power. It wasn’t enough to save most of their companions or Lusich. The death moans around Athalos turned into a high-pitch ringing. Their well-kept ornate armor fused to their flesh, becoming a reminder of the Goddess’ strength and Athalos’ failure.
Sven’s shots boomed like the lightning bolts tearing the battlefield, his precision rivaling the furies of the skies. He dropped his rifle and screamed as his armor turned him into a nightmare of flesh and leather. He dropped to his knees and clawed at his necklace. The gold locket grafted into his chest, sealing the image of his beloved and the inscription beneath it forever. It became a grim symbol of all he lost, or maybe an engraved mark of hope to guide him home.
Chekrov cried as the many coins and jewels, mementos from the different lands he visited, seared his skin, melding against him along with his armor. No magic he learned or rapier technique he mastered could undo the emptiness that engulfed him. Chekrov carried a wooden fist of Mavos in his breast pocket, a gift from his fiancee for safeguarding. It felt meaningless. He looked at Sven, weeping and shaking. No one else could understand their sorrow, that irreparable loss.
St. Quieteria was mid prayer when absolute silence stole her soul. Inside her, the void tore away the holiness. Her blessed flail seemed lighter. Her eyes bled and she screamed, flogging herself with her once divine weapon as her straw hat and cloak melted into her body, until someone seized her arms and embraced her.
Apollin was already overwhelmed tending the wounded when Mavos spurred them on, and then Her presence faded forever. Stunned, many died under the care she could no longer give. Seeing Lusich fall jolted her back to reality, and she ran to join the rest of the Company. They gathered around their Captain to hear the last thing he would ever tell them.
“Forget the others…” he whispered. “Save me.” Then all light vanished from Lusich’s eyes.
Their Goddess was slain, and their Captain’s last command was to forget about Mavos, the war, and their comrades to save him. Opportunistic and ambitious to the last, Lusich climbed the ranks in Cada’s arena using his wits and might, receiving Mavos’ blessing with each victory.
But there was no wits in that order. His last breath came out tainted with betrayal. His might and ambition, without Mavos, turned to greed, and his sagacity became folly.
And looking at that pointless slaughter, at how divinity vanished like a dream, they all felt foolish. Children lost in the darkness.
The war was over. They shed the blood of their former allies in a hysteria of rage and grief, and what remained of the Soaring Eagle stood ashamed, unable to look each other in the eye. Their shame, humiliation, and pain bound them together.
They turned away and headed toward freedom, to be found either at home or in death.
And that’s it for the intro! I hope you enjoyed my take on the rolls and the game, and it makes you wanna give Lordsworn a try.
Lordsworn is available on Itch.