War on Shantraat, a free adventure for Swarnam TTRPG has released!

Swarnam TTRPG is now available on itch.io as well.

War on Shantraat, a free adventure for Swarnam TTRPG, can also be downloaded from there.

Player and GM packets (editable/printable): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LstUdQ1OPScOWEd_s6jtBkd2ud4D1Lhv?usp=sharing

What people say

"The video is a great demo for the game, and the website explains it clearly. You should be proud of your work on this. Well done!" - Bob World Builder

Welcome to the Game!

Swarnam TTRPG is, as its name suggests, a table-top roleplaying game (TTRPG) set in the world of Swarnam. Throughout this guide you will find rules, setting information, and material to help you get started on your journey.

In Swarnam, you play a story, where you are the heroes and fight villains in a fantasy setting. However, one of the players is the GM or Game Master, whose task is to narrate the story and engage the story.

The GM describes the world around the characters, the players decide what to do, and then the GM narrates the consequences of their actions. The cycle continues.

However, if there is a chance that the action the character tries to attempt has a chance of failing, the player rolls 2 dice and adds the modifiers that make the most sense in the situation to the roll. Meanwhile the GM has already decided a number called the Difficulty Level or DL which the player's total needs to equal or beat in order to succeed.

Roll total = Roll on dice 1 + Roll on dice 2 + The relevant modifier (POW or KNO or STE) + Bonus from weapon (only if it can be used)

Q. How to decide what modifier to use?

A. The three modifiers are for:

Power (POW): Fighting, lifiting, pushing

Knowledge (KNO): Understanding, casting magic, persuading

Stealth (STE): Hiding, lying, stealing

Q. What should the DL be?

A. As the GM, it's completely up to you, but you may consult the given table:

Adventures

Whenever the players sit down to play, it is termed as a session. A Swarnam TTRPG session is typically 1 hour long.

A group of sessions is called an adventure.

See this sample play for any rule clarifications you may need.

-----------#####-------------

TWO ROADS AHEAD.

CAST:

Banti as Ladka, an assassin.
Nisu as Ghochu. a mage.
Manya as Xuani, a transformer.
Pratik as GM.

GM: As you emerge from the forest, you see two roads ahead of you. One is a shorter one, ending at a dead end at an old house. The other path leads to the city. What do you do?

Nisu: I would like to take the shorter road first.

GM: As you approach the old house, you can see it is locked. Its doors though, seem to be old and nearly decayed from the rains.

Banti: I would like to lockpick the lock.

GM: Go ahead.

Banti: (Rolls dice) I got a 6 on the first, 1 on the other, that's 7, plus my stealth stat, that's +2, so 9 and since I will use my +1 dagger to lockpick it, that's 10 total.

GM: You succeed! The lock is broken, and you enter the house, however you can see that it's quite dark in here. A mysterious light can be seen, and it frightens you.

Manya: I investigate it. (rolls dice) Oh, oh! I got a 3.

GM: That will not be enough. You are astonished as a goblin emerges from that light and attacks you. Begin combat!

How to Play

Before playing, decide who will be the GM. The rest will be the players. Everybody should accordingly, download and print the relevant packet from here.

The GM needs their initiative tracker only when they run a combat encounter. The players, however, will be needing their character sheet all the time.

The Character Sheet

The character sheet lists down everything about a character. It contains their stats, abilities, inventory, everything.

Begin Play

After everyone has taken their character sheets, you undergo something called character creation prior to the game. Here, with the GM's help, the players will define their characters' powers, backstories, etc. To begin:

Take a character sheet.
Write down the name of your character. Also write down the backstory and appearance of your character.
Write down your Level as 1.
Choose a role (see Roles below). Write down your stats and equipment as given in the Roles Table. Also, through a star or highlight, mark some visual indication for the primary stat. You also start with an ability (see Abilities). You have starting equipment too (see Inventory and Equipment).
Begin at 5 health points. See Health Points, Healing, Dying and Resurrection below.
Have 5 gold.

Roles

A character has a job, a place, a position in the world. This is called the character's Role. There are 4 roles in Swarnam TTRPG:

Warrior: Be a warrior if you like to fight evil and monsters.
Mage: Be a mage if you are a master of arcane arts and knowledge.
Assassin: Be an assassin if you kill for gold.
Transformer: Be a transformer if you have an animal inside you.

After choosing a role, refer to its table:

Health Points, Healing, Dying and Resurrection

Every character has health points (HP), which keep track of a character's health. There are two compartments in the HP box. The first box is for the current HP, while the second is for the maximum HP. Since you start at 5 HP, you have 5 in both boxes. The max HP does not change that often; however the current HP does change whenever you take damage or heal. When damage is dealt to you, your current HP decreases by the damage taken, and vice-versa for healing. Whenever a character's current HP reaches 0, they die.

Healing is an ability that is automatically granted to characters of the Mage role (see Abilities), however, there are other ways to heal. By rolling a DL 8 ,+ KNO stat check, you can heal an ally of yours for half their max HP (round down).

The dead can be resurrected through a powerful spell that requires a DL 10 , + KNO stat check. The dead comes to life with 1 current HP.

Resting

When the characters take a rest at a safe location, they restore all their HP.

Combat

Evil cannot be fought without a battle. These rules govern combat.

Prior to the fight, the GM should note down the details of the combat encounter on their Initiative Tracker. In Swarnam TTRPG, combat takes place turn-wise in the order of initiative, which means that first the characters take their turn, then friendly non-player characters (NPCs), then the main enemy or boss they are fighting, and then any hostile NPCs that might be on the enemy side. On a turn a character may attack, use an ability, heal or resurrect an ally.
To attack, a character rolls 2 dice and adds their primary stat to the roll. They also add any bonus from the weapon they might be using, which is then compared to the target's current HP. If it is greater than the current HP, the target takes damage equal to the difference between the roll total and their current HP. If the roll total is equal or less than the target's current HP, they take no damage. The same goes for all other NPCs and monsters in the initiative. But, there is an exception. Monsters and NPCs have only one stat that serves as their primary stat. They do not add weapon bonuses.
The battle ends when all enemies are dead, or all characters are dead. Depending on the outcome, they win or lose respectively, after which they may gain loot from the monsters if victorious.
Monsters also have abilities, and they work similar to how character abilities do. They too, can use it only once per session (see Abilities and Adventures).

Inventory and Equipment

All items that a character has are listed in the inventory section on the character sheet. The weapon they are currently using is not listed in the inventory but the equipment section. Whenever you get an upgrade, you may put the old weapon in the inventory and have the new weapon take its place in the equipment section. The discarded weapon could be sold for the weapon's bonus multiplied by 50 gold at a shop.

Abilities

Abilities are special powers that characters may possess. Though a character may know more than one ability, they may use only one ability and that too only once per session (see Adventures). Some abilities can be taken only by characters of specific roles. See the tables below for a breakdown of each ability.

Getting Stronger

Every two sessions (see Adventures), the characters level up. The characters:

Increase your level by 1.
Choose between:

(A) Take another ability (see Abilities). You can take either from role-specific or non role-specific abilities.

(B) Increase your HP by 1.

NOTE: A character cannot be of a higher level than 20.

Swarnam Campaign Setting

This is a guide to the world of Swarnam. As a GM, you may use this as the world for your game or create a world of your own. The possibilities are endless.

Time Terms

Years are denoted in Swarnam using two terms:

JKP (Jang Ke Pehle) or Before the War
JKB (Jang Ke Baad) or After the War

Hindi Terms

Most of the names in Swarnam are derived from Hindi and Sanskrit. Some of them you should know the meaning of:

Bada - Big
Mota - Fat
Aaaltu Faltu - Nonsense
Shahar - City
Gaon - Village
Mahayoddha - literally Great Warrior
Daku - literally Pirate
Rajya - Kingdom
Nawab - Mayor, Head of a district or city.
Jang - War

Ages

The history of Swarnam can be divided into 3 ages:

Golden Age (100000 - 12 JKP)
First War and Age of Daku (12 JKP - O JKB)
Age of Rani and the Nawabs (O JKB - present)

Map of Swarnam

At the start of the First War and before the Age of Daku

Present Map of Swarnam

Age of Rani and the Nawabs

Golden Age (100000 - 12 JKP)

The world has just begun, and Swarnam, the creator of this world, who appeared as a golden statue, neither male or female, has created the continent of Swarnam (yes, after his own name.)

Swarnam created man, and his younger brother. They were named Mahayoddha and Daku, respectively. To protect them, Swarnam created the good gods. But some evil forces also gained power and became the evil gods. You can see the Gods and Nawabs table also.

The world of Swarnam was surrounded by a sea of water called the Great Samudram, a symbol of the god of sea Samudram. The same goes for the Mighty Pavakam, a pool of lava on the other side (see map), a symbol of the god of fire Pavakam.

The two brothers went on to part ways and establish their kingdoms, with their capitals at Mahayoddha Shahar and Mota Mota Shahar respectively and started constructing temples of gods. Though there were some tensions between the kingdoms, no war actually happened.

Around this time, an unknown poet wrote a 13-volume collection of poems describing a great war between the kingdoms where even gods would come down to fight. This collection was known about, but never actually found till many thousand years later.

The age ended with Raja, a descendent of Mahayoddha, and one year later in 12 JKP, Rajendra, the heir to the Daku kingdom, being crowned the king of their respective kingdoms.

First War and Age of Daku (12 JKP - 0 JKB)

This age began when Raja, and his wife, the Queen Rani, were sitting in court and received a scroll from the Daku kingdom, which challenged them to a fight. And thus the First War began. And in this war around 95% of Raja's forces including Raja himself were killed. The remaining either sacrificed themselves in the name of the king or surrendered. The queen was captured and held captive for 12 years. All this time, much happened. Mahayoddha temples were destroyed. And King Rajendra's own son Devendra killed his father and took the throne.

But in 0 JKB, Rani escaped the castle of Mota Mota Shahar. She met a young mage named Rocky, with whose help she gathered her forces and the help of the gods. The battle that was predicted many thousand years ago happened. And evil gods were killed. Devendra died soon after. Mahayoddha rule was established over Swarnam.

Age of Rani and the Nawabs (0 JKB - present)

Rani established her kingdom with the concept of Nawabs, who were sort of mayors (see Gods and Nawabs) for effective administration. Rocky and several others were made Nawabs. The good gods who died in the war were brought back to life by Mahanam's Shakti in an event that came to be known as Jeevinkatam. Pavakam, the evil god of lava and fire had died in the war. His good son Aagam took his place. After a 1000 years of rule, Rani went to heaven leaving her son to rule.

Gods and Nawabs

GODS

Jang ke Pehle

GODS

Jang ke Baad

Shakti and Mahanam

Magic in Swarnam is in the form of Shakti (power). It is governed by the Ultimate God Mahanam who created Swarnam and is in the form of a voice, according to legends. Shakti is known for bringing adventurers together. It can be used by you as the GM as a way to bring your party together.

What Shakti cannot do:

Shakti cannot kill a god. Because gods cannot be killed unless Mahanam wills so.
Shakti cannot create real money. It can create fake money but not real.
Shakti cannot vanish something, though it can be sent to another plane of existence.

THANK YOU

I hope you enjoy the system. Happy adventuring!

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse