Our Spell Is Steel | A Forged In The Dark TRPG
A downloadable tabletop RPG
Our Spell Is Steel (OSIS) is a tabletop RPG built with the Forged In The Dark system, utilising a d10 dice mechanic influenced from World of Darkness.
You play as an Imperial Mancer, a mage who serves an Empire built on magic. Your world is surrounded on all sides by the three ancient Powers: the godlike Dragons, Spirits and Fey, locked in an eternal struggle for supremacy over each other. The Mancers learned the mysteries of magic from these Powers, which is now their only means of defending humanity from the overpowering beyond.
Your group forms a team of Mancers called a Clave. Mancers are born to serve the Empire, ruled by callous and ambitious Trueblood bloodlines who would be more than happy to sacrifice Newbloods like you as fodder and bargaining chips against the Powers.
Caught in the bloody game between gods and mages, will your Clave be the one to fight back against your fate and topple the board, lighting the fires of a magical revolution? Or will you perish before your time, your soul bound into servitude to the Powers, or your own magic killing you as arcane bloom chokes your veins?
More info on OSIS and its world can be found on the Switchback YouTube channel. Feel free to joint the Switchback tabletop Discord server and meet fellow Mancers!
Content:
- 96 pages
- Full core rules featuring a d10 dice system, which can be easily reverted back into standard FitD d6 rules. Success is determined by the number of dice rolled at 7 or above.
- 7 playsheets for playable Mancer archetypes - available in colour and black-and-white printable versions. Play as the academic Wizard, the martial Ironheart, or the homunculus Hollow, among others!
- A magic system with 9 flavourful disciplines called Mysteries, each with a list of core spells (61 spells total). Coat yourself with sword-breaking scales, create golems and conjure weapons of legend.
- Greater Spells - 17 powerful spells that can only be cast by yourself and another Mancer. Use your bonds to reach greater heights of magic!
- Optional rules for turn-based combat for groups that prefer a dedicated tactical phase in their RPGs.
- A list of official factions and important figures to jumpstart your campaign.
- An artbook section featuring 15 pages of illustrations, sketches and descriptions of the OSIS world to help inspire your campaigns!
Purchase
In order to download this tabletop RPG you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $12 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Community Copies
If you're not able to pay for a copy of OSIS, feel free to grab a community copy if it's available. Pay it forward by telling your group about OSIS and our other games instead, or by leaving a rating+review! If you enjoyed it and end up donating later, we'll add another community copy into the pile.
An extra community copy will be added for every purchase of OSIS, with bonus copies for purchases above $15. Thank you for your support!
Comments
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Hey, a couple of questions if I may!
1) At pg 15 you state “In the case of Strain or Covenants, you do not gain a Bloom or Scourge mark if you choose the results of that bonus die, regardless of that die's outcome. Describe how you are helped based on the die you chose.“ Does this means that I should use different coloured dice and that, in normal conditions, I gain Bloom or Scourge respectively when I choose to Strain or take a Covenant in normal checks?
I ask before I’m probably missing that part xD
2) How many spells are you supposed to know at Mancer’s creation? I ask before it seems you know them all, but you have the ability to learn one through advancement so… Sorry again if I’m missing the point!
3) Any advice for duet games? With bonds being really important, I thought it would have been fine to run a full fledged GM-Mancer, so I can let the player add some stuff for free downtime for me as well. On the other hand I thought about adding a non Mancer assistant or a companion of sort, regularly developing a bond through role play, basically acting as a bonus die reserve to compensate the absence of other players, but still being relevant in RP terms (imagine a squire, or a friendly scholar actually helping in the background, so to speak). :)
Still, this game has a strong classic feel and I can really see it working in an open table styled campaign!
Hi, thanks for playing! ^^
1) Yeah, you can definitely use a differently coloured die. I think in that specific case (Resistance rolls), you are only looking at the best result rolled, i.e. just one die. If you use the result of the Strain or Covenant-given die, you would not gain Bloom or Scourge if you use the result of that die. But take note that this may mean you'll be choosing a worse dice result than you normally would like.
2) I think I might have actually not mentioned it lol, so that's on me. Yes, you choose one Mystery (magic discipline) at Mancer creation, and after that you choose one spell from that Mystery that you know already. If it feels too little, knowing two spells works too, but they must be from the same Mystery.
3) By duet games I'm assuming you're playing with yourself + one other player? I don't see why not - if making other characters being controlled by the same person, you would simply make a sheet for them as you would a normal character. For ease of use, the main things to focus on are what spells they know + their Bond points + their Action scores. Their Mancer abilities can be focused on less if you're aiming to streamline remembering & controlling multiple characters at once.
Hope it helps, and don't hesitate to send your stories about your game experience! I'd love to hear them.
Hey, thank you!!
Another tricky question (sorry again): the rules seem to point at the fact that a Mancet can use “magic” to describe any kind of action, turning the check to a spell check.
so, I.e., I can use magic to hide or pickpocket, as well as to blast someone.
But what about actual “spells” then?
oh, and one more!
I don’t understand the “change dice”. It feels like it’s adding +2 on Risk, but you talk about rolling +2d as disadvantages. What does it mean?
Thanks!
Let's see...
Regarding magic applying to any action, I'd say you can simply treat it as a normal action roll and "flavour" it like you're using magic, but you don't gain any additional benefits, and your impact/control with it is limited. For example, you can use magic to hide yourself, but you cannot become fully invisible or undetectable. You can use magic to push someone back, but you cannot push away a whole crowd of enemies or accurately control where they go.
Regarding Change, maybe there's a lapse in the wording there. Basically it means there is added Risk, so the number of successes required from is increased.
Hey, provided relationships are a crucial part of the game, but since they can involve external elements as well, would you deem OSIS playable with 1 player / 1 GM? I generally feel FitD games one2one friendly but I wanted to hear your opinion!
Mechanically I wouldn't be sure, but I don't see why not if you can make it work! Your Bonds would simply be made with GM-controlled characters instead.
Usually I judge if a TTRPG is good by how hard I'm daydreaming about making a campaign with it, and this one has given me lots of ideas.
A nice and light system, with an intriguing setting and full of inspiration to draw from, and a mythology and lore interesting while leaving enough room for you to introduce whatever you want into it.
That sounds awesome to hear! Thanks so much. I was worried I wasn't giving enough material to build off of, lol.
An awesome light, but still deep, implementation of the FitD engine! Lovely theme, nice sandbox approach and exciting ruleset! Gonna play this soon! Kudos!!!
Awesome! Thanks so much for the kind feedback :D
Do feel free let me know what else stands out to you so I know what mechanics are gold and what to polish for future games.
I tried to pick this up today and I got an error saying: PayPal failed to create payment, not sure what's going on there.
Hi! Check back in a few business days (about 3 days to be safe) and it should be settled.
Okay sounds good thank you!
This is a really great game! Cool premise, Switchback Worlds team!
Thanks! ^^ Feel free to join the Discord server to discuss the system or setting with me or other players!
Amazing!
Thank you! ^^