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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells $14.99
Average Rating:4.8 / 5
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by Nathaniel M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/18/2022 17:50:05

This book is excellent. It addressed all my bugbears with Sharp Swords, (which is also a good game). It covers everything you could need from combat and spells to rules for vechiles, with excellent examples and guides to making your own spells equipment and monsters. I will definately be using it a lot. Some lovely art and presentation too, and the tables are amazing. You coul use it to run a very wide range of games from fanatsy to sci fi.

One of the best and most easy to remember rulesets I've seen. Highly recommended.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by Brian R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/16/2022 15:34:14

I can't believe I haven't written a review for this yet. I first discovered Old Skull by seeing Dark Streets & Darker Secrets on the DTRPG front page. I got it, loved it, and immediately went in search of more content for it. What I found was Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells.

Hoo-boy. How to even start. I've described this game as post-apocalyptic cosmic horror star & sorcery. I've told people it's like Star Wars, Warhammer 40K, Masters of the Universe, and Heavy Metal magazine all got blended up in one universe. It's a freakin ride, let me tell you. But, here's the thing... it only barely describes all the weird, wild, wonderful crap it mentions. A few things get a paragraph or two. The different sectors of space get a few pages of tables each, and I'll mention the tables again in a bit. And that's about it. All the background is sprinkled around in tiny crumbs all over the book. Nothing is given an extensive 'this is how it is' treatment. The Overlord (the GM) has so much room to add, delete, and modify, because it is all so sandboxy. No, that isn't a word. Reading the book, you get into the feel of the universe, without being bombarded by pages of names, locations, battles, rivalries, etc, etc. The tech level reminds me of 'demon-haunted Firefly', and the adventure creation section reads like 'H.P. Lovecraft's Stargate SG-1'.

The game system is so fun, as well. Four attributes, roll 1d20 and score equal or less than the attribute to succeed. The Overlord must roll over the PC's stat on 1d20 to affect the character. There are Tough, Nimble, Smart, and Gifted characters, each with special abilities that define that archetype. Vitality is this game's Hit Points, and they start kind of high, but only increase slowly. The powers a Gifted character can gain are varied, and dangerous. Mess up really, really bad on a Sorcery roll, and an evil clone of you might appear somewhere in the universe, intent on taking your place. Weapons and armor are abstracted into Light, Medium, and Heavy. Vehicles get a chapter, and that hoverbike illustration made me create a light transport just to have a hoverbike racing team drinking in the local bar. Which led to an entire session in an unplanned side adventure. Gear has a Durability, which is way more fun than simply marking off ammo or fuel cells. You roll 1d6, hoping to score equal or less than the Durability of the item. If you don't, the Durability drops by 1. If it reaches zero, the item is empty, used up, or even destroyed.

Yes, the book is 450 pages. There's about 100 pages of hard rules, including powers and vehicles. So. Many. Tables. Many entries have an additional 1d6 roll to give even more variety to that entry. There are tables for contents, features, encounters, and more for each of the 20 sectors. A sweet adventure framework creation section where you can randomly roll the goal, adversaries, complications, and locations of an adventure. This is, honestly, my favorite section. Near the end is a starting adventure, a prison break scenario that could end up with the party having their own starship. And enemies. More than a few enemies.

It's amazing. This game is amazing. The system is easy to use, and the setting is bonkers. Or not. Don't use the crazy stuff. No Undead Queen, no Star Gods, no Galactic Overlords. Just humans and spaceships. Maybe all the characters are from the same planet, and the game is straight fantasy. Until a spaceship crashes there. You can do so much with this game. I'm an unabashed fanboy, and proud of it. Get it. If you like alien wizards and cyborg gunslingers, this is your Happy Place.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by Alex J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/16/2021 18:54:40
A new favourite

Purely and simply this is one of the easiest to use, best laid out books i've played...and I have a lot. Im tempted to buy the hardcover just because I am a fan!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by David D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/22/2020 09:24:10

With so many other great's in this genre (such as White Star, Stars Without Number, and Traveller) I was reticient to purchase SB&CS... BUT i must say it was money well spent! This one possibly stands on top of the heap for those seeking SPACE OPERA action. It has a very detailed, well written, and exciting setting which (to me) sets it apart from more 'generic' space opera titles. And the mechanics do not dissappoint either. I'd highly recommend SB&CS to anyone seeking a good ol' space opera experience, bonus points if they like OSR an rules-light systems. Top notch black and white art throughout as well.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by Marco R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/27/2019 22:25:20

This piece of work is INSANELY good. As for Dark Streets and Darker Secrets, this is a must have for many "not only" reasons.

  1. Not only it is insanely well laid out, but every single paragraph is a potential source of inspiration.
  2. Not only you can find whatever you need with almost no effort, but you can easily discover a new perspective just by "listening" to Nogueira's voice. And this leads to...
  3. Not only this is well written with insane accuracy, but it is both open ended and personal. You feel like he's just talking and telling his dreams and days spent at the table to his sons. No kidding. I feel the passion I feel when I read Gygax work or the fluidity of B/X d&d.
  4. No only you have an insane number of USEFUL table (caps intended, since while it's easy to fill a book with tables, it is not easy to write a book using tables as an actual part of the writing), but each table contains from ten to thousands campaign ideas. I read the book three times in a row and cannot stop creating, rolling, thinkin. Thank God.
  5. Not only you don't feel the "weight" of a 400+ pages book, but you get the benefit of a full game system + setting + options + variants + equipments + adventure + USEFUL tables in a fluent language without a single hole (if you don't count the black holes you might dive in if you don't pay attention to the addictive nature of Nogueira's writing).
  6. Not only you can manage fantasy/sci fi/space opera in a single tome, but you never feel it's too much. The way the iconic concept of Galactic Overlords is put, or the way factions and places are treated, teleports you into this giant universe where your diezel punk attitude can easily co-exist with an "horror in space" series, since "sorcery" is nefarious and adversaries are lethal, even the ones you never meet.

Not only mr. Noguieira pays a passionate and intimate homage to the old school feel, but he managed to do it putting on your table a modern intensity and an easy engine with infinite depth. Get a couple of d20s and a bunch of d6s, start experimenting together with the ultra funny mix and match of "liberal" character creation or just stick to an archetype and embark whatever adventure you wish.

Noguieira manages to re write the old school spirit and concept, learning from the past without being a heartless grognard. He is a smart guy who started with a whisper and now's screaming into the RPG ocean raising another giant wave that, I hope and feel, will get a proper rendition.

This game, along with the line of the other OS games, enter hands down the top 5 of modern systems.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by Philip H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/08/2019 16:35:27

Amazing work. Clear, concise and not a word wasted. I liked SS&SS but SB&CS is a step further towards awesome. Especially the luck/durability mechanics. It feels like how OD&D would be if it were written now but in space! Can't wait for the Addendum :)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells
Publisher: Old Skull Publishing
by Eric S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/05/2019 07:38:44

I have been following this game since its inception and have come to love it. The parts of the game that I enjoy most are these simple mechanics thallow for a pulp style of action player creativity and GM creation on the flyIf you were stuck in a rut or just want to create a game at that very moment. The book comes with amazing tables they can be used as a tool kit for game development not only in a si fi setting but you can apply the principles to any game that you want to run



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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