Just wanted to say that I really, really love what this system offers. Big fan of Traveller/Cepheus type stuff, and, in running a Rider campaign recently, I decided to take a look to see what else was offered in the same style, and Sword of Cepheus scratched so, so many itches for me. Dangerous magic, the character creation common to the engine I've come to love, a charming old-school DND art style, and, this absolutely is a blessing, the book is fairly short! In a good way, you got right to the point and I didn't have to spend long finding what I needed or digging through fluff. Gotta say that the magic/mutation system is probably my favorite part, I ABSOLUTELTY plan on playing around with it for my cowboy campaign.

I think my only complaint is that the weapons don't have a lot of diversity beyond handedness and dice damage, but honestly that's fine- and sort of the norm for rpg's anymore, if 5e DND is anything to go off of. Other than that, book good, 10/10, cast spells and crush skulls. If you, dear reader, are seeking a quick and easy way to experience some of the best the Cepheus system has to offer, give this a gander. If you, Publisher, are reading this, you did real good!

After reading the system, won't be using it. :( While I like the character generation system (other than the couple near useless professions) and the combat system, the rules seems to less than supportive of long-term campaigns and player retention. The magic system appears to be a booby trap for unsuspecting players. IMO, you'd pretty much be setting yourself up to fail being a sorceror. It is billed as swords and sorcery, but it is more swords and swords and more swords based.

Almost bought Cepheus Atom, but found out about ever increasing corruption. I must ask, are any of the Cepheus-derived games long term campaign / player friendly or do they all contain some kind of 'gotcha!' rules aimed at the players? Both Swords and Atom seem actively player-hostile, like old time D&D with an adversarial DM, but baked into the rules.

Great game. I loved it. Really fitted for the Sword & Sorcery/Sandal/Planet genres, especially the magic part because classic D&D-style magic is a huge problem to deal with campaigns of these genres. I'm only giving 4 stars out of 5 because the pdf has a certain number of typos and editing mistakes. For the relatively small size of the book, I thought it was worth mentioning. However, face this comment as an amicable criticism, because I actually liked the product and will watch out for future products of Stellagama. May the dice always roll in your favor.

"If you want a handful of grit in your dice bag, if you’re more of about Conan than Rincewind, if you like the vibe of OSR, but not the engines, then Sword of Cepheus looks like the game for you."

I don’t like complexity in my tabletop-roleplaying games. It’s not just my age, I’m also more interested in the adventure than the stacking the of feats and traits. And, as a GM, frankly, the chaotic exploding synergies of games like Dungeons and Dragons make me feel panicky.

However, I don’t like it when glossing over resource management breaks genre conventions — if torches can’t run out, if food isn’t scarce, then players will turn each dungeon adventure into weaponized archaeology.

Unfortunately, I’m also — on reflection — unkeen on randomized emulations that take away the possibilities and drama created by choice: “Oh, you rolled a ‘1’. Whoops your arrows ran out.” (Some games square this circle a little.)

That’s why I was excited when Omer Golan-Joel announced he was working on a Sword and Sorcery game called (drum roll) Sword of Cepheus: 2D6 Sword and Sorcery Roleplaying.

Read the full review at Black Gate Magazine...

I've been waiting for a ruleset like Sword of Cepheus for a long time, an RPG capable of adapting the mechanics of Cepheus Engine to the fantasy genre. I have been waiting for the release of the POD version to purchase the bundle with the digital version. Something similar had already been tried with Worlds Apart (adapting space travel mechanics to sea travel), but SoC takes a completely different path. First of all it is openly Sword & [Sorcery / Planet / Sandal] and is designed for (I quote) gritty heroism, dark magic and open world. Character generation is life path based (as in Traveler) and you can die during your career. As an optional rule, you can roll on mishap tables (accidents), but death is not necessarily less preferable. There are 12 careers available, ranging from barbarian to vagabond passing through nobles, soldiers, sorcerers and shamans. Regarding the latter, the magical system is quite interesting. You are not limited by various "slots", but by spell execution time: casting takes a 10 minute turn, the combat round is 6 seconds. This means preparing the spells in advance, encapsulating them in "magical ammunition" called "foci". Learning a new spell requires a magical skill roll, with the associated risks. Additionally, high-level black and gray magic is dangerous and can lead to corruption and mutations on the performer. Another interesting feature: anyone can cast spells, but the PC without skill in magic is severely disadvantaged and risks bigger. The bestiary has been adapted from the classic OSR monsters to the Cepheus Engine animal traits system. The only flaw is perhaps not having included clear instructions on how to generate your own creatures, forcing you to consult Cepheus Engine itself. Everything remains compatible with Cepheus Engine and derivatives (Cepheus Light above all), so it is completely possible to imagine your fantasy campaign taking place on a lost planet of a larger sci-fi universe. As an old fan of both genres this is a plus for me. Until now there were few options for playing a "fantasy Traveller": Worlds Apart, which as I wrote above, insists a lot on interpreting the "sub-sector" mechanics in a marine setting. Or use some excellent supplements from Paul Elliott (Fast Magic, Low Tech Weapons, Archaic Firearms), Michael Brown (2d6 Magic) and "Flynn" Kemp (Flynn's Guide to Magic in Traveler). However, all of these supplements required a lot of effort on the referee's part to generate a homebrew ruleset. Sword of Cepheus offers a complete system, even without the Non-Humans supplement (which I highly recommend) and allows you to perfectly reproduce the atmosphere of R.E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and Edgar Rice Burroghs. I'm enjoying it so much and I'm organizing a mini Sword & Sandal campaign for my group.

This is one of the best " Classic Swords and Sorcery" games around. It is more of a "Conan" feel than standard fantasy feel. Magic is dark and dangerous. The game has many optional rules listed throughout the book to offer various way to scale your game for your needs. Hoping for some published adventures.