Warriors & Warlocks Design Journal #2
Although comic books are most often associated with superheroes, they are in fact a medium, capable of telling many kinds of stories, not just those of brightly clad heroes with amazing powers fighting crime and saving the world. A popular genre of comics features heroes in fantastic, magical worlds battling evil wizards, mythic monsters, and even mad gods, based on the "sword & sorcery" genre of fantasy fiction.
Warriors & Warlocks is a sourcebook of sword & sorcery style adventure as told in comics like Warlord; Arion, Lord of Atlantis; Arak, Son of Thunder; Savage Sword of Conan; Red Sonja; Nightstalker, and many others.
What's It For?
You can approach the material and resources in Warriors & Warlocks in two main ways:
First, it serves as source material for catapulting your M&M superheroes into fantasy realms, like in several classic comic book stories. This could be one of the settings described in the book or another fantasy world of your creation or choosing. Time- and dimension-travel frequently sends heroes to "strange new worlds," and the process of getting there, or even just being there, might alter the heroes' powers, outlook, or personalities, allowing for an interesting change-of-pace adventure. The forthcoming Capers #2: In a Strange Land, presents just such an adventure for M&M.
You can also use Warriors & Warlocks to turn Mutants & Masterminds into a sword & sorcery roleplaying game, suitable for running an entire series set in a savage world of barbarians, sorcerers, and monsters. Whether or not the heroes of your saga ever discover the wider omniverse, encounter the denizens of Freedom City (or another superhero universe), or remain entirely within their own world and genre are up to you.
Note, in both cases, Warriors & Warlocks is intended to support the style of sword & sorcery comic books (and, to a lesser degree, the prose upon which they are based). So you may find this sourcebook--and the M&M RPG in general--do not provide an exact simulation of other fantasy roleplaying games, including those also based around a 20-sided die. This is intentional. Warriors & Warlocks focuses on the fast-paced style of comic books where the sword-wielding hero might face a rampaging dinosaur on one page, then a boatload of pirates or an undead wizard on the next.
Overview
Warriors & Warlocks is broken down into four chapters:
Chapter 1 looks at the sword & sorcery genre of comics: its history, development, and progression from the mid-20th century to the present. It includes some related material like fantasy pulp fiction, film, and television that have influenced (and been influenced by) the genre.
Chapter 2 details how to modify the Mutants & Masterminds core rules to suit the sword & sorcery style of play. It offers character design advice and information, including ready-made archetypes for sword & sorcery heroes. It breaks things down into three main power levels suitable for the genre: heroic (power level 6), cinematic (power level 8), and epic (power level 10).
Chapter 3 is all about running a Warriors & Warlocks game, including how to handle different aspects of the genre, design adventures, and create and run adversaries ranging from master villains to their various minions. It features a number of villain archetypes and game stats for monsters and other common foes.
Chapter 4 provides three settings for sword & sorcery adventure: Green Ronin's award-winning Freeport, City of Adventure, the fantastic city of Freedom's Reach (from Worlds of Freedom), and the savage Lost World (from the Freedom City setting). This chapter includes all the essential M&M game information you need to run a series set in these worlds of adventure, and allow you to expand on them for your own use.
Here's a PDF preview of some pages from W&W for players. It includes a few pages on new feats, new styles of magic (including Magical Mastery, Sorcery, and Wizardry) using powers as feats, and three character archetypes (the World-Weary Sellsword, the Timelost Hero, and the Cursed Wanderer). Next week a PDF containing information from the Gamemaster's section of the book will be posted, so check back!
The PDF of Wariors & Warlocks is already available. Get it now! The book will be in stores soon!
