Bargains & Bloodshed
A downloadable game
“He paused and his eyes gleamed with a witchy glare in the dimness. ‘The time has come for sorcery and swords!’”
From The Lords of Quarmall, by Fritz Leiber
Bargains & Bloodshed is a classless rules-light sword & sorcery toolkit inspired by the literary genre’s implicit play style. It's quick and unforgiving, and promotes play reminiscent of the antiheroic shenanigans of characters like Conan and Kane.
All you need to play is a standard set of dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20), and a basic understanding of how to play tabletop role-playing games.
Cover image by the excellent Henrik Sahlström.
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Development log
- VillainsFeb 24, 2025
- New AddonDec 28, 2022
- Layout FixesOct 03, 2022
Comments
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Hey, this looks really intresting, and it's definitely a different take on the usual D&D formula. Some questions, if you don't mind:
- When it speaks of things like having e.g. combat actions equal to DEX, is that the entire 3d6 score, or just your modifier? In fact, is there an entire score at all, or just a modifier of +1 to +10? It seems almost like the latter, but modifier is specified in some spots. - When it says that combat simply ends when any fighter runs out of actions (so, I assume, even if someone has multiple actions left, anyone hitting 0 means the combat is over?), and the winner is tallied essentially by damage caused and some aditional factors, what does that mean if people are up still? It seems like it might mean for example that the losing side is overwhelmed and captured, or forced to flee, or somesuch? - What if one wishes to use Sorcery outside a combat situation? In combat, it seems like the idea is just that you use your Sorcery to get the actions and are, essentially, in a "sorcery mode", but what if you attempt to use magic outside a combat situation? Many of the rolls are tied to the number of actions remaining. Should you still adhere to the turn structure?
Thanks!
Hello, and thank you for these questions!
In fact, is there an entire score at all?
No! You only keep the lowest single die of 3d6 as your de facto modifier. There's no 3-18 "score" in the traditional sense. This was inspired by another micro-game called Knave.
[Combat ends], what does that mean if people are up still?
It means you narrate the outcome. We've had anything from the opponents surrendering to the player characters escaping to them getting bundled up in a prison cell. The intention of the mechanic is to keep the pace really high and to mimic the kind of storytelling that classic S&S authors stuck to, as a legacy of the pulp era.
What if one wishes to use Sorcery outside a combat situation?
When we've played it, using Sorcery can be done as a scene of its own. The player would roll for actions and then the DM/GM would roll for actions as well, representing the demon being contacted.
In fact, this kind of preparatory sorcery makes it a lot more predictable for players, since you can then have your pacts done in advance and you will know what you have when there is a fight or other situation.