Dark fantasy games are a popular option for people exploring role playing games outside of Dungeons & Dragons. Whether the grim world of Warhammer, the monster filled forests of The Witcher or even the surreal dreamscapes of Blackbirds, fantasy fans love to embrace the mud and blood of games inspired by things like A Song of Ice And Fire or Elden Ring.
Zweihander first came out in 2017 as a game ready to support this style of play. It’s evolved since then through revised editions, starter sets and player feedback. Now, Zweihander Reforged is on Kickstarter hoping to bring this game set in a dying world to life once more.
Zweihander RPG Basics
The game uses a percentile system where characters are given a percentange to succeed at an action. The player then rolls two ten sided dice and read one die as the tens digit and one as the ones digit. If the dice roll is under the skill, it’s a success.
After the roll there are ways for the players to manipulate the dice. Their character may have special abilities that can flip the roll to a more favorable result. Or they may spend a fortune point to reroll, though this gives the Game Master a Misfortune point to use later for their own characters,
Zweihander RPG Characters
Players create survivors in a dark fantasy world rather than first level characters. They may start out in a class unsuited for the life of an adventurer, such as a valet. It may offer them access to spells as well depending upon their social class.
Characters get three choices for class at the start of the game. As they grow and survive, they gain access to other classes or more advanced versions of the class they already possess. Veteran characters might start out with humble beginning but their adventures forge them into rough and tumble antiheroes.
The game focuses on human characters but there are opportunities to play fantasy ancestires. Each ancestry comes with multiple talents that can affect play rather than a single ability. The world also features darker variations of concepts like living statues or gargoyles.
What’s New In Zweihander Reforged
One of the major changes to the game in this edition is making a Brush With Death part of everyone’s origin story. This moment where every character stares down the abyss of the underworld changes everyone and keeps them from settling back into a simple life of drudgery. It could be anything from nearly slipping down some stone stairs to a late night visit from an ancestral ghost.
Every aspect of the game has been taken apart, reevaluated and put back together. Combat is smoother, professions have been revamped and ancestries rebuilt. Players now have an option when their characters are at death’s door: go quietly into the void or claw back to life with a scar that fundamentally changes them?
Corruption also functions nore as an infection rather than a moral choice. Now players can choose to use their Corruption to assist spellcasting and other vital actions. The more they use it, the deeper in the rot settles and eventually the character becomes a villain to defeat rather than an ally to count on.
Zweihander Reforged is on Kickstarter until Sunday, April 7, 2024. Digital and physical rewards are currently expected in February of 2025.
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