Swords of the Serpentine: a Review or “why I absolutely love this mess”

Swords of the serpentine is an RPG that adapts the Gumshoe system to the sword and sorcery genre, and sets the action in the city of Eversink, a fantasy version of an Italian renaissance city. The city island state, true to its name, is constantly sinking into the waters of the sea, and new floors are progressively built on top of the sinking ones, making the city always old and always new. Eversink is primarily a merchant city, which is well marked by having Denaria, the goddess of wealth, as the patron goddess of the city. There is magic, but it is corruptive and forbidden by the inquisitors of Denaria, and a plethora of magical monstrosities, thieves and assassin’s guilds, barbarian mercenaries, bankrupt nobles, and greedy merchants. The setting is very colourful and I love it, even if sometimes it goes too much into the comical, farcical, and rocambolesque. Reminds me a lot of The Lies of Locke Lamora, for the ones who have read that book.

As someone who often finds the fantasy genre hit-or-miss, Swords of the Serpentine has been a refreshing experience that successfully avoids the common pitfalls I’ve encountered in other games. Many fantasy RPGs either veer too far into the experimental and indie space, with mechanics that feel overly niche (think The Shadow of Yesterday or In a Wicked Age), or they remain heavily tied to classic Dungeons & Dragons tropes of classes and levels and combat-centrism (most OSR games, 13th Age, Dungeon World). Others, like Runequest or The Dark Eye, often come burdened with overly detailed and predetermined settings, making them less accessible to new players, and are mechanically dense and complex.

Swords of the Serpentine manages to avoid all of these traps. Its rules are fresh and sophisticated without feeling cumbersome, and while it never succumbs to D&D tropes, it retains a sense of familiarity that doesn’t alienate fantasy fans. The setting, rather than being rigidly defined, is highly flexible and the mechanics encourage both the Game Master (GM) and players to mould it to their liking. For instance, one of the abilities of characters allows them to “recall” (ie create on the spot) an old tradition or law of Eversink that will help them overcome an obstacle.

In fact the skill system is designed to empower the players to solve problems in highly creative ways without stepping (too much) out of character. This makes the game feel dynamic, with character abilities feeling like tools that enhance roleplaying, rather than constraints or prescribed solutions. In practice, this leads to truly unique narratives – I’ve run the same basic plot and scenario multiple times, but each playthrough resulted in a completely different story, often set in dramatically different settings. That level of narrative variety is rare and deeply satisfying. And while it is certainly not a simulationist system, I find in practice that it does not break too much the sense of immersion, or move the players from the fictional world to a writer’s room (a problem I often have with many so-called “narrative” systems)

Moreover, Swords of the Serpentine lends itself beautifully to improvisation. I ran a campaign for six months, with weekly sessions, and the most preparation I ever did for any session was five minutes. The game’s structure naturally lends itself to spontaneous storytelling, which not only makes it easy for the GM but also keeps the sessions fresh and unpredictable. Despite minimal prep, each session was a blast – showing how well the system supports both GMs and players alike.

That said, the rule system is not perfect. Each skill confers specific powers that are activated by spending points, which are recovered between adventures. This system has a side effect: characters can swing between being hyper-competent one moment and almost incompetent the next. It’s a bit like watching Batman effortlessly take down six armed thugs, only to struggle against a single skinny villain in a mask— this is often pointed out as a weakness of Gumshoe systems. It is certainly not a dealbreaker for me, but I can sympathise. Swords tries to mitigate this problem by having the players gain regeneration tokens by defeating enemies, but regeneration tokens can only regenerate some of the skills (the General ones, see below). The GM can also give regeneration tokens for non-combat-related accomplishments, but there we enter a grey area that is at the GM's discretion. I also had the experience of the players spending a lot of points and ultimately being defeated in a secondary dispute, resulting in no tokens and a completely weakened team incapable of dealing with the upcoming challenges.

What’s more problematic is the variability in how each skill functions. While the loosely defined powers certainly stimulate player creativity, they can also cause confusion. It’s not always clear what actions the game permits or how specific mechanics should be applied. As with any Gumshoe system, Swords of the Serpentine splits its rules between Investigative skills (where spending points guarantees success) and General skills (where dice are rolled against a target number). However, Swords blurs the boundaries between these two systems more than other Gumshoe games. For example, Investigative points can be spent to activate powers like intimidating/commanding NPCs or casting spells, while the General system has been expanded to support social combat.

This creates scenarios where the same overall action can be modelled by the system in two very different ways. Suppose a character is trying to bypass a guard without resorting to physical violence. Should they use an Investigative skill to intimidate the guard with a point spend, or should they engage in social combat and attack the guard’s morale until he flees? Both options model the same situation, yet it’s not always clear which one to use. The rule of thumb is that the General system should be used when failure would be interesting—but in my view, almost any action can lead to an interesting failure. On the other hand, it does allow for solving some situations in a very straightforward manner.

This ambiguity means that a lot of flexibility and goodwill are required from both GM and players to keep things running smoothly. Some players might find this messiness frustrating, especially if they prefer clearer mechanical guidance. However, if you’re willing to accept that the system is a bit untidy, the result is much more rewarding than frustrating.

In short, Swords of the Serpentine hits the sweet spot for me in a genre that often swings too far in one direction or another. It's a flexible, inventive, and engaging RPG that supports creative storytelling in ways many other fantasy games don’t. Even with its shortcomings—such as the occasional confusion over skill usage or the wide variance in character competence as the adventure progresses — it remains one of the most enjoyable sword-and-sorcery RPG experiences I’ve had.

By the way, if you would like to run an improvised campaign, the tools offered in http://monstar.co.nz/matt/sotstools/ are really very useful, as you can stat your monsters while players are discussing what to do next, and create names for characters and shops/taverns/inns by just pressing a button. Also, for your first game, the Quickstart is actually great and pay-what-you-want: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/456065/losing-face

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