Swords Against Madness

Crossing the Ashlands of Muspellsheim, Miria and Kale face a being far beyond their ability to fight... Voice Talent: Jon Cohen plays The All-Knowing in this Episode. Music on this Episode: From the Free Music Alliance: "King Edward" by Mr. Smith a CC-BY song released through the FMA From Pixabay: "Acidcore" by Jumping Bunny "Country Rock" by litesaturation "Orchestral Nebula" by Diogodelassivlavs...

Miria and Kale begin a perilous journey through Ice, Fire, and Eternal skies to rescue their fallen friends.

Miria goes deep within her mind to commune with the All-Knowing and prepare herself for a dangerous journey.

We turn our attention to Yanghu as he hunts for those who had meddled with his Gorum and Carver tech. This session was played extemporaneously using Swords & Wizardry and the Mythic Game Master Emulator . Sometimes you just want to play the bad guys for a bit, and figure out what the heroes are really up against. The Master The Master was once a gifted and driven chirurgeon called Haidran. His...

Edryk, Miria, and Kale face a terrifying onslaught on the dismal beaches of Abzû. This game sues the crocodile stats from Swords & Wizardry, It also delves pretty deep into the Dungeons & Dragons theory of the Soul that was made central to the concept of planar travel in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons starting later in the 1st edition and refined in the Planescape setting. I also wanted t...

Miria, Kale, & Edryk cross the shimmering plane of Amber, and then into the darkness of Abzû, beset on all sides by monsters and mysteries. This episode includes a classic Dungeons & Dragons monster: the Aurumvorax, reproduced here based on the stats in the AD&D2e Monstrous Manual for Swords & Wizardry. I did take liberties with the speed of the aurumvorax to make it more of a thre...

Miria contemplates her past as she, Edryk, and Kale cross the Divine Seed of Amber, a place of beauty, perfection, and cruelty. This episode draws its inspiration from the setting of the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, one of the top six inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons listed in AD&D ‘s Appendix N . This scifi-dense story is mostly told in flashback. Much of my Scifi elemen...

Miria, Edryk, Kale, The All-Knowing, and the Squid set sail across the Astral plane and discover that it is anything but empty. This episode uses a mix of planar travel rules found in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons , Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e , and the D&D3.5e Planar Handbook , as the players travel across the Astral Plane. It also features a monster from Dungeons & Dragons3.5e : The El...

A summary of Episodes 21-29. Swords Against Madness episode 30 is a summary of the plot from episodes 21 through 29. An opportunity to catch up on the plot or just refresh your memory. It adds nothing to the main plot-line. Cast This episode includes performances by: Jon Cohen from Tale of the Manticore Music in this Episode From the Free Music Alliance: King Edward by Mister Smith (CC-BY) from th...

This is a special bonus episode of Swords Against Madness featuring my new TTRPG, Undeadwood: Weird West RPG . Follow the Lost Soul Carson Swift, as he tries to help a bounty hunter track down a stolen item, only to be dragged into a battle between a powerful land-owner and a dark cult of alien mystics. This episode is played using my Undeadwood: Weird West TTRPG system, and its dark, American fol...

Miria, Edryk, and Kale finally reach the place where the All-Knowing believes there is a means to travel to the planes. The object they discover is far stranger than anything they could have imagined. In this session I reference the amazing role-playing game Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games . DCC catches the strange psychedelic vibe of the books that inspired D&D – and Sword...

The party may have destroyed the Dread Silkworm, a half-giant-caterpillar-half-god monster… but there are still more creatures devouring the juju garden, and a mission to fulfill. This episode opens with rounds 8-14 of a brutal gruelling battle! The Dread Silkworm may have fallen, but it is far from the only threat that the party was facing! This is an AI-free episode of Swords Against Madne...

The party attempts to help the Nilkin clear the Ravenous Caterpillars from their sacred garden, only to find the threat is much greater than anyone anticipated. Mythic Game Master Emulator throws a number of crazy curve-balls at the PCs this session, showing just how wild and unpredictable it can make a game become… …Especially when you are willing to truly let your imagination run wil...

The Party joins the mysterious wild halflings, the Nilkin, in their village in hopes that the local shaman might be able to help them find the planar travel device. The Nilkin are not as firendly as they might seem, and have a dangerous task that needs doing. This episode of Swords Against Madness includes a discussion of the Dungeons & Dragons module Hot Springs Island by Jacob Hurst et al. a...

Miria, Edryk, Raxon, Berle, & Kale brave the untamed norther jungles of Nar, to find that the wilderness itself seems to hunger for them… This episode features a reinterpretation of the Vine Horror from the epic Dungeon Crawl Classic RPG module Sailors on the Starless Sea , a legendary module that helped define DCCRPG and secure it as the most popular Old-School RPG around. It also featu...

With the help of the All-Knowing, Miria delves into the terrors of Haalu’s mind to learn more about the cruel and enigmatic Master. This episode includes an encounter with a monster that in Swords and Wizardry is referred to as a Carrion Worm. Other pseudonyms have included the Carcass Crawler, Corpse Worm, and Tentacled Horror, but they all refer to one classic and horrifying Dungeons &...

The Miria, Edryk, Berle, Raxon, and Kale have their showdown with Haalu; we explore a piece of Edryk’s past, where it crosses with doctor Haidran. This episode includes my quick and dirty rules for fighting manoeuvres in OSR games: Roll your attack as normal. If you hit, the DM will cut damage dealt in half or down to 0. The effect goes through. In the case of grappling , the target cannot m...

The party makes a narrow escape. Miria, Edryk, Raxon, Berle, and Kale secretly prepare for treachery. This episode includes an encounter with a classic Dungeons & Dragons monster that isn’t included in Swords & Wizardry : the Phase Spider. The version I used was from one of my all-time favourite D&D resources, the AD&D2e Monstrous Manual . With a massive selection of Monsters...

Miria and Edryk recruit new followers and head into the jungle, but discover that one of their own party is plotting against the rest… Episode 21 begins a fresh hex crawl with 3 additional PCs: Berle a human fighter. Raxon, a human fighter. Kale, a half-elf fighter/mage. Kale uses a simplified half-elf for Swords and wizardry. The party has also hired Haalu, who will be treated as a Hireling...

A summary of Episodes 11-19. Swords Against Madness episode 20 is a summary of the plot from episodes 11 through 19. An opportunity to catch up on the plot or just refresh your memory. It adds nothing to the main plot-line. Come and find your next favourite solo rpg semi-actual-play podcast on soloroleplayersnetwork.com

Miria & Edryk return to Nar with the All-Knowing and another pile of treasure. The All-Knowing reveals a path forward, but will the people of Nar trust Miria enough to risk more lives to help her? Apologies for the delay! This episode is coming out 1 week late due to extreme illness. In this Episode, Miria & Edryk both return safely to the village of Nar with a pile of treasure, enough for...

Miria and Edryk face a terrifying trap and life-altering choices push on to the deepest chambers of the Fane of the All-Knowing. In this episode Miria and Edryk narrowly escape a trap that borrows its inspiration from the AD&D2e spell Maximillian’s Stony Grasp , and the D&D3e spell Stone Fist that evolved from it. I discuss spells – and getting them wrong in the episode. Warnin...

While Miria & Edryk face a deadly trap, The Master & his acolyte Halu conspire to murder Miria, and Yanghu extracts a bloody revenge on the crew of the pirate ship Xur. This epsiode uses a ship layout diagram from Cepheus Deluxe as its dungeon map, but is played entirely with Swords 7 Wizardry. It focuses primarily on the activity of the campaign’s villains. It includes several encou...

Note : Due to an error, this entry originally pointed to episode 14. This has been fixed and the correct episode should now play. In the aftermath of the battle in orbit over Orbos, space pirate comb the hulk of the Ko-Dan for treasure. Miria and Edryk push deeper into the Fane of the All-Knowing, and Miria reminisces about her past. This episode continues to use material from Cepheus Deluxe , a m...

As Miria, Edryk, and Nala press deeper into the trap-laden Fane of the All-Knowing, the Ogre-Mage crime-lord Yanghu deals with a vicious sneak attack on his starship. This adventure mixes classic RPGs, using Swords & Wizardry to simulate D&D as it was played in 1977, along with scenes from Cepheus Deluxe , a modern re-imagining of the 1977 version of the classic Sci-Fi TTRPG Traveller . Fa...