I liked the concept of Fallen Empires when lumpley presented it in the kickstarted, but noted that it faded into obscurity and hasn't received any attention. I had some ideas though, so I thought I'd try my hand at converting some of the extended playbooks since lumpley hasn't shown any interest in doing so himself. The Bladesoul is meant to be the "tragic" swordsman of the genre that lives (and usually dies) by the blade they wield and the mistakes they make in doing so. Less Norman Bates or Jason Voorhees and more Túrin Turambar or Elric of Melniboné.


The Bladesoul
In the fallen empires, your only companion is the blade. No one else you can trust. No man, woman, child or beast. Everyone else betrays and deceives you. But this you can trust. It shares your pain and guilt and fear. It’s the only one you can talk to. And through its hardness and its edge you keep sane.

You can trust the blade, right?

Name
Jalhar, Lacrak, Elvir, Big Fucker, Softy, Blonde, Hjolm, Corpse, Ork, Blag, Dent, Deg, Frog, Trench, Zuto, Kray, Momo, Gigg, Meat, Stomp.

Look
Man, woman, ambiguous, transgressing.
Dark skin, light skin.
Distinct helm and dark cloak, Well-kept chainmail, black armor, piecemeal armor
Hard eyes, blank eyes, merciless eyes, dead
eyes, or calculating eyes.
Huge body, muscular body, tall gangly body,
wiry body, or obese body.

Stats
Choose one set:
• Cool+1 Hard+2 Hot-1 Sharp+1 Weird=0
• Cool=0 Hard+2 Hot+1 Sharp-1 Weird+1
• Cool=0 Hard+2 Hot-1 Sharp+2 Weird-1
• Cool+1 Hard+2 Hot-1 Sharp=0 Weird+1

The Bladesoul moves
0 Wovs of vengeance: whenever your life becomes untenable, name the person you hold most
responsible. Take +1 ongoing to all rolls versus them, forever. (All rolls with them directly
as a target count, of course. Rolls against their family and friends, minions, or property
may count, in the MC’s judgment. MCs, remember your job is to make Apocalypse World
seem real and keep the characters’ lives interesting, not deny the PCs bonuses.)
0 Master of Fate: shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being
scary as fuck and coming at someone, you get +1armor. You still get shot and stabbed,
bleeding just doesn’t bother you that much anymore.
0 Juggernaut: take -2 on all “when you suffer harm” rolls.
0 Roaring rampage: roll+hard to smash your way through scenery to get to or away from
something. On a 10+, the scenery is moved or smashed and you get what you want. On
a 7–9 you get what you want and smash or move the scenery, but you take 1-harm (ap),
and are disoriented and under fire in follow-up actions, leave something behind, or take
something with you. Think smashing through walls or pushing through burned out husks
of carts. On a miss, your foot gets pinned under something mid-smash.
0 Scent of Blood: at the beginning of the session, roll+weird. On a 10+ hold 1+1. On a
7–9 hold 1. At any time, you or the MC can spend your hold to have you at the scene of a
battle (a real battle, not intimate violence between a couple people). If your hold was 1+1,
take +1forward now. On a miss, the MC holds 1, and can spend it to have you there and
pinned down.
0 Stormbringer: you seek the advice of your weapon. Roll+weird to see what it directs you to do.
On a 10+ mark experience and take +1forward if you do as your mask wishes. On a 7–9,
take a +1 if you do what it wants and act under fire if you don’t. On a miss, it has its own
agenda. Act under fire if you don’t follow it.
0 As one: attempts by other PCs to seize your weapon by force, or to disarm you by going aggro or seduction/manipulation, are at -2. NPCs will never
succeed at disarming you against your will, even if you are completely at their mercy.
0 Beastly: you get +1hard (hard+3).

Equipment
You get:
• Your weapon
• fashion suitable to your look, including at
your option a piece worth 1- or 2-armor
(you detail)
• oddments worth 2-keep
Your weapons (choose 1):
• Bastard Sword (Deadly: On the field)
• Battle Axe (Deadly: On the field)
• Sword (Deadly: On the field & hand-to-hand)
• Spear (Deadly: On the field)
• Falchion (Deadly: hand-to-hand & infighting)

History
Everyone introduces their characters by name, look and outlook. Take your turn.
List the other characters’ names.
Go around again for Hx. On your turn, ask 1, 2, or all 3:
• Which one of you once helped me do something terrible? For that character, write Hx+3.
• Which one of you was once kind and unafraid toward me? For that character, write Hx+2.
• Which one of you do I think is pretty? For that character, write Hx+1.
For everyone else, write Hx=0.
On the others’ turns, answer their questions as you like.
At the end, choose one of the characters with the highest Hx on your sheet. Ask that player which of your stats is most interesting, and highlight it. The MC will have you highlight a second stat too.

Your weapon
Choose it’s looks (pick 1)
Anquated, battered, rusty, black, wicked, large, well-kept

Choose its details (pick as many as you like)
Decorated with runes, gilded handle, prominent spikes, text on the blade, metal parts polished to mirror sheen.

Disarmed, you are (pick 2)
0 Vulnerable. Whenever you suffer harm, you suffer +1harm.
0 Open. Every PC who sees you goes immediately to Hx+3 with you.
0 Afraid. You take -1 ongoing until you hold it again.
0 Irresolute. When you inflict harm, inflict -1harm.
0 Ashamed. You have hard=0 until you hold it again.
0 Powerless. You lose access to all of your character moves. You can still make basic moves.

Goals
During play, it’s your job to have your character make and pursue goals. ?ey can be any goals you want, long term and short-. Begin by thinking what your goals might be this very morning, as play begins

Improvement
Whenever you roll a highlighted stat, and whenever you reset your history with someone, mark an experience circle. When you mark the 5??, improve and erase. Each time you improve, choose one of the options. Check it off; you can’t choose it again.
— get +1hot (max +2)
— get +1sharp (max +2)
— get +1weird (max +2)
— get +1 cool (max+2)
— get a new bladesoul move
— get a new bladesoul move
— get a war-band (you detail) and bloody-crowned
— get a holding (you detail) and wealth
— get a move from another playbook
— get a move from another playbook

— get +1 to any stat (max stat+3)
— retire your character to safety
— create a second character to play
— change your character to a new playbook
— choose 3 basic moves and advance them.
— advance the other 4 basic moves.

Your Keep
At the beginning of the session, spend 1, 2, or 3 keep for your lifestyle. If you can’t or won’t, tell the MC and answer her questions. You can earn your keep by: working the hard earth; extorting, raiding, or robbing a wealthy population; executing a murder on behalf of a wealthy NPC; serving a powerful NPC as bodyguard; or other means as you can negotiate them. In addition to your lifestyle, you might spend your keep on: a night in high luxury and company; someone else’s protection, service, or labor; a weapon or other equipment; tribute to a warlord; the bribes required to turn someone’s eye or secure someone’s complicity; rich or beautiful clothing; or other things as you can arrange for them.

Lately in my campaing, I've had it become the shtick of a certain NPC, that she tells the PC:s the truth (because they have an Angel with high wisdom and a hair trigger on reading a person) but usually not the whole truth (because she considers manipulating the PC:s the easiest way of getting things done, and telling them the whole truth would likely make them sabotage her plans). And as such, frequently when the she is done giving the PC:s an info dump on whatever she ask of them, or her plans or something else like that, the Angel spends his hold to ask whether she's telling the truth. My answer is always the same: "All she has told you is true, so if she is lying, she is lying by omission."

I have begun to wonder, is this telling what honesty demands. Or to be precise, am I using the wording and not telling whether she's lying by omission as a way to obscure her intentions and the developments in the world?

Then again, implying that she may have been lying by omission has made the PC:s really suspicious regarding her (not lessened by asking what she intends to do next giving some pretty incriminating results) and as such, theorizing (usually correctly) what she has omitted.

What is this?
A hack for playing classical High Fantasy that I am developing. Knights in shining armor killing dragons and all that stuff. The goal is a hack for creating a mythos of epic stories or a single long one through play.

I have more or less completed the core classes, and have began on working on the race system, the relationships system and the sample world for playing a test campaing, but I could use some feedback.

The Stats:
Swift: Fast to move, fast to talk, fast to think. Clearheaded, calm, unfazable.
Noble: Brave, firm, but fair, merciful, dutiful, magnanimous. Of better stock and behaves accordingly. How worthy the person you just hit was to be hit by a hero, and thus, how well you do it.
Graceful: Attractive, inspiring, exciting. Well-mannered, charming and subtile.
Wise: Clever, sharp-witted, alert, perceptive, knowledgeable
Arcane: Strange, mystical, magical. Capable of sensing and doing supernatural things.

Basic Moves:
I’m propably keeping most of the basic moves in AW. I'm also introducing a new move:

Compromise: When you ask for something and offer something in return, or are offered something in return of something else, Roll+Wise. On 10+ you get what you want, but pick two, on 7-9 you get what you want, but pick one.

• You get exactly what you want
• You don't have to deliver first
• You get something extra

I also replaced the psychic maelstrom and opening your brain with a general field of A Wizard Did It that characters can utilize to a degree, and a move for it:

Do through magic: When you try to achieve a minor supernatural effect, roll+arcane. On 10+ you achieve something close enough. On 7-9 you achieve an impression of what you attempted.

The playbooks:
The Captain: There is safety in numbers. Good thing you brought some.

The Gallant: You are a warrior, but who says you can’t look good while doing it?

The Healer: Ailments, be they mundane or magical in nature need healing.

The Champion: There are always people who needs protecting.

The Lady of the Castle: You may or may not be the one who holds the title deed, but you are the one through who it all goes.

The Lord of the Castle: You may or may not be the one who holds the title deed, but you are the one who keeps it held.

The Milady: Everybody wants you.

The Rogue: Sometimes being a hero just isn’t what you nee. Good thing you know all the angles, and everybody knows you do.

The Smith: A wizard did it. You to be exact.

The Strider: In the wildernesses, when others stumble, you help them up.

The Wizard: You are a student of a mysical tradition.

The Races:
I’m probably using the Holy Trinity of fantasy races (humans, elves, dwarfs) as the basis here. Each race can pick one on a short list of stat bonuses, and has a move tree of its own, which let’s the player to utilize the traditional strengths of the race. The exact flavours of the three are still open, but here’s what I have thought.
Elves: The noble ones: Moves regarding magic, grace and agility
Humans: The common people:moves regarding being crafty, knowledgeable and clever.
Dwarves: The outsiders: Moves regarding trade, crafts, and being stury.

The relationships system
In adition to HX (redubbed history) and sexmoves, I thought of a simple set of motivation in how characters regard each other. Right now these are
Trust: You may trust or mistrust another character. Whenever that character contradicts your disposition, you may perform a move specified under relationship moves.
Goodwill: You may bear good or ill will towards another character. When you act according or contradictory to said disposition, you perform a move detailed in relationship moves.
What you feel towards others initially is detailed in the history option of each class.