Roll Your Dice & Drop The Mics! A Review of Swordsfall: The Summit of Kings

2021 UPDATE: Since writing this review, allegations of abuse have been made against Brandon. More information can be found here. I don’t want to treat the review like it never happened, but just know that this kind of behavior is NOT OKAY and I do not support it. I do not plan on reviewing any more material from Brandon in the future.

By Chris Renshaw

I love looking at new RPG systems, especially if they are ones that offer something unique and different. Swordsfall definitely fits that bill. Designed by Brandon Dixon, this setting is considered “Afropunk” (Brandon’s own post about this is the best resource if you are curious what that means) and takes a lot from Brandon’s experience living as a Black nerd. Reading through the vast lore that Brandon has created, you can tell that Swordsfall is a love letter to those influences.

Last year, Brandon had a VERY successful Kickstarter for “Welcome to Tikor”, a setting book for Tikor, the world in which Swordsfall takes place in. This still-in-development book doesn’t have the RPG mechanics that Swordsfall will use and is strictly focused on introducing people to the world of Tikor. However, earlier this year Brandon launched the first Swordsfall RPG product, called “The Summit of Kings, Battle for the Ultimate Jalen.” This is a stand-alone RPG adventure that Brandon has released to introduce people to the Swordsfall RPG system combined with an adventure that offers players a chance to play in a “Rap Battle” to decide who is the master word-smith, or Jalen as they are called in Tikor.

*Banner from the “Welcome to Tikor” Kickstarter page

But….How Do I Say This……

If you were about to say “I’m white, can I even play this?”, I’m going to go ahead and stop you there. Part of the beauty of playing RPGs is that it allows you to experience things that you normally wouldn’t be able to. This can be one of those things. Also, Brandon himself has gotten this question multiple times, so I’ll just quote one of his twitter responses: 

And:

This is an invitation, not cultural appropriation. By buying this product you are supporting not only 1 Black creative, but a host of diverse creators that helped make this product a reality.

Diving into the Deep End

Spoiler alert - I love this product. However, I have one nitpick with it and I’m going to get it out of the way first. Swordsfall & Tikor is a setting fully fleshed out with a bunch of material. If any of this interests you, I highly advise you to go check out Brandon’s other Swordsfall work on his website. Yet, when you pick up this book, it can feel like you are jumping onto a moving train, not onboarding at the station. For instance, the word “Jalen” is used a lot, which as I mentioned is a word smith in Tikor, but Summit doesn’t tell you this explicitly. You can easily infer this through the writing, but if you are coming into this book knowing nothing about Swordsfall, it might be a bit confusing for the first page or so. 

If a core rulebook existed and this was just another product, everything would be 100% ok and I wouldn’t have any complaints. However, I have seen it mentioned multiple times that this is a standalone adventure designed to introduce people to Swordsfall. To that effect, I feel like the addition of a page or two of background flavor in the beginning of the book would make for a smoother initial read.

It’s Time to Jam

Let’s get onto what’s good about this book. First of all, the Swordsfall system that Brandon is using is *very* similar to the Narrative Dice System used by Fantasy Flight Games’ Genesys RPG. The big difference with Swordsfall is that you use regular dice instead of using custom Genesys dice*. What this means is that if you have played Genesys or any of FFG’s Star Wars RPGs, then you are going to be able to jump into this adventure with very little difficulty. In fact, if you’ve played any type of RPG for an extended period of time, you shouldn’t have any issues. The only people who might be confused by this adventure are those people who are new at RPGs and have only played a game of D&D once or twice.

*Personally, I would probably prefer to use my Genesys dice, but that’s because I have so many. In my mind, it seems like using “normal” dice adds in an extra conversion step, but that could just be me. I’d have to give it a shot first and see how it actually plays at the table.

In fact, the adventure actually has some improvements over the Genesys system in some areas. One problem that I always run into playing Genesys is remembering all the abilities and talents that I’ve unlocked and what each one does. This means that my “character sheet” is actually more like 3-4 or more sheets so I don’t forget things. With Summit of Kings, there is enough space at the bottom of the main character sheet for players to write down all their “techniques” (aka the different mechanical ways that your character will rap) and what each technique does.

Next, the very premise of the adventure is so interesting. Basically, imagine a battle royale where you pit all the characters in your group against each other and go 1v1 until there is a winner. Normally, that could be unfair, boring, or unbalanced in many ways. Now, strip away the physical battling and now reskin the tournament to be various rappers trying to outshine the other performers….but imagine that contest having the same mechanical workings of that physical battle. In other systems, GMs might come up with creative ways to create “skill challenges” that allow characters to role play scenarios like this. My favorite part of Summit of Kings is this idea that you can take the battle structure of a physical battle and apply it to other social situations. 

I’ve gotten a couple of products that have been self produced from independent creators. Sometimes….you can tell lots of work went into the product, but they still look like they were self-published. This is not the case with Summit of Kings. Since the setting of the tournament takes place at a popular cove in Tikor, the background of each page is a lovely view of the sand and ocean coming in. It makes me excited to see what a full book about Swordsfall would look like (Note: I found out about the Kickstarter too late to back, so I’ll have to grab Welcome to Tikor after the fact). 

Whoomp There it Is

When I read through the book, this didn’t seem like something that you are going to want to play through just once. In fact, I would suggest people try to play it at least twice: once using the pregen characters first, then go back and make your own characters. Using the pregen characters give you a chance to get familiar with the system and all the various techniques. If you want some inspiration on how to play these characters, then you are in luck: they are actually based off of famous rappers! Then, once you have an idea for how the game plays, you can make your own character and customize them to fit your playstyle.

Even if you have no interest in the Swordsfall setting, the way that the showdown is presented and detailed out means that it could be transitioned into other systems as well. If you need a fun side adventure that your players accidentally stumble into, you should really check out The Summit of Kings. There is even some information on other happenings outside of the tournament, which gave me some ideas for other characters to get into when they aren’t “on stage”.

The Summit of Kings is available on Amazon or on the Swordsfall website, as a PDF for $4.99 or as a printed paperback for $11.99. I think it’s well worth that price.