✦ SwordWeave · A modular roleplaying engine

A TTRPG
for YOUR
table.

Build the character you mean. Shape the rules with the people you play with.

Each player describes a character’s choices. The DM describes the world and helps your group resolve what happens. SwordWeave gives those ideas reusable rules.

Learn to play Create a character

Enter the Atelier Explore the Library

Your characterOne of a kind.

PrimitivesCapabilitiesItemsHeritagesEffects

Your rules. Your story. Your weave.

Your tableShared rulings. Shared authorship.

Your mechanicsCompose the rules you need.

Your creationKeep it private. Share it. Make it yours.

The moment before the dice

One scene.
Your way through.

No list can anticipate everything you will try. Start with the situation and the rules your character owns. Then work out the attempt together.

IntentStakesResolution

Explore three approaches to the same moment.

A moment at your table In play

The situation

The bridge is falling.
Your friends are still on it.

Reshape the scene

“I shape a crossing from the broken stone.”

Work it out together

How much stone, how far across, and for how long?

Use the rules your character owns. Agree on the scope and cost together.

01 / The pieces of possibility

Build the rules
your character needs.

Begin with one rule. Combine it with another. Build a character whose mechanics belong to their story, instead of fitting a story around a fixed class.

Reusable building blocks

Primitives

Buy the rules your character owns with Build Units: a domain, a verb tier, a die, a range, a bonus, a permission. Pieces can change numbers, grant permissions or describe a particular fictional ability.

A rule you can point to.

Rules that work together

Effects

Group primitives into a reusable effect. Keep its mechanics together, then use it inside a capability or an item.

A barrier. A blessing. A lingering change.

Your signature expression

Capabilities

Compile primitives and effects into a familiar action or talent for quick access. You can also compose new actions from owned pieces during play.

The thing your character is known for.

A story behind the mechanics

Heritages

Lineage, Upbringing, and Manifest hold primitives and capabilities. Give the same mechanical possibilities a different place in your story.

Where you come from. Who you become.

Power with a place in the world

Items

Put primitives, effects, and capabilities into equipment. The rules travel with the item, and its place in the fiction matters.

An heirloom. A tool. A dangerous gift.

Build Units buy mechanics. Compositions make those mechanics easier to author, understand, and use. An owned primitive can be reused without buying it twice. Execution has its own agreed costs; a new capability card is not a new purchase of every ingredient.

02 / The rules meet the room

The final word
belongs to
your table.

Every table develops its own rulings over time. SwordWeave embraces that. Keep the mechanics clear, then let your world, your group, and the moment shape how they play.

Context gives a condition meaning

Venom poisoning and an overwhelming psychedelic can both be called “poisoned” while causing different consequences. Agree what this condition does, when it applies and how it ends; an effect can describe or mechanically define its particular expression.

See the rhythm of play

Say what you intend.

Describe the outcome you want in the fiction. Your purchased rules establish what your character can bring to it.

Make the stakes visible.

Work out scale, impact, complexity, and consequences together. Clarify when each rule applies and what an imposed condition means here.

III

Resolve. Respond. Keep playing.

Let the agreed rules and rolls answer uncertainty. When the situation changes, adjust the intent and keep the story moving.

Core tenets

Your imagination.
Your table’s game.

Keep these ideas close when you create a character, make a ruling, or try something nobody has written a rule for yet.

Actions have consequences.
Discuss the stakes together, with the DM appraising the attempt. There are no spell slots: ambitious actions can cost vitality, or bring other consequences agreed at your table.
Let the story lead.
SwordWeave is a framework for judgment and imagination. Use its numbers as guides. Have fun telling a story; pursue the perfect build when that is the game your table wants.
Tell it together.
Players and DM negotiate what happens, build on each other’s ideas, and share the spotlight. The aim is a story you enjoy making together, full of moments worth remembering.
Rule of cool is king.
Give exciting ideas a chance. Talk through what makes the attempt possible, what it risks, and how you will resolve it. Then see where it takes the scene.
Imagine freely.
The world lives in your shared imagination. Try the strange idea, invent the impossible place, and do the thing your group wants to explore.
Everything is a guideline.
Make SwordWeave yours. Bend the framework around your world and playstyle. Change a guideline whenever your group finds a way that serves its game better.
Balance is a lie.
No formula can promise balance for every world, character, and situation. Agree what feels fair and fun at your table, and adjust as you play.
Begin with a character idea.
Know what you want your character to do, then create primitives, capabilities, and effects for that concept. Authoring your own pieces can be easier than searching the whole community library for a unique idea.