# Sword World RPG tags: #game/rpg/sword-world ![[Sword World (cover).jpg|600]] **Sword World RPG** is the game that made *Record of Lodoss War* a franchise — and then quietly outgrew it. Created by Group SNE in 1989 on the back of the Lodoss replays, it traded the fiddly d100 of the Lodoss companion for a clean **2d6** engine and became the most-played fantasy RPG in Japan, a throne it has held for the better part of four decades. It invented the replay genre, sidestepped TSR's licensing, and sold in cheap paperbacks a high-schooler could actually afford — the small choices that made it Japan's D&D killer rather than D&D's latest footnote. The rest of the world mostly didn't notice, and English speakers waited thirty-five years for an official release, only to get a loudly-"this is a work in progress" quick start and a version-numbered primer warming the crowd up for a crowdfunded core rulebook. The hobby always finds a way to get paid for the thing it already owed you. ## Setting The original game lives in **Forcelia**, a sprawling D&D- and RuneQuest-flavored fantasy world that Group SNE built across several venues: it hosts **Lodoss Island** (of *Record of Lodoss War*), the **Crystania** continent (*Legend of Crystania*), and its main stage, the continent of **Alecrast**, where *Rune Soldier* unfolds. It's a world of guilds, magic, ruins, and dungeons shaped by mystical energies — the familiar high-fantasy furniture, arranged by the studio that first taught Japan to play it. With **Sword World 2.0** (2008), Group SNE retired the aging Lodoss-era setting and moved the game to a fresh campaign world, **Raxia** — new races, new terrain, a lighter and quirkier tone sometimes described as *Final Fantasy* to the original's *Dragon Quest*. **Sword World 2.5** (2018) keeps Raxia and expands it. The English localization — the only English material in the vault — is built on 2.5 and set in Raxia. ## Mechanics The engine is the **2d6 System**: roll two six-sided dice, add your ability-score bonus and class levels, and beat a target number. Double 6s is an automatic success; double 1s is an automatic failure that still pays XP for learning from your mistakes — a small kindness most systems could stand to copy. Characters multiclass across heroic and common classes, with the usual six ability scores and spell points drawn from the caster's scores. Magic is organized as *mahougo* — "magic language," where the words themselves carry power. Each tradition has its own tongue: sorcery (ancient language) for Sorcerers, spirit magic (spirit language) for Shamans, and divine/priestly magic for Priests. The shared engine's day-to-day detail — exact classes, skills, and resolution — lands in the English teasers, [[Sword World Quick Start Guide|Quick Start]] and [[Sword World Primer|Primer]], which run the same content in progressively less rough clothes. ## Editions The line is Japanese through and through, and the whole thing spans versions and settings: - **Sword World RPG — 1st edition** (1989) — the original Forcelia game, 2d6, cover art by Yoshitaka Amano; established the replay genre and the paperback business model. - **Sword World Complete Edition** (1996) — the consolidating revision of the original. - **Sword World 2.0** (April 2008; revised July 2012) — leaves Forcelia for the new **Raxia** setting, adds a heap of new races and classes. - **Sword World 2.5** (July 2018) — the current edition, largely backward-compatible with 2.0, smoothing out exploits and power bumps. This is the version Mugen Gaming localizes. **English localization (2025–26)** — the only English material, and the vault's actual holdings: - **[[Sword World Quick Start Guide]]** — the first English drop, explicitly a `WIP draft`. *In the library.* - **[[Sword World Primer]]** — the same content refined across **2025 v1** and the current **2026 v2.1**. *In the library.* - **Sword World 2.5 Core Rulebook (English)** — the full 2.5 localization, crowdfunded via Mugen Gaming's [BackerKit campaign](https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/mugen-gaming/sword-world); the campaign has funded and completed, and we're awaiting fulfillment of the printed book. *Not yet in the library.* The world is a sibling of the d100 **[[Record of Lodoss War RPG]]**, which shares the lineage's origin in the same D&D replays but keeps its own independent identity. ## References - [Sword World RPG - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_World_RPG) - [Sword World - Mugen Gaming](https://mugengaming.com/pages/sword-world) - [Sword World - BackerKit](https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/mugen-gaming/sword-world)