Spellsword RPG Development Update #2 — March 17th, 2026
Hello Reader, here are the latest Spellsword updates!
Snapshot / TL;DR
· Added the rest of the currently described Specializations (total Spec count now 49)
· Published a portion of the GM chapter which we call “Running the Game”
· Continued development of automation tables
· Continued testing resulting in small tweaks to combat and magic
· All previously identified UI/UX issues and spell crafting bugs on the Companion App have been corrected
Major Work Completed
New Specializations
Every specialization already described in the book has been either cut or formally created and published. Any cut specializations were redundant with features that were developed after their original conception. These specializations offer a great set of new character capabilities, so be sure to check them out in the Specializations chapter to level up your character's strength and plan your next character out even better.
Running the Game Chapter
Rather than waiting for every section of the GM chapter to be completed, we opted to get what we already have in your hands as soon as possible. Rough as they are right now, our rules for Running the Game are clear enough for the aspiring GM while still offering powerful insights to veteran Gamemasters looking to get the most out of Spellsword. If you are struggling with GM burnout, wondering how to keep your players invested, or just looking for tips to improve your game as GM, you’ll find it already. More coming soon!
Companion App Fixes
Spellsword’s Companion App continues on its path of relentless improvement! Scroll menus and selection options should work now outside of edge cases, and cache issues should also be resolved. Spell descriptions now save properly, allowing you to make your characters and their spells entirely on the app now! This opens the way for us to start building out automatic combat calculations, allowing gameplay to happen at breakneck pace!
Systems Under Active Refinement
What We’re Iterating On
The automation tables responsible for creating map content, adventure seeds, and random events and encounters need a thorough review and revision. Specifically, the Wild Zone generation tables present some unique challenges. Our aim is to preserve a certain level of detail and infuse a sense of arcane-driven unpredictability, while also preventing these dice rolls from interrupting or slowing gameplay more than absolutely necessary. To achieve this, we are considering generating larger sections of terrain in bursts and advising the GM to roll less frequently when searching for terrain features and similar elements.
Alongside this, we are reviewing a few details within the combat system, in particular the effects of different types of bleeds, when they are incurred, and the rate at which they affect the character. We are also considering changes to the lethality of mortal wounds dealt to certain locations, a baked-in overkill rule for extremely powerful blows, and altering the nature of head armor protection to prevent some strange outcomes.
Our current monster project, a giant spider, is taking some massaging on how we want it to land. Currently looking more at trap-based ambush predator, but we will toy around with this a bit more.
We have also started working on micro-tutorials that explain the basics of Spellsword’s dice mechanics and skill checks. Those of you who learn better from video will appreciate the straightforward, no-nonsense, to-the-point style, but it is taking some time to keep it concise, engaging, and not too dull.
Problems We’re Solving
Right now our biggest hangups center around the exact odds of the terrain generator tables, loot and reward tables (more about believability than balance), and the endless agonies over achieving satisfying combat outcomes.
What’s Still Uncertain
We want to improve the equipment crafting system to better account for the nature of materials, but this raises concerns about handling the details involved in using harvested materials from monsters. Simply copying a monster's armor rating from when it was alive often doesn't make sense. In fact, it may sometimes be entirely illogical, so we will need a system to keep things consistent. We haven't yet started on this task due to more urgent issues.
Design Insight
If every fight is fair, your world isn’t real.
One of the biggest mistakes in tabletop design is building the world around the player party instead of letting it exist on its own. It sounds good on paper (balanced encounters, appropriate threats, steady progression), but it quietly destroys immersion.
And immersion is where agency comes from.
If players feel like they belong in the world, like it exists with or without them, they start making real decisions. They take risks. They retreat. They investigate. That’s where the stories worth telling actually come from.
You’ve seen what happens when that falls apart.
In Skyrim, bandits start out in scraps and leather. Later, those same “bandits” are walking around in rare, expensive gear that makes no sense for their station. Why the hell are they still bandits?! The world is scaling to you, and it shows. After enough of that, the illusion cracks.
The same thing happens at the table.
If every encounter is tuned to be “fair,” players stop respecting the world. They stop asking whether they should engage, because the game has trained them that they always can. Retreat disappears as an option until it’s too late. Risk becomes artificial. Progress loses meaning.
In Spellsword, the world does not scale to the party.
Some things will be too strong. Some things will be trivial. That unevenness is what gives the world shape. When players survive something dangerous, it matters. When they return later and crush what once threatened them, that matters too.
This approach also shifts how the game is run.
You stop asking:
“Is this a fair encounter for them right now?”
And you start asking:
“Why is this here? Does it make sense?”
If the answer is yes, you run it.
If the answer is no, that’s not a problem. (Most “GM problems” in TTRPGs are failures of imagination.) That’s a lead. Something pushed it here. Something is out of place. Something is happening.
Now you baited a hook for the players to bite if they choose.
This also makes your job easier as a GM. You don’t need to constantly engineer encounters to match the party. You build a world that behaves logically, and the players engage with it on their terms. Less micromanagement for the GM, more momentum for the players.
And when players start following those threads... When they start asking why something is where it shouldn’t be, or deciding whether they’re strong enough to face what’s ahead, that’s when the game opens up.
Seeking answers to those questions is what we call an adventure.
Yours,
-Christian
What Members Should Test
· Specializations
o Take a look at the new specializations. What new build options do they open up for your characters? Do any of the not make sense, or seem broken (either broken-OP or broken-not-functional)
· Running the Game
o The current contents address some basic concepts for new GMs to Spellsword, some of our secret sauce for making the game work, and what preparing for a game looks like.
· Companion App
o Tech, our app developer, has made some awesome progress on the app in the last two weeks. You can help him out by getting your hands on it with various platforms and seeing what works well, what is odd, what you would like to see, and what breaks (especially the last part).
Send feedback to us on Discord! (Forums hosted on the website should be coming soon for better organization)
What’s Next (2 Week Objective)
Our current priorities for the next two weeks are:
· Getting Automation tables built and published
· Further progressing the Running the Game chapter (here’s hoping we can get a complete draft published by next update!)
· Publishing the first few micro-tutorials covering Spellsword basics.
· Developing new monster types
That’s the end of this development update! Thanks for reading.
Note that the next update will be delayed until April 7th as Worldsmith Publishing takes off Holy Week.
