Review: Sworn by Ghostlight - Solve Gruesome Murders Solo!
The Sergeant flips out his notebook and says, “A Saw-bone, that's what they call an unlicensed doctor down here in the Ash. Goes by the name of Ebeneezer. This patrol of uniforms was alerted by this person here, named Elijah. They knew the victim I take it by how upset they are. No money or other items found on the body besides their ID and this.” The Sergeant holds out a small item, an Ebon Wood Effigy.
I take the effigy and look it over. It’s an exact match to the other murders happening in the Ash. “Shit Sergeant, you know what this means? But you said this is a bad one, how is this one worse than the others?”
Sworn by Ghostlight is a GMless or Solo RPG built on the Ironsworn system written by Matthew John. You create and play as an investigator in the semi-magical city of Mónaþstone. As a police detective, you are charged with investigating a string of murders in the slums known as the Ash District.
 |
| Credit to Matthew John. |
These gruesome murders all contain a similar clue or calling card, an Ebon Wood Effigy. What do these murders mean? Who is committing them? Where will this all lead? That is something you must play to find out.
What do you need to play?
Sworn by Ghostlight has a relatively low footprint for a solo game. You’ll need the game which you can pick up on itch.io here: https://yuigaron.itch.io/sworn-by-ghostlight. Print out the pamphlet version and you have all the rules and a character sheet ready to go.
Then you’ll need the standard Ironsworn dice set which is two D10s and a D6. Any dice roller app should work.
And finally you’ll need some way to record your story. A microphone, pencil, and paper or computer should do.
This is definitely an airplane-playable game. It’s a good game to travel with, and you don’t need lots of books or rules.
Design and Feel
The game has a simple layout with limited art. That’s fine for what it is and it doesn’t detract from what it’s trying to do. The biggest design feature is that everything is contained within six pages or a pamphlet. And I mean everything. The rules, the setting, the oracles, and a character sheet. It’s an impressive effort of design and layout to provide all of that in such a small package.
And it is still effectively readable also.
Character and Setting Creation
The city of Mónaþstone is an urban fantasy setting. According to the game, the moon has cracked and is leaking Ghostlight onto the planet. This leads to things like ghosts, necromancy, and other dark cults.
Most of the game will take place in the Ash District, which is a bit of a slum. It’s where the mass of the working class is packed into. While much of the district is lively, there are also parts of it that are abandoned due to a fire that happened years ago.
The other details of the District are left to the player to create. Who are the people that live there? What is down each alley? Are there violent gangs or murderous cults? You decide.
Creating your character is a simple but fruitful exercise. You envisioned your character, the detective. Are they new to the force and sharply dressed? Or are they old, grisly, and disillusioned?
Then you assign your abilities of Edge, Heart, Iron, Shadow, and Wits. Mathew is more generous with these stats than base Ironsworn which means you’ll miss a bit less often than in a standard Ironsworn game.
 |
| Going to look pretty familiar if you are an Ironsworn veteran. |
All in all, you can set up, create a character and start playing in about 15 to 20 minutes.
How it Plays
If you’ve played Ironsworn or Starforged then this game will be super easy to pick up. I won’t go deeply into the mechanics here but basically, you roll two sets of dice, 2 D10s, and a D6. The D10s represent your two ‘Challenge scores’ that you need to beat. And your D6 plus whatever attribute is your action score. If you beat one challenge dice score, it's a Weak hit, if you beat both then it's a strong hit. If you beat neither, it's a miss and bad stuff happens.
There is a bit more to it, especially around momentum and other resources, but not too much.
You’ll also use the provided oracles to drive the story and create new characters, locations, and plot points. They don’t seem like a lot at first glance, but it’s more than enough to keep the story going
The interesting part here is the game doesn’t have an answer for what the Ebon Wood Effigy means, or who (or what) is committing those crimes. That’s all for the player to creatively build as they work through the cases.
Creating a mystery-based solo game isn’t an easy thing, but Sworn by Ghostlight has done it in an effective way.
For me, this works great, as my Ironsworn games typically start simply and balloon into epic quests. The culprits in my case will be completely different from the culprits in your case, and I think that is really cool.
How it Ends
Using the Vow system found in Ironsworn games, your character will work their way through several connected murders until they get to the bottom of the overarching threat. Or they will die trying.
The key here is Sworn by Ghostlight isn’t an open-ended game like Ironsworn or Starforged. The game is only built for one mystery. It’s not to say you couldn’t go past the Ebon Effigy. In fact, a sequel was released last year called Wings of Rot.
It’s hard to say how long the game will take you, as everyone plays solo games at different speeds. My play-through took me about 5 sessions of about 1,500 words each. Probably about five hours worth of play.
Should I Buy this Game and Who is it for?
Overall I loved Sworn by Ghostlight and highly recommend it and the sequel Wings of Rot. But is this game for you?
Do you like Ironsworn and Starforged? Then you’ll quickly pick up the mechanics of Sworn by Ghostlight and you’ll be solving cases through Mónaþstone in no time.
Do you like mysteries or solving crimes? Then buy this game. As a detective, you’ll be tasked with solving a violent and evil set of crimes.
Do you like urban fantasy and the occult? Sworn by Ghostlight has great themes involving urban fantasy and the occult. What other evils will be discovered by your character?
Do you like self-contained games? Sworn by Ghostlight has everything you need in it to play a full game.
You may not like Sworn by Ghostlight if you want a game with pages and pages of lore and settings, or if you want a game with a known end and solution.
She smiles again, it’s the best sight in the world. “I still got my ways, Detective. Now, hurry up. These bastards are probably looking to do another one of their insane killings and it looks like the sun is starting to come up.”
It sure was. A beautiful sunrise, I don’t appreciate it as much as I should. I turn back to say something to Adelaide, but she is gone. Will I see her again? I don't know.
---
I hope you enjoyed this review of Sworn by Ghostlight by Matthew John. If you have any solo games you’d like me to review, feel free to leave it in the comments.
Want more solo RPG reviews? Click here!
Support the Blog
Are you on Twitter? Follow me at @croakersrpg. I talk about the blog, chat with other TTRPG creators, and have interesting conversations. Or subscribe to my monthly Newsletter here.
Comments
Post a Comment