Marchling Join the muster
Steel and nerve

Watched to the last blow

Fights play themselves, in the spirit of Battle Brothers: hard, swingy, and mostly settled before they start, by your gear, your road and your nerve. No skip button.

In a dark pine wood a Brennwald swordsman turns aside a sellsword's blows, then lands a blow that opens a vein. The sellsword bleeds out on his knees and the swordsman raises his blade.
Bleeding outOnce in a long while a crit opens a vein. No draught will close it.
The chronicle
  1. “Nothing personal!”
  2. You turn the sellsword's blow aside.
  3. You cut the sellsword: 7.
  4. You turn the blow and strike back! The sellsword: 19!
  5. A vein opens: the sellsword is bleeding out!
  6. “Double pay for this. Double!”
  7. The sellsword falls. Nobody will pay for this one.
  8. Victory. +38 gold, 1 Iron Scrap.
  • ParriedSome blades turn a blow aside. Some blows can't be turned.
  • Knocked flatA two-handed swing or a shield in the face puts a man on his back.
  • Wounds stayThe hurt look hurt. A bad blow leaves an injury that outlasts the fight.
  • WordsFoes taunt, haggle and beg over their heads. Some say nothing at all.
How the veteran reads your odds
  1. Good oddsThey are no match for you.
  2. Fair oddsYou should come through, but it will cost you.
  3. A gambleIt could go either way.
  4. Grim oddsFew would walk away from this.
  5. HopelessThis is how heroes die.

Sword

Balanced, and strikes back when a blow misses you.

Axe

Chops through armour and cleaves into a second foe.

Spear

Strikes first and reaches the back row.

Mace

Crushes armour and stuns. Breaks bones, even dead ones.

Dagger

Quick, and slips between the plates.

Bow

Hits any row, archers and casters first.

Staff

Strikes every foe at once, if you can wake the spark.

Tome

Dead weight in most hands. Wild in the rest.

Who walks the roads

Brigands on the road. Bears in the wood.

Highwaymen, deserters, footpads and sellswords work the roads, and some of them can be paid to look the other way. Off the road, bears maul and wolves hunt in packs. Every band has its own voice, and something to say about your purse.

Magic, when it comes, is wild. A spell can end a band, or the fool who cast it.

On a forest road at dusk a highwayman's band faces you, a knife-man, a hooded footpad, a spearman and a bowman who looses an arrow your way, and beside them a black bear rears up out of the pines and swipes. The highwayman says, “Your coin, or your teeth. Your choice.”
Hero against hero

The Arena

Challenge other heroes while they're away, and climb the week's ladder of renown.

  • Sparring, not slaughter. Full health, your own gear, builds and moves. Nobody is hurt and no gold is lost. Only renown changes hands.
  • A fair match. Three heroes near your power, each with the odds in words.
  • Three attempts, then rest. The third starts a three-hour rest.
  • Champion's Chests for the week's top three, if they beat three different heroes.

The Arena opens at level 5.

The Arena: renown 1,044, attempts left, and the week's record: bouts, wins, damage, how often blows land and the hardest blow.
A duel at Flepinburg: two spearmen trade blows, with the chronicle below.
Next on the road

Your Hero

A camp that travels with you, loot to find and trade, a guild to walk with.

Onward ›
The muster roll

March with us

The closed test is mustering now. Put your name down and you'll be among the first to walk the Marches.

Join the muster