Building a character in Thirsty Sword Lesbians is comparatively easier than Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder. The system it is built in, Power By The Apocalypse, is a simple two six sided dice, or two d6, system. There are preconstructed Playbooks that, once you select one of the Playbooks, no one else can play that Playbook in the current group. All Playbooks have special traits, moves, and abilities clearly listed out. There is also space for players to give their characters custom characteristics like the way their sword looks, what they’re wearing, their demeanor, etc. Once you’ve chosen which Playbook you would like to run, it’s time to start filling out stats and selecting moves.

‍

The Playbooks:

Thirsty Sword Lesbians comes with 9 available Playbooks in the Official Handbook. There are additional Playbooks in supplement books, but the 9 Core Playbooks are:

• The Beast: Wild and Untamed, you push back against pressure to conform to the ways of a dominant society. 
• The Chosen: You face the demands of others at every turn. Your Destiny gives you power and influence at the cost of your self-determination. 
• The Devoted: You explore the concept of self-sacrifice and take it into an extreme. 
• The Infamous: Despite your reputation, playing as the Infamous means you are committed to doing the right thing—and you are keenly aware of it, too. Introducing complex themes of justice and redemption.
• The Nature Witch: You avoid the spotlight and support the other Player Characters through helping in small ways or through your Trials, navigating the new horizons before you. 
• The Scoundrel: You are the Big Lesbian Disaster™. You break hearts, you push yourself to get into more and more trouble, and must deal with the consequences of the way you treat those people you leave behind for the next exciting thing.  
• The Seeker: Coming from a deeply toxic society, you feel yourself being pulled in two different directions, either conforming or wishing to break out of the toxic role you’ve always known.
• The Spooky Witch: You are someone who likes to make friends with the unloved and the unseen. Awkward but endearing, you don’t fit into societal norms.
• The Trickster: You are slow to open up about your feelings, but they will either come out in an explosion or in small secret ways. You don’t want to be vulnerable, lest someone find out about what you keep hidden within.  

‍

Stats:

First, we will start with your Stats for your Thirsty Sword Lesbians Playbook. The five stats in Thirsty Sword Lesbians are Daring, Grace, Heart, Wit, and Spirit. 

• Daring is your skill at arms (swords, fists, etc) and forcefulness, both in terms of muscle and personality. A character with a high Daring speaks with their physical appearance first, and may even speak loudly or brashly, even times over others. 
• Grace is your elegance, poise, and agility. Characters with a high Grace are adept at dodging both blows in combat, as well as a snide verbal onslaughts, and are usually able to throw those verbal strikes back effortlessly.
• Heart is your emotional awareness and expression. Characters with a high Heart stat are empathetic to those around them and can connect with people emotionally, whether it be an ally or an enemy.
• Wit is your cleverness and knowledge. Characters with a high Wit are not only book smart, but can use their wit to read a person's motives. 
• Spirit is your metaphysical power and integrity. Characters with a high Spirit are in tune with the magic either around them or within themselves. Spirit is also your willpower and how strong your convictions within yourself are. 

Instead of rolling for Stats, each Playbook comes with two columns of numbers to choose from for your stats. Numbers range from +1, +0, and -1 for the five stats already locked in. For example, The Beast’s two columns of stats are:

Daring: +1 +1

Grace: +0 +1

Heart:  +1  -1

Wit:     -1 +0

Spirit:  +0 +0

Once the column numbers have been applied, each Playbook also allows you to add 1 to two different stats. No stat can exceed a 3 score.

‍

Moves:

Each Playbook has their own special moves that are unique to that Playbook that no other Playbook can use. Examples are the Beast’s Feral, The Chosen’s Destiny, A Devoted’s Devotion, and so on. These moves are the core of what defines these Playbooks, similar to a rogue’s sneak attack, a barbarian’s rage, or a wizard’s spellbook. The Playbook starts out with this move, and details in the Playbook how that special move not only works, but how it can be used throughout other moves that the character can learn.

Next are the Playbook moves that your character can learn, as well as other players using different Playbooks through advances or leveling up. Starting out, a Playbook may already have one or two moves selected here and the player can choose two more from the available moves of that specific Playbook. Unless allowed by the Game Master, players can not start out with a move from another Playbook. For example, if you have chosen The Beast Playbook, your core ability is Feral that comes with a feral tracker that is unique to this Playbook and you start off with the Playbook move Transform. You then choose two moves from the following at character creation: Big Dyke Energy, Ferocious, Shameless, Tenacious Purpose, and Tracker.

‍

Aesthetics:

Next, the character customization of Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Each Playbook has a section called Aesthetics where the player can choose how their character is represented. Of course these are not themes or looks that the player can only use, they are welcome to come up with their own. But they are helpful in guiding how a character from a specific Playbook might carry themselves. Continuing to use The Beast’s Playbook, the Aesthetics listed are: 

• Wild demeanor, hungry demeanor, piercing demeanor
• Torn clothes, practical clothes, chitinous clothes, raider’s clothes
• A cold-wrought sword, a sword of teeth, a found sword

Choosing or making up your own Aesthetics not only helps the player describe how their character looks, but can also help a player find connection with their character’s motives through the way they carry themselves and the aesthetics they have chosen. 

Once your Playbook is chosen, stats added, moves selected, and aesthetics circled, you are ready to name your character, select their pronouns, and start your Thirsty Sword Lesbians adventure!

‍

‍

Nikki The Goblin GM is a biracial bisexual mother of two who loves fairies and pirates and has been running games on StartPlaying since 2022.