What kind of game is GLAIVE?

I've been working on a third and (probably) final iteration of GLAIVE. My goal is to make it available as a POD book, and to that end I figured I should do an updated wraparound cover.

Over on the NSR discord, Max commented: "

1. If you ever have the time or interest for it, I’d love to hear a rundown of the design/composition and how it conveys what Glaive’s about
2. [10:03 AM](After reading and running the system, definitely think this cover does it well)"

So I finally sat down to put into words the general feeling I have in my mind when writing rules or running GLAIVE.

In GLAIVE player characters and monsters can do cool things but no one is safe from having their head bashed in by a goblin with a coconut. That is the best summation of how GLAIVE plays that I can come up with.

GLAIVE is a system that attempts to invoke a sense of grounded fantasy - a high adventure game in a fantastic but relatable world. The rules attempt to combine the elegance of Tom Modvay’s Basic D&D with the more robust character options of modern iterations of the game. A system that is easy to run and fun to make characters for. (I hope!)     

For me, GLAIVE is a core memory. There is a long action sequence in the 2nd act of Willow involving little people, clashing human warbands, trolls, a two-headed dragon, and the greatest swordsman who ever lived - the disgraced knight Madmartigan. In the battle of Tir Asleen, several factions clashed. All sides did exciting cinematic things. All sides also ate a lot of shit (as the kids say).  

GLAIVE is a game with opinions. Combat is deadly if you’re stupid, but PCs are also robust . . .ish. PC’s are competent but they are not superheroes. There is no “zero-to-hero” level progression. It would be more accurate to describe PC development as an apprentice becoming a journeyman, and eventually a master of their craft. You are the Ghostbusters, not the Avengers.

GLAIVE has had 3 covers. I’ve attempted with each of them, to express a specific modality of the rules. The moment when a player knows they have just screwed up with lethal consequences. Work-a-day delvers having a mundane conversation in a dangerous environment. 

In this new cover, we see a bold party of adventurers engineering their own potential TPK. While fleeing from one pair of gorilla-ogres the party has run blindly deeper into the dungeon and face-first into a second monster patrol. Will the party survive against 4 gorilla-ogres? The answer probably has more to do with the player’s creativity than their character’s abilities.

Not mentioned in the rules, but implicit in the campaigns I run - something I will talk about in a future post - is that exploration and faction play are the other two critical pillars of GLAIVE.