Salt & Strife

Salt & Strife is a tabletop roleplaying game set in the early modern period, c. 1400s-1800s. It is a game about a troupe of adventurers who fight the villains of the age: hijack empires & kidnap societies, the vile upper classes, soldiers, and the so-called 'Great Men' who command them. The heroes are pirates, vagabonds, brigands, or just honest common folk.

Players are encouraged to smash the statues of traditional heroes of centuries past and erect their own instead.

There are 12 roles for players to choose from.

            

• The artisan is a skilled crafter of things.
• The barber-surgeon is a bloodthirsty, horrifying healer.
• The beast is someone or something deemed beastly by society.
• The conjuror is a purported spirit-talker.
• The deserters are a gang of escapees.
• The harlot is a social creature who transgresses moral convention.
• The leper is dying.
• The libertine is one of swinging fortunes.
• The pamphleteer is a printing press firebrand.
• The poacher is a lonesome hunter.
• The veteran is a disillusioned survivor.
• The worker helps others.

The entirety of the rules of play are contained on each player's double-sided character sheet. (GMs get their own double-sided sheet of rules.) Also included are a double-sided troupe sheet and a booklet of appendices detailing period-accurate vocabulary,  equipment, character names, ship names, clothing, currencies, and ailments. A simple foundation with rich customization options makes for a low barrier of entry, low prep work, and ample accommodation for long-lasting play. The game allows for historical, alt-history, or fantasy settings.

Salt & Strife is a powered by the apocalypse tabletop role-playing game that uses a simple 2d6 resolution mechanic for every roll.

Note: This is the second edition of Salt & Strife. All game rules are completely finished and playable; the optional appendix has been uploaded in an unfinished state.

Is Salt & Strife not exactly what you're looking for? Here are some other roleplaying games set in the early modern period where players are neither ‘Great Men’ nor soldiers fighting glorious wars of empire:

• Alas for the Awful Sea by Hayley Gordon and Vee Hendro
• Shipwreckers by Luke Jordan
• Sertão Bravio by João Pedro Torres
  
• Nasty, Brutish, and Long by Michael Elliott
• Long XVIth by Will Phillips
  
• 17th Century Minimalist by Andre Novoa
• Miseries and Misfortunes by Luke Crane
• Comrades by W.M. Akers
• Révolution by Sam Zimmerman
  
• Poison'd by D. Vincent Baker
  
• Sageuk! by Hessan Yongdi
• A Guide to Casting Phantoms in the Revolution by Adam Vass and Will Jobst
  
• Red Carnations on a Black Grave by Catherine Ramen
• Fallen by Perplexing Ruins