First Words
I started writing this game over 20 years ago. The first time I started, it was when I first hit rock bottom in life — burnt out, no money, a dead-end job with an even worse paycheck, living with my mother again…
I started writing to escape reality, one might say, and they would be correct. Back then, role-playing games were the things that kept me in check, kept me creating even when everything was a disaster around me. The friends you make at the game table, the laughs, the adventures… For a few hours a week, you leave all your problems behind and become fighters, wizards, dwarves, and elves, and whatever more your wild imagination allows. So, as a creative person, I wanted to write my own thing.
Fast forward 15 years, and our world went through its worst pandemic in 100 years. We were suddenly confined to our homes for months, with no contact with others but through phone and video calls. That's when I remembered that old world I had been building years ago, forgotten somewhere between marriages, new jobs, and so on.
Suddenly, I was back to that little draft of a scenario that had its charm, even still a work in progress. With some friends, we ran a game on that scenario for almost a whole year, every week, with the campaign setting being created on the fly, mostly. When that game ended, I continued working on that scenario — now, with its own name, "The Known World". Many things have changed since its first drafts, but the essence was still the same — a world of peril and old gods, where misfits band together to make a name for themselves.
Once more, the Known World was there to carry me through.
In 2022, right after I turned 42 years old, my daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She went through surgery, 13 months of brutal treatment, until eventually passing away in July 2023.
During this time, the Known World, as you see in this book, came to life. It was my companion during the hospital nights, chemotherapy, and everything you go through when fighting such an impossible opponent.
My daughter was braver and stronger than I will ever be, but in the end, we lost. Because that's how life is — hard, unforgiving, ruthless, where "fair" has nothing to do with it. It is what it is, and every one of us is fighting our own fights every day.
That fight is where this book was born.
That's how the final incarnation of the Known World came to be: it's a place where bad things happen, but unlike the real world, good people do have a fighting chance. You will play characters who came from nothing, have nothing, and yet you can rise to the highest ranks and become a legend of bard tales. There are evil rulers, oppressive social systems, but you can make a difference — even if slim. It's not a place of fairytales or knights in shining armor, but a broken place where true heroes are forged.
Because being good — even when bending the rules — in an unforgiving world is the truest form of heroism there is.
This game truly saved me. More than once.
I hope it brings you many, many hours of joy.
-
Felipe Escosteguy, 2026, São Paulo, Brazil
The Game
The characters you play are not royalty. Not chosen ones. They are people who have decided to operate in the spaces that safer people avoid — who take contracts, go where the money points, and deal with what they find when they get there. Most of them came from nothing. They accumulate reputation, enemies, and, if they survive long enough, the kind of history that interests a Bard.
The Known World is thirteen centuries past the worst thing that happened to it. The Darkness was defeated, at a cost the Third Era is still living with. What remains is a world of competing empires, occupied territories, religious institutions with armies, and residual arcane damage that keeps producing new consequences. The people with power use it the way people with power tend to. Into that world you go.
Bad things happen. Not everything ends well. But good people — with whatever moral complexity they carry, whatever compromises got them this far — have a fighting chance. That's the setting. That's the game.
Why another retroclone?
Almost all retroclones delve into Original D&D territory, with a few advancing into AD&D 1st Edition - all but one, created by Justen Brown and launched in 2012, called For Gold & Glory. It was the first - and, until now, only - retroclone based on Zeb Cook's 2nd Edition rules.
However, as much as I loved AD&D 2nd Edition, the gamer in me that was reconnecting with the game in 2025 wasn’t the same anymore, and some rules seemed clunky and outdated. That, combined with the game setting that I mentioned earlier, has been my safe harbour in the past few years, brought me to start writing Sonata - Swords & Darkness.
Sonata is my own take on the game that has made me an avid RPG enthusiast since 1993. It’s my answer to the question “If I could only play one game for the rest of my life, which game would it be?”, and it integrates some things that I fell in love with in other games as well. AD&D 2nd Edition, For Gold & Glory, Ars Magica, Forbidden Lands, Breu, Café com Dungeon’s Oil Fantasy Manifesto (you should check this one out), Blades in the Dark, Shadowrun, Werewolf: The Apocalypse… There are too many to mention, but they are all here to some extent.
So, more than a 2nd Edition retroclone - which would be redundant, since FG&G did a tremendous job on that already - Sonata - Swords & Darkness is a tribute to my very favorite game, blended with some modern tweaks that I’ve learned along the way.
I hope you enjoy it.
Sonata - Swords & Darkness™ is an Open Game License interpretation of Zeb Cook's 2nd Edition rules. All material contained within is free for use, distribution, copying, and modification within the terms of the OGL.
"The stunning—and thrilling—promise of roleplaying games is that their flexible rules enable the players to make, by collaboration and consensus, choices that simulate any situation the players can imagine, thus bursting the bonds and limitations of classical board and card games.”
- Jon Peterson, Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games (2012)
WHAT IS A ROLE-PLAYING GAME?
A role-playing game is part game, part story. You sit around a table with friends, pick up dice, and step into the shoes of a hero or a villain. There’s a world in front of you — alive, unpredictable, and always ready to push back — and every decision you make sends ripples through it.
This isn’t like a board game where the pieces always move the same way, and the outcome is already mapped out. In an RPG, you plan, you improvise, you take risks, and you deal with whatever the world throws at you. Sometimes you win because you were clever. Sometimes you lose because the dice turn cold.
And that’s the heart of it: consequence. Every choice matters, whether the result is immediate or only shows up in sessions later. No two campaigns are the same, and even if you play for years, you’ll never tell the same story twice.
THE GOLDEN RULE
Have fun — always. Role-playing is something you build together, one scene and one choice at a time, and it only works when everyone at the table is pulling in the same direction. If the fun starts to slip, stop and name the problem early, whether it is a disruptive player, a sour mood, or an outside distraction creeping in. Handle it calmly, without turning the session into a fight, and get back to the adventure. Disagreements about rules will happen, but when the dust settles, the GM makes the call. Protect the game. Protect the table. That is the only rule that matters.
A WORD ON METAGAMING
Metagaming is when you let what you know seep into what your character does — calling out a monster’s weakness, planning around a spell’s exact effect, or treating a strange relic like you have read the label before your character ever laid eyes on it. Part of the craft of role-playing is holding that line, staying inside your character’s point of view even when you, as a player, see the bigger picture. For that reason, acting on out-of-character knowledge is strongly discouraged.
Sonata - Swords & Darkness is a game of high fantasy where gods walk the earth, time bends, and the stars are not beyond reach. In that kind of world, the GM is the closest thing to a deity at the table — but a just and impartial one.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
To play, you need someone to take the role of Game Master, and at least one player to run a character. Four to five players is the sweet spot. Bigger tables can work, but the pace tends to slow as more voices enter the room.
Beyond these three books, bring the basics: pencils, paper, and graph paper if your group likes to map as they explore. You will also need a full set of polyhedral dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. If you prefer a clearer sense of where everyone stands in a fight, add miniatures or simple tokens.
CORE MECHANIC
When the rules fall silent, do not stop the story. Roll a d20 and add whatever modifiers make sense. No book can predict every scheme, stunt, bargain, or desperate leap your table will attempt, so when something feels plausible but there is no rule for it, let the die decide. High rolls lean in the player’s favor. Good preparation, the right tools, and a clear advantage may grant a bonus. Poor light, bad footing, and grim conditions may impose a penalty.
Every character is built on six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each one carries its own modifier, usually ranging from -3 to +3. When you are unsure which rule applies, choose the ability that best fits the moment and roll a d20. If the result is equal to or lower than the ability score, you succeed.
We will dig into the rules in the chapters ahead.
THE GAME CYCLE
The game cycle guides every session of Sonata:
- The GM Narrates the Details: The GM presents a scene, describing the surroundings, the hazards, the NPCs, and any important elements the characters notice immediately.
- Players and GM Ask Questions: Everyone asks questions to clarify the situation and understand the available options.
- Players and GM Answer Questions: The answers are incorporated into the fiction, expanding the game world.
- Choice and Resolution of Moves: The players declare their actions, and the GM adjudicates the necessary rolls.
- The Cycle Repeats: Based on the results, the GM narrates the consequences, and a new situation presents itself.
A NOTE ABOUT PRONOUNS
This book often uses masculine pronouns — he, him, his — as a simple writing convention. It is not a statement about who plays, who belongs, or who is welcome at the table. It is simply the voice I write in.
EXAMPLE OF PLAY
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