[Review] The Sword of Cepheus 2e

Introduction

The name’s Davenport. I review games.

So the other day my good buddy Omer Golan-Joel stops by my office. He’s the brains behind Cepheus Deluxe, a swell sci-fi game based on the old Traveller rules.

None of which explained why he was wearin’ a loincloth.

“Greetings, GMshoe!” he says. “I come bearing The Sword of Cepheus Second Edition, taking the Cepheus Engine and applying it to sword and sorcery!”

Well, that explained the loincloth. Kinda.

“So,” I says, “what’s the scoop on The Sword of Cepheus?”

“An abundance of swordy goodness!” he says.

Swordy…?

“A dozen playable non-human species, a huge bestiary full of vile monstrosities, fast-paced combat, and a perilous sorcery system that can mutate the caster!”

“Okay, sounds good,” I says. “I’ll give it a review. Just drop it here on my desk.”

He drops it on my desk, knockin’ over my coffee cup in the process.

“Fear not!” he says. “I have this cloth right here I can…”

“NO.”

[Q&A] Xoth Publishing (Last Kings of Alantha)

[7:31 PM]Xoth Publishing: All right. My name is Morten. I’ve been playing and gamemastering TTRPGs for 35 years, starting with AD&D 2nd Edition. I enjoy Tolkien, but prefer pulp adventure (less elves and more tentacles, I guess!).

[7:31 PM]Xoth Publishing: Around the year 2000, when D&D 3E and the Open Gaming License was released, I put up the Hyborian Age d20 Campaign website (https://hyboria.xoth.net/), which became a much-visited resource for fantasy roleplaying in the world of Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. My work was noticed by Bill Webb of Necromancer Games, and in 2004 they published my book “Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia”, a regional sandbox adventure set in a mythic bronze age, featuring ghouls, sand-worms, and mighty ziggurats.

[7:31 PM]Xoth Publishing: After that, I started self-publishing swords and sorcery adventures for 3E and eventually 5E, set in the World of Xoth but usable with any old-school, low-magic setting. It began with “The Spider-God’s Bride and Other Tales of Sword and Sorcery”, a 200-page collection of ten adventures inspired by the stories of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and other pulp writers. It was followed by several other adventure books; the whole catalog can be found on https://xoth.net/publishing/ and also on DriveThruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/15833/xoth-publishing and print-on-demand books on Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/xothpublishing/DriveThruRPG – The Largest RPG Download Store!Your one-stop online shop for new and vintage RPG products from the top publishers, delivered fresh to your desktop in electronic format.LuluXoth.Net Publishing – Books and Publications Spotlight | Lulu

[7:32 PM]Xoth Publishing: Which brings us to today: The latest adventure, “Last Kings of Alantha”, was released in October 2025. It was written as an homage to Robert E. Howard’s short story “The Gods of Bal-Sagoth”. Like most of Howard’s best stories, this one has it all: swords, sorcery, intrigue, mystery, monsters, and themes of civilization versus barbarism. And the action is set on an island, making it self-contained. In other words, an excellent starting point for a sword and sorcery adventure module!

[Q&A] Mike Yow (Red Sun Pulp Sword-and-Sorcery RPG)

[7:33 PM]GMikeY: Hello, everyone, from my phone instead of ‘puter! I’m Mike Yow, creator of the Savage Kingdoms RPG and now this new one, Red Sun! (Done)