Thirsty Sword Lesbians

Cross swords, cross hearts, and try not to fall for your rival. Thirsty Sword Lesbians is a swashbuckling tabletop roleplaying game about sapphic heroes, dramatic duels and messy feelings. A well-timed flirt counts for as much as a well-aimed blade.

April Kit Walsh designed the game, with writing from five contributing authors. It runs on a streamlined version of the Powered by the Apocalypse system, so it’s easy to learn even if you’ve never played a tabletop RPG. Every character is wrestling with an emotional conflict of their own. You’ll trade barbed zingers, build up Strings that give you emotional leverage over other characters, and find that being flustered or heartbroken changes how you play as much as any sword wound.

The book is genre-hopping by design. Your table can head for the neon-lit streets of Neon City 2099, the court intrigue of Les Violettes Dangereuses or the star-spanning Starcross Galaxy, or build a world of your own with the included worksheet. Safety and consent tools are built into the rules throughout, including the X-Card, Lines & Veils and the Palette, a new tool the book introduces, so everyone at the table can enjoy the drama.

It has won major awards. In 2022 it became the first tabletop RPG ever to win a Nebula Award (Best Game Writing), and it took ENnie Gold for both Best Game and Product of the Year.

Inside you’ll find:

Nine playbooks: the Beast, the Chosen, the Devoted, the Infamous, the Nature Witch, the Scoundrel, the Seeker, the Spooky Witch and the Trickster
Ready-made settings spanning cyberpunk, space opera, swashbuckling intrigue and more
Four scenario seeds: Best Day of Their Lives, The Constellation Festival, Gal Paladins and Sword Lesbians of the Three Houses
A world-building worksheet for creating your own setting
Variant rules and advice for running one-shots or full campaigns
Built-in safety tools for running emotional, romantic stories with care

Specifications:

Designer: April Kit Walsh
Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Format: Full-colour hardcover
Pages: 224
Size: 6 × 9 in (15.2 × 22.9 cm)
Players: 3–6
Age: 13+
Language: English
Published: 2021
ISBN: 978-1-61317-197-4
Awards: 2022 Nebula Award for Best Game Writing; 2022 ENnie Gold for Best Game and Product of the Year