“Our Swords Touch Where Our Lips Can Not” is a 2-player game about sword duels and their inherent homoeroticism. As you play, you’ll create your fighters and explain how they ended up in this situation, all while you try to win this epic duel of swords and hearts.
The game is one of my favorite TTRPG creations, especially because it emulates a media trope I adore, the fated duel. So, to celebrate the game, here is a look at some of the fights that inspired the game.
Revolutionary Girl Utena
A big chunk of the game was inspired by the 1997 anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, the anime’s duel scenes are beautifully realized, blending the real and surreal in unique ways. These duels also perfectly capture the characters’ personalities and complex internal lives and use environmental details to explain and foreshadow major parts of the plot.
This is carried through to the show’s many stage musical adaptions, where the fights become beautifully choreographed routines. Each one features sublime use of body language, positioning, and movement to convey the characters’ thoughts and emotions to the audience.
The game is structured like these duels, featuring moments of intense action followed by calm as the fighters plot their next move and reflect on the situation.
Garo
Because of this, while designing the game, I worked hard to make sure that while the game was rules-lite, there was a firm structure.
I wanted it to be rules lite so players could come up with unique fight choreography, an element heavily inspired by the tokusatsu show Garo as the show constantly managed to come up with stunningly original fight sequences that made full use of the show’s environments.
This means that every episode feels unique and each fight keeps you on the edge of your seat, never knowing what is coming next.
Samurai III: Duel At Ganryu Island
The other side of the game was heavily influenced by Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai III: Duel At Ganryu Island. The movie’s final battle is one of the best combat sequences ever filmed. The sheer amount of emotion conveyed during it is staggering.
As a viewer, you can feel that both fighters respect the other deeply. So, while the fight is beautiful, it has a sad, mournful undertone. Like both men realize that if events had played out differently, they might have been friends or comrades.
And this is why I wanted to balance freedom and rules. So the players have space to tell their stories and create their own symbolism. But at the same time, the rules push the duel towards an ending. Making it clear that the duelists can’t escape this situation, no matter how much they may want to.
The Duelists
Of course, sword duels have always been steeped in homoeroticism, especially as they’re loaded with Freudian symbolism. 1977’s The Duelists is one of the best examples. As the film is as homoerotic as it is historically accurate. And it’s very historically accurate.
I wanted this uneasy eroticism to be at the forefront of players’ minds as they played the game. This isn’t a D&D fight where the violence is cool and detached. This duel is a moment of passion. Confused but violent passion.
This is why, after every flurry, players are asked to spend a moment thinking about themselves and their foe. Not as combatants. But as people. The prompts all focus on the fighters’ emotions or physical form, grounding the players and making them feel every swing.
The Princess Bride
Because these duels are never isolated moments of combat. They're the culmination of a story. They're a grand moment of emotional catharsis built from the fighters' past that, in a moment, shapes their future.
And I wanted to capture every messy, confusing moment of that.
I hope you enjoyed this look at the fights that inspired “Our Swords Touch Where Our Lips Can Not”! If you want to craft your own duel of swords and hearts, you can pick the game up here:
Jonathon Greenall is a freelance writer, artist, and tabletop roleplaying game designer who has written for CBR, Polygon, Nintendo Life, Gayley Dreadful, Enbylife, and many other publications. They have also published several popular and highly-praised tabletop roleplaying games including “You Have One Ability….The Ability To Fuck This Up,” “Macarons, Milkshakes, And Magic,” and “Wander Wizards.”
Jonathon has always been fascinated by media, from the big hitters to the small, obscure, and often overlooked titles that linger on the sidelines, capturing both the on and off-camera stories that make these shows so fascinating.
Jonathon is also a major anime fan, having been exposed to the medium through shows like Sailor Moon and Revolutionary Girl Utena. Since then, Jonathon has maintained a passion for anime, watching most new shows each season and hunting down overlooked gems from previous ones.