"Any Swashbuckling systems with *good* fencing rules?" Topic

Howdy All,
Dusting off my Redoubt 3 Musketeers minis since a friend of mind expressed interest in the genre, but the rules I have all lack a little something in the swordplay department. There don't seem to be any really dynamic rules for sword fights, mostly a standard modified die-roll thing. Where are the parries, the ripostes, stop thrusts, prise de fers, feints, corps a corps collisions and punching the other fella in the face with your hilt??

I have Gloire (Rat Trap), Once Upon a Time in the West Country (Peter Barry) an All for One (Ratcliffe/Johnson) skirmish rules. I even have ancient copies of Flashing Blades and En Garde!. Perhaps some combination of rules from the above, but is there anything that really portrays the flavor of the genre -- and by flavor I mean the incomparable 1973 Three Musketeers Movie and sequels. It seems that since this is a key part of the genre swordplay should have more detail/oomph to it in a set of rules. Thanks!

You might look at Swashbuckler by Yaquinto. OOP but comes up on ebay occasionally. Uses plotted turns and has some of what you ask for.

Or better still take a look at Swashbuckler the RPG from Jolly Roger Games. Very nice fencing system using cards. You build your fencer by selecting which skills he knows, which determine which cards he can play.
Each card then has a list of what cards may follow it, so it is possible to set up intricate combinations.
There is a decent review over here
indie-rpgs.com/reviews/22
and here
link

The game is also OOP, but if you have any interest, there is a copy of this at the local used book store as of last week.

Also look at Riddle of Steel, though it is more medieval swordplay than fencing.
indie-rpgs.com/reviews/4

There was an RPG called Swashbuckler that had a card-based system which worked fairly well but was somewhat complex for what I needed at the time. I've sold my copy since, but it might have what you are looking for.

But I don't know of any miniatures rules specifically that have what you are looking for.

The All for One rules are the Eureka free rules, right?

Funny -- I was going to suggest Riddle of Steel as well.

The Yaquinto system, which I have in the garage and treasure though I don't expect to play it again, is awesome, if each of 2-4 players controls one man. And it moves slow, or at least seems to, since you plot moves in advance and they take different amounts of time.

I think there is a great gap in our hobby not only for fencing, but any type of cinematic swashbuckling, with fists, blasters, or whatever. We need something that's interesting but quick, and packed with more detail than "you hit, roll for damage."

I've done a lot of thinking along these lines. Haven't produced anything yet, though. I hate hit points, I hate saving throws, I hate pre-ploting movement, I'm looking for some new game mechanisms.

But I'm not familiar with Riddle of Steel. I should look that up.

Andrew

There is Swordplay.You would need The Three Musketeers supplement to it. The system is identical to Moriturii Te Salutant. Your character has a rating which gives you a basic initiative. You then chose from a list of actions, which also has and initiative rating. Since the game is played on a board with squares you are also told which squares you could attack into. You compare your move to your opponents and determine from a matrix whether you hit him. You will have no hit, easy, fair, or difficult hit, then cause light, medium,or severe damage in the category of hit. You then use the armor rating of the target to determine, on a 20 sided die roll, just what the damage was. Nothing, stun, Nick, Cut, Wound, or Dead.

Each character has a chart that shows the available hits and you lose abilities as you take hits.

It does require plotting your move in advance, and the Swordplay rules have a "free play" system if you don't want to play on squares or hexes.

I have long enjoyed the Moriturii rules for gladiators and though I haven't played these yet, they look like they should provide a good game. Hopefully I will have my Blue Moon figs painted up and be able to give them a go.

The best fencing system I've found by far was included in the Lace & Steel RPG. It was card based, fast moving, and really captured the feel of cinematic fencing (the author, Paul Kidd, was an accomplished fencer himself).

Unfortunately, it's also oop, but if you can find a copy, it's the Holy Grail of fencing rules. Beware, though, the original boxed set included the cards for combat, but the later reprint did not. Make sure which version you're getting.

Thanks, who makes the "Swordplay" rules??

I have a home-grown system which uses cards, dice and chits. It works fairly well, depending on how many players and how many models are in play at any given time. It is difficult to have the swashbuckler feel of movies in real-time on the game table unless it is more of a free form RPG game with a game-master and not an opponent style game.

While looking for other systems, I may try a bit of that myself, Jovian1. A mix of All for One and Flashing Blades might come out nicely. In re-reading it, All for One has a decent combat system based on a figures Dexterity stat (1-6), which tells you how many actions it gets. A figure with Dexterity 4 gets 4 combat actions, and actions cost points. An attack is 1pt, a parry 1pt, a parry/riposte combo is 2 pts, etc., and bids down your Dex until you are out of actions. This would allow multiple actions by one figure. The example they use is Athos, Dex 6, who under this system is able to fight off 4 attackers at once. What it doesn't have is the kind of modifier system based on the fencing move you're using and weapon that's in Flashing Blades. Maybe a little mix and match will take care of it.

FGU put out a fencing game called "Rapier and Dagger". Been about 25 years since it "walked" away, but it had a pretty good system. Even had different styles, French, Italian, and Spanish, as well as a few others.

The Highlander CCG had a simple card driven swordfight built into the game. Fast and furious, not famcy at all.

Swordplay was done by Gladiator Games of the UK.

The pre-plotted aspect of Yaquinto's SwashBuckler is a lot of fun, but the game is set as a tavern brawl so outside of that context it would possibly be an annoying game mechanic. SwashBuckler is a beer and pretzels board game.

My brother once plotted a prone musketeer to crawl away from the enemy a square and standup, but unforunately another player pushed a table into the square he was standing up in before the crawl. Bonk.

You can get Swashbuckler! from Jolly Rogers Games here link

MS Word format download $4 USD

The Riddle of Steel here theriddleofsteel.net $35 USD not a download.

Flashing Blades is still available from FGU at link or download from DriveThruRPG

There's also Alternative Armies' "Duel" rules:

link

Cheers,

Martin

I recently discovered Wushu, a free rpg.
bayn.org/wushu/wushu-open.html

Designed more for Eastern martial arts rpg, it has a definite cinematic feel to it. You get bonus dice for each fancy maneuver you try to perform. I haven't played it yet, but I'm considering using some ideas from it. I think it could be modified to movie-style fencing.

Warwell, Wushu was in fact the inspiration for "And One For All", the swashbuckling/musketeer rules from Eureka. You can find them, and a supplement and a mini-campaign, "The capture of Constance, here:
link
and examples of play here
link
I don't think they're quite the detailed fencing rules GamerX is looking for, but they make for a fun game.

I just found my Rapier and Dagger rules from FGU – long out of print – but it has some interesting concepts – you could look for a copy of it?

I designed a set that we played for several years that were very loosely based on the Highlander CCG and a percentile system. It played ok but it could get bogged down. I may revisit it in the future.

I have been toying with modifying the Star Wars Epic Duels game. A buddy of mine did it for Samurai duels and it works great. One of the changes is we don't use a grid or hex mat for movement. This works best for two player games played on small one foot square boards but you could use the multiplayer rules and they should work fine. He has about six to eight different terrain set ups and runs it tournament style at cons.

If I could work out a movement system I might try En Garde by Slugfest Games, but as it stands it is just a card game. It does give a good feel of fencing combat though.

You might want to try And One for All, from Eureka Miniatures. It was designed for their 40mm Three Musketeer minis. It plays fast, and is very cinematic and rather wide open--throwing apples, candelabras, and tripping over geese are just some of the things that can happen.

The rules are a free download.

PDF link

Even though I was a fencer – and taught fencing – I really don't want to micromanage the combat in a game. I think Gloire represents the macro effects of combat well for a skirmish game. But you easily add some additional swashbuckling maneuvers from And One for All.

Number6, I readed a book about fencing some years ago where they talk about a card game about historical fencing called l´sgrime, or something like that.

You could check out SJG's GURPS Martial Arts (includes fencing, etc), combined with the GURPS combat system.

Works well on the tabletop as a small-scale skirmisher game.

Have you tried Blood and Swash?