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"Best Swashbuckling Rules" Topic


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28 Jun 2025 4:22 p.m. PST
by Editor in Chief Bill

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Comments or corrections?

Personal logo Parzival Supporting Member of TMP28 Jun 2025 12:25 p.m. PST

I actually don't have a set myself. What would y'all list and vote for?

We're talking rules that would put you in the classic Errol Flynn movie mind.

Wackmole928 Jun 2025 4:40 p.m. PST

En Garde! (1975) GDW

Hey You28 Jun 2025 5:56 p.m. PST

A 2nd for the 1975 En Garde! There are dueling charts that allow you to choose actions.

Rolemaster At Rapier's Point (1993) has maneuvers for swinging, curtains, wall hangings, tapestry sliding, rug yanking, etc. if you are role playing.

Another role playing choice would be GURPS Swashbucklers (2005). There are maneuvers for the characters also.

Two Hour Wargames came out with 2D6 Swashbucklers earlier this year, but I have not bought it yet. It's built for the Chain Reaction System.

Grelber28 Jun 2025 7:05 p.m. PST

Is En Garde the one with the "Girlfriend Chart?" The theory being something like women will always get you into trouble, but an easy way to avoid trouble is for your character not to have a female entanglement. Apparently to keep people from having an easy out like this, a chart was introduced with various relationships, and everybody got to role on it, and have some sort of female in their life.
No, I don't know how that would impact Bad Squiddo's Julie d'Aubigny figure.

Grelber

Korvessa28 Jun 2025 10:25 p.m. PST

"All for one" IIRC
It's a set of cinematic rules for the Three Musketeers.
A lot of fun – even fo rnon-gamers. no charts and easy rules.
Here's a game (complete with bad photography) of a game a couple years back.
link

Personal logo miniMo Supporting Member of TMP29 Jun 2025 7:01 a.m. PST

Swashbuckler: A Game of Swordplay and Derring-do
(1980, Yaquinto)

Fitzovich Supporting Member of TMP29 Jun 2025 7:11 a.m. PST

….And One for Alle….. is probably the best set of Three Musketeers rules that I have had the pleasure game mastering. They hit all the notes for a fun game with lots of room for player creativity, skirmish game unpredictability (chaos) and are not micro managed by the designer. Best of al they are FREE at the Eureka Miniatures Website. Here is a link to a game that I ran in April as part of our group's monthly Game Day. It is the last of the three games listed so scroll down a bit to find the narrative and phots. link

chalimac29 Jun 2025 7:14 a.m. PST

And One for All!

Free at

link

Andrew Walters29 Jun 2025 8:38 a.m. PST

En Garde (1975) required a character to be involved with females. Penalties if you are not successful. It's a very interesting game, fleshing out the lives of characters in a way no one else did for decades.

Yaquinto's Swashbuckler and En Garde (1975) are both very interesting systems, but while pre-plotted movement brings in some of the technical aspects of swashbuckling it removes a sense of excitement and spontaneity, at least for me, which undoes it all.

Flashing Steel from Ganesha Games is their pirates/swashbucklers-flavored Song of Blades and Heroes. That deserves a mention.

I tried to incorporate some swash into Shieldbash, and those rules are free online. That's what I would actually play.

Personal logo Parzival Supporting Member of TMP30 Jun 2025 9:55 a.m. PST

Interesting— "And One for All!" tracks with my own experimenting almost exactly (I swear, I'd never heard of it, much less read or played it…).

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