Lace and Steel was fun, sadly my copy is long gone.

PDQ Sharp seems like it would do an excellent job of swashbuckling. Unfortunately I haven't ever been able to give it a test drive.

Quote from: Ronin;555761PDQ Sharp seems like it would do an excellent job of swashbuckling. Unfortunately I haven't ever been able to give it a test drive.

Ran a very short game using the Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies setting, and the game itself went ok. It certainly felt swashbucklery.

Personally, I think I would want more of a defined system than this for a long term campaign, but people's tastes vary.

Quote from: Marleycat;555535Usually if you go female in a swashbuckling game that's historically accurate your best bet is to go the Templar or maybe Pirate route.  The first has proof the second not so much.  Besides I want to be a musketeer.

There is precedent.

Quote from: The Butcher;555401Say you want to run a swashbuckling campaign.

Done!

Quote from: The Butcher;555401What is it that you want the system to do?

I want swordplay rules that put the players in the heads of their characters, to capture a little of the 'chess at ninety miles per hour' feel of fencing, where they can choose between thrusting a sword in the other guy's throat, riposting his slash, and kicking the him in the junk.

I want a damage rules which being incapacitated is more likely than being killed, but which makes one-thrust-one-kill a possibility every time swords are drawn.

I want a skill rules which make swinging from a chandelier or pulling the rug out from someone's feet possible without turning them into an end in themselves.

I want a game in which I can play Aramis in The Three Musketeers (musketeer), Twenty Years Later (prelate), and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (Spanish amabassador) and have his career path supported by the rules.

Quote from: The Butcher;555401And what systems do you feel have the right tools to pull it off?

Flashing Blades hits all my sweet spots.

Quote from: The Traveller;555773There is precedent.

I had heard Ching Shih mentioned but I completely forgotten about her. Maybe it's because she was Chinese and I didn't think it was relevant to the thread. Stupid me. Never heard of Grace O'Malley but I will definitely remember both for any future conversations.

But it does kind of prove my assertion that the best way to go for a female is being a pirate, Joan of Arc, or Yentl* type swashbuckler.

*Masquarade as a man.

Quote from: Marleycat;555535Besides I want to be a musketeer.

Don't worry.  Barbie has you covered.

Quote from: The Butcher;555401What is it that you want the system to do?

The system needs to allow players to create characters that are among the best there is -- characters so good that they can be outnumbered, try dangerous fancy tricks, and jump into danger and have a good chance of success.  Swashbucklers should be like James Bond.

Quote from: Marleycat;555787I had heard Ching Shih mentioned but I completely forgotten about her. Maybe it's because she was Chinese and I didn't think it was relevant to the thread. Stupid me. Never heard of Grace O'Malley but I will definitely remember both for any future conversations.

But it does kind of prove my assertion that the best way to go for a female is being a pirate, Joan of Arc, or Yentl* type swashbuckler.

*Masquarade as a man.

You know, just on a whim I did a bit of checking up and women were not only excellent pirates but had a tendency to pass away peacefully in their sleep at age seventy, rather than the usual short drop and sudden stop retirement plan. "Back from the Dead Red" is my new favourite pirate, just for the name. Apparently they coined the term fishnet stockings too. No luck with the female Musketeers though.

Quote from: John Morrow;555838Don't worry.  Barbie has you covered.

I only watched the first 10 seconds; I died a little inside.

Thank you all for replying!

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;555585The Butcher has a sort of love/hate/meh thing with SW

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I used to be a big enthusiast. My burnout has nothing to do with the math; I actually feel the wonky math contributes to emulating a certain sort of fiction -- when incompetent characters succeed, they're more likely to Ace, which doesn't amount to much mathematically but makes everyone go "dude, did your caveman just hotwire a M1 Abrams?" It does a crappy job of emulating most pulp fiction, despite being originally billed as a pulp RPG; it does a great job of emulating the some of the sillier Hollywood action movie offerings, and even old Saturday morning cartoons.

It was during a Castles & Crusades session, when my fighter was down to 1hp and I was all like Théoden in RotK until I got to crit and finish the last of several opponents (I think it was a Gloranthan broo, of all things, converted to C&C), that I had my own personal epiphany of grittiness. I had forgotten how much fun it was to actually put your ass on the line.

Suddenly the real badass wasn't the SW character who took out Extras by the dozen, but the humble 4th-level human fighter locked in a deadly struggle with a slobbering horror. I still ran SW for over a year after that but it just didn't seem so exciting anymore; like riding a bike with training wheels on.

I still think it's a killer design if you want hypercompetent PCs mowing down armies of mooks (as in the aforementioned silly action movies and Saturday morning cartoons), but nowadays I'd rather serve up tougher and bloodier fare at my game table. Valor loses its edge if injury and death are deprived of their sting.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;555585so to try and pick some other things...I'm wondering if something like MasterBook might be good for swashbuckling, with its Drama Deck and such like, though the rules are a bit involved?

Not really familiar with MasterBook.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;555585Or D6 System (if it worked for Star Wars, it has to be swashbuckly...).
Or Marvel Super Heroes (although you'd need to adapt it to a completely different genre for this, so I may be insane; I haven't played it except as a supers game but it seems like a simple game where there's alot of fancy combat manuevers and such).

Not bad ideas, but mostly lacking in tactical complexity; in a swashbuckling game I'd expect duels to be involved affairs. Not that our lightsaber duels in Star Wars D6 were boring (they weren't), but I think I'd prefer something more specialized here, maybe with some extra bells and whistles.

I've even considered hacking the Palladium combat system. I like the nothing-is-assumed, strike-parry-dodge thing -- though why would anyone parry when they can dodge, barring "automatic parry" (i.e. the ability to parry without spending a melee action/attack) is beyond me. Also one might expand the "pull punch" bonus beyond punches, for a subdual-type non-lethal combat aimed at incapacitation (as opposed to the exceptional duel to the death).

Quote from: Black Vulmea;555778Done!

I was wondering when you were going to show up. This thread just screams "Black Vulmea bait".

Quote from: Black Vulmea;555778I want swordplay rules that put the players in the heads of their characters, to capture a little of the 'chess at ninety miles per hour' feel of fencing, where they can choose between thrusting a sword in the other guy's throat, riposting his slash, and kicking the him in the junk.

I want a damage rules which being incapacitated is more likely than being killed, but which makes one-thrust-one-kill a possibility every time swords are drawn.

I want a skill rules which make swinging from a chandelier or pulling the rug out from someone's feet possible without turning them into an end in themselves.

I want a game in which I can play Aramis in The Three Musketeers (musketeer), Twenty Years Later (prelate), and The Vicomte de Bragelonne (Spanish amabassador) and have his career path supported by the rules.

Flashing Blades hits all my sweet spots.

Wow, that's quite the sales pitch. (I am inevitably reminded of Cap'n Buzz trying to persuade Dr. Pradesh to buy company stock ).

I will ask an obscene question. How hard would it be to graft fantastic, supernatural stuff (specifically of the horrific sort) onto Flashing Blades?

Quote from: The Butcher;556177I still think it's a killer design if you want hypercompetent PCs mowing down armies of mooks (as in the aforementioned silly action movies and Saturday morning cartoons), but nowadays I'd rather serve up tougher and bloodier fare at my game table. Valor loses its edge if injury and death are deprived of their sting.

We're had this discussion before so I won't go over it too much.
Since then, I will mention that last Saturday as it happens we played Realms of Cthulhu with the "no soaking" genre rule, and my PC sadly became dogfood for a Hound of Tindalos  Ah well. This was a one-shot game (that ended up going for three short sessions), and not a combat character (poverty stricken actor with d4 in fighting and d10+4 Persuasion ). But I digress.

Fair enough on the other games. Brettmb would be a good person to ask on perspectives on MasterBook since he owns it now, btw. It looks a bit cumbersome to me (depending on preferences), but it has the same Drama Deck as TORG which enables PCs to involve themselves in various subplots, and is also used to have preferred moves in combat that change from round to round.

Quote from: The Butcher;556180I was wondering when you were going to show up. This thread just screams "Black Vulmea bait".

Okay, you've had your fun, now get the damn hook out of my cheek already.

Quote from: The Butcher;556180How hard would it be to graft fantastic, supernatural stuff (specifically of the horrific sort) onto Flashing Blades?

Characters in FB have six attributes which track pretty closely to D&D, so there's a pretty ready means of comparison with like systems.

I would think something skill-based might work.


Not that I would ever consider such an outrageous sin against God and nature, of course.

Quote from: Black Vulmea;556252Okay, you've had your fun, now get the damn hook out of my cheek already.

Well, if that didn't work, I had Snowbird Games' Caribbean! on standby.
(I know, the address is in Russian.  It's safe, trust me.)