> I agree with Tom up to a point. Fencing, as opposed to
swashbuckling, could
> benefit from a well designed fencing system that gives an exciting
simulation
> of the cut, thrust and tactical options. Flashing Blades happens to
Easy. Especially in a swash-oriented agme, or the Three Musketeers, it would be quite reasonable for them to have a lot of special feats or keywords which are thematically appropriate (and which thus prompt player action) withgout any reference to a more emchanically determinate system (are we back in Broad Skills here or what?)
Say, the Scarlet Pimpernel genre frex:
keywords for fencing manouvers - bind, lunge, fleche, whatever
Funky stuff like "Wave Hat" (a personal favourite), Swing From
Chandelier, Mount Horse In A Single Bound, Trick Ragged
Revolutionaries, Witty Repartee (or, Harsh Language in an Aliens
setting <grin>), Escape Mdm. Guillotine etc.
This may require some detail for the non-fencers among us, but that in itself is exposition and front-loading for the players. If you explain what you mean by bind and lunge, they will incorporate this into their action description, either explicitly or implicitly. This should mean that you get a combat which is conducted in a framework of terms appropriate for the formal fencers, describes what is going on, and yet allows extemportisation and improvisation based on the actual situtation (sorta dialectical, really) encountered.
> HW is too detailed and clunky for a freeform game and
> insufficiently detailed
Hmm, HW is not striictly detailed IMO; there is an abstract mechanic which is implemented in particular physical manifestation(ala the dialectic). What that actual implementation is, is up to the implementor. HW-Glorantha is quite detailed, becuase it is necessarily trying to describe a whole society and, unusually for RPG, more than a mere combat mechanic, in one system. HW-Glorantha has lots of data "fixed" into the mechanical system, via the religious and cultural keywords. But if you go away and rewrite everything that bundles keywords, you end up with (or should) an equally detailed HW-Swashbuckler which is 100% compatible with HW-XYZ.
> I don't know, I can really see the potential for this system in all
sorts
> of settings, including 'traditional' fantasy medieval games,
samurai games,
> bunnies and burrows, etc....
Yeah, I'm working on a samurai thang. IT takes a bit of thinking to figure out how you're going to arrange keywords, but it is not a complex mechanical conversion at all.
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