Hi Tom, we meet again :-)
I hope that Tom will be one of my players in my game. It looks as though i'll have trouble persuading them to play my pirate game with HW so Flashing Blades it will be. This is a shame, but Flashing Blades is an extremely good fencing and swashbuckling game still available from FGU (www.fantasygamesunlimited.com) and I would recommend it wholeheartedly. What's more it is an excellent resource for swashbuckling games whatever your particular game system preferences.
> Actually I disagree with Graham. Fencing and swashbuckling lend themselves
to a > detailed and intricate fencing system. No that I recommend En Garde!
levels, but > Flashing Blades did it well and easily playable in a fast and
yet rewardingly stylish > way.
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 achieve it while still being reasonably playable. How 'fast' it is I'll find out - it has more to it than Elric and marginally more than RQ combat so we'll see how it plays out.
Here I surge back on topic. Why then do I want to play it out with Hero Wars when I have a nice fencing game already? I've been reading HW and am extremely taken with it. It's the sort of game that I like and I REALLY want to run it :-). I believe the challenge, which I want to take up, is to evoke the swashbuckling atmosphere by using Keywords and the descriptive force of the narrative during the scenario and interlaced in the contests. Ok so I'm not cross referencing a slash attack against the 'duck' defence then rolling a couple of d20 for hit location and rolling damage and taking off hit points and comparing to a wound chart, gasp, instead I'd like to evoke that exchange using our command of the english language and our fertile imaginations. And yes, using AP bids as a quick way of giving game effect to our descriptive approach.
It's enough for me, but not nearly enough to hang it all on for others. I know Tom wants to do the simulation of fencing almost as a game in itself. Fair enough.
The key criticism from a couple in my gaming group is this:
HW is too detailed and clunky for a freeform game and insufficiently detailed to be a 'proper' roleplaying game. Woa - I know - what do I mean by proper here? When pressed it was retranslated to 'traditional' - but I think the slip revealed something.
Tom has the advantage on me. He's really played the game. I'm playing an introductory game where the Narrator is new to it and is still finding his feet. We're also all playing Mostali and busy being mechanistic and assimilationist. So maybe he's right?
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....
I'll also admit to being a bit overwhelmed by Glorantha, a world I thought I understood in 1983, but now don't recognise.
Food for thought.
-- Graham graham_at_... www.jumpspace.org.uk www.suds.shef.ac.uk
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