Swashbuckling: Skills

This is a short post, but I want to get this skill list out there so I can stop renaming everything back to SotC standard in future posts.

Whenever I start thinking about a new genre conversion, taking a close look at the skill list is one of the first things I do. I like to see what I can cut and what I can combine; rarely, I end up adding something. Regardless, I'm likely to do a lot of renaming. I find it goes a long way toward communicating the feel of the genre in question. For example, in "Spirit of the Sword," I could've left Science as Science, but renaming it to Physik gives it a totally different vibe in my mind.

Anyway, with that in mind, here's a skill list for "Spirit of the 17th Century."

Skill (New)	SotC Equivalent
Alertness	Alertness
Arms	Weapons
Art	Art
Brawn	Might, Endurance
Burglary	Burglary
Chicanery	Deceit
Connections	Contacting
Empathy	Empathy
Esprit	Resolve
Firearms	Guns
Fisticuffs	Fists
Gambling	Gambling
Horsemanship	Drive, Survival's riding trapping
Legerdemain	Sleight of Hand
Occult	Mysteries
Perception	Investigation
Physique	Athletics, Endurance
Presence	Leadership, Intimidation
Rapport	Rapport
Resources	Resources
Scholarship	Academics
Science	Science, Engineering
Seamanship	Pilot
Stealth	Stealth
Survival	Survival, sans riding

For example, there's nothing wrong with Weapons and Fists, per se, but Arms and Fisticuffs just feels so much more right to me. Ditto Chicanery. Chicanery! Is there another RPG out there with a skill called Chicanery?

(I've also renamed consequences for this one: Trifling, Middling, and Grievous. "Well-placed, sir! You have struck me a Grievous Arm Cut Off, indeed!")

Anyway, a few things got combined, so maybe I ought to explain those.

Drive becomes Horsemanship, and deals with both riding horses and driving wagons/carriages/etc. Even though horse-drawn modes of transport are more central to this genre than to, say, fantasy, I still can't see having an entire skill just for carriages. In the source material, those who are good at riding horses are also capable when it comes to controlling a team of them. So Survival loses its horse-riding trapping and is completely about, y'know, survival.

Leadership and Intimidation combine, Voltron-like, to form Presence. Again, in the source material, force of personality is a big thing. Those who are intimidating are generally so because of their charisma. Anyone who wants to be decently intimidating without having any real ability to lead can supplement that with a boon (+1 Presence when intimidating) and an aspect or two, since it's likely to be a situational thing.

Likewise with Might and Endurance. Brawn is all that physical toughness in one skill.

Science kills Engineering and takes its stuff. I just don't think there should be a separation between these here. It's the Age of Enlightenment and/or Reason.

Contacting becomes Connections, which seems minor, I'll admit, but I think it contributes to the more social elements of the genre. It's not about being able to gather information; it's about being well-connected. Connections is the defensive skill in social conflicts, which I'll talk more about later.

And that's all the justification I feel I need to do for you people.

Oh, one last thing: Gamex. Gamex went well. I ran two "Legends of Anglerre" demo games, which were enjoyed by all (or seemed to be), and got some good feedback to boot. Most of the mechanical comments were actually about Starblazer and the differences between it and SotC. I've never met anyone -- in person, in real life -- who actually plays Starblazer, though several of us own the PDF, nor do I think I know anyone anymore who plays SotC as written, so for those in my groups who were already familiar with SotC/FATE, getting used to the way Starblazer does things was an additional obstacle, but hardly one we couldn't overcome.

Gamex 2009 Is... Wow, Right Now

Normally, I mention these things far(-ish) in advance, but what with one thing and another.... Anyway, Gamex 2009 is this weekend, right now, as we speak, at the Sheraton Gateway near LAX. It's a pretty nice hotel (nicer than our usual venue, the Radisson -- but that isn't saying much), with tons of room for what's turning out to be a relatively light slate of RPG events. I'm running demos of Legends of Anglerre this afternoon at 2:00 and tonight at 8:00. It'll be the first time any of what we've been working on will be shown to the public. Excitement!

Other games of note: Monsters and Other Childish Things run by San Diego's own Chris Czerniak (part of our monthly "Spirit of the Sword" playtest group), Morgan Ellis's "Spirit of the Red Planet" SotC-Barsoom hack tonight and tomorrow afternoon, a playtest of Josh Roby's nifty-looking Agora, and about eight thousand sessions of Geist: The Sin-Eaters, White Wolf's new WoD game. Plus a bunch of other stuff and plenty of crap to buy. If you're in the area this weekend, come on down.

Swashbuckling: Salons D'Escrimer

Fencing schools -- the swashbuckling equivalent of magic, in a way. FATE being what it is, simply adding a bunch of bonuses isn't really the best route. Small bonuses make a big difference, and the last thing I want is a game of mechanical oneupmanship driven by escalating bonuses for no good reason. So I'm stealing a page from the Leonard Balsera playbook and doing a sort of roll-and-keep thing (roll XdF and keep the best 4dF). This increases the odds of getting a +4 on the dice without actually pushing past that threshold. I tried this out with an NPC in "Spirit of the Fist," and it worked fine. (That's "fine" as in "sometimes I still got a crappy roll, despite rolling 6dF and keeping the best 4dF.)

The simplest thing to do here is to treat each fencing school as a package of benefits -- say, three -- that's accessed through a stunt. I'm thinking there would be a number of these to choose from, organized in tiers that are unlocked by your Weapons skill. I concede that this is double-dipping a bit with Weapons, since it determines both how good you are in a fight and how versatile you can be, but c'mon, it's a swashbuckling game. That said, depending on the school a different skill could be used to determine just what you have access to. I'm thinking here of something like Academics or even Mysteries.

What fencing schools can do:

• +1-3dF (keep best four dice) with Weapons, Fists, or Guns for attacks, defenses, or specific type of weapon
  
• +1 in broad circumstances only with a particular skill that doesn't directly deal stress -- e.g., +1 Athletics to cover ground, +1 Intimidation in combat
• +2 to maneuver with a skill
  
• Use a different skill when rolling initiative
• Some other skill substitution in combat with non-stress-dealing skills
  
• One secondary skill can only complement and never restrict Weapons, Fists, or Guns
  
• No penalty to Weapons et al. when using a particular skill as part of a supplementary action
  
• +1dF when you have Advantage
• +1dF when you don't have Advantage
  
• Withstand an additional Minor consequence (this would be a very high-tier benefit)
  

What fencing schools can't do:

• Grant flat, blanket bonuses to Weapons, Fists, or Guns
• Grant flat bonuses to stress dealt on a successful attack
• Grant flat reductions to stress when successfully attacked
• Skill substitution that lets you use something other than Weapons et al. to deal stress

Notice I'm including Guns in there. That's just the completist in me, really, but there ought to be room for it; they aren't "The Three Rapierists," after all.

For example:
Salon de Montcharles: A school whose techniques revolve around understanding the opponent's mind and intimidating him into submission.

Novice Techniques (Prerequisite: Average Weapons)

• +1dF Weapons with rapiers
  
• +1 Empathy in combat
• +1 Intimidation in combat when you don't have Advantage
  

Intermediate Techniques (Prerequisite: Fair Weapons)

• Use Empathy instead of Alertness for initiative
• +2dF Weapons with defenses
  
• +1 Resolve when you have Advantage

Master Techniques (Prerequisite: Good Weapons)

• +1dF Weapons with attacks
  
• +1dF Weapons with defenses
  
• +2 Intimidation with maneuvers
  
• When you take a physical consequence, you may choose to take a mental consequence of equal severity instead

When you take the stunt for a particular fencing school, you pick three of its techniques from any available tier. The idea here is that I'd stat out a number of schools -- a dozen or more -- for players to pick from. That shouldn't prevent players from coming up with their own, but having pre-established schools would be an important bit of setting, I'd think. Techniques that grant bonus dice stack with each other, but techniques that grant flat bonuses don't: Use the highest applicable bonus. To take an example from the above, if you have +1 to Intimidation in combat and +2 to maneuver with Intimidation, using Intimidation in combat as part of a maneuver will only net you a +2 bonus. Keep in mind the rules of Advantage here. Normally, getting a +1 to Empathy in combat wouldn't be an especially big deal, but when a good Deceit roll can give you the ability to inflict consequences, having a decent Empathy suddenly becomes more important.

I'm not exactly sure how I'd handle other stunts (or their equivalent) here, but it'd be great if I could get away with limiting bonuses to Weapons solely to aspect invokes and tags. Oh, and the other thing I'd do is limit aspect invokes to once per scene, to encourage more maneuvers and the creation of new aspects.

Swashbuckling: Personal Combat Zones

FATE's great for fast-and-loose combat, but for a swashbuckling game you (or I) arguably want something a little more detailed to provide more tactical options. One in-genre way I can see to do this is to expand on the concept of zones by subdividing them into what I'm calling paces.

Like zones, paces measure your relative distance to your opponent in abstract terms. When it comes to personal combat, there are three basic types of weapons: very short weapons (daggers) or fists, swords and other weapons of "normal" length (the middle ground), and extra-long weapons like halberds. With this in mind, when you're in combat with an opponent and you're both in the same zone (i.e., this doesn't apply to ranged combat), you're at one of three paces:

• Corps-a-Corps (1): Literally "body to body." Too close to effectively make use of a rapier or longer weapon.
• Melee (2): The "normal" distance appropriate for your average rapier or the like.
• Extended (3): Too far for two rapier-wielders to engage, but close enough to hit with a polearm. (I'm on the lookout for a good French word for this; "lointain" isn't cutting it for me right now.)

Every weapon is most effective at one of these three paces, expressed like so: Dagger (1), Rapier (2), Halberd (3). Combat begins at the largest applicable pace -- Melee if you're both wielding rapiers, Extended if one of you has a polearm, etc. If your weapon's effective pace is different than your current pace, take a penalty to your attacks equal to the difference as long as that pace is maintained.

For example:

• You have a dagger (1), he has a rapier (2): Your attacks with your dagger are at -1 (1 - 2).
• Now you're the rapier (2) guy, and he's got a halberd (3): You still get a -1 to your attacks so long as you're both using those weapons.
• You have a dagger (1), he has a halberd (3): You're at a -2 on your attacks.

Etc.

"As long as that pace is maintained" is important. How do you figure out what pace you're at (that's awful grammar, but...) from round to round? The effective pace of the weapon that hit last is your current pace. If the dagger-guy hits the polearm-guy (despite that -2 for starting at Extended), he can only have done so by stepping inside the halberdier's reach and getting close enough to score a hit -- so you must be at Corps-a-Corps now. That means the halberdier's suddenly at a -2, because his weapon's much worse up close.

Combatants can also change the current pace as a full action with an Athletics roll (opposed by either Athletics or Weapons): 1 shift to adjust the pace by one step, 3 shifts (spin) to adjust it by two steps. If you have Great Athletics but only Fair Weapons, and you're in a dagger-vs.-polearm situation, it's worth your while to close distance before attempting to attack with that dagger.

Why do any of this? Well, in this genre, there ought to be more emphasis put on the weapons combatants use. Most fights are likely to be between combatants using Melee-pace weapons, which means it shouldn't have a big effect on every fight. Also, it's another little mechanical tidbit to play with when it comes to fencing techniques (up next!).

Swashbuckling: Some Basics

A recent thread on RPG.net has me taking a fourteenth look at my swashbuckling FATE stuff, so I figured I'd finally start posting it. There's kind of a lot of it, actually: ideas about fencing schools, maneuvers, non-clunky (I hope) differences between weapon types, a revamped skill list, social class, and more. It's all wildly untested, though, so keep that in mind as we go forward.

Now, like many enthusiasts of the genre, I'm a fencer. Er, at least, I was; it's been years, really, and it's such a physically demanding sport that I've found it tough to get back into after time away. Anyway, the point is that it's easy to get caught up in the details of fencing as a sport and overcomplicate combat mechanics as a result. I know, because I've done it before. So I've tried to stay away from that and stick to the core of what makes FATE so good: narrative elements, cinematic action, and fast-and-loose rules.

So, to that end: Advantage.

At the beginning of combat, roll a skill for initiative. This will usually be Alertness (or the swashbuckling non-union equivalent), but certain fencing schools could let you use something else instead: Empathy, Deceit, Resolve, etc. instead. If one combatant obtains spin in this contest, he gains Advantage. (Use a token of some kind to indicate this to keep it clear.)

As long Advantage is in play, it is required to inflict consequences in combat.

If the combatant with Advantage loses an exchange, he loses Advantage as well.

In the event that neither combatant has Advantage, set the Advantage token aside, out of play.

If a combatant without Advantage obtains spin on an exchange using a non-offensive skill (such as Athletics, Deceit, Intimidation, Art, and so on), he gains Advantage, either by taking it from his opponent or by bringing it back into play. Advantage can't be gained by simply using Weapons or Fists.

Advantage isn't used for combats involving multiple combatants against a single opponent, such as a player character against a bunch of minions. That'd just be a straight Weapons (or whatever) contest.

So what's the point of this? The idea is that it would replicate the back-and-forth of a swashbuckling duel while explicitly encouraging maneuvers and a wide variety of skills in combat. The method by which a combatant gains Advantage is entirely up to the player. He can pull a Cyrano and use Art to infuriate his opponent with his rapier wit. He can use Athletics to grab onto that chandelier (always a classic) and swing into an advantageous position. He can use Might to knock over a statue into the path of his foe. And so on. If you can justify it, go for it! That, if you ask me, is very much in the spirit of FATE and SotC.

A concern here is that it might slow things down. After all, if only one guy at a time even has the ability to inflict stress, lag is a definite possibility. To combat this, and to make supplemental actions more attractive, I'm reducing the threshholds on consequences: Minor is 1-2 stress, Moderate is 3-5, and Severe is 6+. (Actually, for this I'd rename them Trifling, Middling, and Grievous, because I loves me some genre-specific flavor.)

As I said, this is untested, but gosh, it sure feels right to me for the genre.

Supers: Supers? Yes, Supers.

I've long considered a good supers FATE conversion to be the Holy Grail (or at least the Questing Beast) of FATE conversions. I've tried it, others have tried it, but I've never really been satisfied with anything any of us have come up with -- no offense to you if you're one of "us." Everything I've seen or thought of has been either too hand-wavey or way too anchored in crunch. FATE is a relatively rules-light system; anything that uses it should stick to its "core values," as it were, and not overcomplicate things with intricate stunt chains or HERO- or M&M-style effects-based power constructs. It's just that, well, most supers games work very well with an effects-based system for powers, so those of us who've played them naturally want to go that route with FATE, too. But that way lies badness, if you ask me.

Recently, I've been going back and forth on FATE supers stuff with Joe Meyer, host of "Meanwhile... The Super Gaming Podcast," which is good and should be listened to, and darned if those discussions haven't produced some pretty great ideas for supers. We'd each come up with some things independently that were more or less along similar lines.

Joe had the idea of revisiting FUDGE for its scaling rules -- specifically Strength and Speed -- and a couple pretty good ideas came of it. There's so much stuff in FUDGE; I oughtta revisit it more often. Anyway, I'm not sure if we totally agree on anything yet, but here's where I am with things right now.

Strength Scale
This measures relative physical strength between normals and the super-strong. Note that this is different from Might, and exists independent of the skill. In Might tests, add your Strength Scale to your Might effort. In hand-to-hand combat, compare the attacker's and defender's Strength Scale ratings. If the attacker's is higher, increase the degree of consequence dealt on a successful attack by a number of steps equal to the difference. For example, if the attacker is Strength Scale 2 and the defender is Strength Scale 0, a Minor consequence becomes a Severe consequence. Yes, it's rough, but, y'know, don't get into fisticuffs with Superman.

Conversely, if the defender's Strength Scale is higher, then reduce the severity of the consequence dealt by the difference -- in the example above, if that Strength Scale 0 guy is fool enough to land an uppercut on Mr. Strength Scale 2, he'll have to achieve a Severe consequence just to put a Minor consequence on him. Again, this is why your average bank robber doesn't want to go mano-a-mano with Supes.

(This owes as much to FUDGE as it does to a recent RPG.net thread on Savage Worlds supers by Hudson Shock.)

Speed Scale
Like the Strength Scale, this also exists independent of the skill pyramid. For any physical action, reduce the time required on the Time Chart by a number of steps equal to your Speed Scale.

This does necessitate fixing up the Time Chart a bit, however, to give it a little more relevance in combat round. Fortunately, I've already done this!

Free action / Instant

An action / A few moments

A full action / Half a minute

Two rounds / A minute

Three rounds / A few minutes

A conflict / 15 minutes

A scene / 30 minutes

An hour

A few hours

An afternoon

A day

A few days

A week

A few weeks

A month

A season

Half a year

A year

For example, let's say the Flush (no relation) has Speed Scale 4. If a normal Speed Scale 0 guy wants to move one zone and attack, he'll be at a -1 for taking two actions in one round, each of which requires "an action." The Flush, though, can accomplish this at no penalty -- for him, moving a zone is something that can be done as a free action. It might take the average person an hour to dismantle a transdimensional particle disruptor, but the Flush can do it in a minute, tops, plus any shifts he can spend on from his Engineering roll, which could get it down to mere seconds. Running across town takes Mr. Nobody an entire afternoon, but with a decent Athletics roll the Flush can make it in 30 seconds or so.

What about multiple attacks? Well, you still can't do that, but you can make a single attack and apply it against multiple targets, although anything that actually requires a die roll will take a minimum of an action. Attacking three targets in one zone would take anyone else three rounds (one attack per round), but the Flish can do it in a single action. (He'd still only make one roll and apply it against each target's defense, because I kinda have this thing about only making one roll per round.)

How to Improve Strength and Speed Scales While Maintaining Game Balance
Uh... I'm not sure. Next!

Actual, Y'know, Powers
Powers would be not effects-based, but special effects-based. That is, start with the power theme, and make it a skill. Stretching, for instance, or Telekinesis. There'd be a good-sized but finite list of these. Each comes with a number of trappings indicating how the skill can be used. When you take the skill, you get one trapping for free, and pay for more with Refresh or Drawbacks in some proportion -- 1 Refresh for three trappings, say.

Stretching
You can stretch your body. Yadda yadda yadda.

• Offense: While you still use Fists or Weapons (I guess) to attack, with Stretching you can use these skills from up to a zone away at no penalty. You can also stretch as a supplemental action to get around shields or other barriers.
• Defense: Your rubbery body is hard to damage, and makes it easy to dodge bullets and blows. You can use Stretching to defend against physical attacks you're aware of.
• Maneuvers: You can use this skill to Block, Grab, or Disarm in combat.
• Utility: You can stretch one zone as a supplemental action with nearly any other skill.
• Movement: You can use this skill instead of Athletics to cover ground or sprint.

Drawbacks
These are pretty much like M&M's complications in most respects, except they're -- you guessed it -- aspects. Specifically, aspects of a predominantly negative nature, like "I can't control it!" or "You wouldn't like mee when I'm angry" or "Powered Armor Requires Recharging." They should be compel-fodder. I'm not sure what the exchange rate would be (2 trappings for 1 Drawback?), but... it'd be something.

Associated Aspects
Of course, each super-skill would require an associated aspect anyway, like "Faster Than A Speeding Bullet" or "More Powerful Than An Eco-Friendly Monorail." So would improved Speed or Strength Scales, like... well, like "Faster Than A Speeding Bullet" or "More Powerful Than An Eco-Friendly Monorail."

At any rate, there's obviously still a lot to work out here, but I like where it's going so far.

Important But Non-Gaming-Related News

Sorta longish time, no post, but I've been pre-occupied with other stuff these days. For one, I've taken it on myself to review and rewrite (as needed) all the stunts in Starblazer for the forthcoming Legends of Anglerre (as it's now called -- it'll also be a standalone book instead of a supplement for Starblazer, which I think is a great idea). I've also been really taken lately with the idea of running, of all things, a Fantasy Hero game. I consider Hero to be pretty much the anti-FATE in a lot of ways, but before SotC came along it was my go-to system for years. And now I've got a hankering for it again, for some reason or other (just in time for the 6th edition to come out at Gen Con, too).

But! None of that is really news. What's news it that my wife and I are having a baby! We just passed the first trimester, and you know what they say: Wait until the second trimester to post about it on your blog.