A Start on Elizabethulhu............

We ran a couple of scenes last Saturday actually using Risus! No one is any hurry to codify anything. A good omen - Barry is showing up again.

The story thus far.......

Sanity Checks have been a hard sell and are now scaled back to Fright Checks - a temporary loss of nerve; sanity hadn't been invented in the 1500s.

I did make a list of fencing maneuvers to crunchy-up combat; the maneuvers don’t add bonuses, but they do add color and give the players something to do. Bonuses come from Questing Dice tied to Fencing and Lucky Dice – one dice at a time from each and they can be stacked. The group is still leery about pumping dice so that option is off the table for now.

Notes:
Swashbuckling is neither a skill nor cliché. Swinging on a drapery into a fight is a separate action.

Most of the fencing characters will be of either the upper yeomanry (families of professionals who do not work with their hands) or the lower gentry (families on the lower rungs of the complex land-holding hierarchy) classes.

Inspirational viewing: anything with William Hobbs as fight arranger.

The Three Musketeers (1973)

The Four Musketeers (1974)

The final duel from Rob Roy

The final duel from Dangerous Liaisons

The Man in the Iron Mask

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Duelists

I divvied up the maneuvers into groups of six, if a player gets stuck just roll and read.

Defense
1 feint
2 bind
3 beat
4 parry
5 block
6 croise (push the blade)

Offense
1 thrust
2 lunge
3 fleche (a committed lunge)
4 cut
5 slash
6 reposte (a parry/thrust)

Infighting
1 trip
2 body check
3 elbow
4 knuckle duster
5 arm bar
6 throw

Cape Work
1 flourish (hides the attack)
2 bind the blade
3 whip at eyes
4 trip (tangle legs)
5 blind (thrown at the face or over the head)
6 block (wrapped around forearm)

Head butts, kicks, knees, and non-standard use of furniture falls under Brawling.
The Main Gauche (a heavy dagger for the off hand) is allowed - but does not have specific rules.