Assorted commentary on "how to do" something
Reprinted from the popular book of fencing penned by none other than Argenta du Pheasante, former Director of the Fencing Schools, and presently Fencing Instructor to Le Roi.
As the Director of the Fencing Schools, I thought it fitting for me to discuss the basics of weapon play, especially as it applies to modern day Paris. While I will not ignore the sixteenth century, duelling has changed so rapidly since the turn of the century that I believe it meet to concentrate my work upon our century, particularly the period after 1650. I will caution you one and all that this is meant to be a supplemental review, and not a brilliant display of tactical ingenuity or comprehensive discussion. Furthermore, you must bear with my shorthand notation and odd references to what I refer to simply as the 'rules'. With that preface, I shall begin.
There are three prominent weapons in use: Rapier, Sabre, and Cutlass. Each of these is a regimental weapon (weapon of choice) for at least one Parisian regiment. The other three are Zweihander, Dagger, and Foil. The main actions you can make are L - lunge; S - slash; C - cut; K - kick; T - throw; R - riposte; P- parry; B - block; JB - Jump Back. The important point to note, however, is that a person performs routines and not actions. If you are in the middle of a routine, you can not abort it to react to your opponent. Knowing when to commit to a long routine and when to wait, when to be offensive and when defensive, is the Arte of Duelling.
The best method I have found is to write down your actions on a piece of paper in a column format (much as they will appear when reported) and your opponent's various possible actions in columns beside it, one beside the other. The secret is attempting to recognize patterns in your opponent that will allow you to react appropriately. If being offensive, you time your routines to allow you to be free when his will be ending or just started. If being defensive, you wait to see what he has done, attempting to thwart it and respond. By analyzing the combinations of routines, you can plan your strategy. All of these represent your conditionals (i.e. routines you will do in response to your opponent's actions). Conditionals can be set to respond to any number of actions in a row - you are not limited to responding to one routine only.
If you begin an FL then you cannot respond to your opponent for 7 segments. Therefore, even if your conditionals predict and have a response to his actions, it will not happen because you are in the middle of a routine - it looks like this for rapier versus sabre.
Fighter 1 Conditional:
X-S-X: JB-S
Fighter 1 Fighter 2
L X
X X
X S
C X
X S
X X
X C
Even though Fighter 1 has a conditional to pick up the start of a FS, he cannot do anything because he is in the middle of a routine; he will be hit by the cut before it is time to check his conditionals.
Furthermore, two slashes with a sabre in a row look like X-X-S-X-X-S. As you can tell, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th actions look like a furious slash start (X-S-X). The trick is determining what is a real pattern and on what to take a risk. Remember to include conditionals for when things go wrong. In the example above, although Fighter 1 was hit by the cut, he knows Fighter 2 must rest for 3 segments (the X-X-X at the end of a FS) so he should have a conditional such as C: L because he knows he has time to get a lunge in.
These will throw off your conditionals. If wielding a dagger, you will have a CL automatically added to your routines (except X, JB, and T). If using a dagger versus a zweihander, you will have two CLs put in front of your orders. If wielding a zweihander, you must add an X before all of your routines (except X) and if your opponent is wielding a rapier, foil, sabre, or cutlass they must add a Cl (except for X, JB, and T). If you are both wielding zweihanders, you still add an X before each routine except X. Remember that all of this changes your conditionals if they are based on rapier and sabre becuase if the actions you list do not exactly match what your opponent does, it won't be used. The Cutlass has a special slash routine: X-S-X-X-X and unlike a regular slash, it is always this. A regular slash is (X)-X-S where the first X is not required if you have previously rested. At the start of a duel, a slash routine is X-X-S, except for Zweihander which is X-X-X-S (due to the rest imposed by that weapon).
Any weapon can parry P and block B. A parry only stops a lunge and a block only stops a slash; a jump back JB stops everything but a throw. However, the JB routine is JB-X and so while useful against a cut C you can be hit while resting if you JB at the wrong time. Since someone might repeatedly parry or block, you will probably want to add a conditional such as:
P-P-P-P-P: S
B-B-B-B-B: L
You can also K instead of S or L. The idea is to do something their repeated action won't be able to stop.
For the shortest complete duelling set, you will need the sections listed a little below. Do not despair, however, at the apparent length. You only need to devise your conditionals versus lunging weapons, and versus slashing weapons. The former is good against rapier, dagger, foil, and the latter against sabre then modified slightly for zweihander (that extra rest) and cutlass (unique slash routine). Remember that a lunge - L, a riposte - R, and a cut - C from a Cutlass do NO damage, and that a riposte - R, and a lunge - L from a Zweihander do no damage. A foil does no damage with either a slash - S or a cut - C.
All conditionals should preferably be in the form - Actions to the left of the colon (:) and Routines to the right. Remember that you respond to actions, but only perform routines. You cannot specify an action but must list only routines; do not be confused by the fact that lunge, slash, kick, jump back, throw, parry, block, and close are both names for actions and names for routines. Printing out or copying down the routine/action table is helpful. When thinking of your opponent think about his actions (the series of each action he does when he specifies a routine), and when thinking of yourself, think of routines.
Initial is the first routine you will execute, while default is what routine you will use if none of your conditionals (i.e. routines you will do in response to your opponent's actions) work. Don't be afraid to keep things simple. If you need words, then what you want to do is probably too complex in the first place. Think about adding - FB vs DC 5 or 6 - to the surrender line of the cutlass and the zweihander, especially if your DC is 1 or 2.
[Feel free to copy & paste the below and use it as a fill-in-form for your dueling orders, which should be sent to the GM (), not to the press.]
Type: auto
Weapon: [preferred weapon goes here]
Decline: KOB, SR
Surrender: UH, KOB
#Change-Routine: MWB, OWB, D, OD
Routine: Rapier vs Rapier, Dagger, or Foil
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Rapier vs Sabre
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Rapier, Foil, or Dagger vs Zweihander
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Foil or Dagger vs Rapier, Foil, or Dagger
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Foil or Dagger vs Sabre
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Rapier, Foil, Dagger vs Cutlass
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Sabre or Zweihander vs Rapier, Foil, or Dagger
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Sabre or Zweihander vs Sabre
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Sabre or Zweihander vs Zweihander
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Sabre or Zweihander vs Cutlass
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Cutlass vs Rapier, Foil, or Dagger
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Cutlass vs Sabre
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Cutlass vs Zweihander
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Cutlass vs Cutlass
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: MWB, D
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Rapier, Dagger, Foil vs OWB, OD
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Sabre or Zweihander vs OWB, OD
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Routine: Cutlass vs OWB, OD
Initial:
[conditionals go here]
Default:
Surrender: UH, KOB
Remember to devise your conditionals based on the patterns you see when you look at routines and combinations of routines for lunging (rapier) then for slashing (sabre) weapons. Next, modify the conditionals to take into account the oddities of the cutlass, zweihander, dagger and foil. While you would technically need a separate section for dagger since it has a CL at the start of every routine, it is a rarely used weapon and furthermore getting out of the way of the cut - C isn't that important.
I purposefully did not list the conditionals I have found because that would take the fun out of dueling. Trust me, you don't want someone simply to hand you the answers on a plate, and besides, there is no one way to duel.
I hope this small treatise on duelling was helpful and enjoyable.
Name Influence Level[/Level] Y/N Name Order
The Y/N is for supporting the order or not.
In this case you are EV, the person asking for the resignation is AdM so his order would be (entered by the GM) AdM ARR npc_TdA (this is the Ask to Resign Regiment command) so the influence would be
EV Influence 2 Y AdM ARR npc_TdA
The "2" could be spelled out e.g. M2 for a mistress or P2 for personal or B2 or a bribe. If you had two that you wanted to use, say mistress and a bribe it would be
EV Influence M2/B2 Y AdM ARR npc_Tda
If you didn't like AdM's suggestion you would use
EV Influence 2 N AdM ARR npc_TdA
An N instead of a Y. Also note that these commands are case-sensitive.
-Dan