Fencing & Firearms
Have you ever watched a movie full of swashbuckling goodness and thought¸ "This would make a great game?" I know I have¸ and long before I played RPGs. As a kid¸ I loved Errol Flynn and Tyrone Powers. Many a Saturday was spent pretending to be Captain Blood¸ Robin Hood¸ or Zorro. And let's not forget the Three Musketeers¸ Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver¸ and¸ yes¸ even Don Quixote.
The roleplaying aspects of the swashbuckler genre work well-enough with any game system. Tongue-in-cheek humor and traded bon mots don't require game mechanics. Swashbuckling combat must be fast-paced¸ highly mobile¸ and full of flashy attacks. Unfortunately¸ the world's most popular roleplaying game's combat system doesn't score high marks in these areas.
Fencing & Firearms (F&F;) respects the core mechanics of the game but still addresses widely perceived problems with the combat rules. F&F; doesn't change racial traits¸ class features¸ or skills. It has as little impact on core rules feats as possible. Our primary goal is that DMs can take this book and drop it into their games with a minimal amount of work. F&F; focuses on:
* speeding up play¸
* keeping each player involved even when it's not his turn¸
* providing all players with more combat options¸ and
* making combat maneuvers easier to use.
And this is just the first part of F&F;. The second part deals with black powder weapons and how to use them with your game.