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One for All, and All for Fudge!: Swashbuckling Adventures for FudgeWhether I was swinging from a rope tied to a tree branch or walking gingerly across the top of a swing set, I've always imagined myself being a swashbuckling Musketeer, foiling the villain's plans and saving the King. When I was first introduced to roleplaying, I was happy enough being a warrior or a wizard or a thief, but in my heart I wanted to be a Musketeer. Over the years we've had many swashbuckling RPGs; now that my interest in rules heavy systems has waned, I tend more and more to recreating in Fudge those genres I love.
One for All, and All for Fudge! (hereafter, All for Fudge!) provides for a cinematic swashbuckling experience. Little attempt is made to adhere closely to reality. Rather, players can play Musketeers fighting twice their number of the Cardinal's guards to get a retrieve a potentially embarrassing letter from a friend of the King's. Or perhaps you'd rather play the Cardinal's guards, intent on retrieving the letter so that it might be used against the King.
You need not stay within the Musketeers genre, either. Perhaps you'd rather play the unsuspecting double of a rural king, who is drawn into plots against the throne. All for Fudge! works equally well for a small group of ne'er-do- wells robbing noble's houses in the heart of Paris as it does for a group of pirates plying their trade on the seven seas.
At the end of this article is a list of recommended books and movies that should give you more than enough adventure ideas for a swashbuckling campaign or two.
Character Attributes
The character attributes used in All for Fudge! are strength, dexterity, endurance, wit, charm, and luck.
GMs who want a quick start can simply start all attributes at Fair, and allow players two free levels to use in raising attributes. Trading between attributes is also possible (e.g. lowering one to Mediocre to raise another to Good). All attribute levels are subject to any GM limitations (e.g. none starting at Superb and only one at Great).
Wound Track
All for Fudge! starts with the standard Fudge wound track (3 scratches, 1 hurt, 1 very hurt, 1 incapacitated, and 1 near death). The character's attributes, however, can modify their specific wound track, as follows (the generic Fudge character sheets have ample room for penciling in the additional boxes).
Strength can allow the character to withstand additional scratches. The following chart shows the bonus scratch boxes a character receives for strength. These bonuses are additive, so if a character has a superb strength, they receive two additional scratch boxes.
| Terrible | Poor | Mediocre | Fair | Good | Great | Superb |
| -1 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 |
Endurance allows the character to withstand additional hurts, as shown by the following chart.
| Terrible | Poor | Mediocre | Fair | Good | Great | Superb |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 | +1 |
Luck allows a character to sidestep that wound that would otherwise incapacitate them, by adding additional very hurt boxes.
| Terrible | Poor | Mediocre | Fair | Good | Great | Superb |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | +1 | +1 |
These tables can also be used to tell the number of additional boxes added when a character increases an attribute during the game. For example, advancing from Poor to Mediocre Strength would add one scratch box.
Healing Damage
Scratches heal at the end of a combat, assuming the characters take the time to perform basic first aid (this takes no roll, but does take time proportional to the number of scratches treated). A week of rest is needed to heal other damage one level. So a Hurt wound will heal in one week. A Very Hurt wound would, in one week, become a Hurt wound. This assumes characters are resting in an environment conducive to healing. The attendance of a physician during their healing will speed healing (a week will reduce a wound two levels).
Skills
Skills in All for Fudge! denote the ability to perform feats over and above the normal unskilled person. The skills are based on attributes, and an attribute roll is performed for any task attempted.
Skills may be chosen in any way the GM decides. GMs who want a quick start may allow players to choose any 5 skills at Normal level.
Skills will allow the character to perform tasks that are beyond the reach of unskilled persons. For example, a normal person would have little chance of walking a tight rope between two buildings, but a character with the acrobatics skill could attempt it.
Some tasks are considered unskilled tasks, and can be attempted by anyone regardless of what skills they have. The GM is the final arbiter of whether a task is unskilled or skilled. If a character attempts an unskilled task, but they have an appropriate skill, then they will receive a +1 bonus to the roll. An example would be dexterity roll to walk across a narrow log over a stream. The acrobatics skill would give a +1 to the roll.
Skills have three possible levels: Normal, Expert, and Master. Skills start at Normal level, and cannot increase beyond that at character creation without GM approval. The level of the skill determines the amount of bonus to a task that uses the skill. This bonus is in addition to the +1 for an unskilled task.
| Normal | Expert | Master |
| +0 | +1 | +2 |
The following skill list may easily be supplemented by skills from other Fudge implementations if the GM allows. Since All for Fudge! skills are rather broad, be certain that an appropriate skill doesn't already exist.
| Severity of Wound | Difficulty of Roll | |
|---|---|---|
| Hurt | Good | |
| Very | Hurt | Great |
| Incapacitated | Superb | |
| Near | death | Legendary |
As a swashbuckling GM, you have two options for combat skills, the cinematic option and the realistic option. You'll pick an option for use in your campaign, as characters are created differently.
The cinematic option for combat skills creates characters that are heroic in their abilities. A cinematic character is likely to be a capable fighter with many weapons.
The realistic option for combat skills creates characters who will likely be excellent with only a couple of weapons.
Cinematic Combat Skills Option
Combat skills are treated just like non-combat skills. They are based on an attribute, and all uses of the skill are rolled versus the attribute, with an appropriate modifier for the level of the skill (Normal, Expert, Master). Combat skills count as one of the 10 skills allowed to new characters.
Unskilled persons may use any weapon. Skilled persons will gain a +1 with the weapon, in addition to any bonus for the level of the skill.
All combat skills include the knowledge of how to care for the weapons, and to discriminate between high quality and low quality weapons. Unskilled persons do not have this knowledge.
The following combat skills are available:
Realistic Combat Skills Option
Combat skills are rated on the normal Terrible to Superb scale, and are not linked to attributes. The same skills are available as in the cinematic option. Unskilled characters default to Poor with a weapon.
New characters should be given 5 levels to use to raise combat skills above Poor.
Gifts
New characters can choose any one gift from the following list, plus any one gift from another Fudge implementation (subject to the GM's approval).
The character knows someone who he can turn to when in need. The higher the contact is in society, the less often the character can turn to them.
The character has a physical double. When taken as a gift, the double is well disposed to the character and will help the character. Note that the character will not know about his double immediately. The GM will bring the double into play.
The character is owed a favor by someone. The favor may be anything the character requests. Outrageous requests will certainly make the character an enemy. Once used, the favor cannot be used again (the gift is lost). This gift may be gained during play due to outstanding service.
The character has a personal servant who is loyal only to the character. Lackeys are generally unsuitable for skilled tasks, but can perform unskilled tasks needed by the character. Lackeys are not good in combat, but are usually overlooked.
The character owns real estate! Land has benefits and obligations. Land provides an annual income, but also requires monthly maintenance. The maintenance of larger amounts of land may be more than the yearly income. The land comes with buildings, servants, etc. The GM must determine the size and other details about the holding.
This character is a jack-of-all-trades, and can attempt skilled tasks without having the skill, at a -2 to the attribute roll. So a renaissance man could attempt to disarm a bomb, at a -2 to the roll. Whether he would want to or not is another question.
The character is a member of the nobility and has inherited his father's title. Titles provide a bonus to the character's yearly income, and the character may move freely at court.
The character has some extra source of money that provides additional income each year.
New characters must choose any one fault from the following list, plus any one fault from another Fudge implementation (subject to the GM's approval).
Someone knows about the skeletons in this character's closet, and occasionally uses that information to control the character's actions or extort money. If the character manages to kill the blackmailer, they must buy off this fault with Fudge points (failure to do so will result in the information having been leaked to someone else, who becomes a new blackmailer).
A character with this fault is honorable, and will always fight overly fairly. This is the person who, after disarming his opponent, picks up the weapon and graciously hands it back to the villain.
This character will find it difficult to turn down a wager of any kind, and will not quit while he is ahead.
This character will find it difficult to resist attractive members of the opposite sex. This character may find himself defending women he doesn't know or fighting duels to protect their possibly nonexistent virtue.
This character will look for any opportunity for a fight, and is unlikely to look for more peaceful resolutions.
This character is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, and any suggestion that church doctrine is wrong will be met with hostility. This character will not stand for any heathen practices.
This character has an identity they assume for a certain reason. The player and the GM must agree on the identity and the reason. The secret identity should be known to nobody else, save for any gentleman's lackeys the character might have.
This character owes his loyalty to an NPC. The NPC may give the character orders or missions, but will also extend some protection to them.
The character has an enemy against whom he has sworn revenge. The character will ignore other tasks if it appears that he may be able to deal with his enemy. The player should tie this into the character's history.
The swashbuckling genre is full of characters that often have complex lives. The musketeer may also be searching for the man who murdered his father, or for his mother's diary (which would prove that his lands and title were stolen by the Cardinal). The sneak thief may be an ex-musketeer searching for evidence to clear his name.
Character goals allow you to work into your character's background various tasks that the character would like to complete. These goals are less binding than faults; a character has no obligation to pursue these goals at every opportunity, although properly roleplaying the goal is desirable.
Character goals do have a benefit. Completion of a goal should be rewarded with Fudge points. The amount of points given will be up to the GM, and should be consistent with the degree of roleplaying done while pursuing the goal, and with the amount of effort required to complete the goal.
New characters may choose up to three character goals, if they wish. Additional character goals can be gained during play, in reaction to in-game events.
Cinematic Stunts
The swashbuckling genre is full of swinging on chandeliers and leaping from rooftop to rooftop. All for Fudge! allows such stunts by means of making attribute rolls.
For example, if a character is on a balcony overlooking a tavern's common room, and wants to escape from the thugs coming up the balcony stairs, he could leap out, grab onto the chandelier, and swing to the door of the tavern. Such a stunt would probably only be of Good difficulty on a dexterity roll. The acrobatics skill would provide a bonus. If the character wanted to grab a mug of ale from the bar as he was swinging by, drink it as he dropped from the chandelier, and then use it to brain the thug standing guard by the door, he'd need to make a Great dexterity roll and a Great strength roll. Brawling would add to the strength roll.
All cinematic stunts can be handled through a series of attribute rolls modified by the appropriate skills. Note that the attribute rolled against need not be the base attribute for the skill. In the previous example, brawling skill added to the strength roll to knock the thug unconscious, even through brawling skill's base attribute is normally endurance. In a knockdown brawl, endurance would be used. To knock out a surprised guard, strength would be used, but a good knowledge of brawling techniques would still help. As in all things Fudge, the GM is encouraged to fudge things to keep the game flowing.
Combat
This article describes character creation, and leaves combat up to the GM. However, for those who do not already have a favorite system of Fudge combat, here are a couple of pointers to suitable systems.
The Fudge fencing rules, available at http://www.io.com/~sos/rpg/fencefud.html, provide a system where players choose maneuvers for their characters. Different maneuvers have different benefits and drawbacks. GMs who desire a realistic fencing system should like these rules.
GMs who are running a more cinematic game may prefer the rules detailed in the complementary article, "Fudging Blades". The combat system captures the feel of fencing without all the details.
Finally, GMs might elect to use the vanilla Fudge rules. Both combatants make a roll, loser takes damage equal to the relative levels between the two rolls.
When a combat system requires a skill roll, GMs who chose the cinematic option for combat skills will know to translate this into an attribute roll with appropriate bonuses for the level of combat skill. GMs who chose the realistic option for combat skills will simply use the level of the appropriate skill.
The effect of shield use or a secondary weapon will depend on the combat system. Your GM will let you know how it works.
Use of Fudge Points
Fudge points may be used during play to give the character an edge. Here are some of the suggested ways of using Fudge points.
Spend one or more Fudge points to automatically accomplish an unopposed action. The GM may not allow this usage for rolls that the GM is making for you.
Spend one Fudge point to add a +1 or -1 to any die roll for your character. This can be applied to rolls the GM makes for you, and may be applied to opposed rolls.
Spend one or more Fudge points to tweak the plot in minor ways ("My uncle just happens to own the tavern around the corner. He'll hide us from the Cardinal's Guards.").
Spend one or more Fudge points to avoid roleplaying a fault one specific time. The GM will assess the number of Fudge points based on the severity of the avoidance.
Other possibilities exist. In general, Fudge points will be useful to help nudge things in favorable directions, but will not, by themselves, save a player from disaster.
Use of Fudge Points for Character Development
Fudge points may also be used to permanently increase attributes and skills. In general, only those attributes or skills successfully used may be increased at the end of an adventure (the GM, of course, may allow reasonable exceptions).
Raising an attribute or realistic combat skill costs:
| Current Level | New Level | Fudge Points |
|---|---|---|
| Terrible | Poor | 1 |
| Poor | Mediocre | 2 |
| Mediocre | Fair | 4 |
| Fair | Good | 8 |
| Good | Great | 16 |
| Great | Superb | 32 |
| Superb | Legendary | 64 |
Each additional level costs another 64. Raising an attribute to Legendary requires both in-game justification and GM permission.
Raising a non-combat skill or cinematic combat skill costs:
| Current Level | New Level | Fudge Points |
|---|---|---|
| Untrained | Normal | 1 |
| Normal | Expert | 2 |
| Expert | Master | 4 |
In addition, the base attribute for the skill must adhere to a minimum value:
| Normal | any |
|---|---|
| Expert | Great |
| Master | Superb |
If the base attribute is less than the given value, 2 extra Fudge points are needed for every level difference between the base attribute and the required value. So a character with a dexterity of Good could raise their acrobatics skill from normal to expert for a cost of 5. The base cost of 3 for normal to expert, plus 2 for the one level difference between the dexterity of Good and Great.
Note that a character may be an Expert in as many skills as they like, but may be a Master in only one non-combat skill and one combat skill.
Fudge points may also be used to learn new skills. The character must find an Expert in that skill to train them. The Expert will no doubt charge some in-game price for the training, and the character must also pay one Fudge point to gain the skill at Normal level. Characters who are Expert in a skill may make some additional income teaching the skill to others.
Other Excellent Swashbuckling Games
Gurps Swashbucklers, written by Steffan O'Sullivan and now in its third edition, is full of terrific source material and adventure ideas. The Steve Jackson Games' web page for the book (at http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/Swashbucklers/) also has a link to a great article titled, "Women as Swashbucklers".
For those interested in more of a fantasy swashbuckling experience, take a look at 7th Sea, written by John Wick and Jennifer Wick and published by Alderac Entertainment.
While not technically an RPG, the board game Swashbuckler, published by Yaquinto, allows you to participate in a barroom brawl type of atmosphere. For a change, you could even replace a barroom brawl in your swashbuckling RPG with a session of Swashbuckler.
No list of swashbuckling games would be complete without mentioning Flashing Blades, designed by Mark Pettigrew and published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1984. Flashing Blades contains a wealth of source material for the swashbuckling period, including many details on French society.
Converting Flashing Blades to All for Fudge!
Any GM who wants an authentic feel for their campaign would do well to read the Flashing Blades rules and adventure supplements. When designing All for Fudge!, I placed a premium on being able to easily convert the Flashing Blades source material for use with Fudge, so that I could continue to use the Flashing Blades material. Note that Flashing Blades material is still available at http://www.fantasygamesunlimited.com.
The following conversion notes will allow you to do the same.
Character Attributes
Flashing Blades attributes convert into the corresponding All for Fudge! attributes according to the following table:
| 3-5 | 6-8 | 9-11 | 12-14 | 15-17 | 18-20 | 21-23 |
| Terrible | Poor | Mediocre | Fair | Good | Great | Superb |
If you have Flashing Blades characters with attributes over 23, you can use Superb + 1 for every three point range over 23.
Hit points do not transfer over directly. Rather, the character attributes affect the wound track as described in the main rules.
Skills
Flashing Blades skills convert directly to the corresponding All for Fudge! skills. A few names have changed, some skills broken out, and new skills added. If a skill does not appear in the following list, then the name is the same between the two systems. The three levels of the skill convert directly into Normal, Expert, and Master.
| Flashing Blades Skill | All for Fudge! Skill |
|---|---|
| Bargaining | Haggling |
| Bureaucratic | Bureaucracy |
| Captaincy | Leadership |
| Chemist | Chemistry |
| Fine Manipulation | Sleight of Hand, Tinker |
| Grenadier | Powdermaster |
| Magistracy | Law |
Skills with no corresponding Flashing Blades skill
Second Weapon is not a skill in Flashing Blades, but a consequence of which dueling style you learn. Characters who learned Italian style or French style dueling should get the Second Weapon skill at normal.
Combat skills transfer over directly to the corresponding cinematic All for Fudge! skill, as follows:
| 3-5 | 6-8 | 9-11 | 12-14 | 15-17 | 18-20 | 21-23 |
| Normal | Normal | Normal | Normal | Expert | Expert | Master |
GMs using realistic combat skills should use the same conversion used for attributes.
Advantages and Secrets
Flashing Blades advantages and secrets translate directly into All for Fudge! gifts and faults.
Recommended Reading and Viewing Material
Here I list a few representative samples of swashbuckling material that have stuck in my mind for one reason or another. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, only to give those new to the genre a place to start.
Books
Movies
Web
An excellent guide to the literature of the genre is the Swashbucklers and Fops page, at http://legends.dm.net/swash/index.html.
A discussion group for Flashing Blades and swashbuckling in general is available at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/flashing_blades/.
The classical fencing web site (http://www.classicalfencing.com/) contains many articles about fencing, including some examinations of the realism of quick kills. The list of top 10 swashbuckling films is a great guide to those who want more than my limited list.
Credits
Many thanks to Rod Phillips and Thijs Krijger for invaluable suggestions while reviewing drafts of this article.
All articles copyright their original authors. Fudge copyright Steffan O'Sullivan. Fudge Logo Design by Daniel M. Davis.