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, version 3.5 of the world’s most popular roleplaying game’s combat system doesn’t score high marks in these areas.
We wanted Fencing & Firearms (F&F) to respect the core mechanics of the game but still address 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 3.5 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.
F&F is a 29-page, black-and-white PDF. The playtest version will be made available for download by Quid Novi? subscribers in January.
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This looks great where can I download it?
Mitchell:
F&F will be made available for download to Quid Novi? subscribers shortly after midnight, Sunday, January 10, 2010. All it costs is an email address.
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I have several questions/concerns regarding the “Expanding BAB” section of F&F.
1) Does that rule (regarding BAB as dodge bonus, and “shiftable BAB”) apply only to PCs, or to NPCs and monsters also? While I’m usually for things being the same with PCs and NPCs, this seems like something better suited for PCs only, as it otherwise adds to how difficult it is to hit NPCs across the board, but also makes for extra calculations for the GM for every NPC in the game.
2) To be clear, the shiftable BAB can only be used for one thing at a time, right? My 10th-level fighter can’t give himself a +5 to attack, another +5 to damage, and take a -1 to AC, correct?
3) I have some concerns about how easy it is to abuse the shiftable BAB. While martial characters will always be applying the offsetting penalty somewhere that’s of concern to them, this doesn’t seem to be true for spellcasters. A wizard, for example, can max out his shiftable BAB to his AC, putting the penalty towards attack rolls…and then just cast a fireball, which has no attack roll (though, to be fair, this problem could be solved by applying it to his magic check instead, using the F&F rules).
Similarly, if that wizard shifts the penalty to damage rolls, and then uses a non-damaging spell like hold person, there’s effectively no penalty there, either.
Excellent questions, Alzirius. Here’re some answers:
1. Whether the Expanding BAB applies to NPCs and monsters is purely a DM call. As a DM, I wouldn’t bother except for maybe a solo BBEG.
2. Yes, flexible BAB is for one thing only, and always for an even trade-off. IOW, the bonus and the penalty added together should equal zero. So, a 10th-level fighter could take a +5 to AC and a -5 to damage.
3. I wasn’t as clear with shiftable BAB as I should’ve been. If the penalty doesn’t come into effect during a round, neither should the bonus. This is similar to the way Combat Expertise works. So, for example, if you’re not making an attack roll, then you can’t take an attack roll penalty. Thus, a wizard could take advantage of shiftable BAB if using a touch attack spell, but not with hold person or fireball.
Having just read this product, I am pretty impressed with it already.
Xorial:
Thanks! It’s still a work in progress. In fact, a round of extensive edits and revisions is being done. Among other things, effort is being made to make the rules dovetail more closely with Pathfinder; the firearms section is being tweaked for better play and balance; and some of the less-than-clear sections are being clarified.
All of this is in preparation for Fencing & Firearms to go on-sale to the general public (with Quid Novi? subscribers receiving a nice discount, of course).