Belated mini-campaign notes

[jhkimrpg]

A few belated notes about a mini-campaign I played back in February. run by Mike Sullivan, playtesting his system for "path fencing". The center was an interesting dice pool combat system, that I thought I should share musings about

Comments

[snej]

Wow, that sounds really interesting and I'll have to chew over it sometime when I'm not busy at work.

I really like dice pools, and about six months ago I was also trying to figure out a new combat system using them, although not like this. Maybe someday I'll pick it up again and get it solid enough to playtest.

How heavyweight did the combat system seem? Did it get in the way of the roleplaying? My dream is of something that's detailed enough for the simulationist in me, but still quick enough not to get in the way of the story. Which may be impossible!

[whswhs]

I had great fun with a six-month minicampaign set in Paris during the regency of Philippe d'Orleans, with all the characters as students of an eccentric fencing master-he was even willing to give lessons to women! Our six PCs were the son of a nobleman who had damaged his reputation; the hot-headed son of a West Indies sugar planter, sent to Paris to study law; an exiled Scots aristocrat serving in the French army after coming over with the Old Pretender; the musically gifted kept boy of a duke; an aristocratic woman running away from an arranged marriage to a duke (the same one, actually) and earning her living on the stage; and a young woman from a rural aristocratic family who was learning the sword to defend the honor of her lady.

This was a test of the GURPS Martial Arts rules for fencing, which worked quite well, giving us a number of dramatic scenes. I would use them again.