games reviewed; Flashing Blades

Turned out that I had an interview which required spending about 3 hours of walking and public transit, so it was pretty lucky that I'd gone old used game junk shopping earlier. For a bit under $13 I got a pretty much pristine copy of FGU's Flashing Blades from oh, around 1984 or so. I actually already owned two Flashing Blades supplements - The Cardinal's Peril and An Ambassador's Tale, which are fairly decent faux-Dumas, and besides, it's a roleplaying game about swashbuckling and intrigue in 17th century France!

I mean you can always plunder it for stuff to use in Seventh Sea, if you can find someone who liked Seventh Sea!

The gigantic commute gave me time to do a first read through, but I think I want another look.

The whole thing is well researched - it gives you enough to work with, and someone with a very non-1984-vintage internet could probably come up with even more facts. The scenarios are a little sketchy but they're okay faux-Dumas. Discussion of careers within the military, the clergy, and the bureaucracy made me feel like the game had suddenly become Sun King Traveller.

The rules themselves I'm not entirely taken by, though I don't hate them and there are some good things too. Character generation is harsh; you get 3d6 for six stats, a mix of player choice and random rolls determines character build (which give you bonuses and penalties to Strength, Endurance and Dexterity). There are four classes - Rogue, Soldier, Gentleman or Noble - which define non-weapon skills. They also define your income in Livres, plus how the magistrates might react to you if you are charged with a crime.

There's a simple points buy thing where you either have a skill or you don't, and the initial roll is under your associated stat on d20. There's a really really tiny merits and flaws section, only in this case it's Advantages and Secrets, so it's focused mostly on things that fit themes about intrigue and social climbing. Something annoying here is the assumption that all characters are male, and I'd like to see more background possibilities for female characters although I'm unsure what.

For weapons skills you get a general weapons school, or specific weapon proficiencies if you're a soldier, and you get a proficiency rated at probably around 8 or 10 out of 20 (non-proficient, and just thrashing around is a 3). Apply Dex bonuses and penalties and you're done right? No. In Flashing Blades, there's this weird conversion table for what you actually need to roll under. "Long actions" like a balestra lunge or bracing a musket to fire it with a significant bonus mean you cannot parry, dodge or sidestep incoming attacks, but those maneuvers can significantly penalize an attacker. Thus a freshly minted character with really good Dexterity might actually need to roll under a 6 on d20 to slip a rapier attack past a parry. So that part I don't like that much... though the mechanic for advancing skills is neat. Have you used the skill twice in an adventure? Good. You just advanced one rank in it. Firearms are simple; got a firearm? This round you are either loading it or firing it, whether it is a matchlock or a flintlock, and don't roll a 20, because then you've either dropped your match, dropped your flint, damaged the mechanism, or blown up the entire gun.

And if you get hit, you are probably in a world of hurt. A rapier used by a proficient swordsman strong enough to use it (so most people in the game) will do 16 hit points of damage, unless this is mitigated by the hit location roll (I'm not sure) that will take out nearly every character in the game. Everything else is slightly more or less deadly, but the game is pretty potentially lethal.

I don't know if I want to run or play this, but I'd definitely like to run or play something like this. I can't see swashbuckler RPGs for more than 2-4 players and imagine it works best with about 2-3 players.