My incredibly detailed swordfighting rules. Apologies to Terry Pratchett for stealing his Latin phrase “we who are about to die don't want to”. These rules are about as realistic as I can get them and still be playable. They're meant to be a replacement for whatever roleplaying game you're using so you'll need to adapt them to whatever abstractions are used in your system

This game is a sequel to Skirmish which was just a medieval version of Lunch Money :)

• The Ancient Arts Fellowship re-enactment group
• Rudis by Ian Beck (armoured locations, flow of weapon swings and hit locations
• Riddle of Steel by Jacob Norwood (weapons and hit location damabe)
• Blood & Steel by Bryan Nystul (weapons and cards)
• Phoenix Command by David McKenzie (weapon speeds, hit locations and trauma)
• Incursion by Richard Tucholka (hit locations)
• Morituri Te Salutant by Bill Lucas (simultaneous movement)

• Fatigue
  Combat is tiring - holding up a shield for extended periods and swinging a sword is tiring. That and general exhaustion haven't been adequately factored into combat.
• Limb damage
  Most of the rules above have skill levels for combatants - they generally don't take into account how taking wounds (and fatigue) really lowers your skill levels - you just can't parry the same if it hurts to do so (adrenaline will only cover so much). Not to mention bloodloss…
• Less numbers
  There's far too much number crunching in all the detailed rules when some properly designed play aids would work wonders :)
• Status sheet
  One sheet to represent you - covers tiredness and damage to your body. Think Battletech - but with more detail than using hit points/dots
• Cards
  Build a deck of moves based on skill level. Plus a deck for hit locations to simulate the flow weapon swings.

• Weapons - the kinds of damage they inflict, how they are wielded and their speeds
• Shields - the kinds of damage they prevent, how they are wielded and their speeds
• Stances - how it effects reach and areas defendable
• Moves - getting around the battlefield
• Strikes - how they effect hit locations and where you can strike next
• Damage - how it decreases combat ability
• Play Aids - consolidated downloads

If you have ideas or disagree with some rule - let me know. I'm on curufea at yahoo dot com