[Flashing Blades] How do you run combats against more than one enemy?

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AsenRG

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Flashing Blades has a great duelling system:smile:.
But not all enemies are looking for a Monkey Dance with bladed weapons duel:wink:.

What I was wondering* lately was: how should I rule combat against a group? Say, four or five Cardinal's Guards have ambushed our heroes, aiming to get revenge (and having concluded they wouldn't stand a chance in a duel).
What if a PC Dodges? Does the penalty apply to all attacks?
Then we come to parrying. How many attacks in a round can you Reflex-Parry? ("At least two" are a guarantee, given that you can suffer that much in a regular duel). And does dedicating an action to Parrying increase that number? Does the number change depending on your Style (say, Rider or Spanish single-weapon style vs Italian or French, which use left-hand weapons)?
How much would their placement matter? Because with some manoeuvring, the enemies could get to your back and strike unopposed (not in the rules, but it makes sense, and given that the game is older than my players, such a ruling is totally expected).

Yeah, I do make rulings, of course (as evidenced by the above). But sometimes I wonder what is the intent of the rules and how other Referees are interpreting them.
And hey, there's enough people who like FB on this forum that it makes sense to discuss it?



*While running FB.
 
The multiple parries issue is explicitly covered in the rule book; I don't recall the details, but it's something like -1 per additional parry. I can't recall how you are supposed to treat dodges against multiple foes, but I think it would be reasonable to follow the same principle that applies when one foe attacks you multiple times: the dodge applies to them all. I would add the proviso that they should apply to all the attacks that come at you from your front (so you can see what you are dodging)
 
The multiple parries issue is explicitly covered in the rule book; I don't recall the details, but it's something like -1 per additional parry. I can't recall how you are supposed to treat dodges against multiple foes, but I think it would be reasonable to follow the same principle that applies when one foe attacks you multiple times: the dodge applies to them all. I would add the proviso that they should apply to all the attacks that come at you from your front (so you can see what you are dodging)
I'll try to remember to check it when I get home.
 
The multiple parries issue is explicitly covered in the rule book; I don't recall the details, but it's something like -1 per additional parry. I can't recall how you are supposed to treat dodges against multiple foes, but I think it would be reasonable to follow the same principle that applies when one foe attacks you multiple times: the dodge applies to them all. I would add the proviso that they should apply to all the attacks that come at you from your front (so you can see what you are dodging)
Yeah, I guess I framed the question wrong:smile:.
-When someone attacks you from the side, sidestepping the guy from the front might work like stepping back against him, logically. But it's a Refereeing nightmare to apply different penalties to the different attacks, almost comparable to running PF with a wizard specialised in inflicting status effects (from what I've heard).
-A -1 is bad enough in FB. But sometimes I suspect it should be worse than that. Would you apply worse penalties when the numbers start to stretch credibility? Would you say that you "run out of parries" (a distinct possibility in systems with number of actions, say)?
Or would you allow a PC to parry all of the weapons of the Cardinal Guards with a sweeping move, if the dice are kind, like they do in the movies:wink:?
 
The parry rules are pretty clear, I think; of course it is fine to house rule them, but I don't think there is any confusion about what the book expects you to do. The dodge rules are much less clear, and I think you'd have to make a situational ruling. Like, you might say a duck counts as a duck no matter what direction the attack comes from because you used to be up high and now you aren't. In contrast, a side step perhaps should only count against things coming at you along your front/rear axis. The bad news is here the rules are confused and you are on your own. The good news is, anything you make up and like is as good as anything anyone else can tell you.
 
The parry rules are pretty clear, I think; of course it is fine to house rule them, but I don't think there is any confusion about what the book expects you to do. The dodge rules are much less clear, and I think you'd have to make a situational ruling. Like, you might say a duck counts as a duck no matter what direction the attack comes from because you used to be up high and now you aren't. In contrast, a side step perhaps should only count against things coming at you along your front/rear axis. The bad news is here the rules are confused and you are on your own. The good news is, anything you make up and like is as good as anything anyone else can tell you.
Yeah, but I still find discussion to be helpful. Worst case scenario, it tends to give me ideas:smile:!
 
Would you apply worse penalties when the numbers start to stretch credibility?
Yes.
Would you say that you "run out of parries" (a distinct possibility in systems with number of actions, say)?
Case-by-case judgment call.
Or would you allow a PC to parry all of the weapons of the Cardinal Guards with a sweeping move, if the dice are kind, like they do in the movies:wink:?
No, but only because I'm much more interested in swashbuckling books than films and in the source material the heroes are gifted but not superheroic.
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