Eureka's All for One - for dungeon-crawling

[Hobgoblin]

My son and I experimented with Eureka's free swashbuckling rules tonight - but with orcs and knights in a dungeon instead of musketeers facing down Cardinal Richelieu's guards.

The game worked pretty well. I think the rules would work very well for a miniatures-based dungeon crawl - or even an RPG. Basically, they systematise all sorts of freeform actions using the principle of 'swashbuckling dice'. The more extravagant actions you attempt, the greater your potential for powerful attacks - but with a higher risk of your turn ending. It's a little bit like the Song of Blades risk/reward system, except that rather than rolling to see what you can do, you do what you want and then roll for the outcome.

All 'swashbuckling actions' hinge on interaction with terrain or other models, and there's even scope for injury through insult.

For one-on-one dungeon crawls, it could work extremely well as written. For multi-player games, there might need to be some tweaks - but I think it might work fine if the GM had a lot of very weak characters (Rating 1 and 2 - each character has only one stat) but got to act after each player's turn.

I also have the glimmering of an idea that it could be combined with Tunnels and Trolls to give a very freeform tabletop combat system for that famously freeform RPG.

Anyway, the rules are well worth checking out if you don't already know them.

[Froggy the Great]

I love these rules - they also work for Star Wars with almost no modifications.  Random and clumsy blaster shots are swashbuckling actions and light sabers are dueling actions.  Force jumps and Force throws - handled without issue.

[Hobgoblin]

I can see that working extremely well. In a fantasy game, certainly, swashbuckling actions could cover magic quite well - I suppose you just extend the possibilities (as with a Force leap).

[LiamFrostfang]

  rules seem cool...thanks fo the tip!!!!!!

[Jagannath]

Ooh let’s ‘ave a look…

[Hobgoblin]

I've only played the one game, but my kids and a friend gave it another spin on Saturday - orcs versus swashbucklers - and they loved it.

On Sunday, we tried out Ganesha's Flashing Steel (a Song of Blades variant); it's pretty good too - a slightly more detailed game than regular Song of Blades and well worth checking out.

[The Bibliophile]

Hobgoblin, as ever you are a great source of information and erudition. Looking forward to checking these rules out!

[amunptah]

What a great little system!
I’m wondering how you would handle magic? I can see simple cantrips such as Light being easy to handle, but what about Fireball etc? I suppose the same Swashbuckling table could be used to handle the outcome?
I’m also thinking about other actions such as lock picking and traps. How would you resolve those?

[Hobgoblin]

For magic, I wonder if one method would be to make wizards characters with low ratings but the ability to perform unnatural feats (essentially, actions involving objects that they're not in contact with).

So their 'swashbuckling' actions wouldn't be constrained by the normal limitations, but they'd be vulnerable in combat. As an example, a wizard could throw a table at some orcs even if that table was at the other side of the room from the wizard.

And perhaps they could build up 'swashbuckling' actions (i.e. magic) simply by rolling the dice. So the player would declare, say, a three-dice fireball and would then roll 1, 2 and 3 dice in sequence. A failure (a 1) on the first roll would end the turn and result in just a one-die fireball, and so on. Or perhaps the magic user doesn't need to declare and can just keep rolling until he fails, with the spell having the power of the roll before the fail.

Traps could be special swashbuckling actions by the 'GM'. Perhaps that player gets a certain number of tokens per game (one for every two rooms or something like that) and can play them at any time, interrupting another player's move. "Not so fast - a pit opens beneath your feet!" or something like that.

[Froggy the Great]

I had made a try at creating a raygun pulp version of the All for One rules. 
Have a go at it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6HUGmJgXqKHTUc4eGpoTTJobkE/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-zVgrq0QV7-5m6zXnis_RtA

[Easy E]

Nice little set of rules, thanks for pointing them out. 

I might force my D&D group to play one session of something like this so they can start wrapping their head around what dynamic combat COULD  look like.  I get so tired of people just walking up and trying to hit their foes with their biggest stick. This will help them see that you can do SO much more than that!

[amunptah]

That fireball example works really well, with the wizard charging the spell up. 1 die = 1 square, 2 dice = 2x2 area of effect, 3 dice = 3x3 area of effect.
I notice that the original rules give each character three wounds. So that could be amended along with the rating to create different types of heroes and monsters.
Regarding the traps idea, I was thinking along the lines of how a character would spot or disarm then. I think the rules are great for the normal melee but it’s the more RPG side of things it would be great to incorporate.

[white knight]

If I recall correctly, I played with these rules one year at Crisis on Vikotnik's wonderful 40mm Three Musketeers board. Super easy to learn and really flexible rules set, that made me reconsider the need of most games to write up individual rules for every possible action. I think the simplicity makes it quick, fun and accessible to casual gamers/family members instead of bogging down with reference sheets, calculations etc...