A look at a genre/historical setting twist and an accompanying “magic fencing” minigame.

From the fashionable courts, dirty city streets, and gentile countrysides of the warring states of Europe; to the dark heart of Africa, the mysterious Orient, the brave New World, and the lawless Caribbean; there is no limit to the possible exploits of a band of dashing men of action and espionage, with swords at their sides and their swashes buckled. The time? Somewhere between the days of the Three Musketeers (1625) and the French Revolution (1789). These are the days of gentleman sorcerers, of sacred orders of military magi, and of duels of magical skill; be they for king, for adventure, or for magician’s pride. Ask the commoner on the street about magic and they’ll tell you about the Collegiate schools of wizardly dueling, about nobles finding magic the most fashionable way to kill each other senselessly and of the feuding schools causing trouble in those very streets. Ask a sailor and he’ll tell you about the savage Shamanic conjurers of far flung shores, or perhaps of pirate mages being pursued by the steadfast thaumaturges of the royal buccaneers. Ask a man of noble birth and he shall tell you of a magician’s pride and genius, and criticize the Collegiates of other nations, or perhaps of lusty tales of espionage. If you ask a woman of high station, she might say that magic is a pursuit for men, and if you mention the daring tales of sorceresses on the high seas and of female agents and their mystic ways she’ll be scandalized. This is the world of high adventure, of national pride, of noblemen and revolutionaries clashing, and of fashionable courtly magic and competitions of honor between those who practice the dark arts.

Imagine a magical enlightenment in the 16th century at the hands of Paracelsus (founder of the Hohenheim school) and Heinrich-Thomas Agrippa (founder of the Agrippa school), occultists and alchemists of the day, and speed up about a hundred years. Take the tales of the Three Musketeers, of the daring New World pirate the Reverend Dr. Syn, and all the stories of the pirates of the Caribbean and add a healthy dash of sorcery. This is the world of Salut des Sorce.

Here true magic has been, by some trick of fate, solidified in each culture where it has appeared under the principles of fencing, of ritual combat between two foes. From this background the skill that is trained and tested in competition, sometimes deadly, is taken into the real world as tales of espionage, privateering, and aristocratic vendetta unfold.

The fundamental principle of magic is the drawing upon the spiritual world, be it the Invocation of its beings or the distillation of the true elements from their crude material forms through Alchemy. That which lies between the two is called Witchcraft. The practitioner of magic, by their cultural legacy, are referred to as Collegiate (from aristocratic duelings academies to commoner schools of military fencing) or Shamanic (from the witchdoctors of Africa to the warlocks of Eastern Europe). Furthermore, for the sake of reconciliation with the Church, the schools of sorcery make a distinction between the types of powers called upon regardless of the magical type or background, the distinction of Enochian (divine) or Goetian (infernal) demons, be they spirits to be Invoked or chemical “demons” brought out with Alchemy (and the blurry lines of Witchcraft between). Some refer to this as the “intention” of the spell and the sorcerer.

The same stereotypes invoked about historical fencing apply to this world and it’s sorcery. The Germans are savage, the Spanish are showmen, the French are artists, and the English are methodical. Just replace “with a blade” with “with magic”. Reckless and skilled souls cast two spells at once with Florentine, while others favor the techniques of Backspell, Broadspell, Smallspell, Rapier, or Saber when approaching their magical repertoire.

Making a School of Magic

* Choose a background: Collegiate or Shamanic
* Choose a type of magic: Invocation, Alchemy, or Witchcraft
* Choose a descriptor or national stereotype: Efficient/English, Graceful/French, Brutal/German, Flashy/Spanish, Quick/Portuguese or Sneaky/Italian

Note: Shamanic schools usually are Witchcraft and choose a descriptor instead of a national stereotype.

Examples:

Agrippa (Collegiate, Invocation, German)

Hohenheim (Collegiate, Alchemy, Efficient)

Toad Doctor Arts (Shamanic, Witchcraft, Sneaky)

Making a Spell

* Choose a manuever: Lunge, Parry, or Feint
* Choose a style: Florentine/Flashy, Saber/Brutal, Rapier/Graceful, Smallspell/Quick, Backspell/Sneaky, or Greatspell/Efficient

Example:

Calvin Moore, of the Hohenheim school (Collegiate, Alchemy, Efficient) casts a spell (Lunge, Florentine/Flashy). Thus, based on his school and on the spell, the spell is a Efficient Flashy Lunge.

The factors of type (Invocation, Alchemy, Witchcraft) and background (Collegiate, Shamanic) affect the way the spells are described. Invokers chant a spell and summon or call upon the power of a spirit, Alchemists use an object or a reagent to transmute matter or draw forth the elements (draw water from silver, fire from copper, etc.). Witches use components and a incantation to provoke reactions (turn someone into a toad, give someone horrible luck, cause one’s cloak to set aflame). Furthermore, Collegiate’s due this in a European fencing type manner, while Shamanics bring their own unique cultural trappings to the table.

Important note: When deciding your spell you can switch the places of the two descriptors. Calvin Moore doesn’t always have to do Efficient this or Efficient that, he could do a Flashy Efficient instead, for example. However since his school is Efficient, one of the two always must be Efficient. An opponent will only able to insure a point against this if play their school descriptor and then the same descriptor again. However doing this will of course guarantee you lose a point in making a point if the opponent catches on. Therefore being so heavy-handed is a gamble. Additionally, depending on the situation school’s do not have to be announced, and even if they are, the school descriptor isn’t. So while everyone knows Agrippa is an invocation school, they might not know it’s efficient reputation. Furthermore, in a duel the opponent isn’t told on which descriptor (first, second, or the maneuver) they won or by how much they won.

The Art of the Duel

Lunge beats Feint, Feint beats Parry, Parry beats Lunge

Efficient beats Graceful, Graceful beats Brutal, and Brutal beats Efficient.

Flashy beats Quick, Quick beats Sneaky, Sneaky beats Flashy.

Repeat that mantra. A Efficient Flashy Lunge, for instance, versus a Flashy Brutal Parry. Efficient draws with Flashy, Flashy draws with Brutal, and Lunge loses to Parry. In that round of the duel the one parrying gets the point.

In long “to the blood” duels, each point is a touch with the final winning point being the blood. In short “to the blood” duels, the first point is the first blood.

In long “to the death” duels, each point is a wound with the final winning point being the killing blow (or the disarmament or unconsciousness of the opponent). In short “to the death” duels, the first point is the killing blow/disarmament/knockout.

The point limit of a duel may be decided IC or not, being kept secret by the GM.

With two skilled opponents the GM may stipulate it takes two “beats” to win the point and having one beat over the opponent is still a draw. With truly legendary opponents the stipulation may be three beats, requiring you to have the utterly perfect move against the opponent’s. Likewise this rule can be used to properly scale one-sided fights.

The roleplaying of the duel works like this. Each player (or the player and the gm) write down the school of their duelist and then both write down their first move. These are shown to the GM (but not to an opposing player), and then the two duelists turns describing their spell, being interrupted only by the GM who intermediates the two’s idea of what happened with what really happened, as he’s the only one whose seen who the victor is yet. After that the point is awarded to the winner (or the round is declared a draw) and it moves on to the next round. As you can see, who goes first is unimportant.