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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 9409808" data-attributes="member: 6779310">True... to a point.If one is trying to capture a given feel, one at least needs to difference it.As a heavy-blade (rapier) fencer, D&D abstracts away everything that makes fencing different than 10th-15th C Sword-n-Board with Broadswords and heaters.Feng Shui likewise.For a fencer to make sense and be different than any other fighter, the abstraction needs to be lessened... Rapier vs Rapier isn't as fast as olympic - olympic is trained twitch reactions and stylized heavily... tho' if one sharpens the tip of the blades, and the edges of the saber and épée, one can do very real and serious damage with them.The actual clashes and exchanges in Rapier are usually in the range 1-6 seconds... with twice to thrice that between. Olympic also the same general range, but slanted towards the shorter end heavily...In maximum effort mode, I've seen continuous bladeplay for up to 30-seconds before a pause, but those were the exceptions.It's largely about seeing when an opening happens and if you can exploit it before they do the same to you, then pulling it off. Hard disagree. No light set I've seen has captured the decision making nor the timing feel of actually fencing.  Nor, for that matter, of iaijutsu/iaidō.  The feel of it as experienced by those who do it.One big caveat here: fencing as experienced by fencers generally feels nothing like fencing as portrayed in  movies nor TV. Thomas and I are both coming from the experience of wait-wait-spot-strike-withdraw... the thing almost no RPG gets right is that they all lack the spot... the spot an opening and then attack...Plus, a rapier attack is about 0.5 to 2 seconds, from spotting the opening to return to en garde. Olympic is faster still... but the feel of actual fencing is anticipation and waiting.Patience is a fencer's most important ability, perceptiveness second, skill with the blade and doing the needed footwork tie...While a tourney bout of fencing with rapier might take up to several minutes, the mindset needed is patience and remaining sharp. (Pun intended.) So there's this constant calculation and anticipation, and when the opening happens, the mental leap to employ it.To be honest, the game I've gotten the most fencing like feel from playing was Savage Worlds, closely followed by Arrowflight 1e, then Palladium Fantasy (where it's out of place).If you want the feel of watching an Errol Flynn movie, you aren't simulating Fencing as done by Fencers - you're simulating stagefighting, which is a VERY different thing. Keep in mind: Olympic style fencing tournies are usually free for the audience, but pay to play for the fencers... the action is too fast for many to see.</blockquote>

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