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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 5257570" data-attributes="member: 26473">"Never," Reynard, is a deeply subjective judgement.I looked at a bunch of systems for running <a href="http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/le-ballet-de-l-acier" target="_blank">a 17th century swashbuckling game</a>. Riddle of Steel and Swashbuckler were much too fiddly for my tastes. Lace and Steel was too gimmicky. Savage Worlds missed the strong genre archetypes out-of-the-box (and before the SW fans get in a snit, I bought Pirates of the Spanish Main and Soloman Kane, though I returned the latter).I also considered using AD&D with the 2e historical supplement A Mighty Fortress, but the problem of "undefined skills" and "reduced options" for me is that it also utterly failed to capture the flavor of the swashbuckling genre.So there was a good level of granularity for me in Flashing Blades: four archetypes, with characters choosing anywhere from three to six broadly defined skills, which makes a character on a par with an AD&D thief or ranger (or a B/X elf or dwarf) in terms of 'class abilities.' It does what I want it to do, without doing more than I need.Conan's climbing skill is part of his general athleticism; I have no problem with assuming a similar level of skill to anyone in the fighter class, subject to the character's actual attributes.While I have no problem enjoying OD&D or AD&D as-written, the games I most enjoy add a bit more detail than that, but certainly nowhere near as much as d20, GURPS, Rolemaster or other more rules-laden systems.</blockquote>

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