PIXAR's Story Telling Guidelines

#1: You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.

#2: You gotta keep in mind what's interesting to you as an audience, not what's fun to do as a writer. They can be v. different.

#3: Trying for theme is important, but you won't see what the story is actually about til you're at the end of it. Now rewrite.

#4: Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

#5: Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You'll feel like you're losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.

#6: What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?

#7: Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.

#8: Finish your story, let go even if it's not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.

#9: When you're stuck, make a list of what WOULDN'T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.

#10: Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you've got to recognize it before you can use it.

#11: Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you'll never share it with anyone.

#12: Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.

#13: Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it's poison to the audience.

#14: Why must you tell THIS story? What's the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That's the heart of it.

#15: If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.

#16: What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don't succeed? Stack the odds against.

#17: No work is ever wasted. If it's not working, let go and move on - it'll come back around to be useful later.

#18: You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.

#19: Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.

#20: Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d'you rearrange them into what you DO like?

#21: You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can't just write ‘cool'. What would make YOU act that way?

#22: What's the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

Rant: "I Want My Flying Car!"

As Avery Brooks said on a TV commercial a few years ago, “I want my flying car!”

When I was young, and the space race was still in hi-gear, we were told that in the future, which meant sometime before the year 2000, we would have flying cars, a colony on the moon, and hotels that we could visit in orbit.  So here we are 12 years after the year 2000, and we have none of it.  NONE!

At this point we can’t even get an American into orbit without paying the Russians- the Russians!- for a ride.

For a few years now, we have heard that the Chinese are working hard on getting to the moon, and now word comes that the Russians are headed to the moon.  

Now I know that we are supposed to be headed back by 2020, but that date keeps being pushed back.  Let’s suppose that we do get there by 2020.  By then it will have been 48 years since the last time we were there.  Will I ever get to see a moon base/colony in my lifetime?  Will I ever get to hear about a man on Mars?  Frankly, it’s embarrassing.

I get that there is nothing up there: no resources to exploit, nothing.  I understand the economics: it’s expensive.  I still think we should there.  

We have a small- that’s right, small- space station orbiting our planet.  There is a lot of great science happening aboard it, but where is the hotel?  I am immensely proud of it, but we should have had it in the 1980s, and have much bigger and better by now.

We were promised space, and have not gotten it.

As far as flying cars are concerned, compared to the space-race, this should be easy.  We have the beginnings of the technologies, we just need to finish the research, and get it done.  Want to clear up traffic jams?  Bring in a third dimension to the traffic patterns, and the problem will go away.

I want my flying car; and I want my weekend get away to the orbiting hotel; and I want to hear about humans landing on Mars; and I want to hear about the latest moon explorations.  Is that too much to ask?

Skill Challenges

The following is the version of skill challenges that I’m continuing to develop.  There is a lot of borrowing going on here including, but not limited to WotC’s original work, and the Obsidian system by Travis Huston Dunlap.


Types of Skill Challenges

Mental
A Mental challenge lets the players using their minds and their senses to gain clues and to find their way around the world.  DMs can use Mental Challenges to describe large scales of scenery and give players a chance to work out clues to obtain victory.

Examples: Finding your way through an old forest, determining the secret entrance to the underground city, solving the puzzle of El‐Karad, or finding the last ingredient for a ritual in an old library are examples of a Mental Challenge.

Standard skills for a mental challenge include:
Arcana (Int)
Dungeoneering (Wis)
Heal (Wis)*
History (Int)
Insight (Wis)
Nature (Wis)
Perception (Wis)
Religion (Int)
Social (cha)**
Streetwise (Cha)***
*When dealing with anatomy or medical insights.
**Social skills can be useful to gain clues when other people are near the challenge site, such as using diplomacy to acquire help from the head librarian. Generally allow this only once per challenge per person.
***For navigating urban terrain or gaining information on the street.

Failure: Failing a mental challenge often means you arrive at a different location than the one you had intended, or that you obtain a piece of information…only to later find out it is incorrect.

Partial Victory: You gain some of the information you need, but need more. You successfully navigate the terrain, but are greatly delayed and it causes problems down the road.

Victory: You gain the information you need and solve the puzzle. You navigate the terrain quickly and easily, and perhaps find a treasure along the way.


Physical
A physical challenge often is the most versatile of challenges. It can include subtle stealth or outrageous stunts. Players are encouraged to describe their actions in detail.

Examples: Scaling a great cliff, sneaking past a group of guards, and crossing a raging river are good physical challenges.

Standard skills for a Physical Challenge include:
Acrobatics (Dex)
Athletics (Str)
Endurance (Con)
Heal (Wis)
Stealth (Dex)
Thievery (Dex)
Social (cha)*
Knowledge (int or wis)**
*Social skills can sometimes be useful in physical challenges against other creatures. Using bluff to throw off a group of guards as you make your escape is a good example. Generally only allow this once per challenge per player.
**Knowledge skills can sometimes be useful in physical challenges that involve certain environments. Using nature in a chase scene that involves the jungle is one example.  Generally only allow this once per challenge per player.

Failure: Failing a physical challenge usually involves physical fatigue and possibly great peril. The party might each lose two healing surges, or every person in the party loses ¼ of their hit points, and then is forced into a combat.

Partial Victory: The party has overcome the obstacle but may have created new obstacles in the process. For example, the party has to climb a rock wall in a way that leads to other hazardous terrain. Or the party completes the task but suffers fatigue in the form of losing two healing surges each.

Victory: The party overcomes the obstacle, fresh, strong and ready for the next one.


Social
A social challenge generally involves talking and a large amount of role‐playing. Players are encouraged to use eloquent words, bold statements, and outright lies to win the day.

Example: A negotiation with the Duke, talking your way past the guards, and convincing an old hero to take up the cause once again are examples of social challenges.

Standard Skills for a social challenge include:
Bluff (cha)
Diplomacy(cha)
Insight (wis)
Intimidate (cha)
Streetwise (cha)
Knowledges * (int or wis)
*In some cases, some knowledge skills can be useful if they are particularly relevant to the challenge. Example: Using religion in a social challenge that involves a priest. Generally only allow this once per player per challenge.

Failure: The party does not get their desired help, and often the other group’s opinion of the party has dropped. If the opposing group was already hostile, it may result in combat.

Partial Victory: The party gets what they want, but the other group wants something too. Good examples are a rare treasure, some key information, or a favor. This could lead to another quest.

Victory: The party gets what they want. In many cases the other side will feel greater respect (or awe) for the party.

A skill challenge can be about almost anything including an abstraction of an epic combat.  It can take place over the course of days or weeks, or it could be more immediate like disarming a complicated lock or trap during an exciting combat.

My players have commented that they dread hearing that they are entering a skill challenge.  I think this is because Skill Challenges have been too mechanically rigid as we have interpreted them.  “You must make a number of successes before a number of failures or you do not pass the challenge” I believe the skill challenge must evolve to be less about the mechanics of successes verses failures, and more about the roleplaying.

To help remove the contrived feeling associated with skill challenges, I don’t think a GM should ever use the words “Skill Challenge” until it is over.  Until then all the players know for sure is that they are making skill rolls to guide and react to changing roleplaying situations.  The effect is purely psychological, but it takes away the perceived formality of the skill challenge environment, and encourages creative thinking and roleplaying.

Time Factor

The time factor is easy to overlook in designing a skill challenge, and that's an error that can turn a compelling challenge into a rote series of die rolls. You know you've lost your group and messed up your design when the players are doing anything but playing the game. The best insurance against this lies in spreading a challenge out over multiple scenes, each allowing a different, general approach to the problem. By varying the environment and situation, you keep things fresh even when the group uses the same skills. There's a world of difference between the Diplomacy check against a drunken guard who mistakes the party's half-orc fighter for his best friend and the same check against the nosy shopkeeper who tries to shake down the PCs for a bribe. If you back up each scene with good roleplay and descriptions, the simplest skill challenge becomes an interesting, varied experience.

Extending a skill challenge over a longer period of time has an important benefit: it lets you plausibly inflict radical changes to the challenge without straining the players' sense of belief. It's ludicrous for the party to run into a long chain of NPCs, each requiring a different skill check to handle, during a 15 minute visit to the local pub. However, if that chain comes at the PCs during an entire day of scouring a city for information, the game makes a lot more sense.

Make the Players Active!

Placing the characters into the role of the aggressor simply means pushing your NPCs into a passive role as blockers, people who stand between the PCs and success and forcing the characters to serve as the catalysts for action.

For example, the characters need to escape from a group of pursuers. It's easy to default to have the PCs making Endurance or Athletics checks to see if they can stay ahead of the chase, but that pushes them into a passive role. The guards are the active party in that arrangement: they chase the PCs, and the PCs make checks to avoid capture. Instead, set up the challenge so that the PCs are the aggressors. They should make checks to foil the pursuit, such as by throwing obstacles in the guards' way, taking a path that discourages pursuit, sparking a brawl between two gangs, or starting a fire that serves as a distraction.

In this example, you might allow PCs to make checks to simply outrun the guards, but that should be one option amongst many. Even then, it's best to flavor that option with a sense that the PCs are the ones creating obstacles that the guards can't overcome. The Athletics check doesn't represent the PC simply running really fast. Instead, it allows a character to dodge through a crowded street with ease while the guards struggle to push through.

Placing the characters in the active role dramatically affects your design, presentation, and the players' engagement in the challenge. It forces the players to step up and make plans rather than sit back and react to your NPCs. It also pushes you to create multiple paths and options. When the PCs are the passive group in a challenge, it's too easy to allow logic to dictate that one, repeated skill check is the best way to plow through.

During a combat sequence, the actions taken by each character and monster set the stage for the next person's turn. In a good fight, the situation constantly changes, and this feeds back into the idea of the skill challenge as something that reacts and changes as the PCs take actions.  The repercussions of skill checks must be more than modifiers or changes to subsequent skill DCs. They should be narrative events that change the situation and make the new conditions, options, and decisions flow into the game's story.

Going Off the Rails

Often players will come up with ideas that were completely unplanned for by the GM.  For me this is where the fun begins.  Suppose the challenge is to climb up a steep icy cliff and sneak past the guard post leading to the wizard’s tower, but when they get to that part the PCs merely walk up to the guards and hand them a sack of gold larger than they’ve ever seen.  Hmmm. . . . Sounds like this challenge may have just ended regardless of how many successes the PCs have accumulated so far, and how many are still needed.  This is the kind of quick creative thinking that needs to be rewarded.  After handing the gold to the guards, don’t tell the players “that counts as one success,” and they still need three more!  Tell them something like “the guards have just beat feet down the mountain, and didn’t even bother to take their swords with them!”

Structuring

The structure is the nuts and bolts of building the challenge. How does the challenge begin? How does it end, and what happens in between?  I like to break skill challenges into three sections, imaginatively titled the opening, the midgame, and the end. Each section requires about a third of the successes to complete the challenge to pass through it.

The opening sets up the skill challenge, makes it clear what the goal is, and lays the groundwork for the first few skills or options for the characters.  This part is all about providing good description so they get ideas about how, and how-not to proceed.

The midgame is the actual process of moving through the challenge. The skills and obstacles the PCs face are determined by the path they choose and one or more random events I roll.

The final skill check depends on the nature of their destination and how the skill challenge has progressed so far. This part can be a GM’s nightmare to prepare for, because the PCs may have taken a path that was unforeseen.

Optional Random Events

To keep some repetitive skill challenges interesting, create a short table of random events for to spice things up. I like unexpected events at the table. They keep the players on their toes, and they keep me on my toes. For me, GMing is a lot more fun when I have no idea how a session might turn out.

Limits

A skill challenge will have limits of some kind.  These could be limits to the number of checks that can be made with a particular skill, skills that are automatic failures, time limits, etc . . . . These limits should flow naturally from the idea.

Time Limit: Time-limited skill challenges are excellent opportunities for getting the whole group involved, since more people making checks means more checks get made in the limit amount of time available. Thus, when designing a time-limited skill challenge, try to throw in opportunities for a diverse set of skills.

Failure Limit (D&D recommends 3): Maybe they only have three Magic Orbs of Xinthos and each time the warlock fails an arcana check one of them shatters, or the prince will become infuriated and send them away after five failed diplomacy checks. A challenge limited by failures will probably only be attempted by the character with the best check in the relevant skills, and smart players will make judicious use of the aid another action. If you want to encourage multiple characters to contribute to the challenge, make skills limited so that they can only add one or two successes. It might also be a good idea to make the DCs a little harder and encourage PCs to use aid another if they’re not already.

Skill Check Limit: The PCs are trying to influence the ruling council, and get one skill check for each member. This approach works best for a challenge with levels of success and failure (see below). It also has many of the same features as a challenge with a limit on the number of failures, so all of that advice applies here as well.

No Limit:  This works fine only if there’s an open-ended penalty for each failure, such as being delayed a day.

The Conclusion

This is the most critical part. Decide what happens if the PCs succeed at every check, and what happens if they fail at every check. Depending on the circumstances, you might have a situation best served by a simple binary fail/succeed paradigm, in which case you’re done, or from there you might be able to branch out into degrees of success.

There must be the possibility of failure, and there must be a consequence for failure. In the most abstract terms, this means that the PCs are tangibly better off if they win than if they lost. This doesn’t necessarily mean something bad has to happen if they fail, though. For example, it might be that rather than something bad happening, something good doesn’t.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Failure must be an option. Just generally good advice. If you ever find yourself planning something that the PCs simply cannot afford to fail at, then you’ve failed at planning.  If there’s no possibility of failure, there’s no reason to roll the dice. If there’s no consequence for failure, there’s no reason to have the skill challenge in the first place. If failure isn’t an option, then you’re setting yourself up for having to choose between fudging things and railroading the PCs into what you need to happen or completely ruining your game.

BIG List of RPG Plots

I copied this from S.John Ross mostly because it is so good, and I’d hate to lose it because his web site disappeared.  Hey, it’s happened before.

Any Old Port in a Storm

The PCs are seeking shelter from the elements or some other threat, and come across a place to hole up. They find that they have stumbled across something dangerous, secret, or supernatural, and must then deal with it in order to enjoy a little rest.
    Common Twists & Themes: The shelter contains the cause of the threat the PCs were trying to avoid. The shelter houses a Hidden Base (q.v.). The PCs must not only struggle for shelter, they must struggle to survive. The place is a legitimate shelter of some kind, but the PCs are not welcome, and must win hearts or minds to earn their bed for the night.

Better Late Than Never

Some bad guys have arrived and done some bad guy things. The PCs were none the wiser. The bad guys have now made good their escape, and the PCs have caught wind of it in time to chase them down before they make it back to their lair, their home nation, behind enemy lines, etc.
    Common Twists & Themes: The bad guys escaped by stealing a conveyance that the PCs know better than they do. The bad guys duck down a metaphorical (or literal) side-road, trying to hide or blend into an environment (often one hostile to the PCs). If the bad guys cross the adventure's "finish line" (cross the county line, make the warp jump, etc.) there's no way to pursue them beyond it.

Blackmail

Usually through trickery (but sometimes by digging into the PCs' past), an antagonist has something to hold over the heads of the PCs and make them jump. This could be any kind of threat from physical to social, but it depends on the villain having something - even if it's information - that others don't have. Now, he is pulling the strings of the PCs, telling them to do things they don't want to. The PCs must end the cycle of blackmail, deprive the villain of his edge, and keep him temporarily satisfied while doing it.
    Common Twists & Themes: The adventure hook involves the PCs doing the villain a good turn, which allows him to take advantage of them (very cynical!). To succeed, the PCs must contact other folks that are also being used. The PCs aren't the victims at all, but somebody they care about/are charged to protect, is.

Breaking and Entering

Mission objective: enter the dangerous place, and retrieve the vital dingus or valuable person. Overcome the area's defenses to do so.
    Common Twists & Themes: The goal is not to extract a thing, but to destroy a thing or interfere with a process (kill the force-screen generator, assassinate the evil king, stop the spell from being cast, wreck the invasion plans, close the portal). The goal has moved. The goal is information, which must be broadcast or otherwise released from the area as soon as it is found. The job must be done without alerting anyone. The PCs don't know the place is dangerous. The PCs must replace the thing with another thing.

Capture the Flag

The PCs must secure a military target for the good guys. There are bad guys there that prefer not to be secured. The fundamental tactical scenario.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs must assemble and/or train a force to do the job with them. The PCs are working with flawed intelligence and the target zone isn't as described. The PCs must coordinate their own efforts with an ally group (possibly putting aside rivalries to do so). The target zone includes a population of innocent people, fragile goods, or some other precious thing that mustn't be harmed in the crossfire.

Clearing The Hex

There is a place where bad things live. The PCs must make it safe for nice people, systematically clearing it of danger.
    Common Twists & Themes: The bad things can't be beaten with direct conflict. The PCs must learn more about them to solve the problem. The Haunted House. The Alien Infestation. The Wild Forest.

Delver's Delight

The PCs are treasure-hunters, who have caught wind of a treasure-laden ruin. They go to explore it, and must deal with its supernatural denizens to win the treasure and get out alive.
    Common Twists & Themes: The treasure itself is something dangerous. The treasure isn't in a ruin, but in a wilderness or even hidden somewhere "civilized." The treasure is someone else's rightful property. The treasure turns out to have a will of its own.

Don't Eat The Purple Ones

The PCs are stranded in a strange place, and must survive by finding food and shelter, and then worry about getting back home.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs must survive only for a short period of time, until help arrives, the ship and/or radio is repaired, or some such thing (in "repair" scenarios, sometimes the PCs must discover some fact about the local environment that will make such repairs possible).

Elementary, My Dear Watson

A crime or atrocity has been committed; the PCs must solve it. They must interview witnesses (and prevent them from being killed), gather clues (and prevent them from being stolen or ruined). They must then assemble proof to deliver to the authorities, or serve as personal ministers of justice.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs are working to clear an innocent already accused (possibly themselves). The PCs must work alongside a special investigator or are otherwise saddled with an unwanted ally. Midway through the adventure, the PCs are "taken off the case" - their invitation/authority to pursue the matter is closed (often the result of political maneuvering by an antagonist). The climax is a courtroom scene or other arena of judgment. The scale is highly variable for this type of adventure, from a small-town murder to a planetwide pollution scandal.

Escort Service

The PCs have a valuable object or person, which needs to be taken to a safe place or to its rightful owner, etc. They must undertake a dangerous journey in which one or more factions (and chance and misfortune) try to deprive them of the thing in their care.
    Common Twists & Themes: The thing or person is troublesome, and tries to escape or sidetrack the PCs. The destination has been destroyed or suborned by the enemy, and the PCs must take upon themselves the job that either the destination or their charge was meant to do when it got there. The person is a person attempting a political defection. Safe arrival at the destination doesn't end the story; the PCs must then bargain with their charge as their token (exchanging money for a hostage, for instance). The PCs must protect the target without the target knowing about it.

Good Housekeeping

The PCs are placed in charge of a large operation (a trading company, a feudal barony, the CIA) and must, despite lack of experience in such things, make it work and thrive.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs are brought in because something big is about to happen, and the Old Guard wants a chance to escape. The peasants, neighbors, employees, etcetera resent the PCs, because their method of inheritance looks outwardly bad and everybody loved the old boss.

Help is on the Way

A person (church group, nation, galaxy) is in a hazardous situation they can't survive without rescue. The PCs are on the job. In some scenarios, the hook is as simple as a distant yell or crackly distress signal.
    Common Twists & Themes: The victim(s) is (are) a hostage, or under siege from enemy forces, and the PCs must deal with the captors or break the siege. There is a danger that any rescue attempts will strand the rescuers in the same soup as the rescuees, compounding the problem. The rescuees aren't people, but animals, robots, or something else. The "victim" doesn't realize that he needs rescuing; he thinks he's doing something reasonable and/or safe. The threat isn't villain-oriented at all; it's a natural disaster, nuclear meltdown, or disease outbreak. The rescuees can't leave ; something immobile and vital must be tended to or dealt with at the adventure location. The PCs begin as part of the rescuees, and must escape and gather forces or resources to bring back and proceed as above.

Hidden Base

The PCs, while traveling or exploring, come across a hornet's nest of bad guys, preparing for Big Badness. They must either find some way to get word to the good guys, or sneak in and disable the place themselves, or a combination of both.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs must figure out how to use local resources in order to defend themselves or have a chance against the inhabitants.

How Much For Just The Dingus?

Within a defined area, something important and valuable exists. The PCs (or their employers) want it, but so do one or more other groups. The ones that get it will be the ones that can outthink and outrace the others, deal best with the natives of the area, and learn the most about their target. Each competing group has its own agenda and resources.
    Common Twists & Themes: The natives require the competing factions to gather before them as pals to state their cases. The valuable thing was en route somewhere when its conveyance or courier wrecked or vanished.

I Beg Your Pardon?

The PCs are minding their own business when they are attacked or threatened. They don't know why. They must solve the mystery of their attacker's motives, and in the meantime fend off more attacks. They must put two and two together to deal with the problem.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs have something that the bad guys want - but they don't necessarily realize it. The bad guys are out for revenge for a dead compatriot from a previous adventure. The bad guys have mistaken the PCs for somebody else.

Long Or Short Fork When Dining On Elf?

The PCs are a diplomatic vanguard, trying to open up (or shore up) either political or trade relations with a strange culture. All they have to do is manage for a day or so among the strange customs without offending anybody . . . and what information they have is both incomplete and dangerously misleading.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs were chosen by somebody who knew they weren't prepared for it - an NPC trying to sabotage the works (pinning this villain might be necessary to avert disaster).

Look, Don't Touch

The PCs are working surveillance - spying on a person, gathering information on a beast in the wild, scouting a new sector. Regardless of the scale, the primary conflict (at least at the start) is the rule that they are only to watch, listen and learn. They are not to make contact or let themselves be known.
    Common Twists & Themes: The target gets itself in trouble and the PCs must decide whether to break the no-contact rule in order to mount a rescue.

Manhunt

Someone is gone: they've run away, gotten lost, or simply haven't called home in a while. Somebody misses them or needs them returned. The PCs are called in to find them and bring them back.
    Common Twists & Themes: The target has been kidnapped (possibly to specifically lure the PCs). The target is dangerous and escaped from a facility designed to protect the public. The target is valuable and escaped from a place designed to keep him safe, cozy, and conveniently handy. The target has a reason for leaving that the PCs will sympathize with. The target has stumbled across another adventure (either as protagonist or victim), which the PCs must then undertake themselves. The missing "person" is an entire expedition or pilgrimage of some kind. The target isn't a runaway or missing/lost - they're just someone that the PCs have been hired to track down (possibly under false pretenses).

Missing Memories

One or more of the PCs wakes up with no memory of the recent past, and now they find themselves in some kind of trouble they don't understand. The PCs must find the reason for the memory lapse, and solve any problems they uncover in the meantime.
    Common Twists & Themes: The forgetful PCs voluntarily suppressed or erased the memories, and they find themselves undoing their own work.

Most Peculiar, Momma

Something both bad and inexplicable is happening (racial tension is being fired up in town, all the power is out, the beer supply is drained, it's snowing in July, Voyager still has fans, hordes of aliens are eating all the cheese), and a lot of people are very troubled by it. The PCs must track the phenomenon to its source, and stop it.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs are somehow unwittingly responsible for the whole thing. What seems to be a problem of one nature (technological, personal, biological, chemical, magical, political, etc) is actually a problem of an alternate one.

No One Has Soiled The Bridge

The PCs are assigned to guard a single vital spot (anything from a mountain pass to a solar system) from impending or possible attack. They must plan their defensive strategy, set up watches, set traps, and so on, and then deal with the enemy when it arrives.
    Common Twists & Themes: The intelligence the PCs was given turns out to be faulty, but acting on the new information could result in greater danger - but so could not acting on it, and the PCs must choose or create a compromise. The PCs learn that the enemy has good and sympathetic reason for wanting to destroy the protected spot.

Not In Kansas

The PCs are minding their own business and find themselves transported to a strange place. They must figure out where they are, why they are there and how to escape.
    Common Twists & Themes: They were brought there specifically to help someone in trouble. They were brought there by accident, as a by-product of something strange and secret. Some of the PCs' enemies were transported along with them (or separately), and now they have a new battleground, and innocents to convince which guys are the good guys.

Ounces of Prevention

A villain or organization is getting ready to do something bad, and the PCs have received a tip-off of some sort. They must investigate to find out more about the caper, and then act to prevent it.
    Common Twists & Themes: The initial tip-off was a red herring meant to distract the PCs from the actual caper. There are two simultaneous Bad Things on the way, and no apparent way to both of them - how to choose?

Pandora's Box

Somebody has tinkered with Things Man Ought Not, or opened a portal to the Mean People Dimension, cracked a wall at the state prison, or summoned an ancient Babylonian god into a penthouse. Before the PCs can even think of confronting the source of the trouble, they must deal with the waves of trouble already released by it: monsters, old foes out for vengeance, curious aliens who think cars/citizens/McDonald's hamburgers resemble food, and so forth.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs can't simply take the released badness to the mat; they have to collect it and shove it back into the source before it the adventure can really end. The PCs are drawn in to the source and must solve problems on the other side before returning to this one. A secret book, code, or other rare element is necessary to plug the breach (maybe just the fellow who opened it). A close cousin to this plot is the basic "somebody has traveled into the past and messed with our reality" story.

Quest For the Sparkly Hoozits

Somebody needs a dingus (to fulfill a prophecy, heal the monarch, prevent a war, cure a disease, or what have you). The PCs must find a dingus. Often an old dingus, a mysterious dingus, and a powerful dingus. The PCs must learn more about it to track it down, and then deal with taking it from wherever it is.
    Common Twists & Themes: The dingus is incomplete when found (one of the most irritating and un-fun plot twists in the universe). Somebody already owns it (or recently stole it, sometimes with legitimate claim or cause). The dingus is information, or an idea, or a substance, not a specific dingus. The PCs must "go undercover" or otherwise infiltrate a group or society, gaining the dingus by guile or stealth.

Recent Ruins

A town, castle, starship, outpost, or other civilized construct is lying in ruins. Very recently, it was just dandy. The PCs must enter the ruins, explore them, and find out what happened.
    Common Twists & Themes: Whatever ruined the ruins (including mean people, weird radiation, monsters, a new race, ghosts) is still a threat; the PCs must save the day. The inhabitants destroyed themselves. The "ruins" are a derelict ship or spaceship, recently discovered. The "ruin" is a ghost town, stumbled across as the PCs travel - but the map says the town is alive and well.

Running the Gauntlet

The PCs must travel through a hazardous area, and get through without being killed, robbed, humiliated, debased, diseased, or educated by whatever is there. The troubles they encounter are rarely personal in nature - the place itself is the "villain" of the adventure.
    Common Twists & Themes: The place isn't dangerous at all, and the various "dangers" are actually attempts to communicate with the party by some agent or another.

Safari

The PCs are on a hunting expedition, to capture or kill and elusive and prized creature. They must deal with its environment, its own ability to evade them, and possibly its ability to fight them.
    Common Twists & Themes: The creature is immune to their devices and weapons. There are other people actively protecting the creature. The creature's lair allows the PCs to stumble onto another adventure.

Score One for the Home Team

The PCs are participants in a race, contest, tournament, scavenger hunt or other voluntary bit of sport. They must win.
    Common Twists & Themes: The other contestants are less honest, and the PCs must overcome their attempts to win dishonestly. The PCs are competing for a deeper purpose than victory, such as to keep another contestant safe, or spy on one, or just to get into the place where the event goes down. The PCs don't wish to win; they just wish to prevent the villain from winning. The event is a deliberate test of the PCs abilities (for entry into an organization, for example). The event becomes more deadly than it's supposed to.

Stalag 23

The PCs are imprisoned, and must engineer an escape, overcoming any guards, automatic measures, and geographic isolation their prison imposes on them.
    Common Twists & Themes: Something has happened in the outside world and the prison security has fallen lax because of it. The PCs have been hired to "test" the prison - they aren't normal inmates. Other prisoners decide to blow the whistle for spite or revenge. The PCs are undercover to spy on a prisoner, but are then mistaken for real inmates and kept incarcerated. The PCs must escape on a tight schedule to get to another adventure outside the walls.

Take Us To Memphis And Don't Slow Down

The PCs are on board a populated conveyance (East Indiaman, Cruise Ship, Ferry, Sleeper Starship), when it is hijacked. The PCs must take action while the normals sit and twiddle.
    Common Twists & Themes: The "hijackers" are government agents pulling a complicated caper, forcing the PCs to choose sides. The hijackers don't realize there is a secondary danger that must be dealt with, and any attempt to convince them is viewed as a trick. The normals are unhelpful or even hostile to the PCs because they think the PCs are just making matters worse.

Troublemakers

A bad guy (or a group of them, or multiple parties) is kicking up a ruckus, upsetting the neighbors, poisoning the reservoirs, or otherwise causing trouble. The PCs have to go where the trouble is, locate the bad guys, and stop the party.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs must not harm the perpetrator(s); they must be bagged alive and well. The bad guys have prepared something dangerous and hidden as "insurance" if they are captured. The "bad guy" is a monster or dangerous animal (or an intelligent creature that everybody thinks is a monster or animal). The "bad guy" is a respected public figure, superior officer, or someone else abusing their authority, and the PCs might meet hostility from normally-helpful quarters who don't accept that the bad guy is bad. A balance of power perpetuates the trouble, and the PCs must choose sides to tip the balance and fix things. The "trouble" is diplomatic or political, and the PCs must make peace, not war.

Uncharted Waters

The PCs are explorers, and their goal is to enter an unknown territory and scope it out. Naturally, the job isn't just going to be surveying and drawing sketches of local fauna; something is there, something fascinating and threatening.
    Common Twists & Themes: Either the place itself is threatening (in which case the PCs must both play National Geographic and simultaneously try to escape with their skin, sanity, and credit rating) or the place itself is very valuable and wonderful, and something else there is keen on making sure the PCs don't let anyone else know. Other potential conflicts involve damage to the PCs' conveyance or communication equipment, in which case this becomes Don't Eat the Purple Ones.

We're On The Outside Looking In

Any of the basic plots in this list can be reengineered with the PCs on the outside of it. Either the PCs are accompanying other characters in the midst of such a plot (often being called on to defend the plot from the outside, as it were), or they are minding their own business when the others involved in the plot show up, and must pick sides or simply resist. For instance, with Any Old Port In The Storm, the PCs could already be enjoying (or native to) the shelter when a strange group arrives. If the "the PCs are unwelcome" variant is employed, then perhaps the PCs will be the only voice of reason to still the religious fervor, racial prejudice, anti-monster sentiment, or whatever else is the source of conflict.
    Common Twists & Themes: The PCs find themselves on the receiving end of the adventure. Take any of the plots here and reverse them, placing the PCs in the position where NPCs (often the villain, fugitive, etcetera) normally are. Instead of hunting, they must be hunted. Instead of fixing, they must avoid getting "fixed" themselves (ow). Alternately, leave a classic plot intact but turn the twists upside down, making them twistier (or refreshingly un twisty)

Tips and Tricks

Surrender yourself to metaphor. I've written the plots in the language of (typically very physical) action-adventure genres, because that's the basic form of roleplaying adventure - but if you're playing on more levels than that, the list can still punch its weight. Just remember that every thing, place, and foe can really be a piece of information, person, and unhealthy attitude, as surely as a space station can be a dungeon and a magical residue can be a fingerprint.

Double up. A nice basic method is the chameleon game, where an adventure presents itself as one type of story in the "hook layer" but reveals itself as something else. Sometimes, the switch is innocent and natural - Don't Eat the Purple Ones, for example, makes a good hook for Running the Gauntlet, and Most Peculiar, Momma is a logical lead for Pandora's Box. Sometimes, the switch is something more sinister or deliberate, with NPCs selling the adventure as one thing when it's really another. This can still be innocent, in its way, if the NPCs have been duped themselves, or if they're just desperate for help and worried that nobody will be eager to tackle the real problem.

Throw yourself a curve. Your players will, anyway, so practice early. Pick two random entries from the Big List and make your adventure on those, no matter what comes up - the first one is the hook layer; the second is the meat of the adventure. If the same entry comes up both times, go with it! Two layers can have a similar structure but very different roots or details.

Double up, part two: Some very satisfying adventures weave two separate (or thematically-related) plots together. An easy way to make this work is to make one plot physical and the other plot personal. That way just one of the plots puts demand on the PCs' location, while the other one can tag along anywhere. For example: the PCs are hired to escort a prince to a summit so he can appear before the masses and end a war (a physical and simple example of Escort Service), but on the way, they realize that the poor guy is suicidal because state obligations have ruined his love life, and must prevent his self-destruction by either fixing the problem or convincing him to shoulder the burden (a personal and metaphorical example of Ounces of Prevention).

And . . . .

A More Simple List of RPG Plots

The countdown scenario (e.g., prevent the villain from completing a ritual)

The golden fleece scenario (e.g., retrieve the artifact to save the kingdom)

The whodunit scenario (e.g., figure out who killed the village priest of Pelor)

The destroy-the-artifact scenario (e.g., hurl this magic ring into the volcano)

The heroes-versus-dungeon scenario (e.g., survive a dungeon to win XP and phat lootz)

The tower defense scenario (e.g., defend a fortified village from an orc horde)

The heist scenario (e.g., steal the Electrum Falcon from the noble’s vault)

The close-the-damn-door scenario (e.g., stop demons from spilling out of a magic portal)

Longsword Class Drills & Games

Baton Striking with Edge Control Game (from Ochs: Longsword DVD)

One partner wears a mask and protective gloves.  He grips a baton in both hands so that there is at least 8” of space between them.  As he circles and moves, he will present the baton in front, or beside himself representing target openings.  The other partner strikes the baton with an appropriate strike, cut, or Master Strike.  Careful attention should be paid to range, staying in an appropriate guard, striking power, and edge placement.

Vier Leger Drill

Right Vom Tag -- Left Phlug -- Right Ochs -- Left Alber -- Right Langort -- pivot -- Left Vom Tag -- Right Phlug -- Left Ochs -- Right Alber -- Left Langort - pivot

Zwischen Leger Drill

Vom Tag - Kumphau -> Schrankhut - Unterhau -> Ochs - Zwerchau -> Phlug - Stich -> Kron - Oberhau -> Nebenhut - Zornhau -> Alber - short edge Unterhau -> pivot (Repeat on opposite side)

Fühlen Drill (from Fighting with the German Longsword)

Partners agree to a strike and counter-strike technique (I.e. Zornhau v. oberhau from the right).  The attacking partner then varies the degree to which he is “at the sword,” and the responding partner must use an appropriate technique based on the attacker’s level of commitment.  You will want to pre-plan the level of commitment the attacker will use at first.  Start slowly and carefully as this skill takes a lot of time and practice.

Guard Breaking Drill (from Ochs: Longsword DVD)

One partner adopts each of the Primary Guard positions, and the other partner responds with the appropriate Master Strike.  Partners alternate this role for each stroke.

Master Strikes Drills

Step through each Master Strike from right & left sides using ALL guard positions

Push Me, Pull You (from Schola St. George)

Each partner grips a sword handle in his right hand.  He then grips his partner’s sword blade about 8” from the tip in his left hand.  The players are now connected by two swords.  The goal is to push and pull on one, or both of the swords in an attempt to get the other player off balance.  This game may be played with stationary feet, or with both partners moving and circling.

Roman Focus Game

Using good hand protection, partners attempt to slap each other’s hands with the boffer dagger.  Only the hands are valid targets.  Both hands must stay in front of your body at all times.  Free advice: keep moving!

Striking Pattern Drill (from Ochs: Longsword DVD)

✤First set starts in Right Vom tag: UpR, LowL, LowR, UpL

✤Second set starts in Right Nebenhut: LowR, UpL, UpR, LowL

✤Third set starts in Left Vom tag: UpL, LowR, LowL, Upr

✤Fourth set starts in Left Nebenhut: LowL, UpR, UpL, LowR

Thrust Targeting Game (from Ochs: Longsword DVD)

This game is just like the Baton Striking game, but uses thrusting target as the focus.

Winden Drill: Clockwise & Counter-Clockwise (from Ochs: Longsword DVD)

Work large circles moving through the eight windings clockwise and counter-clockwise.  Keep pressure on the blades, and maneuver toward a position from which a good thrust could be executed.

Winden Game

Using boffer swords, masks and gloves, partners attempt to wind against each other in order to execute a thrust from the bind.  The swords should remain in a bind at all times, and players may not step out of range at any time.

Kali Drills

✤Sombrata

✤Down & Back

✤Heaven’s Six

Bono At The Nobel Peace Summit in 2008

Nobel winners were meeting in Paris for a three-day summit, coinciding with celebrations marking 60 years since the UN declaration of human rights was adopted in Paris. They said Bono was chosen for the award for his global campaigning to persuade rich nations to cut Africa’s debt burden, combat poverty, promote fair trade and raise funds for the treatment of HIV-AIDS and malaria.

“We decided to nominate a man who has given a lot and will continue to give a great deal to the struggle for human rights, to the fight against poverty, with his music and with his words,” said Italian politician Walter Veltroni, co-host of the event. “He has put pressure on the world’s governments to reach the UN’s Millennium Goals. To give him the prize, is to say that fight will carry on.”

Here’s how Bono accepted the award:

‘The Man of Peace Award… come on…. let’s be honest… we all know this is as close as I’m going to get to the real thing… so I am holding on tight to this …

Seriously though… I am really honoured to be here… to accept this award from all of you… thank you for taking me seriously… because that’s not a given when you’re a rockstar. Even worse, a rock star with a conscience …..spare me.

The ONE campaign, the organization that I represent when working on these issues is very serious by the way….

Deadly serious, thanks to support from people like Bill and Melinda Gates and John Doerr and Susie Buffett who fund our organization and our work…

And the world’s poor deserve seriousness… they deserve the best representation in the world’s capitals – they deserve their own interest group, their own powerful lobby…

The US gun lobby spends nearly $200 million dollars a year making sure you can’t get elected if you support gun control.

Tobacco companies spend $19 million on lobbying Congress

The world’s poor deserve more than that.

For them it’s quite literally life and death. 4000 people dying every day of a preventable treatable disease… HIV/AIDS, 10,000 dying every day of a mosquito bite… 5000 children dying every day of diarrhea…

I mean, diarrhea can be a problem in our house, but it is not a death sentence….

So that’s why we set up the ONE campaign…I think our voices were heard during the presidential campaign in the US.

Did you notice that neither Barack Obama or John McCain ever once criticized aid, never used it as a pawn… Despite the huge economic crisis, Barack Obama has made a bold promise to double aid to Africa… part of the reason for this, I believe, is the 2 million members of the ONE campaign that we have in America… they showed up at every town hall meeting during the elections… making sure the candidates knew that this stuff mattered to them.

And you know that it’s not just Obama himself that’s committed… its his whole team… even his security team…the tough guys.

On the way here yesterday, I got to thinking about this guy Alfred Nobel – what an incredible guy – then I thought – hang on a second… isn’t he the guy that invented dynamite…?

I know it’s a bit of a cliché to talk about Nobel and dynamite.

But it is a funny thing, that it’s the people who know the real cost of war that fight hardest for peace…

I’ve been working on these issues of extreme poverty for quite a while…maybe 10 years now… when I started, I never would have expected a phone call from the head of NATO, General Jim Jones – who will soon be President Obama’s national security advisor.

He’s an extraordinary man. A six foot three gentle giant.

He said to me we have billions of dollars of high tech equipment floating in the Mediterranean Sea and yet we are losing to Hezbollah because they are building schools…

And then he said, I’m a marine… the men and women of the marine corps don’t mind being shot at for the right reasons but they do not like being shot at for being the wrong reasons – I asked what the wrong reason were – he said, for being American…

That sent a chill down me… I mean, this was America we were talking about… America that liberated Europe after the second world war, America that wiped out smallpox and polio… America that created the Peace Corps… and they are being attacked because they are American?

But America is about to present a new face to the world. Barack Obama, Jim Jones, and the person who said this: ‘Instability and extremism fester in places where infrastructure, education and opportunity are lacking… The battlespace goes far beyond the battlefield.’

That’s the next Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

‘Security, stability and development go hand-in-hand.’

Who said that? That one’s Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, present and future.

There’s new thinking in America… a reimagining of how to deal with some of the greatest challenges of our time… things like extreme climate change… extreme ideologies… and extreme poverty, which is entangled with both.

With a new US administration taking the reins, where does Europe stand on all this? Europe that has long led the world on development issues? Well, let’s not be left behind….

We do see great leadership from Spain… Zapatero is keeping his promise…

We see great leadership from the UK….

Great leadership from Germany… a country that, for the last almost the last 20 years… spent 4 % of GDP on reunification…

Where does France stand, a long time champion on global health, and you could argue, joined at the hip and the heart to africa through its history? Truthfully? France isn’t quite doing its bit against the promises made… and we’re not sure why, because we are pretty sure the french people do care about this stuff. Carla Sarkozy certainly does… she’s just been named ambassador for the Global AIDS fund… and apparently… rumour has it, she sleeps with the President… he has spoken passionately about these issues, but we might need her to do a bit of pick pocketing… France is not however slashing its aid budget…which is what its next door neighbour Italy is doing…what an embarrassment for the next chair of the G8 to be slashing its aid budget.

And today, not far away from here… President Sarkozy and the rest of the European heads of state are trying to figure out where they stand on the link between extreme climate and extreme poverty… will a new grand bargain take shape under which, the people who created the problem of climate change (us) will make sure the people worst affected (the poorest of the poor) benefit financially from a new carbon deal.

Now there’s a bold idea. You know I think that Europe is a thought that needs to become a feeling. I get the sense that for many europeans, europe is defined by geography and bureaucracy. I think it’s through working together on bold projects like this, looking outside of ourselves, that we can start to really feel Europe—what it means, what it’s about, the big idea.

I know I am saying all of this at a time when financial markets are melting down and I might sound like I never read a newspaper … but it is in troubled times, when times for ourselves are toughest, that we reveal who we really are. Do we baton down the hatches and protect our own, or do we join forces and make sure the most vunerable are not forgotton. Do we dwell on the problems, or the solutions. Because in troubled times, I’d argue precisely what we should be doing is looking for new ways to fix old problems.

Just look around this room… the people in this room – you’ve all come out of conflict is the truth… you’ve all seen opportunity in moments of crisis…

Just think about Europe at the end of World War II.

Germany was in ruins. Britain, penniless. France, been starved and suffocated. Economies, hopes, the future seemed wrecked.

And through the wreckage walked giants. De Gaulle, Monnet. Churchill, Keynes. Truman, Marshall, Adenauer. Amid the ruins, they could see a path to a more broadly shared peace and prosperity. And that’s what they built—a post-war order of security and opportunity that endured for half a century.

Out of that conflict came the Declaration of Human Rights… 60 years ago this week. But its basic ideas were older than that.

On the ruins, they built a new world. They envisioned it, and then they built it to last.

That was their wisdom.

What is ours?

Look we all know it… we’re at a moment in time here, just like after the first world war when the league of nations was set up, just like after the second world war when the UN and the World Bank and the IMF were formed… the world is up for grabs…a system that has benefited the lucky few and excluded the unlucky many is under the microscope… Soon to be on the operating table. New ideas are in play. Creativity is needed. all the creativity in this room…

It raises eyebrows, fists even, when musicians enter these debates….it is unusual but it shouldn’t be… I may be biased but I think we need all disciplines (art, commerce, fashion, science) as well as politics to converge on these challenges.

Sometimes it takes crisis to reimagine the world and what we are capable of… To shake up the established order. To make old, bad ideas look ridiculous.

In fact, history has a way of making ideas that were once acceptable look ridiculous…

You know that… Willem de Klerk… you worked side by side with Nelson Mandela to figure out a new future for South Africa…

Who would have thought in our lifetime there would be peace in Northern Ireland? You did John Hume – you did Betty Williams – you did Mairead Maguire.

Who would have thought that there was to be a peaceful way out of the cold war and the spectre of mutually assured destruction… MAD madness…? Mikhail Gorbachev knew that… and we’re missing the great man here today…

As I said, what is our wisdom. Could it be that we decide it is no longer acceptable that an accident of geography—where you are born—can decide whether you live or whether you die… that we decide that human rights, the right to live like a human, belong not just to those who live in the comfort of their freedom. I think so but we haven’t quite got there yet.

But with your help, we might get there soon.

Since the start of the 21st century, just 8 years ago, many millions more African children are in school, millions on life-saving ARVs, millions protected from malaria by bed nets. Momentum is building. Energies are converging. The wheels of change are turning and the people in this room are living proof that we can alter their direction.

You know, this is not a burden, this is an adventure. Its exciting. Together we can make the insanity and injustice and inequality of extreme stupid poverty look ridiculous… a child dying in a world of plenty for lack of food in its belly… Death by mosquito bite or dirty water… These things we can consign to the ash heap of history… and write a new history which makes us all proud.

Merci beaucoup….’

Historical Fighting Manuals and SCA Armored Combat

It’s All In There

I have fought for nearly three decades in the SCA, and have only lately gotten serious about researching and re-creating the combat material in the period historical manuals.  Therefore, it is fairly safe to say that I feel a certain comfort, and even expertise with the former and not the latter.

Within the context of the SCA’s sport fighting, I’ve learned a lot of neat ‘tricks and techniques’ over the years. There are ‘shots’ that we have developed and taught to each other that seem, to us, like great discoveries.  Some of these ‘shots’ can even make some people seem nearly unbeatable.

My own “J-hook” comes immediately to mind.  This is a shot that I use with various two-handed thrusting weapons such as spear, glaive and two-handed sword.  The shot begins by standing in an extended middle guard, with the weapon’s point aimed directly at the opponent’s face/chest.  This invites him to slap the point aside, and follow it up with a charge into close quarters.  But when he moves to slap my weapon, I drop the point downward just enough to curve beneath his hands, move my tip around to the opposite side, and bring the point back upward and into his abdomen.  This works great nearly every time unless he is specifically watching for it.

In Hanko Dobringer’s 1389 fechtbuch, this exact maneuver is called the Pfobenzagel, Peacock’s tail.  It is executed from the langort guard, and discussed in the Sprechfenster section of his work.

This is but one example of many.  The deeper I go into Liechtenhauer’s material, the more I find that we thought we had discovered in our 40+ years of sweaty research and experimentation.  This natural re-development of techniques is based on the fact that certain implements work best with human body mechanics when used in certain ways.  Zucken, Schnappen and Durchwechseln are other glaring examples of techniques that have naturally developed within SCA fighting over time.

I guess what this really says to me, is that while we have been merrily reinventing the wheel, we have generally been on the right track.

Biggest Problem: The SCA’s Rules

Within the SCA there are some very serious skeptics about this stuff.  With our current level of research and skill with this stuff, it all seems pretty rudimentary and/or gimicky to the skilled fighters of the SCA.

Fighting in the SCA is a sport- a pretty rough one, but still a sport.  It has a quirky set of rules that compromises a certain level of realism for participant safety, and in some cases SCA tradition.  

The biggest factor affecting text-based Historical European Martial Arts acceptance into the SCA fighting community is its own armor standards.  Acceptance of blows in an SCA fight are based on a number of factors, all of which tend to force very strong blows to be thrown.  No draw or push cuts are ever accepted, and any sort of perceived deflection nullifies all blows, no matter their strength at the time they land.

Many historical fight manuals include techniques for fighting in armor.  These techniques correctly assume the virtually complete effective protection of plate and mail armor.  Thus, the techniques involve a level of ‘action’ that is just too extreme for the SCA’s safety conventions.  Grappling, tripping, and the twisting of joints are key aspects of these techniques, none of which are allowed in the SCA.

What most members of the SCA have seen of historical fighting is, by and large, the unarmored fighting plays.  The unarmored portion of this statement is very important.  Many of these plays involve non-lethal fight ending resolutions.  Other than death, a fight ender can be a deep, painful, or heavily bleeding wound; or a twisted, dislocated, or broken joint; or being disarmed, tripped, or momentarily dazed; or any other way in which you can gain long enough advantage over your opponent to put your point to his throat and call for his immediate abandonment of action.  Of these fight enders, the only ones really used by the SCA are death, deep wounds, smashed joints, and momentarily dazed.  Many of the deep wounds result in the unrealistic condition of fighting on without the use of affected limbs.

But Will It Work in the SCA?

In short, I believe that there is a middle ground.  Due to the amount of ‘SCA-valid’ fighting techniques already unearthed in the manuals, I think the rest of the manuals bear a closer inspection by fighting members of the SCA.

Specifically, I believe the Five Master Strikes and their associated plays deserve a much, much closer look.  These strikes are not mere gimmicks, they are different ways of swinging a sword.

Of the Five Master Strikes, The SCA has naturally re-developed two and a half.  The strikes known, and used by the SCA are the Zornhau, the Scheitlhau, and portions of the Zwerchau.

Briefly, from the SCA’s perspective:

-Zornhau: clearing your opponent’s weapon/guard with power to make space for your own plays.

-Scheitlhau: reaching over the top of an opponents guard to strike him.

-Zwerchau: reaching around the side of an opponent’s guard to strike him with the short edge of the weapon- the wrap-around.  The gathering portions of this strike are not used, because this action would count as a deflection under the SCA’s rules despite the power and accuracy with which the blow lands.

This leaves the Krumphau and the Schielhau for the SCA to naturally re-develop.  As with the gathering of the guard portions of the Zwerchau, both of these strikes have obstacles to overcome.  

The Schielhau is designed to land on an opponent’s shoulder/neck area, and lead into a draw or push cut.  The only fix for this blow is to land it with much more power.  Based on the body mechanics of landing this blow, I see this a quite a large challenge to do.

The Krumphau primarily targets the opponent’s hands- a blow that is illegal, and thus, completely ignored when struck.  A simple fix here is to target the forearms rather than the hands.

Why Do I Care?

I guess I’ve become kind of passionate about studying the historical manuals.  I know it’s hard to recreate something this physical from words written in an archaic form of a different language, but I see it as work worth doing.  It is by far not about trying to convert this stuff to the SCA for me.  I think I have the more pragmatic view that both of these activities need to be closely looked at as I work toward a more complete understanding our European fighting culture.