Roleplaying Scene to Movie Scene!

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

Sometimes a role playing game can result in a scene where at least the participants can imagine that it needs to be shot for a movie.

One example we had occurred in a game of "En Garde". A situation came up which had to be resolved with sword play. One of the individuals was a huge ox of a man who, despite being a huge ox of a man, was a dragoon (by the way, he was also smart like an ox). The other was lithe and relatively small man who happened to be from an infantry regiment.

The smaller man was the senior in rank, so he got to choose weapons and of course chose rapiers, the weapon he was familiar with (and frankly the one best suited to his build and constitution in the game system). The Ox had no skill in rapiers (he was a dragoon, he used sabers and had invested all of his sword skills in that weapon).

The opening rounds of the duel as played out in the system saw the great ox making a series of futile slashing and cut maneuvers with his rapier, as his opponent deftly side stepped them and reached in to administer a cut here and a cut there. These many cuts were not individually devastating to the ox, but they were slowly wearing him down.

While he had not been touched, the opponent noted that it was taking a lot of hits to wear down the ox, and decided on a change of tactic, that being to deliver a "kick". This one blow did more damage to the ox than all of the previous cuts combined. Impressed with this, the opponent decided to repeat the maneuver.

The stage is now set. Picture the fight scene with the two men maneuvering, the opponent side stepping the Ox's futile swings while reaching past them to administer cut after cut. Suddenly, the opponent steps inside the Ox's guard and administers a kick where it really matters, promptly jumping back from any possible retaliation. The ox, reacts to blow by doubling up on himself, but does not go down (that sheer strength and constitution). The opponent again jumps in, preparing to deliver a second kick. The Ox's thought processes get past the sheer fact of the pain he is in and he realizes he is defenseless in his current posture. Still bent over he suddenly raises and extends his right arm in an effort to fend off his opponent.

In mid leap the opponent impales himself on the Ox's suddenly extended rapier. The Ox being so strong is still doubled over holding his sword out, not aware that his sword is the only thing holding the opponent up . . . as the opponent suddenly loses his grip on his sword, and consciousness, and his comrades who were cheering him on suddenly lose voice, while the Ox's comrades, despairing at certain defeat, suddenly raise cheers of victory for the brilliant display of swordsmanship.

In game terms, sword fighting was done by recording a certain number of "rest" maneuvers between each actual "action" maneuver. Some "action" maneuvers required more "rests" than others before you could perform them, and the more "damaged" you were the more "rests" you had to have before you could do an "action". In this particular case, it just happened that the Ox had programmed a "thrust", and the "thrust", partly as a result of delay "rests" imposed by the previous damage he had sustained, just happened to come up at exactly the same point where the opponent had initiated his second "close" to get into position to "kick". A "Thrust" against a "Close" could be expected to be a bad thing (for the person closing), it also happened to be the combination best set to optimize the sheer strength of the Ox. The opponent literally went from no damage to one damage point short of being killed outright (had he had more strength and constitution, he might have still been able to win the fight if he avoided any more "close" maneuvers).

It was a scene worthy to be included in a movie set in the Milieu of the Three Musketeers.