BlackwoodGame DesignSavage Worlds

The Blackwood: Custom Fighting Schools

When I designed the Fighting Schools setting rule for The Blackwood Errantry Codex, I had a couple goals in mind beyond “keep it fast! furious! and fun!” More than anything, I wanted to make it a system where a player could build their own martial style from a few component parts.  I made a point of saying the fighting schools I created–Falcon, Red Bear, etc.–were just example trappings for the mechanics they represent. The player is able to add totally new flavor if they want.

A character who studies more than one fighting school has to dedicate themselves to it. It takes a little planning to meet more than one school’s requirements in time to make use of the Student Edges, but it highlights a slew of tactical options for Savage Worlds combat.

As a writer, I tend to spend a lot of idle time in my settings. In the Blackwood, I’m drawn to a village called Talbrand, in Denvorn Province. I created an errant fellowship there that reskins a few Fighting Schools, but also tweaks their rules a little bit. The mechanics of the setting rule are such that not too unbalancing to stick little drawbacks in one area for boosts in another. Beyond the way the fellowship interacts with the mechanics, I tried to make it an adventure hook as well.

It would be easy for multiple characters to pick different “builds” from the available options. Maybe one character focuses on The Woodland Way while another focuses on the Doctrine of Patience, while a third dabbles in the Woodland Way but care more about getting into the Merits of Ancestral Harmony. It means a party dedicated to a martial game could use the fellowship as a home base and training center for their adventures.

I realized last night I didn’t have any plans to publish the fellowship in anything, but it could be useful to illustrate one of my design goals with The Blackwood. So here you have it, errants who draw inspiration from the forest around them, and whose errantry is exceptional because it doesn’t stray far from home.  The technique descriptions are inspired by HEMA fechtbuchs, which were often pretty poetic and/or cryptic despite packing some serious tactical wallop.

Anyway, I hope you find this useful!

The Talbrander Society

“We of the Talbrander Society walk the Woodland Way toward Ancestral Harmony. We are sure of foot, keen-eared, swift-striking and long in the tiring. Together, we stand against elven trickery.”

 

Located in the foothills west of Talbrand, the Talbrander Society is made up of four masters and some two dozen students. Founded a generation ago by Lennid Talbrander, Ninth Worthy of the Elder King, the Society is unusual in that it trains  errants in more than just combat. The masters of the Talbrander Society provide instruction in bow, spear, hatchet and dagger, and the coveted Woodland Way longsword technique. More important in their eyes, the Talbrander Society teaches the importance of community. Errants, they say, do good work but they are wrong to forsake their homes.

Errants of the Talbrander Society are taught to go abroad to learn of the world and to strive against it, but then they must return to their homes to make their errantry truly useful. Each errant owes a debt to the people who raised them. Gaining wealth and glory abroad and then using it to repay the debt is the way of this small but influential fighting school.

Since Lennid’s disappearance and death, grandmastery of the Talbrander Society has been given to Lennid’s old errant companion, Pigeon Hawk. Now an old man, Pigeon Hawk is nevertheless still a crack shot with a bow and a deft herbalist. Whereas most students come to the Talbrander Society to learn the secrets of the Woodland Sword, hunters and magic users might find Pigeon Hawk’s endless stories about herbal remedies just as useful to their errantry.

Curriculum

The Talbrander Society teaches unique variations of two traditional schools: the Woodland Way is an adaptation of the Boar School with an emphasis on longsword, and the Doctrine of Patience is a variant of the Falcon School with an emphasis on strategy. The Society is also the harbor of a hidden school: the Merits of Ancestral Harmony, which builds upon the principles of the Way of the Firecat. Any mechanical notes listed below replace the rulings of their respective Fighting Schools.

The Woodland Way

  • Timber Guard (Stance of the Rampant Tusk): A high guard to come crashing down like a fallen tree upon your foes, or a low guard to slip between armor like a splinter. Each attack gains either AP +1 or damage +1, but not both.
  • Ivy Pass (Bone Brow Pummel): Footwork to press the foe back continually, and to follow in their wake. When you knock a foe back with a raise on damage, you may move with them.
  • Progress of Decay (Rolling Thunder Stance): Even as canopy trees decay into mulch, so shall each of thy foes, O errant.

Doctrine of Patience

  • Stooping Turn (Fleeting Worry, Hidden Calm): A short guard, ready to strike or retreat to better footing.
  • Certainty (Gaze of the Falcon): In the midst of a sure defense, wait until the perfect moment to strike.

Merits of Ancestral Harmony

  • Celestial Insight (Hidden Ember Attack): Welcome your ancestors, O errant, and they will lend strength to your arm and your weapon.
  • Guardian’s Guidance (Burning Spirit Stance): Whosoever draws upon their ancestors’ wisdom shall never know defeat, not even in one hundred battles.