The Mark of Zorro (1940) Marked Elsewhere

Jill Bearup has a YouTube video on the subject of the fight choreography in The Mark of Zorro (1940), which may be of interest to readers of Theoretical Swashbuckling. (I certainly found it interesting.) Watch it here.

Fudging Blades

"Fudging Blades: Swashbuckling Combat for Fudge!" (from SpiritMusketeer's Blog) is a simple swashbuckling combat system for Fudge by Thijs Krijger and Jay Shaffstall with help from François Letarte. It lacks the detail of simulationist fencing rules, but it appears to be relatively fast-paced. It looks promising.

[This article has been cross-posted here in Creative Reckoning.]

Zorro: The Roleplaying Game Resources

If I have one criticism about Zorro: The Roleplaying Game, it's that it lacks a separate character sheet. The rule book has one, but it's part of the book, not a separate sheet that would be easy to photocopy. There's a PDF of the character sheet, but it's only available if you buy the PDF of the rule book. Thankfully, there are several free versions of the character sheet floating about the Internet, and here are links to two of them:

• Zorro RPG: Mini-Review and Character Sheets
• Zorro [resources]

The second link also includes custom and vintage maps of colonial California and other useful information for anyone running Zorro: The Roleplaying Game adventures.

The Treasures Ye Seek Be RPGs!

The Blog of Exalted Deeds has an article that might be useful to readers of Theoretical Swashbuckling: namely, Role-Playing Games Set in the Early Modern Period (ca. 1500-1800). This will be especially useful for my How to Be a Swashbuckler series and my personal collection of swashbuckling games.

The Scarlet Pimpernel Reviewed Elsewhere

Readers of Theoretical Swashbuckling may find it both edifying and entertaining to read the reviews of several adaptations of The Scarlet Pimpernel in Ellsworth's Cinema of Swords: Sink Me! Scarlet Pimpernels!.

Flashing Blades Overview Over There

I am always happy to find others writing about swashbuckling role-playing games, so I would like to direct my readers to [Obscure Games] Flashing Blades, an overview of Flashing Blades in The Ongoing Campaign by faoladh.

All for Me Grog and Grog for All

Any whisper on the wind of a piratical role-playing game always piques my interest, and when word of such a scheme reached me from the shores of The Savage Afterworld, I knew it bore further inspection. The game in question is All for Me Grog by Ryan Shelton, available at RPGNow in PDF, print, and PDF/print formats for a very low price (with the PDF currently at $3.00 and the PDF/print combination at a mere $5.00). Having purchased and read the PDF (and awaiting the arrival of the softcover), I can confirm that the rules look promising and I am eagerly anticipating the chance to test its seaworthiness. I'll belay a review of my own until then, but in the meantime, I direct you to Shiver Me Timbers! A Review of "All for Me Grog" Cinematic Pirate RPG by renowned sea dog Tim Snider.

Logos or Signal Flags

Theoretical Swashbuckling is at the crosswinds of two of my other Web logs and interests: Applied Phantasticality (Old School Renaissance gaming) and Creative Reckoning (Fudge gaming). I've made two simple logos, one for each, but they are both relevant to this humble Web log.

The first is a logo designed as a link to OSR Search. This effort was inspired by, but falls short of, a similar link found at Zenopus Archives.

The second is a generic logo for Fudge. This is the variation suitable for black backgrounds. Three other variations for white backgrounds also exist.