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Last time I spoke about the weapons of Rank & File. Today I’m going to talk about the weight behind them: the combat schools.
The process is simple: when you learn how to use a weapon, you’re training yourself in one or more styles of combat. Similarly, when a character in Rank & File learns how to use a weapon, they train in certain combat schools that specialise in that weapon. Those combat schools add variety and complexity to the combat through special attacks and defences, and provide a foundation on which players can build strategy as they advance and find new teachers to learn new schools.
The Combat Schools
At present there are eight schools, each focusing on different weapons and styles. I wanted players to have options even when they felt locked into a specific weapon, so most weapons have more than one combat style that suits them. The only (current) exception is maces; they are limited to the clergy school and I’m debating removing them because of it, perhaps moving them into the same category as “hammers”. There are a couple of reasons they’re staying for now: first, that hammers are also tools, and versatile, and neither of those tags really fits maces to any extent; and second, that it marks out members of the clergy with a specific weapon. You know you’re fighting a man of the cloth when he rounds on you with a twelve-flanged ball of steel.
Anyway, enough prevarication. Onto the schools!Bodyguarding
This was one of the first schools I came up with, hearkening back to the brightly-coloured landsknecht mercenaries of the late medieval period. Wielding spears, shields, and two-handed swords, their fighting style focuses on flow and area control and defending against many attackers. Typically lightly-armoured, bodyguards emphasise defence and maintaining control over powerful attacks or quick kills, and they favour long weapons and space over close fights in tight quarters.
Infantry
Your typical military brat. I decided I didn’t want this school to use swords (too flashy!), so they’re trained in axes, spears, and shields. Where the bodyguard uses a spear and shield to protect an area, the infantry school favours formation fighting, close quarters, and easily-drilled attacks. It’s about quick strikes, carefully-planned movements, and covering your back where possible!
Street Combat
What if you’re not an army brat? Well you can still learn to fight, and there’s many a back-alley ring that’ll coach you in some of the nastier tricks when all you have is a hammer, an axe, or a knife. Or even just your fists.
The street combat school emphasises dirty fighting and finding advantages, and uses the environment to turn battles around. It’s the purview of muggers, cutpurses, and hired thugs, and if you don’t know how to fight you’d better learn some of it… or else!
Nobility
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the ranks of elites learn a completely different kind of combat. Their fights have rules and regulations, and the kinds of weapons and styles of combat are incredibly restrictive. If you used the noble school as taught, you’d be restricted to duelling with rapiers, fighting at range with the longbow, and jousting from horseback; most nobles tend to adapt these styles to lighter, faster bows and stouter, heavier blades, and many of them mix in some bloodier forms of combat to gain an edge.
Clergy
It was when I was writing up the nobility style that I realised I should probably have a clergy-specific combat school. This is not the modern church, which shuns battle and insists on soft power; this is the medieval church, fire-and-brimstone sermons and crusades against the non-believers. It’s based heavily on the catholic church, hence the embargo on edged weapons; the only edge you’re allowed to have is the flanges on your mace. These are the bishops and pastors of ages past, who were expected to join in on holy wars and hold inquisitions and who hold rods and sceptres of office that are designed to break bone and dent metal.
Hence, staves and clubs, maces and hammers are the church leader’s weapons of choice. The fighting style is very battle-focused: it’s about making sure folks don’t get up after you hit them, and it uses leverage and weight to deliver stunning blows rather than pure brute strength.
Martial Arts
This is a broad category for one school, but it’s designed so that there is a place for Eastern martial arts in amongst the general HEMA mess that’s going on with the rest of this (and it is a mess – more on that later).
The Martial Arts school uses staves and clubs, but also unarmed fighting. It emphasises self-defence, grabs, throws, and ending the fight quickly. Attacks hit pressure points and manipulate opponents but are generally non-lethal, making this the perfect school for cat burglars, commoners, and people who want to stay on the right side of the law.
Archery
Since we have a category for martial arts, it seemed fitting to have one dedicated to every single kind of bow. In this case, it’s more for convenience; better to have them all in one place, than to try and figure out which other schools they’d fit into.
Archery covers all kinds of bow, from hunting bows to longbows to crossbows, but it also includes shields. Specifically, it’s the only school that teaches its students to wield a pavise, an enormous shield which can double as mobile cover. So if you want to live your dream of role-playing as a 12th century Genoese crossbowman, this is the game for you!
Swordplay
Yeah, we’ve got a sword school as well.
I know they’re already kinda over-represented, but this is a more general school representing the types of swordfighting not covered by bodyguarding with a zweihander or duelling with a rapier. This school is primarily the refuge of military officers, teaching some duelling but also sabre, short- and long-sword, and sword and shield combat. This is also where nobles tend to learn duelling variants: sword-and-buckler, parrying daggers, or even rapier and short-sword (if they’re insane).
So Why Combat Schools?
The decision to split weapons into combat schools came about through a few different inspirations. The first was the Battle Master fighter in Dungeons & Dragons: I always loved that subclass, it added so much depth and variety to what you could do as a simple fighter. Adding specific combat actions which changed up how you approached fights was, in my opinion, a clever variant and one that added to character depending on your choice of action. In many ways, I wanted to make this game a homage to my favourite character subclass in D&D.
Second was the vast swathe of YouTube channels dedicated to HEMA and weaponry, but specifically Robinswords, SellswordArts, and Blumineck. Robinswords and Blumineck both inspired the bodyguarding school, with its focus on area defence, and the latter naturally also inspired the archery school. SellswordArts are more generically combat-oriented, but the range of weaponry and techniques they discuss gave me some ideas for the weapon types and combat schools associated with them.
Thirdly, I didn’t want any one weapon to be associated with just one set of attacks. You should be able to customise your character so that it feels unique, and that includes how the weapons feel when you’re in combat. The exception to this – the mace – is an interesting one: it’s firmly in the clergy school, but it’s not infeasible that a common soldier could learn to swing one. I’m not adding it anywhere else yet though; I enjoy its unique position among weapons, and I may build that into the setting and lore a bit.
But anyway, the weapon feel. When you pick up a claymore, I don’t want you to feel like you’re locked into bodyguarding; you should be able to jump into combat with a flexible style, and that means being able to draw from multiple schools! So a two-handed sword is the purview of bodyguards, yes; but it’s also the purview of officers and swordsmen, and there are many schools that will teach you many different ways to wield it! The realist will likely focus on one school, building up their expertise and feeling like a real medieval soldier; the minmaxer will look at the options available to them and find the ability combinations from different schools which break the balance!
And I kinda like that. I think gameplay should have a mix of realistic elements and ways to break the simulation – it wouldn’t be gameplay otherwise. My concerted effort is going to be towards making the combat abilities unique and interesting, without simply saying “you get +1 to hit”, and keeping the schools separate and hopefully somewhat equal?
It’s occurring to me now that I still have a long way to go with this game. But it’s gonna be fun! So I hope you join me on this journey. Even after the end of RPGcember I’ll be updating the game and updating these logs, so there’ll be something to follow.
I’ll see you next time, when I’ll be talking about barriers to entry.