A card-based duelling mechanic
Many a swashbuckling adventure contains a fencing duel or ten: our hero facing off against one or more opponents, their swords clattering as the fight takes them around the scenery in a way that is very difficult to emulate with a succession of attack (or damage) rolls. Where are the feints? where are the clever reversals? Instead, I present here a duelling mechanic (or perhaps rather a minigame?) using a deck of playing cards to emulate the back and forth of a classic fencing duel for two combatants: First, unless the game has a clearly defined attacker, both players draw a card to determine who starts on the offence and who starts on the defence . Highest card is offence . The duel is played out over a number of rounds, in the beginning of each round, cards are drawn, then cards are played, continuing until one combatant is defeated. In the first round, the players each draw a hand of five cards. In later rounds, they will draw two new cards for their hand, to replenish those play
