TEXT: Scholars & Swashbucklers
  by Daniel Bazinga
  Introduction
  Scholars and Swashbucklers is 
  designed to be played during the late 
  renaissance around the turn of the 
  17th century. It is inspired the pulp 
  adventures of Dark Agnes and 
  Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard.
  This games uses d4, d6, d8, d10, 
  d12, d20 and d%. If you are told to 
  increase or decrease a die, do so in 
  that order. Low rolls are better. Only 
  the lowest roll is ever counted, except 
  when rolling for damage.
  Setting
  Good King Henri IV rules in France. 
  Constantly, religious fanatics 
  conspire to take his life for 
  promoting religious tolerance. 
  Bandits roam the countryside and 
  pirates the Mediterranean and 
  Channel. Powerful plots are brewing 
  in the courts of France as nobles bid 
  for the favor of the Habsburg rulers 
  or Spain and the Holy Roman 
  Empire.
  Stamina and  Dice
  STAMINA represents how fit and 
  healthy a character is. Your stamina 
  is the number of dice you get to roll 
  each turn. When your character takes 
  damage they lose STAMINA, reducing 
  the number of dice you get to roll.
  If something costs half your dice, 
  you round the cost down.
  If something costs a die, that means 
  you have to discard that die and don’t 
  get to roll it that turn. So if something 
  costs one die, that means you have to 
  spend at least two dice but you only 
  get to roll one.
  When rolling multiple dice, only 
  count the lowest roll.
  Grit
  GRIT is how serious damage has to be 
  before it wounds you. It is calculated 
  using the following chart. If you take 
  any damage to TOUGHNESS, be sure to 
  increase you Grit.
  TOUGHNESS
  GRIT
  d4
  1
  d6
  2
  d8
  3
  d10
  4
  d12
  5
  d20
  6
  d%
  6
  Skills
  Skills show how good your character 
  is at certain things. They are 
  represented by a die size. The lower 
  the die size, the better. To succeed at 
  something reasonably challenging, 
  you need to roll 5 or under. To 
  succeed at something pretty difficult, 
  you need to roll 3 or under. To 
  succeed at something almost 
  impossible, you need to roll a 1.
  COMBAT
  Fighting, Shooting, Grappling etc.
  CUNNING
  Stealth, Perception, Survival, 
  Ropework, Sleight-of-Hand, 
  Climbing, Dodging, Jumping etc.
  INFLUENCE
  Persuading, Lying, Disguising, 
  Commanding etc.
  MEDICINE
  Healing, Forensics, Identifying plants 
  and animals etc.
  SCHOLARSHIP
  Knowledge, Navigation, History, 
  Legend, Arcana, Reading etc.
  TOUGHNESS
  Lifting, Pulling, Shoving, Breaking, 
  Athletics, Damaging etc.
  TECH
  Disabling traps, Lock-picking, 
  Repairing, Crafting etc.
  VEHICLES
  Riding, Driving, Flying, Carting, 
  Sailing, Cannoning etc.
  Movement
  All characters are assumed to be 
  jogging during combat and walking 
  out of combat.
  Jogging will carry you one Distance 
  and costs half your dice for that turn, 
  rounding down. Sprinting carries you 
  two Distances and costs all your dice 
  for that turn.
  Distance
  The only part of the battle that really 
  matters is the part where the 
  characters are. Distances are relative 
  to your character. The distances are:
  Engaged – you can attack the enemy 
  with a melee weapon.
  Assault range – you will have to jog 
  to engage the enemy, or you can 
  attack them with an assault weapon 
  or a polearm.
  Missile range – you will have to 
  sprint to engage the enemy next turn, 
  or you can attack them with a missile 
  weapon.
  Long range – you might be able to 
  hit with a missile weapon. 
  Extreme range – you just might hit 
  with a missile weapon if you’re 
  skilled enough.
  Out of range – there is no way to 
  attack this enemy. You will have to 
  jog to get to extreme range with them 
  or sprint to get into long range.
  Weapon Range
  Melee weapons can only be used 
  when engaged.
  Polearms can be used at assault 
  range or when engaged.
  Assault weapons can be used at 
  assault range without penalty. They 
  can also be used while at missile 
  range or when engaged, but doing so 
  costs one die. They cannot be used at 
  long range or beyond.
  Missile weapons can be used at 
  missile range without penalty. Each 
  range closer or further away costs 
  one die to use, so long range and 
  assault range cost one die but 
  engaged and extreme range cost two 
  dice. They cannot be used when out 
  of range.
  Order of Battle
  Battle is messy business. There is no 
  set order in which characters and 
  enemies act. Instead, the GM should 
  decide the order of battle based on 
  what flows best. It is a good idea to 
  let a player spend some of their 
  stamina dice, then come back to them 
  later. Keep going round the table 
  until everyone is out of dice.
  The Element of Surprise
  If one group ambushes the other, then 
  the other characters are surprised. 
  Any characters who are surprised 
  lose half their dice for the first turn, 
  rounding down.
  Attacking
  You can put as many dice as you 
  want (equal to your stamina) into one 
  attack or you can divide them among 
  multiple opponents. Roll your dice, 
  and if any rolls are equal to or under 
  5, you hit. Unless…
  Defence
  If you’ve just been hit by an attack, 
  you can spend dice to defend 
  yourself by parrying, blocking, 
  dodging etc.—as many dice as you 
  want. You need to roll equal to or 
  lower than your opponent’s lowest 
  roll to block the attack. For melee 
  and polearm attacks, you roll your 
  COMBAT die type. For ranged attacks, 
  you roll the die type of the nearest 
  cover you can dive behind. If there is 
  no cover close by, you can still drop 
  prone. You can’t spend dice on 
  movement to reach cover during an 
  attack. (See Cover at the end of p. 2)
  Damage
  Once you’ve gotten through your 
  enemy’s defences, you roll your 
  
  weapon’s damage dice. If you rolled 
  3 or less, multiply the number of dice 
  by two. If you rolled a 1, multiply the 
  number of dice by three. These are 
  called critical hits. If you’re using a 
  melee weapon or polearm you also 
  get to roll one TOUGHNESS die. If you 
  are attacking unarmed, apply critical 
  hits to your TOUGHNESS die instead.
  Armor
  Armour reduces the number of 
  damage dice you get to roll by the 
  amount listed. If you still have dice 
  left, roll them. Otherwise, you’ll just 
  have to hope you can power through 
  with TOUGHNESS alone. Of course, if 
  you didn’t have a weapon to start 
  with, then all you get is your 
  TOUGHNESS die—but armour can still 
  block any extra TOUGHNESS die you 
  got from a critical hit.
  Wearing heavy armour will increase 
  your COMBAT die—called a Combat 
  Penalty—while wearing a buckler 
  will decrease it. Steel helmets are 
  almost universally worn, with or 
  without armour.
  Wounds
  Every damage die (including 
  TOUGHNESS) roll equal to or lower 
  than the opponent’s GRIT reduces the 
  opponent’s stamina by one point. An 
  opponent who runs out of stamina is 
  incapacitated and can’t do anything 
  until they are healed.
  Grappling
  Grappling is just like making an 
  unarmed attack, except armour isn’t 
  applied. Damage is dealt normally, 
  but instead of reducing STAMINA, 
  each wound increases COMBAT by 
  one die. When a character’s COMBAT 
  reaches D%, you’ve pinned them and 
  can now tie them up using the 
  CUNNING skill.
  You can leave a grapple by 
  succeeding at a grapple attack with 
  enough dice left to move out of 
  engagement. COMBAT resets to its 
  original value when you leave the 
  grapple.
  Death and Healing
  Once a battle is over, any 
  incapacitated characters must roll 
  their TOUGHNESS. On a 1, they regain 
  one STAMINA. On a 2 or 3, they are 
  stable but cannot move. On a 5 or 6 
  they are stable, but they either need 
  to roll again in one minute or 
  someone needs to roll a 5 or less on a 
  MEDICINE check to stabilise them 
  properly. On a 6 or more they are 
  dying.
  To save a dying character, someone 
  must roll 5 or less on a MEDICINE roll
  —the character is then stable. Only 
  one person gets to do this, and if they 
  fail the character dies.
  To heal a character, one person can 
  make a Medicine roll once the 
  character is stable. They gain one 
  STAMINA on a 5 or less, two STAMINA 
  on a 3 or less, and three STAMINA on 
  a 1.
  At the end of an adventure, if 
  characters have time to rest, they 
  regain all their Stamina. 
  Chance and Marks
  A MARK can be anything you want it 
  to be, as long at the GM agrees. It 
  describes something interesting about 
  your character. To gain CHANCE, use 
  your MARK to make things 
  complicated for your character—if 
  the GM likes it, they’ll give you a 
  CHANCE. Once you have some 
  CHANCE, you can spend one CHANCE 
  per action to use a MARK to your 
  advantage. If the GM agrees it’s 
  relevant, you get to add another die 
  to the roll.
  Weapons
  WEAPON
  DAMAGE
  Melee
  Dagger
  2d12
  Shortsword
  2d10
  Rapier
  3d10
  Saber
  2d8
  Mace
  4d12
  Reach
  Halberd
  4d10
  Zweihander
  3d8
  Pike
  4d12
  Assault
  Pistol
  4d10
  Grenade
  5d6
  Missile
  Musket
  5d8
  Crossbow
  3d10
  Reloading
  Pistols, Muskets and Crossbows 
  need to be reloaded each time they 
  are fired. This takes a whole turn’s 
  worth of dice.
  Cannon
  Cannon use the VEHICLES skill to fire. 
  Cannon can be used at any distance 
  without penalty, except when out of 
  range. To hit a ship, castle or 
  formation requires a 6 or less but 
  hitting a single character requires a 3 
  or less, with a 1 doubling instead of 
  tripling the damage dice. Normal 
  damage is 6d6.
  Fatigue
  When you fail at a strenuous activity, 
  such as climbing a cliff, swimming 
  through a storm or sprinting through 
  a hot jungle, increase your 
  TOUGHNESS die by one. If your 
  TOUGHNESS reaches d%, you act with 
  only half your dice for every turn 
  until your TOUGHNESS is restored to 
  its original value. You are now 
  fatigued.
  To recover TOUGHNESS, you need to 
  rest for an entire turn. Roll all your 
  dice as one TOUGHNESS roll, and if 
  you roll 3 or less, recover one point 
  of TOUGHNESS. You can’t rest if you 
  are still in the situation which caused 
  the fatigue.
  Cover Table
  TYPE
  DIE
  Drop prone
  d20
  Sheet wood
  d12
  Thick wood
  d10
  Stone
  d8
  Concealment
  Concealment reduces the number 
  attackers must roll to hit you, making 
  you harder to hit. These penalties 
  stack, meaning if more than one 
  applied then you add them together 
  and reduce the number by that 
  amount. However, the number 
  required to hit you can never be less 
  than 1.
  TYPE
  PENALTY
  Darkness
  -1
  Fog/smoke
  -1
  Foliage
  -1
  Arrow slit
  -3
  Gaining XP
  The GM should award around 5 XP 
  every time you do something 
  awesome, like using a Mark or a 
  Skill in an inventive way. Slaying an 
  enemy should grant you XP equal to 
  its STAMINA times 50 divided by 
  GRIT. If you deal the final blow can 
  decide to share XP with the party or 
  keep it for yourself. At the end of the 
  adventure, you can spend your XP 
  using the chart on your character 
  sheet.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Other (Unique) Systems/Top Secret Games Two Page Tabletops/Scholars & Swashbucklers.pdf