Stuck at Home; Keeping myself sane

The practice of dueling was at its peak during the 11^th to 20^th centuries and involved two people engaging in combat with either sword or pistol in later centuries. Today we have a sort of romantic notion regarding duels, as they are perceived to be about honor, duty and chivalry, but this is much further from the truth. Most were vicious brawls resulting in the death of one or both of the duelists.  From the early 17th century duels were often illegal in Europe, though in most societies where dueling was socially accepted, participants in a fair duel were not prosecuted, or if they were, were not convicted. Only gentlemen were considered to have honor, and a gentleman would never duel with anyone of a lower social status.

Most sword fights were generally inconclusive, swordsmen generally died from wounds, rather than during a fight. They generally die after a fight from blood loss and infections. The majority of duels ended when blood was drawn, and honor was satisfied by one side or the other.

On occasion a sword blade may break, this would normally mean that combatants would finish the duel grappling, using similar techniques seen today in the mixed martial arts arena. The use of elbows, knees and eye gouging were all acceptable. Duelist’s could and would use other parts of the sword, during a fight, for instance a swordsman may smash the pommel onto his opponent repeatedly, and this is where we get the term to pommel someone from.

Despite the modern idea of chivalry and the Marquis of Queensbury rules, most duels were vulgar scrappy street fights, nothing more than deadly brawls. There were no rules or chivalric behavior, these were fights to first blood or on the rare occasion to death. This meant that both sides were desperate to win and would use any tactic or technique at their disposal, no matter how ungentlemanly we may now think they are.

The most successful duelists were dashing swashbucklers, but professional killers. Those who were considered swashbucklers were normally braggarts, as the term swashbuckler comes from the 16th century to describe rough, noisy and boastful swordsmen. It is based on a fighting style using a side sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much “swashing and making a noise on the buckle.

Today we would probably say that a duel as nothing more than cold blooded murder sanctioned by law.

When considering duelling for gaming ideas we probably all think of the Three Musketeers, but a duel could be between two champions from opposing sides, who call each other out before the start of battle. A similar scene to the one in the film Troy, when Brad Pitt’s character Achilles is challenged to open combat.

There are several rules on the market that cater for a duel type scenario such as Open Combat coupled with the expansion Sword Masters, En Garde by Osprey Games or the aptly named fantasy rules set by Alternative Armies called Duel. Anyone one of these would be perfect to stage a duel on the tabletop, especially if you want to recreate scene from the Three Musketeers books and films. For those wanting to recreate scenes of sword duels from Hong Kong films them I’d recommend A Fistful of Kung Fu.

The great thing about recreating a duel, is you could set it in any location indoor our outside. You could recreate a Tavern Brawl/Duel and fight amongst the table and chairs in a bar. You could fight on the city roof tops, leaping from roof to roof fighting and any mis footing could result in falling to your death. Or you could just fight a single combat in front of an army on the battlefield. There are endless options available and this makes for a quick and exciting game to play, great for those with very little time on their hands.