FAB Formats: Duel - Best of Three Weapons

Inspired by historical duels, fighting games, and the core design and formats of Flesh and Blood TCG, I wondered if there was a more interesting way to play a best of three.

Recently, I heard from a professional weapons, armor, and martial arts historian about evidence showing that in some medieval-era trials by combat or later modern-era duels in Europe would allow each combatant to have a set of three weapons, and what some of those weapons were and where to look for more information about them.
    I've known about historical duels (and tournaments and many of their oddities and mind-bogglingly alien shortcomings) since I was a kid, but it had been a long time since I had done any deep researching or reenacting or armed combating (unless you count games like MTG, D&D, and WoWTCG).

As someone with a hyper-active imagination and deep desire to research, I can't help but come up with new rules, new game variants and modes, or bump into new information and run wild with it and rope in other enthusiastic people to take it a step further.
    But this time, instead of getting together a bunch of people from my local pub to spread the word and, if able, bring their armor to a random field for a mock trial by combat over the claiming of a mug of craft beer, or slice of pizza, or horn of magnificently-aged mead, I wondered how to apply the concept to my current hobby: Flesh and Blood.

What if instead of playing a best of one each round during the playoffs or grand finals at your local game store or small private table, you played a best of three with different weapons each round? And what, exactly, was involved in the historical duels I was inspired by?

Historical Precedents

In a trial by combat to decide which of the accusers and defendants is righteous without proper evidence (or the willingness to wait patiently and search for evidence or talk over the matter and come to a mutually or legally agreeable settlement), the one who killed the other or the defendant who was not injured in one long bout progressing from long to medium to short weapons would be declared the winner of the argument. (Codex Wallerstein. Gladiatoria. Hans Talhoffer 1449, Fechtbuch 1459, and 1467. Jeffrey Hull, Fight Earnestly - the Fight-Book from 1459 AD by Hans Talhoffer, 2007.)

"The first two bindings with the pike on the weak and strong"

All illustrations by Jörg Breu the Younger from Opus Amplissimum de Arte Athletic (MSS Dresd.C.93/C.94) by Paulus Hector Mair, with translations by Keith P. Myers.

Many of the details about how these duels tended to start aren't applicable to a card game, and it's in the intricacies of the actual fighting and the teachings and writings and experiences of martial artists specializing in training people for these duels that fascinate me. From inspiring to mind characters, to fighting styles and specific approaches to an engagement and chains of attacks, to, of course, particular kinds of equipment and peculiar weapons.
    The weapon set combatants tended to bring (or be given) was a spear or poleaxe (rarely a "greatsword"), a sword (longsword, sometimes a messer), and a dagger (Peter von Danzig 1452), and sometimes a buckler or pavise. Combatants would meet fully armed, starting with their longest weapons equipped, then progressing to shorter and shorter ones over time as necessary.

"A Cut with a Throw out of the Hacken (Leg Hook)"

 

"A Double Thrust to the Face"

 

"A Strike from above with a Throw"

At times, a "long shield" (also called a "dueling shield") with large spikes or hooks might be used, either with a medium weapon (sword or mace) or on its own in a certain style of grappling.
    Duels could be fought specifically with swords between nobles and maces between peasants (as wooden-hafted maces were much cheaper and readily available), sometimes with a buckler or long shield. Duels were also expected progress to wrestling after daggers, or at any point a combatant could employ grappling or other techniques against their opponent to disarm them or knock them prone.

"A Double Thrust to the Face"

Historically, some of these duels were seen as being decided by a deity, but not all. In Germany, for example, scholars distinguished between a "means of reaching a decision" and a "means of obtaining proof" in which the religious/cultural belief that a deity would would decide who is right (by allowing the just combatant to live and their opponent to die) fell under the former, in contrast to evidence, investigations, and/or legal processes which fell under the latter. (Hugh T. Knight, Jr., Some Observations on the Judicial Duel as Practiced in Fifteenth-Century Germany, 2018. Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal, 1986.)

"Afterword"

 " Behold, good gentlemen, here lies the man
who vilely lied about me, and
God knows what falsehoods he of late
accused me for in envy and hate
He betrayed me as he thought he might
bring to my reputation malice and spite.
He wanted to soil my good name
and slander me for evil shame
but God and the virtuous spirit of mine
defended have my life this time
God that gave me courage and power,
so that I was the victor upon this hour,
and won to day in a most honorable way,
For that I thank almighty God in all my days,
Forgive him for his sins O Lord above, you may
He has received his punishment today,
I am only content as here I stand,
defended have my honour with my hand
which is demanded of a man of my station,
who cherishes his name and his reputation. "

Humans are so bizarre.

Duels Concept - The Rules

In a Flesh and Blood TCG event, if the participants are willing (enthusiastic or otherwise determined) and able (they have the necessary weapons or can borrow them if not), the playoffs or grand finals will be played as a best of three games and each player must change their weapons (and will have one minute to deckbuild) between each game.
    Alternatively, the event organizer may decide that only the winner of a game must change their weapons (and the loser of a game may choose to keep or change their weapons, and may even be allowed to declare which weapons their opponent must use next). In this case, if any game ends in a draw, both players must change their weapons.
    Lastly, if three games are played and no winner is declared, both players must play a final game without weapons.

That's it. If not the main event, then something casual to make games between only two players more fun, and hopefully more interesting.

Pretty simple; no new game rules, and no specific deckbuilding rules besides the ones for the official format being played (not even needing three weapons in your registered deck until you register them for the playoffs or grand finals).
    I think it could work, and that it could be very interesting to create or be mindful of different card packages in your sideboard that let you lean more towards different weapons and playstyles than the ones you would normally implement for that hero and your specific deck in the rest of the event. At the very least, it feels like this variant has a lot of potential in spite of its simplicity, which is almost entirely (if not entirely) due to the design of the game, its classes and heroes, and each of its sets so far.

One issue with this format is that some heroes have access to more weapons than others.
    Not including generic weapons (of which there is one) or shields (of which there is one generic and one guardian): illusionists have access to one weapon (two if they are a light illusionist), wizards and mechanologists have two, ninjas have three, rangers have two (four if they are an elemental ranger), guardians and brutes have three (four if they are an elemental guardian or a shadow brute), warriors have four (five if they are a light warrior), and runeblades have five (six if they are a shadow runeblade; one of which is banned in Classic Constructed).

Talishar, the Lost Prince from Crucible of War, the only generic weapon in the game.

Of course, there will be more sets released in the future. And, possibly, another supplemental set that adds new equipment and weapons themed for Tales of Aria and whichever set comes next, which would help fix this issue or potentially transform it into an exciting feature. If another set like Crucible of War is released again, playing a "best of three weapons" variant for Blitz could be a fun way to try out multiple weapons in a row around its release.

Playtesting

With so little free time because of work and moving and other personal things going on—and no local playgroup or contacts after actively trying to find and invite people for a month now—I haven't gotten to play this. Having an extremely limited card pool is another issue I'll have if I ever do find local folks (I only have one box of Tales of Aria and one "event ticket" booster pack of Monarch), but I'd probably end up playtesting in Tabletop Simulator to start with anyway.

So, there you have it. If anyone tries it out, discovers a flaw, develops it, or uses the idea as a launch pad for a different variant or homebrew format, I'd love to hear about it!

And, if you know of any other historical facts or oddities that can be applied to games (Flesh and Blood, armored combat and reenactment, or games in general), I'd love to hear about that too.

That's all for this week, most likely. Don't feel obligated, but if you like what I do and want to see what I'm working on, consider checking out my Patreon.

Thanks for reading! GLHF, and good games to everyone I got to watch play at the Calling: Dallas Fort-Worth this weekend! It's nice being able to take a break and live vicariously through others when I'm unable to go on such adventures myself.