Swordmanship: Describing How You Swing a Sword...
Swordsmanship is the art of attacking and defending with a sword, but there are MANY ways to describe just how you swing a sword, or parry a deadly blow, or how you stab and slice up a bad guy real good.
So here’s a few ideas and examples from real life fighting styles that you could use in your game, hope you enjoy!
As a note: This is in response to an earlier post I made about how to encourage spellcasters to act out how they cast their spells, so take a look at that too if your more sorcery than swordsmanship…
Fencing Moves (and/or Swashbuckling)
The lunge is the most basic move, and involves attacking the opponent by taking a step forward in a striking form.
The feint is a move in which you provoke the opponent into lunging or making a mistake, so you can attack first.
An attack is a thrusting attack made by extending the front leg, and propelling the body forward with the back leg.
A disengage is a move used to trick the opponent by attacking a specific target, and moving in a semi-circle arc to attack a different area.
It is commonly countered with a circle-parry.
A remise is a second attack after the first has been parried or deflected.
A flick is a technique used to bend the blade so as to strike the opponent.
A beat Attack aims to beat the opponent’s blade continuously, and attack the target area with the intention of disturbing the opponent’s aim.
Perhaps describe how you use your first attack to beat the blade of an enemy’s sword to disturb their aim, or how you bend the blade around the enemy archer’s arm to cut the string of their bow, rendering their main weapon useless…
A riposte is counterattack made by the defender after a lunge. The defender either strikes back using a lunge or a parry.
A parry is a counterattack to lunge, and lets you block the attacker with his sword. In this manner, the attacker is pushed back, and the defender retains his position.
A circle parry is a move in which the sword is bent in a circular manner to catch the tip of the attacker’s sword and deflect it.
Maybe describe how an attacker’s blade misses you as you catch the tip of their blade with your sword and quickly deflect it away, or perhaps describe how you push back an attacker after parrying their strike.
Sword and Shield Fighting (AKA Broadsword Fighting)
This is a style of fighting with a broadsword and shield. Most of the moves are based on stances and quick sword attacks.
The feet should always be at a 30-degree angle, while the hips are cocked slightly to give support to the shield.
The sword should be held in the hand that corresponds to the trailing foot, and should be kept with the blade edge down.
Mobility is a good strategy to employ. Shift your weight in such a way that it’s concentrated on the balls of your feet, which gives you the advantage to move to either side at a moment’s notice.
So if your character is high mobility or dexterity and wields a sword and shield, maybe take a look at some of these techniques to employ in your game.
After all, your character has probably been trained in certain fighting styles anyhow…
So if you’re trained in something like the ‘Protection’ Fighting Style, or you’re proficient in shield, then maybe take a deeper look at this style of fighting.
Japanese Sword Fighting (Dueling & Two-Weapon Fighting)
Japanese sword fighting focuses on one-on-one fights, so if you’re playing a Rogue or a Swashbuckler or something similar, this is probably for you…
Japanese Sword Fighting Moves
The most basic move is the forward slicing cut, that begins from the overhead position until it makes contact with the opponent’s shoulder or head.
The swing is executed by positioning the sword behind you, and making an arc to cut your opponent.
While practicing kenjutsu or kendo, the harai waza technique is used to flip the opponent’s shinai (wooden sword) with your own, and then strike them.
The maki waza technique of Japanese sword fighting, involves connecting the shinai with that of your opponent’s, and spinning the shinai in a 360-degree angle.
The basic strikes in kendo are do-uchi (a strike to the body), mein-uchi (a strike to the wrist), and kote-uchi (a strike to the wrist to disarm the opponent).
So when wishing to describe how you disarm an opponent, describe how you slice and cut at their wrist until the are forced to drop their weapon…
A quick-draw move of iaido is the nukitsuke, which involves drawing the blade to cut and place the sword back in its scabbard.
Fighting with a sword that can be both two-handed and one-handed is a very difficult technique, but the attack moves are similar to fencing, with various thrusts, parrys, and strikes. The basic defense moves involve blocking and stepping.
If your back foot passes your front foot in a passing step, it’s a burst.
If your front foot passes your back foot in a passing step, it’s a lunge.
The ox ward is a stance done by putting the left foot forward, and the sword held close to your face and aimed towards the upper regions of the opponent’s body.
The plow ward is a stance done by putting the right foot forward, and placing the sword near the knees, with the blade aimed at the opponent’s chest.
The fool ward is executed by beginning in a left foot forward stance, with the sword aimed towards the ground in front of the left foot.
The high blow is a vertical blow against the opponent’s head.
The wrath blow is executed by swinging the sword from above, and diagonally aimed towards the opponent’s ear.
Perhaps deafen a creature by literally cutting off an ear with a sword blow?
The middle blow is executed horizontally, either from left to right or right to left.
A low blow is executed by swinging the sword from below, and aimed towards the opponent’s arms.
The overhead thrust is a move in which you jab the opponent with the sword, single-handedly.
There are four types of slashes when fighting with a longsword - the Oberhau, Unterhau, Zornhau, and Mittelhau.
Oberhau is an upper strike launched from above.
Zornhau is a diagonal upper body strike launched from above.
Mittelhau is a middle strike launched from either side.
Unterhau is a strike aimed from below.
Voiding is a defensive move used to step either forward, backward, or sideways, out of the sword’s attack range.
Voiding a slash involves the same concept as voiding a thrust, with the added element of the arc of attack instead of the line of attack.
Uppercuts are voided by dropping the blade to your side.
Using sword-fighting techniques in your game…
So, it sounds like a bunch of gibberish about swords right? What can you use in your game?
Well any Battle Master Fighter is definitely gonna find these useful, as the Battle Master Maneuvers definitely reflect these types of sword-fighting.
And a Bard or Rogue or even just a Fighter with a rapier is gonna find the fencing moves quite fun to act out, as you describe how you effortlessly catch the tip of the enemy’s blade with your sword and quickly deflect it away, before performing your own counterattack while talking smack about their mama.
Anyone fighting with a Sword & Shield can use the Broadsword Fighting style to add a bit of narrative flair to their character, describing how they hold their shield and how they always have their sword blade down…
And the Broadsword Fighting style is also cool for the more speedy people in the group, whether it be physical speed through things like a high base speed or the mobile feat, to things like teleporting around the battlefield.
And even monks could describe how they manage to shift the weight of their body in one fluid motion just fast enough to not only avoid that incoming arrow, but pluck it out of the sky like a grape from a vine…
The stances of longsword fighting are probably the coolest flare to add to your fighter or rogue or monk or whatever, and it allows a player to almost perfectly describe how their character sets themselves up for the next fight.
So, there’s some cool stuff that you could use in your game to describe how your character swings their sword!
Maybe I’ll do more posts about other weapons, like describing how you shoot an arrow from a bow or crossbow, or how you swing an axe or quarterstaff, or maybe just a whole posts for monks about how to describe punching a bad guy for the 1,500th time…
If you have any suggestions for the kind of posts you want to see in the future, leave a comment or reblog with your thoughts!
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