Honor+Intrigue is created by Chris Rutkowsky of Basic Action Games.

QuoteHonor+Intrigue is a new, standalone game from Basic Action Games. Inspired as much by Hollywood as by history, Honor + Intrigue pays homage to the swashbucklers of the silver screen as well as great works such as those of Dumas and Sabatini. Game Masters should feel free to use history as a source of inspiration, not a restriction. True to its inspiration, Honor + Intrigue plays fast and cinematic, leaving the focus on drama and action unfolding.

I've been running Honor+Intrigue for over two and a half years now. Our group plays once a week and to date we have played 144 sessions most of those with the same group of characters, though we have had a few changes, additions, and subtractions and a few solo adventures. Recently Spinachcat asked me to start a thread about H+I. If you like the idea he gets the credit. If the writing bores you well we know who to blame for that, don't we?

What drew you to the system?
Oddly enough, what drew me to Honor+Intrigue was WEG's Star Wars D6 system. Star Wars D6 is a system that I really enjoy and the WEG materials were excellent for Rebels vs. Empire or fringe characters operating in the shadows without strong loyalty to either side. We've been playing off and on since the mid-1990s. As the Jedi characters have increased in power, the one failing in the system that I found was in lightsaber combat. The system encourages an Armageddon style of combat where each opponent needs to spend Force Points or Dark Side Points from the very first round because if they don't do so and their opponent does, the doubling of both attack chance and damage means that the one not using a Force Point will lose and the damage is not survivable. As a game mechanic one round win or die lacked even the minimal interest of a game of nuclear rock-paper-scissors. As a fun way to play it was even more lacking.

In brainstorming ideas for a more interesting way to duel with someone on another forum I heard about H+I which had a mechanic for yielding advantage. H+I also had styles which was something the prequels added to Jedi lightsaber combat. Yielding advantage to avoid a killing blow or to retreat instead of standing and dying sounded like something that might work for Star Wars.

So I bought the H+I rules and found I liked the dueling styles. At the same time, my co-GM for Star Wars was on GMing hiatus and I was ready for a change from GMing Star Wars. My players were pretty enthused about Musketeers and swashbuckling action so I was able to sell learning a new system based on the payoff of getting to play Musketeers and stuff.

What makes it more interesting to use for swashbuckling versus other RPGs?
Honor+Intrigue is based on Barbarians of Lemuria which I had only vaguely heard of and have never played. Based on my experience with H+I I'd imagine BoL would do a good job of simulating Howard's Conan, Burroughs Martian series, or Lin Carter's Thongor.

Here's what I like about H+I combat.

• Hit point are essentially static which matches my preference for games like Runequest, Call of Cthulhu, and Star Wars D6 all of which have static hit points.

• The combat system is designed predominantly around dueling and sword combat so it has more options that a combat system that is a bit more generic or even in the way it treats different types of dealing out damage. This allows more options for melee weapons without adding the same level of complexity for brawling or ranged combat. For swashbuckling action this is a plus. (There are adventures that include additional options to supplement brawling or ranged combat, but they aren't part of the core rules. )

• Any character can perform any combat maneuver. To me this is more intuitive and seems more natural that some sort of feat system where certain moves are unavailable to most characters. However characters can master a maneuver to get an advantage when they use that maneuver.

• Different maneuvers use or are defended by different attributes. Therefore Might, Daring, Savvy, and Flair can all be used for different maneuvers in combat. What effect of this is that characters with different stats will naturally prefer to use different maneuvers which gives the strong, brave character a different effective fighting style than the intelligent, charismatic character, etc.

• Characters can master one or more dueling styles which gives them some advantages when using their style and also some color. One thing I really like is that the combination of maneuvers in a given style and the attributes the master possess combine to make nearly every character different in combat while giving no character a guaranteed I WIN button.

• Characters begin play as very competent. The game has 3 levels of characters.

• Heroes are typically just the PCs.

• Villains who provide their main antagonist(s) or opponent(s) and are of the same level as the PCs (or higher).

• Retainers who often provide the Villains lieutenants and who may be a challenge for a single PC, but who will typically not be able to kill a PC though they might be able to defeat one.

• Pawns who form the rank and file of the opposition – think the Cardinal's Guards in most any Musketeer film or the nameless guards in an Errol Flynn movie. One PC can take on several pawns at once and will usually win and will almost never be killed.

As you can see, this replicates the conventions of the typical swashbuckler film or story where the PCs are the protagonists.

I don't want this to be one long monologue. I have a few more questions that I'll add in periodically if interest seems to warrant it, but feel free to ask other questions or to provide answers or input from your own experiences.

So what do you think about Honor+Intrigue

To be continued...

Are there any interesting mechanics for negotiation, social interaction, battles of wits, etc.?

Quote from: rawma;815497Are there any interesting mechanics for negotiation, social interaction, battles of wits, etc.?

Good question. Yes,there are mechanics. Which are basically the same as the mechanics for other actions in the game, and like combat there is enough nuance to make the social combat interesting and for it to include roleplaying choices. So I'd say it's interesting and appropriate for the swashbuckling genre.

QuoteSocial Combat
The Object: In a peaceful social situation, a PC may nevertheless find themselves in a hostile environment, where friends and enemies are indecipherable. A character might engage in "social combat" of insults, retorts, veiled threats, gossip, flattery, etc. Here the "attacker" is trying to bully, trick, or persuade the other party to do something they otherwise wouldn't. Instead of attacking Lifeblood, the attacker tries to make them lose all Composure, whereupon they are defeated. Just like a regular combat, you roll initiative; though in this case the Careers that would be useful for breaking ties are based on the sort of social situation involved. A business deal might utilize the Merchant career, while a fancy dress ball would utilize Courtier, or a scientific debate would utilize Scholar as the most important career.

Mechanically characters start with 3 Composure, so in effect three successful attacks defeats the character. Characters can use actions to attack or to defend themselves. Careers may provide a bonus to the roll as may appropriate role playing.

QuoteThe Attack: When you engage in Social Combat, the GM has you roll Flair, possibly aided by Careers, against one of the opponent's Qualities (usually Daring, Savvy, or Flair). In addition to rolling dice, role-play what you are saying/doing. If it's good, the GM may give a +1 bonus to the roll. If it's fantastic, the GM may give a +2 bonus to the roll. Tip: if you aren't as sharp-tongued as your character, it may be a good idea to have a few clever remarks prepared ahead of time. Books, movies, and TV shows are all good inspiration for this.

Social combat includes maneuvers that can be used in combat. One uses the Repartee maneuver as a Major Action. (Characters get one Major and one Minor action each combat round.) Repartee can be used to trick, intimidate, or taunt an opponent which may provide bonuses to the character or penalties to the opponent. Repartee Attacks and Defense are handled like they are in Social Combat. And like in combat, different attributes or Qualities are useful for defending against the various types of Repartee attacks, i.e. Savvy vs. Trick, Daring vs. Intimidate, and Flair vs. Taunt.

Quote from: Bren;815499Mechanically characters start with 3 Composure, so in effect three successful attacks defeats the character.

How does that defeat manifest itself? Are there specific parameters and results for a given context, is it determined by the GM, or does the victorious player have some authority to compel a particular outcome (e.g., making the defeated opponent comply with some demand, say--to stand aside, turn over some possession, flee in disgrace, etc)?

Quote from: rawma;815505How does that defeat manifest itself? Are there specific parameters and results for a given context, is it determined by the GM, or does the victorious player have some authority to compel a particular outcome (e.g., making the defeated opponent comply with some demand, say--to stand aside, turn over some possession, flee in disgrace, etc)?

All of the above, depending on what is going on. According to the rules the way it manifests may not fully be mechanically specified. Keep in mind that reducing Composure to 0 is the equivalent of reducing Lifeblood (hit points) to 0 in combat. The result should be pretty definitive.  In practice it might go like this.

Player has character say threatening sounding thing. Player may say, "I'm trying to intimidate him." In which case the effect of reduction to Composure 0 is often clear from context e.g. I want him to tell me where the gold is hidden or I want him to surrender. If it is not clear contextually I'll ask for clarity.

Also note that Repartee can be used in combat, e.g. Intimidate (or Trick or Taunt) can be used in which case there is a specified mechanical effect of a (-1) penalty to certain actions. So an intimidated character can still attack, but with a penalty. A character who has been Taunted can choose not to attack but has a penalty, etc.

Similarly if the player doesn't specifically say "I'm trying to intimidate him" I may ask, "Are you trying to intimidate him" or I'll just go with the flow and interpret that as an attempt by the character at intimidation. In play it is often really clear what the character is doing.

Alternatively if the player knocks the NPCs Composure all the way to 0, if the result isn't pretty obvious I'll ask the player what success looks like. As long as it fits the NPC and situation we go with that. If it doesn't fit we discuss.

Similarly if the PC's Composure is reduced all the way to 0 I'll typically ask the player how that manifests. This is an area where it may help to agree ahead of time what loss might look like for the PC e.g. "becomes red in the face and inarticulate and stops out of the room in a huff" for the result of Composure reduced to zero in say a salon discussion.

This thread asked about degrees of success. Which H+I doesn't really have. So I present:

Success, Failure, Mighty Success, and Calamitous Failure
H+I uses a 2d6 roll with this is modified by adding Qualities and Combat Abilities, subtracting the appropriate defense, and adding in any situational modifiers e.g. (-2) for a shot at Long Range. An adjusted or net roll of 9 or better is a success. Natural rolls on the dice of 2 or 12 are special results. If a natural roll of 12 when adjusted a 9 or greater, then that is considered a Might Success which does extra damage or various special effects. If the adjusted roll is a failure, i.e. is < 9, then a natural 12 is an automatic normal success. Similarly if the roll is a natural 2 and if the adjusted roll would have failed, i.e. is < 9, then that is considered a Calamitous Failure. If the adjusted roll is still a 9 or greater then a natural 2 is an automatic failure.
This does mean that the chance for a special result does not scale with the chance for success. Which is a negative, but the tradeoff is speed of calculation since one can clearly see if the dice are a 2 or a 12 without the need to add or subtract to get some degree of success.

Interesting. Wonder how it would compare to Capitan Alatriste?

I don't know Spanish. Is there a version of Capitan Alatriste in English?

From my reading of the novels (I've read all but the last one which isn't translated yet), numbers make a big difference in the world of Alatriste. And Alatriste behaves as if any swordfight could be fatal. All of which makes it feel more gritty/realistic than heroic/swashbuckling. H+I is designed to emulate the sort of heroic swashbuckling antics you see from Errol Flynn in Robin Hood or Captain Blood.

It's not that you can't do gritty with H+I, just that I don't think it is designed with that in mind. One thing would be to eliminate Pawns from H+I. That would make all the NPCs closer to the equal of the PCs and would make the odds matter a lot more and would better emulate a gritty feel.

By go to for a grittier feel and the danger that 2-1 odds gives in Alatriste I'd use my go to system which is some version of a Runequest/BRP/CoC. Those systems seem to be better designed for that gritty, anybody could die feel. Possibly Flashing Blades would also do a good job, though that's just a guess based on a cursory reading of the rules. (I added the social rank system from Flashing Blades as well as the costs and income. But I use H+I for everything else.)

Here is another question.

Are you running Alt-History or more Fantasy History?
This is something I discussed with the players before start of play. Honor+Intrigue has a nice section that talks about different flavors of swashbuckling action games (serious vs comedic, fantasy vs historical, high action vs. more gritty, etc). The players indicated they did not want to see regular occurrences of magic or the supernatural. Despite that one of the characters is very religious and also believes in things like devils, witches, and demons.

So far, nothing the players have seen is obviously and undoubtably magical.

• They have seen a spooky black wolf at night with glowing eyes that one or two characters thought was a demon. (It might have been supernatural, but whether it was or wasn't never came up.)

• They have seen a black armored winged figure on a black horse. It was a black armored Winged Hussar who seemed supernatural to one of the characters. (He is not.)

• They rescued a boy from a Loup Garou (werewolf), but when confronted the werewolf turned out to be a crazed man driven mad by grief who dressed in wolfskins and thought he was a wolf.

• They have met Brother Melitus, a monk who appears to have unusal healing abilities. The Jesuit Priest who is also a physican (among many other careers) has stated that the monk has healed things that he could not. The party refers to Brother Melitus as the Miracle Monk and several of the PCs think he performs healing miracles.

So far that is it as far as anything that could be considered supernatural. So the jury is still out on how fantastic the world is. But the next Book in their adventures is entitled Book 7: Tales of Magic and the Macabre, so it is entirely possible that there may be more things on earth...

The game is set in an alternate historical 1620s France. Unless changed by the actions of the PC or by the reactions of the NPCs the broad strokes one can find in the history books or by perusing bibliographies and descriptions on wikipedia are all correct. I use real people as NPCs especially for powerful NPCs and as much as possible I use their actual actions, personalities, and allegiences - at least as much as I can discern as a non-specialist playing games for fun.

I did make one change intentionally in tinkering with the time line to allow the characters to be present at the Siege of Bergen op Zoom because I thought a siege would be fun and there were maps and such that allowed a nice description of the siege and events. Rather than chaning history, the characters ended up making the history we do know as they foiled several plots by Spanish agents to destroy the towns powder magazine and to open a gate to the besiegers. The PCs also invented the lyrics to the historical song about the victorious defenders.

The PCs recently saved Cardinal Richelieu from an assassin's poison crossbow bolt. This unsuccessful attempt and the PCs actions inspired the Cardinal to get permission from the King to form a guard. So the Cardinal's Red Guards were formed about a year early in our game timeline and one of the PCs is the Captain-Lieutenant of the guards. One of the other players actually played Richelieu when he interviewed the PC doing a masterful Richelieu. As his wife said, "Honey, you were born to play Richelieu."

So to sum up, what we are playing is very Alt-History but with the actions of the PCs having the potential to alter events and with the potential for actual supernatural events to occur. But such supernatural events should not be something that would be global in scope or that could not be explained away or kept secret from ordinary people.

The question of critical fumbles compared to critical successes came up in another thread. I gave an example of a fatal NPC critical fumble with a brief section of the write-up for one of our play sessions.

Link here.

jan paparazzi started a thread on random generators.

Since I am running an alt-history campaign right now I use these three name generators a lot.

French Name Generator - includes male and female names.
Fantasy Name Generator- includes male and female names and you can select the nationality on which to generate the names.
Fantasy City Name Generator - allows you to select the country/language on which the city names are based.

I use the City Names generator for village and small towns. I also use it to generate noble titles different from the surname since European titles are often location based and different from the surname.

Here is an example of how I use these. Let's say I want to create an NPC Count. I go to one of the name generators first, I'll select the fantasy name generator which gives me this list of names from which to select or to mix and match.

• Théo Derocles
• Victor Vannier
• Amadou Sardou
• Stéphane Hennequin
• Antoine Jacquemoud
• Nathanaël Girardot
• Christophe Beaudouin
• Porthos Dubost
• Romuald Vidal
• Omer Génin

I like the sound of Victor Vannier for this character. Now I go to the City Name generator and select France for the country. I'll leave the number at the default of 5. That gives me these names.

• Haramont
• Laudancourt
• Mayreville
• Chamelard
• Quintenas

I like the sound of Laudancourt with the other names. Now I put them together. Nobles often have the de in front of their surnames. Not being a French speaker I may check for proper use of articles, but in this case I will just wing it.

And we have the name for our NPC: Victor de Vannier Comte de Laudancourt. I'll write him up as some sort of royal courtier or hanger on. The PCs already have enough enemies so I will set this guy up as neutral or maybe even give him an enemy in common with the PCs so he might be more likely to be favorably disposed. Next I'll get stats and a personality, pick his enemy, decide on a motivation, and select a picture.

Victor de Vannier Comte de Laudancourt: Part 1

In the highly unlikely event that any of my players decide to spend time on a RPG forum...you should stop reading now. You know who you are.

Since I didn't have anything specific planned for Victor de Vannier Comte de Laudancourt I decided to use another random generator to help me decide what sort of an NPC he is. We know he is a count or comte. (The title of comte is lower case in French, but I capitalize it to draw attention to his title for we Anglophones.)

To flesh out Victor, I used ÜNE the Universal NPC Emulator by Zach Best. ÜNE is organized like the Mythic Gamemaster Emulator and also uses 1D100. So I rolled on charts 1 and 2 which gives a modifier and a noun describing the NPC. This resulted in a 55 and a 73 which tells me the NPC is an "Elderly Crone." Well Victor is a guy's name and I am envisioning him as someone at court who the male PCs might interact with. So I decide not to use that for Victor, but instead to give victor an important older female relative. I reroll for Victor getting a 15 and a 58 so victor is a "Rational Vagrant." Since Victor is a noble he probably isn't an actual vagrant, but instead he is a remittance man who is dependent on his elderly and cantankerous crone of an aunt for an allowance.

Next I roll for power levels for the aunt and for Victor. Since I don't have a preference I use the middle band of the table and get rolls telling me the aunt is comparable in power to the players – so she must be at least a Retainer 3 – and Victor is much weaker than the PCs. That might mean he is only a Pawn, but I'd like to give him enough capability and staying power so that the players might want to interact with Victor more than once. So I decide he will be a Retainer 1, which makes him somewhat durable, but far outclassed by the PCs.

I decide to learn more about the aunt. So I roll three times on tables 3 and 4 for motivations. These tables provide a verb-noun pair. The three pairs are as follows: 57 94 "defile animals," 35-75 "construct atrocities," 03-98 "affluence old religions." Now according to the instructions for creating NPCs I should have rerolled the 98 since it is from the same column as the previously rolled 94, but I wanted to see what I got and what I got sounds intriguingly unpleasant. It sounds like "cantankerous crone" is a very euphemistic description of Victor's aunt. Now I have a group that I've been considering introducing to add some supernatural elements to the campaign. So I decide his aunt is a pagan witch who uses animal sacrifice and atrocities to power her magic. Since the aunt sounds like an interesting antagonist, so I decide to make her a Hero/Villain level and given the description, she is definitely going to be a Villain. Sounds like I may have identified the head of the Cult of the Horned God or at least a powerful force behind the Cult. Since the Horned God is a male deity and I was envisioning druids or neodruids, the aunt may be the head of a tripartite goddess cult. Clearly she favors the Crone aspect of the goddess.

Next I roll for Victor. This results in 68-04 "process resources," 53-22 "complete the populous" (I think the designer probably meant populace), and 30-20 (20 is in a different column form 24 so no need to bend any rules here) "advance the force." Putting this together with what we know about the rational Victor, I decide he is interested in science, trade, or maybe improving the family lands, maybe adding a mine or lumber mill or introducing aquaculture or draining a marsh to create new farm lands for his people. Also, he is a follower of the new ideas about literacy and learning and so he is interested in educating and economically bettering the populace, especially the common man. Perhaps he is or may become  a dedicated supporter of Richelieu or a speaker for the common man – perhaps motivated by rationality and noblesse oblige.

To find Victor's age I roll on the same table as I used for determining power relative to the PCs and find out he is about the same age as the PCs. Most of them are in there twenties, so I decide he will be 26. Thus he is born in 1598 (give or take).

Next will be deciding on Victor's Qualities, Combat Abilities, Careers, any Boons or Flaws, equipment, and a few other background details.

I'll want to figure out the Aunt's name and title too so I can include it in with Victor's background. But I think I will wait a while longer before working up her abilities. I'll need to figure out how the Goddess Cult will fit, decide if her magic is real, and figure out how big a challenge or problem she will be for the PCs. I also want to look and see what other factions she should be part of, connected to, or enemies with. But since the PCs are about to leave palace in the dead of winter to investigate rumors of a vicious and possibly supernatural wolf pack near Soissons, there is plenty of time before the PCs encounter either Victor or his Aunt.

And here is the NPC record for the Comte de Laudancourt. I use this form for all the named NPCs. I can fit two NPCs on one 8.5x11 inch piece of paper and there is plenty of room on the back side of the NPC record to include followers, a longer background, or interactions with the PCs and events in game.

The actual NPC record includes a picture of Laudancourt but I haven't figured out how to include the picture.

Victor de Vannier Comte de Laudancourt   

Remittance Noble   (SR 12)
Motivation: Education and Rationality are Forces for Good
Location: Royal Court, Paris France
Faction: To be determinedBackground: Victor de Vannier Comte de Laudancourt (b. 1598) is a remittance man and court hanger on. He is entirely dependent on his elderly and cantankerous crone of an aunt for an allowance, which is what he lives on. In addition to being a cantankerous old crone, his aunt is literally an evil witch.

Personality: Laudancourt sees himself as a man of the new century. He is interested in science and learning and he would like to use the knowledge being discovered to improve the lands of his family. (These lands are not yet his; they are controlled by his aunt.) His interest is not just personal; he wants to see learning spread and favors the education and economic improvement of the common man. Primarily he is motivated by a sense of noblesse oblige, but intellectually he sees general education as a good in and of itself. His secondary motivation in life is gambling. He finds the thrill of the gaming tables almost impossible to resist, thus he is an inveterate, though not especially skilled gambler.

Laudancourt is strongly motivated to advance the forces of science, learning, and general education. He will align himself with any force that he sees as advancing those aims. He may become a dedicated supporter of Richelieu or even a speaker for the common man.

Might -1,   Savvy 2,   Flair 1
Brawl -1,   Defense 2
Noble 1,   Scholar 0
Lifeblood 8    Composure 3   Advantage 3   Retainer 1

Languages: French (N), +1 Language Slot
Boons: Learned (Use a Bonus Die when recalling a fact from academia), Savant
Flaws: Obsession (Education), Vice (Gambling)
   Rapier: 1d6-1 Dmg; +1 Parry
Cloak: No Dmg; +1 Bind, Feint
Wheellock Mazagatto Pistol: 1d6+1 Dmg, 5' Range, Reload: 2 MA, Misfire: 2-3Maneuvers: Bladework+0, Quick Cut+1; Feint+1; Parry+2[+3], Riposte+2; Ranged Attack+2

Author: BREN; NPC in: L'Honneur et les Intrigues (FIC)

This post in the You can only do what the rules allow thread has an example of how H+I treats stunts vs. Pawns.

Quote from: Bren;817273This post in the You can only do what the rules allow thread has an example of how H+I treats stunts vs. Pawns.

That's a really nifty mook system. I like it.