I created a play aid for maneuvers. I’ve had a lot of trouble teaching
Blade to new players, and I’m looking for the best way to help new players really dig into the system. What I didn’t realize was how much I would learn in the process!
I created a big chart. Two big charts, really, one for attacks, the other for defenses. I used the following columns for each:
– Maneuver
– Prereq Prof
– mandatory extra
AC – Attacker Restrictions
– Defender Restrictions
– Effect on Win
– Effect from QoS
– Optional Effect
– Special Effects on Reach
– Special Effects on a Tie
– I’ve Seen This Before!
Admittedly, it creates quite a bit of wasted space, as some of those latter columns only apply to a minority of maneuvers, but I found it really helpful to cross-compare the benefits or costs of each. I finally feel equipped to really make good choices as to which maneuver to use.
In Excel’s print options, if you pick landscape orientation, if you open up the “scaling” dropdown, and pick “fit all columns on one page”, the whole thing prints out neatly with
2 pages of attacks and
2 pages of defenses. (Actually, you’ll have one row too many on the defensive page, so I tend to hide the row for defensive Halfswording, as I don’t find that too useful.)
The charts should be thorough. By that I mean, I didn’t summarize or leave out anything: these charts should replace the need to reference the rulebook. With one exception and two caveats.
Exception: I considered the purpose and ability of the Grappling and Winding
&Binding maneuvers to be about getting into a Grappling or W
&B
state, and I was thorough about how to get into that state, or to avoid getting into that state. However, once you’re
in that state, I consider that a rules subsystem, and I didn’t try to include it in my spreadsheet, and just gave a page reference.
Caveat
1: I didn’t repeat the charts needed for certain maneuvers like Counter and Rota, and merely included page references. I included all of the
rules, however.
Caveat
2: I found some things hard to understand, and made some subjective judgement calls. For example, I found it very unclear as to the circumstances which you were able to initiate a Grapple against an opponent’s non-primary-arm. (I feel the rules contradict themselves, depending on which part you’re looking at.) So I made a judgement call.
Anyway, I hope this is useful to someone else, and I’d love your feedback. I take pride it my rules summary being exact and covering all bases, and I’d love another set of eyes to make sure they are living up to that high bar. Please let me know if you find that I have made any errors or omissions!
Otherwise, I hope you find the chart helpful yourself!
download Maneuver Chart from Gdrive 
