The SettING

It’s three weeks in the future- the post apocalypse.
Everyone has two swords.
Everyone wants to sword fight.
No more questions.
You have to sword fight.

THE SEATING

The OVERVIEW

This is a dueling game. You place cards on the right and left in front of you that represent what you do with the swords in your right and left hands. You and your opponent(s) go back and forth placing cards down, trying to get past each other's defenses to get hits and moving the yellow AGGRESSION COINS back and forth to indicate who puts down their cards first.

• In a 1v1 game, your right arm fights your opponent’s left, while your left arm fights your opponent’s right.

• In a free-for-all rumble with 3+ sword fighters, you sit in a circle with opponents on your left and right. Your right arm plays against your neighbor’s left while your left arm plays against your other neighbor’s right.

• In a team game, you sit across from your teammate with opponents on either side of you. Again, your left and right arms play against their right and left.

In the beginning, you can only take 5 hits before losing, but each win nets you a point. 1 Point = 1 more strike you can take the next time you play. Keep a record of this on your character sheet.

If you lose the sword fight, your character sheet is torn up by your opponent, and you must start over with a new character. If two players eliminate one another in the same turn, then they're both out. This is sword fighting not sport fighting.

SETTING UP

1. Fill out a character sheet (one of the small cards). This is who you’ll be Two Freakin’ Swords sword fighting as. Write 5 (in pencil) under “Fighter‘s Hit Points” on your fighter’s character sheet.
   
   (Don’t forget to upload your character sheet for official record keeping here)

2. Grab a deck. These are your moves. A standard deck has 40 moves:
   10 Strikes
   10 Fakes
   10 Blocks
   10 Parries
   
   You may build a custom, individual deck of moves as long as it has 40 cards and at least 8 of each card type.
   
   In any game where not everyone has a deck of their own, shuffle 2 decks into a big deck of 80 cards that everyone draws from. If your deck (or the community deck) runs out of cards mid-sword fight, reshuffle all the cards that aren't in hand or in play on that turn.

3. If everyone has a deck of their own, draw any 4 cards you like. After this you’ll draw from the top of your deck, but you may choose your opening moves.
   
   In a game with a community deck, everyone draws their hand from the top of the shuffled 80 card deck starting with the youngest person at the table and going clockwise around.

4. Take the rest of your deck and place it behind your player screen so your opponents can’t see your top card
   
   If you're playing with a community deck, shuffle it and put it in the middle of all the players.
   
   Keep the cards you drew in your hand. These are your moves. Protect your moves.

5. Place an AGGRESSION COIN (the yellow chip) by your right arm. Now you’re ready to sword fight.

SWORD FIGHTING

1. Players with an AGGRESSION COIN on an arm place a card by the coin with the indicator side (Striking/Defending) facing up (ex: Striking).

2. Players then decide what to do with their defending arm(s) (arms without an AGGRESSION COIN) and place a card with the indicator side (Striking/Defending) facing up (ex: Defending).

3. Once all arms have cards down, the players with AGGRESSION COIN(S) flip their card(s) (ex: Strike).

4. Then the defender(s) flips their card(s) (ex: Block, which nullifies Strike), before referencing the engagement grid to see what happened or what will happen next.

5. If the engagement grid indicates to “replay this arm”, do not draw more cards. Players may only choose from the cards remaining in their hands. If both players’ hands are empty, they may draw four more cards and continue until that arm has been played.

6. After all arms have been played, record who, if anyone, was struck, move the AGGRESSION COINS according to who was struck and/or the engagement grid, refill your hand to 4 cards and go back to step 1.
   
   If your fighter is defeated mid-turn, then “go down swinging” and play out the other arm. Keep playing until the other team is defeated, or you’re the last sword fighter standing (sitting) at the table.

AGGRESSION COIN MOVING

AGGRESSION COINS change independently per arm and switch whenever one arm lands a hit or the engagement grid tells you so.

For example, if an arm with an AGGRESSION COIN gets a hit, the defending arm then gets the AGGRESSION COIN for the next turn.

If the defending arm gets a hit (say by Parrying a Strike), the AGGRESSION COIN stays put.

If both or neither get a hit, the AGGRESSION COIN, again, stays put.

LUNGE ATTACKING

If you have an AGGRESSION COIN on both of your arms, you may choose to attack an opponent’s single arm with both of yours.

1. Announce which of your opponent's arms you’ll be double attacking before anyone puts any cards down. You may only lunge at the arms you normally engage with (no cross-table lunging in a 3+ player game).

2. Place your cards face down like you would normally. Your opponent then places their defending card down and announces which of your attacking arms they choose to play that card against. For example, if you attack with a fake and a strike (both “striking” cards), and your opponent defends with a parry, they can only parry one of your cards and must decide which one to parry before everyone flips their cards over.

3. Turn your cards over, playing the arm that’s being countered first, and use the engagement grid like you normally would, but never “replay this arm”. Instead, move onto the second, undefended arm and record any hits. Note: The only card that can get a hit on a defenseless opponent is a “strike” card, so your best odds of landing a hit during a Lunge Attack is playing two “strike” cards.

You cannot defend against incoming attacks from your opponent/other neighbor’s free arm while lunging. Multiple players may lunge simultaneously. After a lunge, all AGGRESSION COINS reset to everyone’s right hands.

3+PLAYER ELIMINATING

In a 3+ player sword fight (both free-for-all rumbles and team games), eliminated players must have their character sheet torn up before stepping aside and removing one of the AGGRESSION COINS they were dealing with, leaving the other to the neighboring opponent who eliminated them (so if both neighbors had coins, the neighbor who didn’t get the final hit loses their coin). The rest of the players should close the circle.

In a 1v2 scenario, the two teammates may trade the 3rd AGGRESSION COIN back and forth. Like any special move in Two Freakin’ Swords, they must announce their plan to give their teammate the AGGRESSION COIN before any cards are placed that turn.

Once all the cards are flipped and hits tallied, the teammates then move the AGGRESSION COIN regardless of what happened during the turn, because it’s important to follow through with your promises.

THE ENGAGEMENT GRID -ING