HEMA Game Archive

One of the fencers is nominated at the narrator, and then they fight until a scoring action is landed. (The narrator role switches every exchange.)

After a hit the narrator must describe why the hit happened, ie why the defender was unsuccessful in their defense. The "audience" will determine if they are satisfied or not satisfied with the explanation. ("Audience" in most cases will be a single person watching). Examples:

• If it takes more that 5 seconds to start the explanation, or they hum and haw they fail.
• If they explain what happened rather than why the action succeeded they fail. "I attacked, they parried, then hit back into my opening" = fail
• If they describe something that didn't actually happen they obviously fail.
• Describing in detail like "I advanced while moving my hands forward but not any actual threat, so they took the hand snipe without needing to worry about my action." is what the audience should be looking for.

Scoring:

• If the narrator hits the opponent and satisfies the audience = 1 pt to narrator
• If the narrator hits the opponent and does not satisfy the audience = No points
• If the narrator is hit and satisfies the audience = No points (negates opponent's point)
• If the narrator is hit and does not satisfy the audience = 1 pt to opponent.

Doubles:

You could throw the double out, or have the narrator explain the double, and if they satisfy the audience then no points. If they fail then the opponent gets a chance and if they can satisfy the audience they instead get the point.