Rasmussen School [Revised]

The invention of firearms has innevitably lead to an increasingly popular means of settling disputes of honor: the pistol duel. The late Erl Rasmusson wrote a treatsy on advanced pistol duelling techniques a decade before his death, which acts as the basis for the school founded in his name. Putting equal weight on speed and accuracy, Rasmussen duellists are swiftly proving to be the uncontested masters of their art.

Putting long hours into proper form and carefully preparing their minds to react at whim, the Rasmussen style is well balanced, and therefore quite formidable. Many have died from a Rasmussen gunshot, and only a handful of Rasmussen students have died in a duel.

Although pistol duelling is still in its infantile stages, a few Rasmussen Masters have begun to take note of the problematic lack of defenses in the style, and in the accepted form of the pistol duel. A perceptive opponent can take note of the relatively stationary position that the gunman takes to predict where he should fire.

Country of Origin: Vendel

Guild Sanctioned: The Swordsman Guild highly disapproves of pistol duelling, considering it a corruption of traditional honorable duels. Swordsman Guild members are incouraged to harass pistol duellists, or even challenge them to duels, of the traditional variety, of course. Members of Rasmussen School gain a free three-point Obligation background requiring them to uphold the School and defend fellow pistol duellists against the Swordsman Guild.

Basic Curriculum: Firearms, Bourgeois

Swordsman Knacks: Right of Way [See below], Tagging (Firearms), Trick Shooting (Firearms), Exploit Weakness (Rasmussen)

Apprentice: Rasmussen students are highly trained to hit what they aim their pistol at, using visualization techniques to aim without even seeing their oppenent. For each Mastery Level you have, gain a Free Raise to Attack(Firearms) when using a pistol. Although it does not gain the Free Raises bonus granted by this school, the Tagging (Firearms) knack counts as an Attack roll for purposes of determing a winner in a pistol duel.

Journeyman: Rasmussen Journeymen learn to take time to evaluate their opponent, so they may act first when the time of reckoning comes. At any time, you may choose to spend an Action Die in any phase in order to add a number of exploding dice equal to your Wits to your Initiative Total for the rest of the round.

Master: A Rasmussen master has learned the most difficult and important lesson of pistol duels: how to survive defeat. For a wound check from a firearm, for every 10 + your Resolve that you miss by, you suffer an additional Dramatic Wound.

Right of Way- You have trained your reflexes to the point where you may force an attack before your opponent has an opportunity to do so. For each point of Right of Way, add 5 to your initiative total on any phase in which you declare an attack; note that an attack must be declared before it is made in order to enable Right of Way.
For example, Guillermo and Albrecht are duelling. On the first round, Guillermo rolls a 3, 5, and 6 for initiative, while Albrect rolls a 3 and 7. During phase 3, Albrecht, who has a Right of Way of 2, may choose to declare an attack, and thereby gain 10 to his Initiative Total (totalling 20, which is greater than Guillermo's 14), although he must attack with that action. If he wished to hold the Action, he would only have an Initiative Total of 10, enabling Guillermo to act first.
Last updated: April 1, 2004
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