Retreats

Duels in swashbuckling between named characters have a lot of advances and retreats and quite often an opponent will press an attack and force a character into a different zone.

In trying to think of a good way to encourage that, I've decided on a fairly simple rule:

When taking stress in a one-on-one physical conflict you can decrease that stress by 1 if you move into a new zone

This should lead to Create Advantage actions to try to block routes to other zones so that your opponent takes all the stress dealt.

Pistols

Pistols are pretty easy to model in FAE. They are simply a stunt that allows you to make a single attack once per scene on any zone in the same level as you are.

Inicdentally, this is one of the reasons for the idea of layers in the zone maps. In the movies you rarely if ever see characters shooting from the main deck into the rigging and vice versa.

Swinging On Ropes

This is something seen all the time in swashbuckler movies. It just looks cool. I doubt it is terribly realistic, especially swinging from yards or a crow's nest to the main deck. I imagine that most attempts to try it ended badly. However, since our inspiration is films and not reality, this is definitely something that should be allowed.

So, the question becomes, "what is the purpose of swinging on a rope in pirate movies?" Generally, the answer is, "to get somewhere fast." The reason to get there fast may be different, but no matter what the reason is, you don't see it used a lot. So, my proposal is a universal stunt that all named characters have that is something along the lines of:

Once per scene when you are on the main level or above, you can instantly find a rope that will swing you to any other zone on the main level or above.

Fighting On The Yards

It seems intuitive that the yards should be an unsteady place to fight, but that's not what you see in movies. At least it's not if you are a named character. Because of that I have this rule:

As long as you include in your description of your actions how you are using the rigging to steady yourself, there is no chance that you will fall off the yards.

Zones On A Ship In Fate

Zones on ships have layers. Meaning that zones aren't just adjacent on a horizontal map, but there are zones above and below as well, but access to them may be restricted.

In general a ship has 2-3 main deck zones and a quarter deck zone on its main layer. There are anywhere between 2-8 layers below the main deck. Somewhere in those layers is the brig, galley, bunk, and hold.
Below the quarterdeck, but with access from the main deck, is the captain's cabin. Above the main deck are the masts. The masts contain yards (2-3, usually) and crow's nests. These are accessed by moving through a zone for the shrouds.

What Is This?

I'm a big fan of the Fate RPG System and I am going to use this blog to collect my thoughts about how to run a swashbuckling pirate campaign using it.

My goal is not to simulate real pirates, but rather to simulate swashbuckling as portrayed in film, and only fill in the gaps with reality. What this means is things like ships don't sink from cannon fire, fighting on the yards is just as stable as fighting on the deck if you are a named character, and there is always a rope to swing on that is neither too long, too short, or obstructed from reaching your destination.