The Princess Bride RPG Kickstarter is closing in 3 days... Here's a sneak peek of what's included in the combat chapters. :-)

The combat rules for The Princess Bride Roleplaying Game are offered in two chapters:

Chapter 8: ​There Will Be Blood Tonight! Learning to Fight

This is a "subjective" set of combat rules and is designed to be fast, fun, and really all "newbies" would need.

"Combat Sequence" covers the six steps of a combat round (from Describe the Scene to Apply the Results / Repeat). Each step has detailed instructions with guidance for the GM and players.

There are sidebars on:
Disarming, Stunning, Pulling Your Punch
Knocking Down and Shoving
Ranged Combat
Ambush!

... so pretty much covering the basics.

Chapter 9: ​There Was a Mighty Duel​:​ Detailed Combat Rules
This is where Steffan put all the "advanced" rules that experienced gamers are likely to want:

More detailed modifier / damage / effects / tied results rules
Many-on-One Combat
Many-on-Many Melee Combat
Speedy Combat (combat as one big brawl)
and Optional Combat Rules (for longer combat, all-out attack and defense, etc.)

And of course there are detailed rules for Mighty Duels that include Fencing Styles:
● Agrippa​, which cancels:
● Thibault​, which cancels:
● Capo Ferro​, which cancels:
● Bonetti​, which cancels:
● Fabris​, which cancels:
● Morazzo​, which cancels:
● Main Gauche​, which cancels: ​Agrippa​, and we've come full circle.

And in the spirit of Inigo's fight with the guards, where he dispatches four guards without breaking a sweat:
"Bit players​ (like Count Rugen's four guards defeated by Inigo in five seconds) don't have wound tracks. Usually, anything more than a Scratch takes them out. But NPC ​Major Characters​ should be treated pretty much like player characters in taking wounds."

Oh, and to illustrate the combat system, I detailed out the Chatty Duelists scene from the movie in game terms. Here's a quote:

Round 1:​ Opening moves, maneuvering, and testing.
Duration:​ ~17 seconds
Intentions:​ Each wishes to test his opponent. Both will be pulling their punches (see ​Disarming,
Stunning, Pulling Your Punch​, p. ***). This is a test of skill rather than melee.
Adjustments:​ –1 to each (fencing with their off hands). Neither knows the other is handicapping
himself by fighting left-handed.
Results:​ Tie! No damage, not even a Scratch (see ​PC vs PC Combat​, p. ***).
Narrative:​ The fencers take fighting stances, pausing to take the measure of the other. Then swords flash briefly, ching-ching-swish! The Man in Black turns his head slightly to avoid Inigo's sword as it flashes by. The duelists warily circle one another, probing each other's defenses. Clang/clang/swish! and this time it's Inigo who ducks aside, avoiding a slash towards his face. The Man in Black smiles.

That "Duration: ~17 seconds" info illustrates the idea of combat round durations:
"A round ends when there's a natural pause or break in the action, or when the situation changes significantly (requiring different adjustments to skill levels). GMs may estimate the length of a round during play but don’t need to specify the duration. Just describe the actions and outcome, based on character intentions and die rolls! The round durations here are for you, the reader, to follow along when watching a clip of the Chatty Duelists scene!"

(Poor me, I had to watch that scene over and over and over.... and never got tired of it!)

My PDFs turned up last night, with the physical book on its way somewhere across the Atlantic. The finished product looks superb.

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I got my PDFs yesterday as well. I haven't had a chance to look at them in detail yet. I did notice that the bookmarks/toc was not done for the chapters which is common on PDF products these days, but this is Toy Vault's first, so I expect Ed just didn't think of it.

I'm looking forward to it being in general circulation in the UK.

I couldn't justify (at the time), paying for something with unknown cost unfortunately.

I will be one of the first to order it when it is available generally though.

You may want to try to get one sooner. I am not sure whether Toy Vault printed a lot beyond the Kickstarter or not. While The Princess Bride RPG uses Fudge, it is not being produced or distributed by Grey Ghost Press, so we don't know how large a print run was done.  A lot of companies will only do small print runs beyond what is needed for a kickstarter to see how well a product sells (or doesn't) before running a second printing to cover larger distributions. It could be a while before you see general availability. Or you might see it very soon after the kickstarter backers have theirs. Who knows.

The PDF version of the full game looks to be up at drivethrurpg.com now, for anyone who didn't back the Kickstarter. Not cheap, but still a very good value I think.

I snarfled up my PDF copy of The Princess Bride RPG yesterday. The "half cover price" sticker held me off for a while, but I succumbed.  I have no complaints. It's a very pretty book, and it has an almost-but-not-quite-too sweet tone of voice. Amazing how much can be wrung out of the movie ... and then stirred and seasoned and mixed back in by the players. A Superb job, Steffan and Ann!

(Plus it's a valuable insight into how SOS applies Fudge concepts in a build, if you want to squint at it that hard.)