Style is everything.

Attributes
The Swashbucklers’s something of a weird archetype. By all rights, it should be dead, replaced by something else. After all, the days of noble pirate raiders, dashing swordsmen, and charming rogues are over, no one does that stuff anymore. And yet, the archetype lives on. Daring pirates bring in box office revenues, thousands of geeks argue the endless pirate vs. ninja argument…the Swashbuckler lives on. Encompassing everything from the pirate captain to the master duelist, the Swashbuckler is the archetypical romantic swordsman who’s ever-stylish and has a wit as sharp as his sword.

Taboos
Style is the watchword of the Swashbuckler–it’s hard to embody the archetype if you fall flat on your face. If you’re ever caught in an embarrassing situation that makes you look bad, you break taboo. Of course, you can only look bad if someone’s watching, so it doesn’t count if no one sees you.

Symbols
The rapier is perhaps the most well-known symbol of the Swashbuckler. The Jolly Roger serves as a symbol for the pirate aspect of it, and stylish clothing is something no Swashbuckler avatar should be without.

Masks
There aren’t many gods that count as Swashbuckler masks. Some, likes Hermes or Loki, get close, but they’re more Trickster than Swashbuckler. Thus, most Swashbuckler masks are from literature or cinema.

Captain Jack Sparrow, Inigo Montoya, Zorro (Cinematic), Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmund Dantes, The Three Musketeers (Literary)

Suspected Avatars in History
D’Artagnan, Louis XIII’s captain of musketeers and the inspiration of many fictional swordsmen, was likely an avatar. The actor Errol Flynn, famous for his portrayals of swashbuckling characters, may have been an avatar himself. La Maupin, a 17th century noble-born bisexual swordswoman and opera-singer, was almost undoubtedly one.

Channels

1%-50%: This channel lets you start each day off with a hunch. However, you can only apply this hunch to stylish actions–swordfighting or leaping off ramps in cars, maybe, but not researching a thesis paper.

51%-70%: At this level, you can do anything, as long as you look cool doing it. With a successful Avatar roll, you can flip-flop any skill roll, as long as your score in that skill is lower than your Avatar skill, and the action you’re taking is cool or stylish. For example, you could flip-flop a General Athletics roll made to swing from a chandelier, but not one made to climb a fence to run away from a dog. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to the ten’s digit of your Soul stat.

71%-90%: Daring entries–and exits–are the hallmark of a Swashbuckler. At this level, with a successful Avatar roll, you can make any entry or exit work perfectly, as long as your GM deems it stylish enough. Kicking down the door of your evil nemesis, leaping from a chandelier through a conveniently placed window…this channel makes them work without a hitch. You don’t have to make any rolls, and nothing can stop you from getting in. Once you’re in or out, however, all such benefits end–you’re on your own from there on out. You can only use this ability once a day.

91%+: This is where the phrase “greatest swordsman in the world” starts becoming applicable. When wielding a rapier, dagger, or another weapon typically associated with Swashbucklers, you deal firearms damage with it. However, you can’t kill people–you can fight someone to within an inch of their life, but you can’t kill them. Leaving your foes alive, after all, has its own sort of style. This channel’s always on, unless you actively choose to suppress it.