Swashbuckling is a term that developed in the 16th century to describe rough, noisy and boastful swordsmanship. It is based on a fighting style using a side-sword with a buckler in the off-hand, which was filled with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler". Today the word have come to mean all forms of showy and extravagant sword play.
In PotBS Swashbuckling is often synonymous with AvCom (or Avatar Combat) which encompasses everything that has to do with combat between Avatars instead of Ships.
Styles
There are three Swashbuckling styles in PotBS.
Florentine
Florentine designates the art of wielding two weapons at once, one in each hand. In PotBS Florentine users always wield a small sword and a dagger. Florentine focuses around blocking enemy attacks and is the most defensive fighting style in the game. It has very few skills that directly attack the Life of the opponent, instead it excels at reducing the opponents Balance and building up its own Initiative for special attacks. It has limited AOE capabilities and in a fight against multiple opponents a Florentine user will use its superior defense to defend against all at the same time while killing them off slowly one at a time.
Fencing
Fencing really means all types of fighting using a sword but in PotBS Fencing is based on the style used in modern competitive sport Fencing. It makes use of the Rapier, a long relatively slender, sharply pointed sword, used mainly for thrusting attacks. Fencing focuses on parrying enemy attacks and is the most offensive fighting style in the game. It has a large selection of skills that damage the opponents Life and has a very good range. Like Florentine it has limited AOE capabilities and against multiple opponent it will focus on using its high damage to quickly depose of the enemies before they have a chance to kill you.
Dirty Fighting
Dirty Fighting is a very broad word, in PotBS it's the art of using the Cutlass, a short robust slashing sword and black powder weapons like grenades, flash powder and pistols. Dirty Fighting focuses on dodging enemy attacks and has the best AOE skills in the game. It has the worst defense of all styles and instead make use of it's multiple AOE stun attacks to keep them at bay and AOE damage attacks to quickly dispose of them. While all styles can use pistols Dirty Fighting are arguably the best at it.
Combat Mechanics
Life
This is you HP, if this reaches 0 you die. All players start with 100 Life and it's only increased by certain skills and items. For NPCs the Life amount can vary a bit more with values as low as 20 for low level to as much as 150-200 for really though ones.
Initiative
Initiative start at 0 and are built up using special skills, you can never get more than 100 initiative. The higher initiative you have the more damage will your attacks do. Initiative can also be spent to execute special attacks like finishing moves. When out of combat your initiative will drop quickly.
Balance
This is your defense meter. The more balance you lose the more your defense will be reduced. At 0 balance you have 10% of your defense, at 100 balance you have 90%, at 107 balance you have 100%. It is unknown if values higher than 107 will increase your defense by more than 100%. All characters (player and npc) start with 100 balance and the only way to get it above 100 is with special skills and equipment. You balance will regenerate both in and out of combat, faster out if it.
Attack Value
When an attack is preformed a random roll is made, this roll will return a value between 1 and your current Attack rating (listed on your character sheet as "Attack (Main)" for sword and "Attack (Off)" for pistol. Then any attack bonus from the attack type (like +10 Melee attack bonus on the Florentine Finishing skill Flurry) is added to this value. The value is then compared to parry/block/dodge of the target as described below.
Parry/Block/Dodge
These are you defense values. When an attack is made the attack value is first compared to the Parry value, if the attack value is less than the parry value the attack is parried, Parry means the attack will do no damage and the defender will gain +10 Balance and +5 Initiative.
If the attack is not parried the attack value is next compared to the Parry + Block value. If less than this value the attack is blocked, Block means the attack will do no damage but the defender loses -4 Balance.
If the attack is not blocked the attack value is finally compared to the Parry + Block + Dodge value. If less than this value the attack is dodged, Dodge means the attack will do no damage but the defender loses -14 Balance. If the attack value is more than the Parry + Block + Dodge value the attack hits and will do its damage.
Some attacks (like preparatory attacks) can not be parried, other attacks (like pistol attacks) can not be parried nor blocked.
Attacks and moves
There are 4 types of attacks. Preparatory, basic, special and finishing.
Preparatory attacks
These attacks will damage the opponents Balance making them easier to hit. They often have a special secondary effect like building up initiative. Preparatory attacks can not be parried.
Basic attacks
These are normal attacks that damages the opponents Life. They sometimes have secondary effects like building initiative or causing bleeds.
Special moves
These moves can sometimes cause Life damage but often have more specialized effects like different buffs, debuffs, stuns etc.
Finishing moves
These are high damaging attacks that cost a lot of Initiative and Balance to execute. This means that if they fail to finish off the opponent they will leave you open to a counter attack.
Attack Speed
You always have an attack speed of one attack every 1.5 sec. This can not be modified.