Social stats for heiress and her Pinkerton/bodyguard

[whswhs]

One possible answer, if her bodyguard is personally devoted to her, is that he might have taught her some basic self-defense moves. These might be of the nature of Brawling rather than any kind of formal martial arts.

I'm going to suggest that, if you want to think about background, it might be useful to have a look at Albion's Seed, by Fischer. It has all kinds of details about different American subcultures.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by whswhs

One possible answer, if her bodyguard is personally devoted to her, is that he might have taught her some basic self-defense moves.

Indeed, he has taught her some very basic point-shooting. She carries a pretty little nickel-plated S&W Safety Hammerless "Lemon Squeezer". With pearl grips of course.

But he is a bare-knuckle boxer, and rather conservative, so he won't be teaching his young miss such things. Actually he can be quite classist, whereas she is a feminist (gasp!) and a bit of a free spirit by 1920s standards.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Is there any sort of fighting style that might be appropriate for a young woman of means in this setting? (The player will insist upon it.)

Field Hockey, assuming that she was coached by a St. Trinian's graduate. :)

More seriously, she could have easily been taught to shoot by her father or her bodyguard. Indoor pistol shooting as a fairly common pastime, and many members of the upper classes were avid hunters.

Gun Sport (Shotgun, Rifle, or Pistol) is quite reasonable. Only give her Guns skill if she's a serious big game hunter.

For melee combat, while Single Stick fighting had become less popular than it once was it might have been continued in some areas. Sport Boxing was extremely popular, although not for women. Sport archery was somewhat popular.

Respectable ladies weren't supposed to engage in fisticuffs, but a girl raised in a household full of boys might easily learn a bit of Brawling, Combat Sport (Boxing) and Wrestling in her youth and a security-conscious young woman might learn a few self-defense techniques as "wolf repellent."

Sport Fencing is the most likely combat style for an upper class woman. Even then, she'd probably need to take private lessons arranged by her family. Remember, this was decades before Title IX and serious women's athletics. Sports and combat training were another sphere where men ruled and women were welcome only as spectators.

I'd allow Brawling skill at modest levels and Combat Sport (Bow, Boxing, Broadsword, Rapier, Saber, Shortsword, Smallsword, or Wrestling) at moderate levels.

Other "respectable" sports for upper class women are badminton, croquet, golf, and tennis. Baseball is another very popular game that she might have learned in her youth, justifying Throwing skill as well as the sport skill.

She might have also learned to ride a horse, sail (and navigate) boats, and swim.

Realistically, anything else would be rare enough to require an Unusual Background, but given her wealth and the nature of the campaign I'd allow any combat skill that the player could reasonably justify. ("Direct descendant of a member of the Knights Templar, with melee combat skills lovingly passed down through the family for generations? Go for it!")

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Next question-

Is there any sort of fighting style that might be appropriate for a young woman of means in this setting? (The player will insist upon it.)

I was thinking of some sort of sport fencing, probably Foil. It seems unlikely that I could I justify French Smallsword.

Or, since the the family has French roots- Savate? Were women taught that? Or La Canne de Combat? "Umbrella as a weapon"?

Archery was a popular women's past-time in the 19th century, but I don't think it was in the 1920s. Likewise Sport Quarterstaff.

As Pursuivant says, fencing and shooting were very common and could be as martial or as sporty as the student wanted. I think women's fencing clubs were reasonably common- not every master would teach both sexes but women who wanted lessons in a big city could find them. One of those old point-shooting manuals from before WW I by a Monsieur Renaud describes an "old lady from England" who practiced with her revolver by going down to the beach and shooting random pebbles. Remember that sports in the 1920s are not as formalized as they became later in the 20th century! There are somewhat standardized rules and a few celebrity professional athletes like Babe Ruth, but the level of formality and consistency is more like martial arts today than say soccer today. If you wanted lessons, you had to find someone willing to teach you, not get some national organization to decide whether you were elegible.

The Suffragettes in the UK had programs of unarmed training influenced by Judo.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

As Pursuivant says, fencing and shooting were very common and could be as martial or as sporty as the student wanted. o.

I believe the applicable phrase for combat-ish European sword traing in this period would be "Mad Hungarian Fencing Master".

Fencing was very popular in Hungary before WWII and they maintained a stronger tie back to practical swordsmanship or so I have heard.

[Polydamas]

Aside from foil, sabre, bayonet, quarterstaff, and singlestick, someone learning to fence in this period might learn bowie knife. I don't think that was fashionable for women like foil and sabre fencing sometimes was, and its more plausible on the west coast or in the southwest.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I believe the applicable phrase for combat-ish European sword traing in this period would be "Mad Hungarian Fencing Master".

Fencing was very popular in Hungary before WWII and they maintained a stronger tie back to practical swordsmanship or so I have heard.

there were people who taught fencing in a martial way everywhere! Many in Italy, a few Brits ... duelling was still a custom in continental Europe and officers and cavalry overseas might just possibly have to use their swords in the field.

Here are two versions of a sword fight between a young lady and a burglar in California in 1901 https://hemamisfits.com/2020/04/02/s...ith-a-burglar/

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

In Lovecraft's America, unionized miners and the bosses' enforcers had battles with aircraft and machine guns. It was a rough place.

As one plutocrat said c. 1917, "How can you run a mine without machine guns?" I've seen a Browning 1917 .30 cal MG with brass fittings -- for civilian sales. No military MG had such fittings.

On the railroad car angle -- for a fee almost any railroad of the era would haul the car to a certain spot and park it on a quiet siding (again, for a fee as said RR co. can't use the siding for general use) for as long as the $ holds out. One rich SOB doing a favor for another. Remember that most American roads in the 1920s were dreadful -- I saw a c. 1920 photo of a Model T sinking on the Virginia Telegraph Road a la the Titanic -- the Dumfries Slough was famous up & down the US East Coast for killing cars. Note also most small towns & villages had railroad access then -- between the needs to move agricultural products, dismal roads, and to import any heavy commodities by rail freight RR connections c. 1925 were vital. I lived in upstate NY c. 1974 & the old tracks from that era were still there -- and even small villages had a combined freight/passenger station & a siding or two.

Archery was a popular women's past-time in the 19th century, but I don't think it was in the 1920s.

It was known. So too was fencing -- IIRC Bess Wallace Truman was a championship secondary school fencer.

[dcarson]

Hat pins. https://www.quirkbooks.com/post/quir...-weapon-choice

[fredtheobviouspseudonym]

While the bodyguard is an excellent idea (whether independent or a Pinkerton)
that alone would not be enough for most families.

The chastity (read virginity) of the daughters of an upper class family was a near obsession -- even in the Jazz Age (recall that the girl's parents may well have grown up in the Mauve Decade, 1890s if I recall correctly) so they would want their headstrong daughter accompanied by a chaperone, or perhaps duenna a better term. This lady, probably a formidable female of advanced age (50-60+) would be there to protect the girl's chastity against the bodyguard, lecherous young men, fortune-hunters, and other undesirables.

Such a chaperone I envisage as a poor relative of one of the girl's parents, probably the definition of the word "battleaxe." She would have Strong Will in excess, Detect Lie at high level, probably a version of Fast Talk (i.e., being able to get short term compliance from even fiercely chauvinistic guys by hitting them with the Mom Tone) (trust me, it works). She would have the Odious Personal Habit of Overbearing Manner, some domestic skills like Cooking at a low level, Administration (Household) at a high level, the ability to burn through armor plate at three meters with her glare, be quite Unattractive (deliberately), be relatively Unfazeable, have a Sense of Duty to her charge, and quote appropriate Bible verses at will and at length. Secretly she might appreciate the girl's need for self-actualization and adventure, and cut her perhaps a bit more slack than the above description suggests. I envisage the long-ago actress Edna May Oliver as a model, but with a deeper voice.

[Fred Brackin]

Just a thought but if you do go with the Fencing the skill will probably be Smallsword and whilea young gnetleman of the period might carry off a cane or walking stick to conceal his sword-blade a young lady probably needs an umbrella.

In game terms this will be a Smallsword or Dress Smallsword as seen in MA and modified by the rules for Hidden Weapons on p.218. The Dress version might be more likely given the probable height of the user.

It might be thrust only with absolutely no edge. Smallswords are one of the very few sword types I've actually seen in this format but edged versiosn are possible.

Finally, I found an umbrella sword here......

https://fashionablecanes.com/?utm_so...YSry4zEI1nvGA0

.....but obnoxiously interior pages would not cut and paste. There are actual sword-canes as well to give you an idea of what's possible.