1. Right now, I’m polishing the last D&D idea I have in the pipeline: “Gnarlfang’s Goblin Casino: An Evening of Bad Decisions for Low-Level Characters.”

2. Longer term, I’m working on a game about Tolkien-style orcs after the fall of the Evil Overlord–figuring out how to make a society for themselves and survive in a world without a place for them. Working title: “Orcs of the Broken Tower.” (I started out trying to tweak Dogs In The Vineyard around the edges and fell down a rabbit-hole where I ended up hacking it into a game about something else entirely.)

Aha. I guess it’s just that. So if I want to interact with the stuff that’s already there when I subscribe, I’m out of luck?

For one-on-one dueling, using a weapon you can wear as a sidearm, the rapier has the advantage; that’s what it’s optimized for. If small group combat is a possibility, other swords might be useful: an estoc if you might encounter armor, or a curved sword if you need to move quickly between multiple opponents.

I would rule out the epee and small sword. They are basically rapiers that sacrifice effectiveness in order to be less cumbersome as fashion accessories.