(Folks really seem to like Stav. Over on Dragonsfoot, a poster asked me to put together a BFRPG version of the minimalist stave class. This is based on an actual Norse martial art and philosophical system, which uses runes and Norse Mythology in its teaching. Check out Stav International for more details.)
Staves are martial artists – a kind of Norse ‘monk’. Staves regard the quarterstaff as a symbol of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. They train their bodies to be both a tool and a weapon, like the quarterstaffs they revere.
As students, young staves begin with ritualized stances resembling the sixteen runes of the Younger Futhark. Once mastery of the rune stances has been achieved, the student progresses to staff exercises. Stav is intended to be a flexible set of principles instead of techniques, focusing on finding the lines of attack and defense in any combat situation and exploiting them to the student’s benefit.
Dwarven Glory 