En Garde?

[dwayanu]

An off-the-cuff idea ...

Considering the social-climbing aspect of EPT, might it be fun to play a game of Tsolyani (rather than French) gentlemen scheming and dueling using the En Garde rules? Somehow, it seems (at first thought) a charming transposition to me!

Given what Barker revealed in later works (maybe even EPT, but my memory is not so good) about the social scene and sexual mores, some key aspects might need alteration for real fidelity.

Then again, the idea might be appealing enough to accept an "alternate" Tekumel setting. Certainly I enjoy EPT itself despite inconsistencies with later canon.

One might start by substituting appropriate names for regiments and so on, and see how it goes.

Unfortunately, I no longer have my old GDW book. I see that the (Anglicized, spelling-wise) Small Furry Creatures text is available in new dress -- $18 from Amazon.

Am I crazy like a fox? Or just crazy?

[greentongue]

Interesting concept.
Certainly worth looking into further.
=

[Deleted]

I am not sure which En Gard you are thinking of. There are two, that I know of. The one I am familiar with was a very small booklet game, kinda RPG, but based on weekly activities... Carousing, training, wenching, etc. It is pretty much all about social status, requiring you to meet certain goals each month. Seems like there is also a boxed RPG out there by that name.. I also considered the Social standing rules of Bushido for this, as the social structure is more rigid, but it also possible for a high townsman to have more clout than a low bushi..


mmm. researching the web, I may be mistaken about the other version.

Are we talking about this..
www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7771

[dwayanu]

Yes, that's it.

[kesher]

Actually, there was a link on the BG site to this:

www.engarde.co.uk/history.html#Top

which is apparently the same game, updated a bit, carried into the present. Looks kinda cool.

I have the original, and d., I think you're onto something. At least now, if you're so inspired, you could get ahold of the rules for a reasonable price and try it out...

[apeloverage]

I've been toying with the idea of an online En Garde-style game - but in a fantasy setting, and probably with the players controlling a group rather than an individual.

[castiglione]

^^^^

Is there really a need for players to control a group?

I've thought about this as well; you could easily set an En Garde type game on a town on the
"frontier" between the lands of Chaos and the lands of Law...like the keep on the Borderlands.

You jockey for social status and every once in a while, your regiment sallies forth into the wildlands to raid Orc settlements, etc.

I even thought that the jousting rules in Chainmail could be used for the duels.

It might be interesting how to handle the different classes. One option might be to have all characters start off as just a bunch of level 0 pleebs and where they go on in the game (and life) would depend on whether they choose to join a regiment (fighter), join the clergy (cleric) or apply for the magic user's guild (magic user).

Of course, what happens when a character is ejected from his regiment, etc. due to poltroonery is up in the air. Multi-classing might have to be allowed, i.e. character joins a regiment, poltroons himself in a battle against kobolds and gets ejected, decides to start a new life as...a magic-user.

[apeloverage]

Oct 25, 2008 9:04:37 GMT -6 castiglione said:

Is there really a need for players to control a group?

No need, but I thought it might give the game more options.

For example, I was thinking about having a Willpower attribute. Whoever has the highest social status in a group is that group's head. Every character has a listed personality type - eg a 'quarrelsome' character would always want to duel when the option presents itself, a 'placid' character would always want to back down, and a 'romantic' character would want to duel in a conflict over courting but not otherwise. If the character 'wants' to do something different to what the player wants, the result depends on the character's Willpower vs the head of the group's Willpower. Thus Willpower can be a good attribute for a leader, but a bad attribute for everyone else.

Other options that it opens up are feuds (where members of two groups are likely to duel on meeting each other), bidding for the allegiance of new characters etc.

It probably makes more sense in a Tekumel-style world, where a person's status depends on their clan's status.