En Garde! Gentlemen Adventurer

[derv]

I've been reading through my copy of the game and thought I'd share a little about it.

The original designers were Darryl Hany, Frank Chadwick, John Harshman, and Loren Wiseman. It was first published in 1975 by GDW with a revised edition in 1978. GDW discontinued it in 1983. Subsequent publications came out in 1988 by SFC (Small Furry Creatures Press) and again in 2005 by Margin Evans Limited. The current edition by Paul Evans can be purchased through Amazon.com. More information and a complete history can be found at www.engarde.co.uk

Is it a roleplaying game? Yes and no. You create a character with certain stats that will represent you in the game. The main objective is to rise in social level through various means and certainly to avoid falling in prestige at the hands of others. Yet the game has more similarities to campaign tools that would be found in a wargame. Even though the game is set in 17th century France and meant to mirror popular movie depictions of the time period, it has been adapted to other genres like Barsoom, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, and Call of Cthulha. I can see how it might lend itself to a more expansive roleplaying game or used in conjunction with other rule sets if one would want.

If there is interest, it might be fun to walk through the character creation process and perhaps set up a few duels on these boards.

I'll save the next page for laying out the basics of character creation. You can find the charts on the En Garde! web page if you want a better idea of what I'm referring to. Also, chime in if you'd be interested in defending your honor. Please describe the grievance that you desire satisfaction for in much detail

[derv]

The basic character sheet would look something like this:

Characters name:
STR:	Birth:
CON:
END:		MA:
EXP:	Dagger:       Foil:       Rapier:	Sabre:       Cutlass:       2-Hand:

SL:	Funds:	Allowance:	Horses:	Date:
Debts:	Own Influence:	Mistress's Inf:	Appointment Inf:	Other Inf:

1) You start by rolling 3d6 for Strength, Constitution, and Expertise. Then record the results. Endurance is determined by multiplying Strength times Constitution.

Strength effects the amount of damage you may deliver.

Constitution is a general measure of your overall health and hardiness.

Endurance is similar to hit points. It's the amount of punishment you can sustain. When it reaches zero you're dead.

Expertise has to do with your skill as a swordsman. It can be improved through practice with a particular weapon. It works a little like initiative.


2) Next you roll d6 on Tables A, B, C, and record the results under Birth.

Table A is Class. You will either be a commoner, gentleman, or nobleman.

Table B is Sibling Rank. First born, second born, or bastard.

Table C is your Fathers Position. It is based on your class and determines your Initial Funds, Allowance, or Inheritance, if your father is deceased. Inheritance only applies to first born. It also establishes your Initial Social Level.

3) You can then roll a d6 for Military Ability (MA). This is a measure of leadership quality. It really only comes into play when the character is engaged in a military campaign. Before you can campaign you must first join a regiment though.

That's it really. The objective of the game is to rise in Social Level. This is accomplished by accumulating Status Points equal to 3x the next Social Level in a single month. To maintain your current Social Level you need only earn Social points equal to your current Social Level.

A month is made up of 4 weeks. You are allowed one action each week. At the beginning of a month Social Points start anew. Extra points do not carry over from the previous month.

[rsdean]

There was a large PBEM campaign going on based out of DC back in the late ‘90s or early 00’s … The most cumbersome part for the referee, IMHO, is stacking all the possible modifiers for a military campaign resolution. Everything else was relatively straightforward, as I recall.

[derv]

A couple example characters I rolled up:

Characters name:	Bastien Madalgude
STR: 12	Birth: Second son of a well to do
CON: 8	Gentleman
END: 96		MA: 5
EXP: 9	Dagger:       Foil:       Rapier:	Sabre:       Cutlass:       2-Hand:

SL: 4	Funds: 250	Allowance: 50	Horses:	Date: Jn 1624
Debts:	Own Influence:  0	Mistress's Inf:	Appointment Inf:	Other Inf:

Characters name:	Charles de Albinet
STR: 10	Birth: Bastard son of well to do
CON: 12	Gentleman
END: 120		MA: 5
EXP: 7	Dagger:       Foil:       Rapier:	Sabre:       Cutlass:       2-Hand:

SL: 3	Funds: 225	Allowance: 45	Horses:	Date: Jn 1624
Debts:	Own Influence: 0	Mistress's Inf:	Appointment Inf:	Other Inf:

Because Charles is an illegitimate son his Initial Social Level is reduced by one. His Funds and Allowance are also reduced by 10%.

Characters name:	Claude du Fontaine
STR: 15	Birth: Commoner
CON: 11	First son of a Merchant
END: 165		MA: 3
EXP: 9	Dagger:       Foil:       Rapier:	Sabre:       Cutlass:       2-Hand:

SL: 4	Funds: 165	Allowance: 22	Horses:	Date: Jn 1624
Debts:	Own Influence: 0	Mistress's Inf:	Appointment Inf:	Other Inf:

Because Claude is the first born son his Initial Social level is raised by one. His Funds and Allowance are also increased by 10%.

Characters name:	Erec le Thibaut
STR: 5	Birth: Second son of a wealthy
CON: 14	Marquis
END: 70		MA: 2
EXP: 11	Dagger:       Foil:       Rapier:	Sabre:       Cutlass:       2-Hand:

SL: 8	Funds: 500	Allowance: 100	Horses:	Date: Jn 1624
Debts:	Own Influence: 1	Mistress's Inf:	Appointment Inf:	Other Inf:

Since Erec's starting Social Level is 8 he has an Influence of 1 which he can use to his advantage when applying favours that modify die rolls for decisions of NPC's. Favours are rated by class 1-9. One's own Influence can be used once each season.

Next I'll lay out what a monthly turn made up of four weeks of actions would look like for Erec le Thibaut. Any player to player negotiations, agreements, or skulduggery would take place prior to submitting the monthly turn.

[aramis]

It can be run as a TT RPG; many have done so. It was intended for table top play. I've played it once TT, and it's a very structured RPG, but definitely gets into roleplay turf.

[derv]

It's the first month of the Summer season 1624.

This is an example of Erec le Thibaut's first turn.

	Income	Spending	SP's
Allowance, Support costs: 2 x SL (3 x SL for 1 SP)	100	24	1
Title		xxx
Club membership: The Blue Gables	xxx	15	4
Regiment and/or rank: Picardy Musketeers/ Captain	10	xxx	3
Mistress (name, SL & attributes)
Appointment		xxx
Mentions in Dispatches	xxx	xxx
Week 1: Join Blue Gables and carouse. Gamble: make 3 bets for 100 Cr each (300 Cr). loss, cut, win (-50 Cr, break even with SP's)		18 50	1
Week 2: Apply to Picardy Musketeers (accepted) Purchase rank of Captain (80 + 90)		170
Week 3: Practice with Rapier (1:4)
Week 4: Court Elizabeth Lavigne (SL7, beautiful) (7 x 3 = 21 x 2 = 42 Cr) roll 2+ for success. *Claude du Fontaine, a commoner, also courting Ms. Lavigne. Neither withdraws. Requiring duel to settle the matter.		42
Other: Duel with rapiers Erec:     [x-l-x]-[cl-k-x-x-x]-[x-l-x]-[sur]   -60 END Claude: [x-x-s]-[jb-x]-[x-l-x]-[x-s]-[jb-x]  -30 END Erec loses duel and woman, but retains his honor.

Erec has also managed to maintain his Social Level by accumulating 9 SP's for the month.
His total spending was 319 Cr with earnings of 110 Cr for a deficit of 209 Cr which must come out of his funds.
This leaves him with 291 Cr. He'll have to watch the gambling next month.

[derv]

Jul 2, 2021 0:42:47 GMT -6 aramis said:

It can be run as a TT RPG; many have done so. It was intended for table top play. I've played it once TT, and it's a very structured RPG, but definitely gets into role play turf.

Yes, no doubt it could be easily used as a TT RPG all on its own. It would just require the right group of players and a good GM who knew the game well.

I can see T&T being a good fit with little modification for others who might just want to port it over to an existing system. Your use of the abbreviation TT immediately brought that to mind.

I’ve also read comments that the promotion system of En Garde looks as if it may have been an influence on Traveller. I don’t know if that’s true, but I can see the connection being made.

[vasious]

I have been interested in En Garde! for a while.
Have been reading the records on some of the active games that are linked to from their main website
Don't know the logistic burden on the Referee but looks fun, thanks for sharing.

[Flintlock]

I'm coming to this a bit late, but I can wax lyrical about EG! for days. (I'll try to keep this to no longer than an undergrad essay).

I recently stepped down as the GM for the Liminal En Garde! game after three years due to other time constraints. It's now in the capable hands of Garrett; if anyone does want to play in a game I can point you in the direction of his email.

Some rather disjointed observations from my experience of the game.

One of the really interesting things about EG! is that it's stayed mechanically the same since the first edition.  There's been a few formatting changes but that's essentially it.  The big changes to how the game were when it was realised how perfect it was for PBM (which happened early on) and then the rise of the Internet which made things a lot easier.

Ironically I love the game and I love it because it fails its design objectives, not despite that. It promises a swashbuckling game of duelling with the Cardinal's Guards in Parisian courtyards.  It very rarely gives you that; in every game I've seen duels are not something that happens very often and when it does its often anticlimatic.  What EG! does perfectly, almost by accident, is create a game that my missus describes as "Jane Austen for boys".  That is pretty accurate; it's all about parties, who gets snubbed, who's dating who etc.

One big advantage is that its modular nature lends itself easily to house ruling.  Rules for marriages and children are very common indeed and you get a lot of games that allow for other social events than just clubs (theatre visits, horse racing etc).  At the extreme, it's actually pretty easy to shift it to another setting as long as the basic "raise in social standing" structure is kept.  I know of games that were previously run set in Restoration England, the Dune universe, a Lovecraftian university and even the Vatican.

I do suspect it wasn't entirely playtested as a full campaign. In particular, it tends to break down a bit at the high levels (no chance of death at the front, SL 20+, major minister position etc.) unless house rules have been implemented to avoid that.

What I find really fascinating about it is how different it is from most other early RPGs.  It's a snapshot of a completely different path they could have taken.  It's what Costikyan (referenced by Peterson) referred to as a "closed system RPG".  It's rules are meant to cover everything to the point it doesn't need a GM at all.  I've tried looking into other games like it (and welcome further ones to check out).  What I can find is Superhero 2044.  Heroes and Alma Mater have strong closed elements but they aren't completely there.

It seems this style of RPG design was almost abandoned before it even really took off.  To wildly theorise, I think the reasons may be that a) it was an approach heavily rooted in wargames and died as RPG buyers increasingly came from different backgrounds and b) it was supplanted by PBM games (like Starweb and It's a Crime) that did much the same thing.