New OOTS products from CafePress
New OOTS t-shirts, ornaments, mugs, bags, and more
Results 1 to 5 of 5
  1. - Top - End - #1
    Troll in the Playground
     
    Lacco's Avatar

    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Slovakia
    Gender
    Male

    Default En Garde! in the Playground

    Hey there, fellow playgrounders!

    Recently I was reminded about my personal non-fantasy heartbreaker: En Garde!.

    The game is quite old-school, with random character generation, unforgiving rolls and just plain roguelike feel as you try to navigate the society of Paris and climb the steep ladder of social success. It encourages cooperation and rivalry, both friendly and deadly duels, and letter-writing.

    Why a hearbreaker? Well, I've tried to organize 3 games on 3 separate ocassions and each failed spectacularly.

    First one was at my university - few players were local, few online, one via snail mail. Locals got bored due to slow moving game, online players only communicated with each other and the last one never knew about anything, although his letters were fun to read.

    Second was purely online - I gathered 8 players. Two dropped before first round, two after first round. Game never picked pace as my idea for fencing tournament with NPCs (due to the dropouts) bogged down the game to crawl.

    Third one worked well - we got 6 game months in, but then it collapsed due to the workload - I got a new job, couldn't find time to finish, made lots of mistakes when adjudicating and we agreed to go on hiatus until I am able to do the work properly. When I finally did, after few months, nobody could remember anything, so we just ended it.

    And now one of my previous players once again wrote to me about playing. And I have the urge to get back to Paris... or London... I even tinkered with the idea of Menzoberranzan.

    So, any fans? Active players? Stories to share? Ideas to play with?
    Call me Laco or Ladislav (if you need to be formal). Avatar comes from the talented linklele.
    Formerly GMing: Riddle of Steel: Soldiers of Fortune

    Quote Originally Posted by Kol Korran View Post
    Instead of having an adventure, from which a cool unexpected story may rise, you had a story, with an adventure built and designed to enable the story, but also ensure (or close to ensure) it happens.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Australia

    Default Re: En Garde! in the Playground

    Is it designed to work as a TTRPG or more like a Roleplay influenced board/card game?
    I love playing in a party with a couple of power-gamers, it frees me up to be Elan!


  3. - Top - End - #3
    Troll in the Playground
     
    Lacco's Avatar

    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Slovakia
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: En Garde! in the Playground

    The latter.

    The game is structured mainly as a board game - fixed turns, narrowly defined actions - but it requires certain amount of roleplay.

    It works well online, could work with snail mail, can imagine playing it in person if you could get few large rooms.

    The roleplay is reserved mainly writing letters/discussing plans among players. You can issue in-character duel challenges, invitations for parties, write letters or discuss in person the plans for your character, but the day-to-day actions are not detailed.

    It's something you can play casually without too much effort, or - depending on your choice - put a lot of effort into. Including lot of roleplay.
    Last edited by Lacco; 2020-09-10 at 03:35 AM.
    Call me Laco or Ladislav (if you need to be formal). Avatar comes from the talented linklele.
    Formerly GMing: Riddle of Steel: Soldiers of Fortune

    Quote Originally Posted by Kol Korran View Post
    Instead of having an adventure, from which a cool unexpected story may rise, you had a story, with an adventure built and designed to enable the story, but also ensure (or close to ensure) it happens.

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Dallas, TX
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: En Garde! in the Playground

    I've loved reading it and playing with the rules by myself, but I've never had a second person interested.

    My recommendation is that you try FGU's Flashing Blades. It is also set in musketeer-era Paris, but I've actually gotten people to play it, and even had somebody else run it once so I could play it.

    Here is a link to a purchasable pdf.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Troll in the Playground
     
    Lacco's Avatar

    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    Slovakia
    Gender
    Male

    Default Re: En Garde! in the Playground

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay R View Post
    I've loved reading it and playing with the rules by myself, but I've never had a second person interested.

    My recommendation is that you try FGU's Flashing Blades. It is also set in musketeer-era Paris, but I've actually gotten people to play it, and even had somebody else run it once so I could play it.

    Here is a link to a purchasable pdf.
    I already have the Flashing Blades. Got the 3 books due to lucky coincidence (there was some 50% off for the whole bundle). I especially liked the idea of fencing styles - even though it could have been a bit more developed.

    Haven't been able to persuade my players to try them though - they are too opposed to anything remotely connected to d20 system. Also: classes. Only one of my irregularly regular players actually likes to play class-based systems.

    While RPGing the whole "climbing the social ladder in Paris" is a great idea, what I like about EG is exactly that you can be anything you like, there is no "party" and everybody can work alone or in small groups. At one point I even found some rules for being a scribe/accountant/pick a honest profession temporarily (most probably picked from Flashing Blades; basically: earning money with very small chance of getting into trouble; earning promotions similarly to combat - could be used as "AFK" or even as starting point for some poor characters that wish to remain unharmed).

    What I like about EG is exactly the "gamist" nature of the ruleset - you can pick a character, throw them into the hat, see what becomes of them. Feels rather old school. No character builds, just something to spend some time on.

    I've found at max 5 people willing to participate, but no common ground for playing (over e-mail it's too easy to lose sight; I like when players can roll their own rolls, but it's also easier if the GM can roll and people can check the rolls). PbP seems like a good idea, but I wouldn't go into it alone. But getting a whole bunch of people playing it here...? Well, a man can dream
    Call me Laco or Ladislav (if you need to be formal). Avatar comes from the talented linklele.
    Formerly GMing: Riddle of Steel: Soldiers of Fortune

    Quote Originally Posted by Kol Korran View Post
    Instead of having an adventure, from which a cool unexpected story may rise, you had a story, with an adventure built and designed to enable the story, but also ensure (or close to ensure) it happens.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •