For those who remember the classic RPG En Garde!, how would you like to see it PdtA?
I actually ran a game of it on G+ a few years back as is. It was creaky but we house ruled it and I added in some agenda and principles to drive play.
But I’d like to take a stab at a more formal conversation or redesign.
If you aren’t familiar with the original game, take a look. It was designed for face to face play, but had a long life as play by post and then play by email. There are some nice early RPG mechanics in there.
Some early thoughts:
Genre:
17th Century French swashbucklers
Characters:
The Duelist
The Lover
The Diplomat
The Officer
Adjectives:
Brave
Honorable
Romantic
Bold
Basic Moves:
Go into Danger
Do Something Foolhardy
Grab the Glory
Find Luxury
Pursue Romance
The GM:
Make Paris seem alive
Make the enemies of France real
Give every person a name
Make the Church a character
Give class and royalty real weight
There are many closed doors in Paris. Some contain enemies or lovers, some hide opportunity or danger.
When you try to enter a closed door with wit, roll+sharp
…with force, roll+bold
…with guile, roll+honor
…with emotion, roll+heart
Adam Blinkinsop that’s a rough one. I thought the scripting was good for asynch play, but some players in our game were less than excited about it. I never really liked the scripting in BW, for example. Given that the players saw very little of the sausage being made, it might be just as interesting to have players make a roll via moves and have the GM narrate the result.
What are your thoughts?
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Adam Blinkinsop when I first read BW 10 years ago, I thought that conceptually scripting seemed amazing. But in play I found it a bit awkward and unsatisfying. Now I prefer the give and take of a game like DitV or AW.
Adam Blinkinsop I was actually just thinking about that. I think that replacing Barter with Coin would work for the purposes of testing the dynamic in play.
You earn Coin by doing favors, through commissions or by gaining loot.
You spend Coin for expenses, for excesses and to gain advantages.
When you open your heart to a friend, lover or God, roll+heart. On a hit, the MC will tell you something new and interesting about the current situation, and might ask you a question or two; answer them. On a 10+, the MC will give you good detail. On a 7–9, the MC will give you an impression. If you already know all there is to know, the MC will tell you that.
I would pay money for a PbtA version of En Garde!
I don’t know anything about En Garde!, but as a fan of Dumas, I am intrigued by the setting.
Carouse
When throw a big party, spend Coin and roll + extra Coin spent. On a 10+ choose 3. On a 7-9 choose 1. On a miss, you still choose one, but things get really out of hand.
• You befriend a useful NPC
• You hear rumors of an opportunity
• You gain useful information
• You are not insulted, dishonored or tricked
Adam Blinkinsop I’m curious what you think about social level and social points? They are such a key mechanic to En Garde!, but they don’t have a great analogy in the AW system.
Adam Blinkinsop it’s interesting that you say “small group” because our game topped out at 8 players. The last PBEM game I was in hovered around 65-70. It was a beast.
In The Sprawl, “cred” is an abstract rating both of cash and reputation. I can see in a game of this sort a stat like “standing” serving a similar role.
People of high standing don’t really need to buy things, and certainly would never do so with cash on the spot (either because they bring the craftsperson to them, or if they must go out, simply explain “send the bill to my household”). Lower-status people and people from out of town have more need for tangible wealth.
Still, there is an understanding that if you want credit and social gifts from your peers, you have better have some real wealth to back it up; and abusing your position and failing to repay debts will lead to a drop in status, including not getting invited to any of the good parties.
See The Count of Monte Cristo for ample examples.
Adam Blinkinsop hmm…I really like the idea of a countdown clock for status. Need to think more on the meta status scores and how they would affect play. For example, you might not be able to join The King’s Musketeers without Status+1. And you could not get an appointment as a Minister Without Portfolio without Status+2.
Winning a duel, successfully courting a mistress, etc would increase your Status countdown clock. Taking an insult without responding, being embarrassed in public, setting tongues wagging, etc. would decrease Status countdown clock.
When you fill your Status countdown clock, it returns to 1:00 and you’d go from Status0 to Status+1.
Does that sound right?
I’m less convinced by the Cash countdown clock. Feels like you could handle it with Cash/Barter mechanic. But would love to hear more of your ideas there.
Adam D thanks that’s an interesting note. I haven’t read The Sprawl yet. Dumas’ (and others of the era) writing really focuses on the friction between impoverished nobles with the royal name, and the new middle class with money but no name. But that doesn’t mean something similar to cred could not work here.
Good food for thought.
I’d add the bandit or scoudrel or cutthroat from “la cour des miracles”, the spy or conspirator (like Milady de Winter in the three musketeers) and maybe the servant (loyal or not)
Luke Wayland
Hasgard aka Big Brother
There are actually some Battle and Season moves from AW:DA that are very useful for En Garde:
When you join in single combat with someone, roll Strong. ere
is a decisive exchange of harm. On 10+, spend 3 on the following.
On 7–9, spend 2. On a miss, spend 1. If your opponent is a fellow player’s character, they roll too and spend accordingly. If an NPC, the MC spends 2, or must explain why otherwise. Spend blind, without knowing how your opponent is spending theirs.
• For each 1 you spend to strike hard, inflict +1 Harm.
• For each 1 you spend to defend yourself, gain +1 Armor.
• For each 1 you spend for position, you better your chance to win.
—
When you lead an attack on an enemy, roll your company’s War. On 10+, choose 3 of the following. On 7–9, choose 2. On a miss, choose 1. ese are your attack options; be sure to check your playbook and your company for more.
• You strike hard, inflicting +1 Harm in the coming exchange.
• You strike unexpectedly. Your enemies cannot defend themselves well.
• You strike at a particular individual in your enemy’s force. If your enemies don’t choose to protect them, they personally su er harm.
• You drive a wedge into your enemy. Your enemies cannot rally and counterattack.
• You cut your enemy o . Your enemies can’t flee, retreat, or choose a maneuver unless they first force an opening.
• You drive your enemy back. Your enemies cannot hold their position.
Your enemy Comes Under Attack.
—
When you spend the rest of the season Fighting as a soldier, have the MC roll your company’s War. On 10+, choose 2 of the following. On 7–9, choose 1. On a miss, the MC chooses 1 for you.
• You begin the new season at home, released from service. (Otherwise, you are still bound to Fight.)
• You begin the new season with a bounty of coin, your pay. (Otherwise, you are owed pay.)
• You begin the new season unhurt. (Otherwise, suffer 1 Harm.)
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Any chance a redesign could convince you to pick up where we left off? 😊
That’s really interesting because with Hasgard aka Big Brother, we are in the process of writing a pbta hybrid inspired by another dinosaur of this genre named “trois mousquetaires”. We are aiming at the “Cape et épée” genre in the pure Alexandre Dumas tradition.
We hope to deliver around summer 2017, we are just starting the playtest.
Our game has playbooks and moves but a specially designed combat system to help player emulate those kind of fights were you can win by other means than killing your adversaries.
Right now we are not ready for public playtest but I will keep anyone interested posted, just let me know.
Oh and right now the game is in French… I plan to have it traduced but that’s far away from now.
Luke Wayland awesome. All for one and one for all!
Adam-Ross Branch < disapproving emoji>
I’ve been going through my old notes from the En Garde! G+ game I ran, and remember that I did some light PbtA asynchronous play. We were playing out The Henri Plot, which had several sections to it. I had considered using countdown clocks ala Blades in the Dark, but decided instead to use 2d6 rolls, with some carryover from good rolls. The usual 10+, 7-9 and 6-. Here is a snippet of my notes. Initials are from PC names.
Hiring the men (VdM)
Rolls a 7; one of the men talks too much and brags about their upcoming riches)
Getting into the convent (VdM, AdS) +1
Rolls a 7 (8); someone in the convent is suspicious
Getting Henri out (VdM)
Rolls a 5; VdM has to kill a man.
Getting Geraldine out (AdS)
Rolls a 5; The gendarmes are alerted and they have to shoot their way out. One of the rogues is wounded.
Safehouses (VdM)
3; The rogues have to get to a doctor in Paris and take Geraldine with them.
Getting Henri safely to Paris (VdM)
5;
Rescuing Geraldine (JM, RdA)
Etc, etc.
We were handling this like a meta scene, where players would send me their weekly orders for the months. But in this case, we were going beyond the En Garde! rules to handle a more complex game task. Which is something I had seen done using other techniques in previous large En Garde! PBEM games. As GM I was mostly responsible for writing the narration that followed, so I wanted to keep the mechanic pretty simple.
But nice to see that some ingame dynamics fit with the basic dice roll scheme already.