TURN 41 RESOLUTION IN PROGRESS.......

The year is 1791, and there's trouble afoot ...! Not in England, where Good King George III. of the House of Hanover-Pumpernickel is apt to deal sternly with troublemakers, be they Whigs, Irish, Quakers, or just Furry ...er, Foreigners. But it's a different kettle of fish in France, on the other side of the Channel, where the political situation has deteriorated into a public free-for-all, no hold barred! "La Revolution mange ses enfants!". Nobody is safe any more. Emigrants arrive in London in ever increasing numbers, stating that declarations of war are expected monthly from Berlin, Vienna, Madrid, Moscow, and Lisbon. They also complain that taxes are higher than ever and the cost of nearly everything has doubled. And they shake their grizzled heads (powder being very expensive nowadays) at the unheard-of idea of raising armies by conscription, the brainchild of a certain young Corsican artillery officer about to enter French politics. Nevertheless, they all agree that the great shipyards of Toulon, Brest, Cherbourg have never been more busy - beehives ain't in it, they say. France is obviously marshalling its forces. And the French Navy seems to have plans of its own ...!

Welcome to Briny En Garde!

This variant will see you playing on the high seas in His Majesty's Ships either as a sailor, Officer or maybe a Royal Marine! It is set in England and all the things that go with it, however it is still true to the original En Garde game in its format and execution. (see below for an explanation of what En Garde or EG is). The Game is free and playable by email only.

What is En Garde?

En Garde! is a semi-historical role-playing game in which characters take on the personality of a gentleman in 17th or 18th century France. It was originally published by Games Designers Workshop, but after they discontinued the game, it was reprinted under license by The Small Furry Creatures Press (SFCP).

En Garde! provides a simulation of swashbuckling as seen in Errol Flynn films, Cyrano de Bergerac and the Three Musketeers. Players take on the role of a Parisian gentleman in a situation where status is a goal to be achieved above money and social climbing is a way of life. Characters attempt to gain power and glory by being seen in society, using people, cultivating friends in high places, winning the hand of fair ladies and, of course, by fighting duels to uphold ones honour. Rivalry is intense and friendships a valuable commodity.

En Garde! is open-ended in its objectives, like many other role-playing games. Characters come and go in a historical situation that continues to progress. Within the game, a character's objective will be to become the most notable person in Paris, along with which go wealth and power. How long he will stay at the top will depend on his wit, since there will always be plenty more people prepared to do the dirty on him in their own quest for status.

The nature of the game makes inter-player communications a necessity, since it is often extremely difficult to progress alone. This makes for a very friendly game, where players group together for mutual assistance and often come into other players or groups with conflicting interests. Most games have a very lively "press" where characters' views are exchanged in an often heated but (almost) always polite and genlemanly fashion.

The game will appeal to anyone who enjoys role-playing, history and negotiation in games.

 

What is PBM?

PBM stands for Play-by-Mail. The basic idea is a simple one: instead of meeting your fellow players around a table in the same room, you post your orders for each turn to an impartial moderator. The game moderator (who’s called a GM, for short) processes them along with the other player’s orders and sends you the results, ready for you to brood over before you post your orders back for the following turn.

If you’re used to tabletop games this may seem a strange idea at first, but PBM games are designed to make the most out of their medium.

They can handle a larger number of players than it’s easy to gather for a tabletop game, so you’re not restricted to people nearby and can write your orders at a time that suits you. Games can last longer, too, than is generally convenient in a tabletop session. Indeed, though many PBM games end when appropriate victory conditions have been reached, there are some games which are designed to continue indefinitely. In most PBM games there is a wealth of information and options to think over during the time between receiving your results and sending in your orders for the next turn: most PBM games have considerable depth.

A big difference between PBM games and tabletop games is that for each turn in PBM you usually get individual results which are relevant to your own position, not an overview of the whole game. Therefore it’s often necessary to contact some of the other players in order to swap information, agree on frontiers and to ally for mutual protection - or the opposite! This need to interact between turns is called “diplomacy”; it’s not necessary for all PBM games, but it is an aspect of PBM gaming which appeals to many players because it’s a way of making friends who share your interets. PBM is strong on sociability!

Some GMs moderate their games wholly by computer, some use computers to assist them, while others moderate “by hand”. Each method has it’s own characteristics, so you’ll need to decide which suits you best. Many of the computer-moderated games are competitive games which will end with a winner, and many of the hand-moderated or computer-assisted games are long-lasting, open-ended games. It’s hard to generalise, though, as the choice is so huge. There are over 200 PBM games running in Britain alone, and many more by email worldwide!

Yes, you do have to pay for your turns, up front (Briny en Garde is free to play). But competition among a huge range of games keeps prices reasonably low for what you get back, so as hobbies go, PBM is an inexpensive way to have lots of fun.

Do you want to play a king, a spacefarer, a mage, a soccer manager, a mercenary, an enchantresss, France or a bug-eyed monster? These opportunities and many more await you, Playing-by-Mail.

(The author of this introduction to PBM, Carol Mulholland, is the editor of Flagship magazine.)


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