Content Warning

I have been looking at En Garde! lately, a 1975 #ttrpg which hasn't really seen much of a rules update since 1977, but still is being published (now in it's 4th edition).
It's a game about gentlemen drinking, womanizing, gambling, toadying, and getting into scrapes with one another in 17th ct. Paris.

Think The Three Musketeers, the rpg/#wargame.

In fact it originally was a fencing duel system, with the whole roleplaying part just a way to generate reasons for characters to duel each other.

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Content Warning

it's a fascinating design that doesn't look very much like an RPG at all, and more like a wargame.

Except that it's more about the battle for status on the battlefield of Paris' high society.

Except if your character fucks up, in which case you get send to actual battle.

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Content Warning

the main point of the game is gaining status, and you do this in a variety of ways you might not even think about right now: you can drink expensive liquor in a public place, you can be a member of a social club, you can get invited into the club of another player of a higher social level, you can join a regiment (less for the whole fighting aspect and more for the prestige), you can gamble, and of course you can court a mistress of a high enough level.
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Content Warning

This game is very much about guys doing guy things, although some players seem to have taken the lack of actual language thereof to mean that there's no reason why there shouldn't be female characters. After all while there is a need for female companionship specified in the rules, there is no rule specifying it has to be a male character enjoying this companionship.
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Content Warning

of course the main point of the whole exercise is to emulate the Three Musketeers...

(specifically I guess the 1973 movie adaption which came out just before)

... and more specifically to get reasons to duel one another. That said the dueling rules are maybe the worst part of the game. They are definitely interesting though, as they mostly work without dice rolls, and instead depend on written commands from both sides.

A quick game this is not.

Content Warning

you might duel one another because you are from rival companies. Because one of the characters courted another's lover. Because someone dared to be richer than you despite being a lower social level.

In fact you need proper cause for a duel (so not to lose status), and the arbiter of what is proper cause are the other, non-involved players. If the other players agree any cause can be deemed worthy of a duel.