En Garde! in play - online and offline

There are games of En Garde! in play all over the world. Not just around a table, but also on the web and by mail. Here is a list of the En Garde! games that we know about - if you know of any others, e-mail En Garde! games and tell us about them. (And, if you're running a game yourself, there's a mailing list for En Garde! GMs on Yahoo!.)

(In case they're new to you, the abbreviation PBM means Play By Mail and PBeM means Play By e-Mail.)

Active En Garde! games

This list was last fully updated on 29th November 2016: contact the specific GM for details on joining their game.

Game
(link to website)
GM/Contact
(e-mail link)
Description
Boldhome Heroes Jacob Andersson An En Garde! variant set in the world of Glorantha (the setting for the Runequest RPG and various board games), Jacob needs a few more players to get the game off the ground (as of April 2023). Sounds terrific.
Britain En Garde! James Waters The latest arrival is this interesting-looking game set in Regency (well, 1801) England. James describes it as a "Simple game with few additional rules, set in London in the early Napoleonic Period. 7-10 day deadlines, results within 24 hours of deadline. Join the site (free) to request a character."
Bruinburg En Garde! Nick Pinner Nick has incorporated some of the features of The Paris Tribune (RIP) to the basic En Garde! rules, while making the setting "the Germanic electoral city-state of Bruinburg in an imagi-empire torn by political/religious civil war". The game currently (Jan 2018) has 15 players and a monthly turnaround. Nick would like to double its size: drop him a line if you're interested.
Les Petites Bêtes Soyeuses Pevans A long-running (it started in 1986) PBM/PBeM, LPBS sticks fairly close to the published rules, but does have a few wrinkles. Costs GBP 0.50 per turn online, GBP 2.70 on paper (in the UK), 10 turns a year.
Liminal En Garde! Sam New (July 2019) online game that includes some interesting house rules for alternative careers, the royal court and appointments and some experimental rules for female characters. At the time of writing, Sam has room for a few more players, so contact him or sign up at the forum.
Preux et Audacieux Tirs Abril A fascinating Spanish-language game that has been running since March 1993 and is now in 1653. The rules have evolved well away from their starting point. Well worth a look if your Spanish is up to it.
Sword and Crown Eric Larsen US-based gender-neutral En Garde! game (originally based on King and Cardinal, but heavily developed since then) run on Discord. It has lots of entertaining house rules and plenty of interaction.

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Dormant En Garde! games

Game
(link to website)
GM/Contact
(e-mail link)
Description
Black Sails En Garde! Tony Hinton-West PBeM naval En Garde! game that's a continuation of Briny (see below), or rather "Briny meets Pirates of the Caribbean". Tony has incorporated female characters and added non-military career paths. Sadly, there's been no activity since July (Oct 2020).
Fontainebleau En Garde! Paul Lydiate This is a new (May 2018) game with a GM who's a veteran player of the game (so he should know what he's doing). Paul has based his house rules on DuPont (RIP), with a few simplifications. There are still rules for the Church, family, marriage and female characters and it's running on the Tapatalk forums. New players can apply to join on the website, but there has been no activity for several months now (Oct 2020).

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Defunct En Garde! games

Game
(link to website)
GM/Contact
(e-mail link)
Description
Au Plaisir du Roy   French language En Garde! game, part of the venerable games 'zine, Mach die Spühl! (it translates as "Do the washing-up!"), and closely connected with a game group in Liège, Belgium. Health problems forced the GM to stop the game.
Banana, The Colin Bell Website-based game that ran for several years under a succession of GMs.
Before All Else Ray Farrell Building on The Paris Tribune (below), Ray set up his own game on the CGN website. "The emphasis was on intrigue and social rivalry more than regimental life," he notes, incorporating a system of factions to the game.
Briny En Garde! Terry Crook PBeM En Garde! variant set in the late 18th century Royal Navy. It ran for several years from May 2011 with 30-odd players.
Dangerous Liaisons Jerry Spencer Excellent PBM set at the time of the religious wars in France. It concluded (early in 2010) with a civil war between the Monarchists and the Catholic League!
Death Before Dishonor Joe Carl Joe has a rather different approach to the game, using his own, customised rules. He runs it in his games 'zine, The Joe Rule, which is distributed as a PDF. Sadly, Joe discontinued it in July 2016.
Death with Honour Scott Lewin Fairly standard PBeM game with some interesting additions to the rules. Re-vamped and re-launched at the start of September 2008, but didn't last long.
Dune Angelo Yang This was an online science fiction variant set in Frank Herbert's Dune universe. It went through a couple of GMs, but is now closed.
DuPont En Garde! Alan Percival A classic En Garde! game with several extensions to the rules, including the church as a career path and female characters. Alan managed a good run of some three years with fortnightly turns – quite an achievement! It closed down in the Spring of 2018.
Elan Carol Kocian A fairly standard PBeM that has gone through several GMs (and names), but has been dormant since the Autumn of 2006.
Freydal Mike Tittensor This game has been adapted to the early Fifteenth Century in the Holy Roman Empire along the lines of the Romance Freydal. It formally started at the end of January 2011, but there hasn't been any activity since November 2013.
Kingston Games Group Simon Smith Face-to-face game that ran at the Kingston Games Group, but has been on hold for many years. The newsletter, Toady, is posted on-line along with other stuff about the game.
La Regence 2 Denis Martineau French language online game run through a Yahoo! group. It took over the late Mach die Spuhl! game and has some players from that game. However, nothing seems to have happened since mid-2007.
Lievres Fous, Les Russell March The third SFCP postal game from the 1990s.
London Frank Schildiner PBeM variant set in 18th century London rather than the Musketeers' Paris. It has been through several GMs and was supposed to re-launch in April 2012, but did not appear.
Mercure du Paris, Le   Postal game
Mythweavers En Garde! Bosh Intended to be a fast-paced online En Garde! game, it seems this one never got off the ground.
Old Spaceways Bill Crum An entertaining PBeM game set in the space opera future of Pulp Sci Fi. It drew from other games for ground and space combat. Sadly, it closed in September 2011.
Orleans Brian Jenkins Orleans re-started in March 2005 as a fairly standard PBeM game with plenty of added features. By mid-2008 it had disappeared again.
Parisian Jano Donnachaidh Lots of house rules add colour to this PBeM, but Jano had problems with internet access. The game went "on hiatus" in 2005 and has not resumed.
Psychopath En Garde! Fraser Hopkins PBeM game that ran as part of the Psychopath on-line 'zine. Now sadly defunct.
Realistas o Cardenalistas 'Secretariado de Luis XIII' A Spanish language game, this one pitted supporters of the King (Realistas) against those of the Cardinal (Cardenalistas) – with the Church as an alternative career to the military.
Réduit à l'Essentiel Ash Casey This was quite deliberately a 'Bare Bones' game using the rules as published with no embellishments. It ran for 18 months, but wrapped up at the end of 2008.
Restoration Martin Carter Launched in July 2011, Restoration is set in London (and beyond) in the 1660s. It has lots of rule changes and a focus on hands-on roleplay. Unfortunately nothing seems to have happened since June 2012.
Restoration England Seany K A spin-off from the TPT game (below), this is a root-and-branch re-working of En Garde! set in London after the Restoration of Charles II to the throne. It was hosted on the CGN website alongside TPT and did not survive much longer.
Sage Steve Arnott Online game from the 1990s (spawned Star, I believe).
Small Furry Undergrads Chris Carr (et al) The second postal game run by SFCP started in the late 1980s. Many of the players (and the then GM) migrated to The Banana.
St Alban's role-playing   A standard En Garde! game that's folded due to dwindling interest.
Star En Garde! Pete Cooney An entertaining Science Fiction variant set in the 31st century, Star went through a couple of GMs before hanging up its light sabre.
Stellar En Garde! James Wooten A PBeM science fiction variant with "some of the feel of David Weber's Honor Harrington universe". It's been on hiatus for some time and looks unlikely to resume.
Sun King, The Nigel Misson Very detailed development of En Garde! that ran for several years.
The Paris Tribune JonL This long-running postal/online game closed down at the end of July 2014. It was based in a group of gamers in Canterbury (Kent, UK) which runs all sorts of other games and events, so the website is well worth a look.
Ultra Mundane   A fairly standard En Garde! game with several extensions to the rules. It was set up from the St Alban's group's last game (above). However, the website has been unavailable since March 2012.
Under Parisian Skies   A fairly standard PBeM with plenty of added features. the website had disappeared early in 2009.
Une Chanson d'Encre et de Sang R Graymarch French language En Garde! variant, based on The Paris Tribune rules and set in George RR Martin's universe – some 90 years before A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones). After running for 8 years, it wound up at the end of 2020.
Unquiet Slumbers Frank Blades En Garde! meets Call of Cthulhu in this PBeM set in 1920s Lovecraftian England. Sadly, it appears this imaginative game is no more and its website disappeared in 2008.
Variable Pig Jim Reader This veteran PBM 'zine used to run an En Garde! game.
Vatican En Garde! Emma Dalton PBeM set in Renaissance (early 16th C) Rome under Pope Leo X. It has not seem been updated since April 2009.
Vive le Roi! Brad Martin Online game (based in Australia) run by a veteran of the postal games scene. It ran for nearly 15 game-years before Brad brought it to a close.
Warriors of Mars Blanton En Garde! adapted to the Barsoom setting of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Mars books. Sounds like fun, but it seems to have come to a halt early in 2007 (June 2008).

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Page created 12th December 2005. Last modified 4th April 2023.
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