Introduction

Why PC En-Guarde? 

? En-Garde the game is a simple roleplaying game (RPG) based in 17th century Paris, 
based loosely on the Three Musketeers theme and usually played in the spirit of the 
British film of the same name. 

? PEG is a collection of PC based utilities that take care of the boring number crunching 
aspects involved in running an En-Garde game. This gives you, the games referee more 
time to concentrate on the fun bits i.e. attending to your players plotting & machinations 
and writing the turn newsletter. PC En-Guarde (or PEG) development commenced in 
~1990 and continued upto ~1993, when my personal circumstances changed somewhat, I 
became a Dad! Up until then I was running a small postal (PBM) En-Garde game for a 
few friends.

? The program was originally used as a learning exercise in 'C' programming for myself.

? En-Garde, the game was published by Game Designer Workshop of the USA. At its 
simplest it is a simple paper & die duelling system with a very simple role-playing 
framework wrapped around the duelling mechanics. It became more popular as the 
realisation that the role-playing aspect was in fact much more fun than just duelling. The 
aim of the game is to gain status and wealth, hopefully at the expense of your companion 
player characters if at all possible. The game as I know. The version of the rules I have 
being the 2nd revised edition published in 1977 (yes I am that old!). The rules are 
currently available from Small Furry Creatures Press (http://www.sfcp.co.uk), who also 
run several PBM/PbeM games of En-Garde. One of which is unfortunate enough to have 
me, foisted upon it as a player. 

Who Needs PEG

As previously stated, PEG is a simple suite of programs for a PC to look after all the 
mundane number crunching involved in a game turn. Plus a few other utilities to manage a 
backdrop of computer controlled non-player characters (NPC's) and generate an unbiased 
turn for those players whose turn orders arrive either late or not at all. So, if you are an En-
Garde referee or are considering becoming one then read on!

What Do I Need To Run PEG?
1) A set of the En-Garde rules! I have attached a noddy's guide to En-Garde suitable for 
novice player character induction etc. But as the games referee (GM/DM in RPG speak) you 
really need a copy of the actual rulebook. The rules are currently available from the Small 
Furry Creatures Press (http://www.sfcp.co.uk).

2) A PC running Windows, I know it looks like a DOS program but it is in fact a windows 
console application.

What do I get?
Well hopefully 3 executable files plus several *.ngd files;

PEG54.EXE
The main program file
LATE_PC.EXE
A utility to produce unbiased game turns for late player 
character game turn orders.
NPC.EXE
A program to produce a hopefully convincing backdrop 
of non-player characters for characters to interact with 
i.e. duel & double-cross.

Plus lots of control files including;

CTRL.NGD
LADIES.NGD
CHAR1.NGD
CHAR2.NGD
	.
	.
CHAR20.NGD
GUIDE.RTF i.e. what you are reading.

What Does PEG54.EXE Do?
This is the main program file that does all the mundane number crunching associated with a 
game turn.
 
1) It reads in the plain text (ASCII) files i.e. CTRL.NGD, LADIES. NGD & the 
CHAR*.NGD.
2) Checks and validates the data input.
3) If and only if everything appears OK the program then goes on to produce the game turn 
results (CHAR*.RES) and the updated character files CHAR*.NGD ready for next turn.
4) The CHAR*.NGD files are renamed to CHAR*.MONTH ie for game turn April 1642 
they become CHAR*.APR
 
The .RES files are the results that are sent to the players, and can be edited in any text editor 
such as edit.com, notepad or wordpad and modified by the GM to reflect the results of any 
special actions etc. I strongly suggest archiving all of the resultant files via say winzip etc. (I 
personally keep an archive for each and every month so if required I can go back to any 
turn.)

PEG54.EXE requires two support plain text files to be in the same directory, namely 
CTRL.NGD & LADIES.NGD, examples of these files are contained in the distribution. 
CTRL.NGD contains the details of your campaign and game turn that all the programs need 
to access. If this file is not found or the information contained is incorrect then the programs 
refuse to proceed.

LADIES.NGD contains the details of all the campaign mistresses and their current suitor.

All player characters (PC's) and non player characters (NPC's) must have their own unique 
CHAR*.NGD file containing the characters campaign details. Each CHAR*.NGD file is 
plain text (ASCII) and has a similar format, here is an example;
JOHN_SMITH
:Players  name
PERRIER_EAU_NATURALMENT
:Characters name
0
:Conspicious consumption [1/0]
CAR
: week#1 actions
COU_LOUISE
: week#2 actions
PRA
: week#3 actions
PRA
: week#4 actions
0
: Purchase .. out of pocket etc
4
:Initial  SL
23
:Current SL
4A
:Regiment
GENERAL
:Rank
9
:Strength       [ 3 => 18 ]
9
:Constitution   [ 3 => 18 ]
81
:Current endurance <= strength x constitution
9
:M A            [ 1 => 10 ]
13
:Initial expertise
24.5
:Current expertise
0
:Allowance
2674
:Current wealth
NONE
:Mistress
0
:House level
ARM_COMMANDER
:Post #1 Military
MOS
:Post #2 Civil
15
:Mention in despatches
0
:MiD's last month
0
:MiD's 2 months ago
5
:MiD's 3 months ago
BOTHWELLS
:club
MARQUIS
:title
	Below the title field any notes can be manually entered from your editor.	
Spies.
#1: LB 16% MOS Offices . .......5 Cr/month
#2: LB 24% MOS Offices . .......5 Cr/month
Made Baron Sept 41
Rembrandt finish portrait Oct 41. 500 Cr.
Bought Loire Palace Sept41 HL5 cost 17000Cr
Joined Club Sportif Sept41
Kidnap Henri sanc Monteloup Oct 41 !!!!!!!!!
Rembrandt has not yet quite completed Giselles portrait
Nov 1641 extort 5000Cr from le Puy, results in civil unrest
Nov 1641 purchase engagement ring for Giselle cost 1000Cr. Giselle is courted away 
from Perrier by sanc Monteloup in week 3 Nov 1641 !
Loire Palace put up for sale Dec 1641, de Fer acting as agent. No buyer found in Dec.
Resign as Military Governor of le Puy, le Puy left in civil disorder.
Awarded the Croix du Combatants Jan 1641 and promoted to General, and sells 
Seine Palace for 16200Cr
Arrested tried and found guilty of treason in absence Feb 1641. Fined 3000Cr and 
placed under arrest for 1 month.
March 1641 3000 Cr fine still unpaid as at front. Receives OdC Silver and made a 
Marquis !
No orders April 1642
Earl -1 July 1642

Note that to simplify data input many of the details are entered as abbreviations as in the case 
of Rank, Regt., Weekly Action, Post's etc. However the entries in each of these fields must 
conform to one of the legal responses. Below the legal abbreviations for each field is listed, 
the plain text files must be in capitals and have no spaces in between names etc. any spaces 
can be replaced with the underscore character "_". So for example Jarre de Nescafe must be 
entered as;
JARRE_DE_NESCAFE

Valid Abbreviations

Regimental Abbreviations

Regiment
Abbreviation
Cardinals Guard
CG
Kings Musketeers
KM
Royal Foot Guards
RFG
Dragoon Guards
DG
Queens Own Carbiniers
QOC
Archduke Leopolds Cuiraissiers
ALC
Crown Prince Cuiraissiers
CPC
Royal Marines
RM
Grand Duke Max Dragoons
GDMD
Picardy Musketeers
PM
13th Fusiliers
13F
Prince Louise Lt. Dragoons
PLLD
53rd Fusiliers
53F
27th Musketeers
27M
4th Arquebusiers
4A
69th Arquebusieres
69A
Gascon Regt.
GR
Royal Nth Highland Brigade
RNHBR
Frontier Regt.
FR
None
NONE

 

Legal weekly actions and definitions 
 
Weekly Action
ABBREVIATION
duties 
DUT
war duty 
WAR
carouse at club
CAR
carouse with mistress at club
CAM
toady 
TDY
toady with mistress in tow 
TDM
duel 
DUL
court 
COU
gamble 50 Cr
GAM50
bawdy  
BWD
practice 
PRA

If more than one weekly action is to entered then the ";" delimits the entries ie

CAM;GAM100;GAM50;GAM;50

Or in other words, carouse at club with mistress and place 3 bets of 100Cr, 50Cr & 50Cr.

Legal entries for club field

BOTHWELLS
HUNTERS
HORSE_GUARDS
BLUE_GABLES
FROG_&_PEACH
RED_PHILLIPS
NONE

Legal entries for honours field

NONE
SIR
BARON
MARQUIS
EARL
VISCOUNT
COUNT

Legal abbreviations for Civil posts

Commissioner of Public Safety
COP
Chancellor of Exchequer
COE
Minister Without Portfolio
MWOP
Minister of Justice
MOJ
Minister of War
MOW
Minister of State
MOS

Legal month abbreviation in CTRL.NGD

JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG 
SEP
OCT
NOV
DEC

Legal entries for Military Posts
TROOPER_KINGS_ESCORT
 TROOPER_CARDINALS_GUARD
 ENSIGN_KINGS_ESCORT
 ENSIGN_CARDINALS_GUARD
 AIDE_TO_BRIGADIER
 REGIMENTAL_ADJ
 AIDE_TO_LT_GENERAL
 CAPTAIN_KINGS_ESCORT
 CAPTAIN_CARDINALS_ESCORT
 AIDE_TO_CROWN_PRINCE
 BRIGADE_MAJOR
 AIDE_TO_GENERAL
 DIVISION_ADJUTANT
 AIDE_TO_FIELD_MARSHAL
 ARM_ADJUTANT
 BRIGADIER
 QM_GENERAL
 PROVINCE_MIL._GOV.
 DIVISION_COMMANDER
 CITY_MIL._GOV.
 INSPECTOR_GEN._CAV.
 INSPECTOR_GEN._INF.
 ADJUTANT_GENERAL
 ARM_COMMANDER
 NONE

Here are some weekly actions as specified in the CHAR*.ngd files and their meanings,

BWD
Visit bawdyhouse to satisy ones need for female 
companionship
CAM
Carouse at club with mistress
CAR
Carouse at club without mistress
COU_BERNICE
Court Bernice
COU_CATHERINE+3
Court Catherine, purchase present to gain +3 die modifier
COU_EDITH+5
Court Edith, purchase present to gain +5 die modifier 
DUL12
Duel CHAR12.NGD
DUL6
Duel CHAR6.NGD
DUT
Perform regimental duties
PRA
Practice with regimental weapon
TDM10
Toady with mistress with CHAR10.NGD
TDM16
Toady with mistress with CHAR16.NGD
TDY1
Toady w/o mistress with CHAR1.NGD
WAR
At War
WAR+1
At War, recklessly brave by +1 to death roll




