Players in En Garde! must adhere to a strict time schedule of events, each player being responsible for maintaining his own personal calendar of events showing his actions each week, and any changes in Social Level, Status Points or wealth. The basic unit of time is the week. Four weeks make a game month, three months make a season and four seasons make a year.

For each week of the game, all players, after a short negotiation period, secretly note their personal actions for that week. The negotiation period is necessary to allow players to arrange for duels, toadying or any other activity that must be arranged in advance. A player need not keep his word to other players, but must do what is written on his calendar. A character may engage in only one activity per week. The specific actions recorded in the example below will be explained later, but this is the manner in which weekly records must be planned.

SAMPLE MONTH: April 1607

Porthos:		Falstaff:		D’Artagnan:
1 Go to Hunter’s with Falstaff		1 Go to Hunter’s with Porthos		1 Court mistress number 4 (Roxanne)
2 Practice with rapier		2 Visit Bawdyhouse and carouse		2 ditto
3 Join Royal Foot Guards as Captain		3 Visit Hunter’s		3 ditto
4 Visit Bawdyhouse and carouse		4 Visit Hunter’s		4 Visit Bawdyhouse and carouse

A player’s object is to accumulate as many Status Points as he can in a month, in order to raise his Social Level. Status Points are (with one exception – see Titles) the only way in which Social Level can be raised.

To raise a character’s Social Level by one level, Status Points equal to three times the number of the Social Level sought must be accumulated in a single month. For a character of Social Level 4 to attain Level 5, he must accumulate 15 Status Points in the four weeks of the month.

At the end of the month, all Status Points accumulated that month are dropped and the character begins anew. Please note that while Status Points are dropped, Social Levels are not. A player who is promoted from level 6 to level 7 during June starts July as a level 7.

In order for a character to maintain his Social Level, he must accumulate Status Points equal in number to his Social Level at the beginning of the month.

A character who, for instance, began July as a Social Level 3 and who, during the course of the month, accumulated 7 Status Points, would have sufficient points to maintain his level 3 position (the minimum of 3 needed), but an insufficient number to elevate himself to level 4 (three times the aspired level, or 3 x 4 = 12). This character will enter the next month as a Social Level 3.

A character who fails to maintain his Social Level will drop one level. If the level 3 character in the above example had attained only 1 Status Point in July, he would have entered August as a level 2.

A character’s Social Level may not be changed more than one level per month except as a result of receiving a title (see Titles).


A character must pay Crowns (the monetary unit of En Garde!) equal to twice his Social Level each month for support (clothes, servants etc). A character who fails to do so loses one Social Level.

A character may gain one additional Status Point each month by conspicuous consumption. This consists of spending three times his Social Level for the month, rather than two, for support.