Veteran game designer Greg Stolze (Unknown Armies) has returned to the lure of GM-less play with a game of fencing, sneers, seduction and risks with the Dueling Fops of Vindamere.
The tabletop RPG will be published by Crankshaft Constellation. I’m of mixed reactions to seeing a Stolze’s game using the acronym TTRPG as we were here before cRPGs, but it’s great that the clarity is necessary. The Kickstarter is just a few hundred bucks shy of hitting the target, and you can see progress or join in from the project page.
Characters in the game are instructors at a posh duelling school for the rich and famous. Dueling Fops of Vindamere uses two pairs of stats; Foppish / Serious and Duelist / Aristocrat. If you ever max out on any of these stats, your has a crisis and risk falling out of the game.
The PCs also have two Beloveds (why have one) and can play scenes as a Beloved, with bonuses, instead, but this gives other characters a chance to woo them away.
Dueling Fops of Vindamere needs no prep; games are one-off and usually less than two hours long.
Greg Stolze’s newest tabletop roleplaying game puts you in the corrupt, dissolute city-state of Vindamere, but don’t worry. You play the best people there, spoiled children of privilege with nothing better to do than pursue swordplay, flirt outrageously, and snack on delicious vol-au-vents. A single game session covers the social year from Ye Midwinter Balle through the prestigious Alle-Valley Fencinge Championeshippe. Your louche elite blade-swanks fall in love, brawl, sneer and engage in truly petty social rivalries.
There are no physical versions of the game in the Kickstarter, though I imagine that might happen later.
A full PDF copy is unlocked as a thank you for supporters with a $10 pledge.
However, you can go higher and get a copy of Termination Shock RPG as well at $20 and a game with a designer, perhaps not Greg, but someone from Crankshaft at $100.
Comments on this article can be left in the box below.
