The Adventures of Le Duc d’Urbanville

This past Sunday my friend Curt came up from Regina and put on a game for me and some of the other locals. John, Christian, and Amanda also played, Mr. Miller showed up later and heckled.

Originally Curt billed the game as a “three musketeers skirmish game” – here is the background he sent:

“Near the border of France and Spain, July 1666…

“The Duc d’Urbanville, a French nobleman, is acting as an emissary for the people of his region to the king of France. He is what some people term “a complex man”; he is a Basque, a Huguenot, a gambler, a rake, a duelist and somehow not surprisingly, a defrocked ex-priest. Nevertheless, due to his high birth, wealth and social station he is also an extremely powerful man, and though hated by many he is courted by the elite of European society.

“Though d’Urbanville carries a Royal Seal giving him great latitude while he makes his way to Paris, he has decided for the sake of security to travel quietly with his son, his household staff and a modest retinue of Scots mercenaries. In order to better facilitate the negotiations with the French king and his papist Cardinal d’Urbanville has brought along several Catholic relics and other gifts to present to the King’s household. D’Urbanville and his party has stopped at a small village with an ancient keep, as it is the final way-stop for quite some distance.

“Nonetheless, the doings of such a man as d’Urbanville has not gone unnoticed… Near to the Keep swords are being sharpened and flintlocks primed with many men vowing that this night the Duc and his household will pay for its many sins.....”

However when he showed up he informed us that it was all actually a movie – directed by some old school director that loved method acting and letting the action play itself out with lots of cameras rolling and we would all be competing to see who got top billing!? The winner would be the player with the most EGO points at the end of the game. Ego were gained by performing great stunts or stunning displays of swordmanship or whatever… there was also bonuses if it was done in front of the main camaera. Some of these points could be “spent” on various things – primarily convincing the director to bring the main camera over to where you were at…

Here’s a few quick pics of the action…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


My Character – the first to storm into the old keep…. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten ALL of the characters names!? We each had a primary objective and a pile of secondary objectives based on our individual characters background. We received ego points if we accomplished said objectives – extra bonuses if done in front of the camera with style! Mine was to steal his gold and the Royal Seal…


This was Christian’s character…. He was out for vengence and had to take out the Duc’s son. He took a little time to get into the game but ended up the overall victor – claiming top billing for the movie!


As I stormed into the keep some of the other players spent EGO points to have the scriptwriter or director send out some of the Duc’s retainers to battle me – you can get tired out (or actually beaten up!) in all the fighting…


It kind of backfired as I called in the camera and skillfully dispatched the foes garnering me a huge pile of EGO points!


Amanda’s Character entered the scene with a rather fabulous stunt – involving swinging down from the tower on a rope – building her EGO considerably – meanwhile my character jumped up on the coach and started battling the driver!


The Driver started driving away but I managed to stay aboard and dispatch the driver!


Then I tried to gain control of the coach while simultaneously duel the man with the blunderbuss sitting on the back – TWICE I failed at this – both times on camera which got the director really mad and reduced my EGO points to ZIP!!


John’s character taking out the Duc’s Assasins (one is already lying in the courtyard below having been kicked off the ramparts when John made his spectacular entrance.


Christian’s Charcter finally joins the action and who should he happen to meet on the ramparts but the Duc’s son – whose cheeks he carved his initials into before throwing him off the roof of the shed – all on camera – boosting him instantly into top billing for the flick! He further blasted our names right off the poster by later kidnapping the Duc's mistress!


Amanda’s character (in blue) dueling with the Duc (in red, of course!) himself. She too was out for vengance as he had ravished her when she was younger… unfortunately the film ran out and she never got to finish him off in this film… perhaps there will be a sequel!!