Here's a list of the newspapers for each month of the En Garde! campaign (most recent at the top of the list):
As the new year dawned. several new faces have been gracing Paris with their presence. Several of these are newly arrived sons of members of the nobility including most notably that of Charles, the first son of Count Cyarcon. The new faces have applied to various different regiments with many various results, although three of the new intake have failed to convince their choice of regiment to accept their application.
Pity poor Flora Pernet! Her door was almost continuously occupied this month by two new suitors: Eddie Eagle and Frederick Richter. Although her diet has been much improved as the pair tried, in vain, to woo her heart; she did express annoyance at being unable to leave her property for much of the month for want of being able to dodge her serenaders. As a result of the confusion both gentlemen have cause to fight a duel next month.
Le Perche du Coudray's Fencing School
It seems that Le Perche du Coudray, the famous fencing master, is much in demand; with many members of the Paris scene deciding to improve their rapier skills this month. In fact a majority of the new faces partook in the exercise. Sadly Jack Antequil could only attend for the first week of training as his funds did not permit further training and one is left to wonder if Jack will be forced to join the frontier regiments in the Pyrénées in the very near future.
Although allegedly previously available in Marseille, a new drink has been made available as part of an attempt to introduce a new club to the city, Le Club Café. The new drink, of a suspiciously deep brown colour has a bitter taste and one wonders what the attraction of this drink
over that of our native (and better tasting) wines.
All new recruits to the 53rd Fusiliers are invited to a welcome dinner at the Blue Gables during the second week of February 16xx1.
Colonel Friend, 53rd Fusiliers.
Frederick Richter is hereby appointed Captain of E company.
Henri d'Alembert is hereby appointed Major, commander of the 2nd battalion.
George Friend is hereby appointed Colonel.
| Name | SL | ± | SP | Position(s) | Last Seen With | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henri d'Alembert | 6 | 11 | Major, 13th Fusiliers | Auriane Delaunay | The Frog & Peach | |
| Cyrano de Bergonne | 2 | -1 | -1 | Private, 53rd Fusiliers | ||
| Charles Cyarcon | 11 | -1 | 4 | Private. Royal Foot Guards | ||
| Daryl Impey | 9 | 11 | Captain, Royal Marines | Hunters | ||
| Eddie Eagle | 5 | -1 | 3 | The Frog & Peach | ||
| Frederick Richter | 2 | 2 | ||||
| George Friend | 7 | 14 | Colonel, 53rd Fusiliers | Aurélie Pueyrredón | The Blue Gables | |
| Henri Boyson | 4 | -1 | -1 | Private, Picardy Musketeers | ||
| Isaac Iverson | 9 | -1 | 3 | Private, King's Musketeers | ||
| Jack Antequil | 2 | -1 | 1 | Red Phillips | ||
| Kit Harryson | 2 | -1 | 1 | Private, 53rd Fusiliers | Red Phillips |
| Name | SL | Attributes | Last Seen With |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auriane Delaunay | 7 | Influential, Wealthy | Henri d'Alembert |
| Flora Pernet | 7 | Stunning, Influential | |
| Solène Prudhomme | 12 | Wealthy | |
| Micheline Barbet | 15 | Influential | |
| Élisabeth Beaumont | 8 | ||
| Brigitte Silvestre | 8 | ||
| Albane Bacque | 15 | ||
| Lesly Beaumont | 11 | Wealthy | |
| Aurélie Pueyrredón | 9 | Wealthy | George Friend |
| Bernadette Cuvier | 7 | Stunning, Influential | |
| Émilie Beaufils | 11 | Influential, Wealthy |
The engineering company Smaug Inc. announced in March 1955 that it was setting up a new division with which it intends to take ownership of everything outside of the Earth's atmosphere. Smaug Inc. set up the new division with a healthy dollop of cash, an increased expected budget for 1957 and for its first year of operation a significant discount on purchases of equipment from the rest of the Smaug Inc.'s vast engineering experience1. The new division's motto is "The Big Shiny Thing is ours!".
In June 1955 following a major TV documentary on the risks of space travel (concerning both the risks of conceding space to big corporations, but also highlighting the risks to humans over weightless conditions2), the South African government decided that it must set up its own space agency to prevent Smaug Inc.'s domination of the skies. South African Republic Space Agency (SARSA) has been tasked with conquering space as soon as possible and has been initially granted a cash balance of the same size as that of Smaug Inc. However the South African finance ministry is reported to have already asked the agency to make savings and has imposed a small budget reduction for 1957. The Suitably Arrogant Rabid South Africaaners are expected to make a big impact (preferably into water) in the coming years.
During the first few days of September, the Scandinavians also set up a new space agency, the Greenland Outer Space (Satellite and Interstellar) Programme (GOSsiP). After rapid construction of their launch facility at Julianehåb, ideally suited for launching satellites into polar orbits, the discovery that the facility had been built on a moving glacier has consternation and dismay (and the requirement for expensive remedial repairs3). In recognition of the setback this has caused to GOSsiP, the Scandinavian governments have agreed to a significant increase in the expected 1957 budget for GOSsiP should allow the agency to fulfil its motto: "To Infinity and beyond!"
The Space Habitation Agency announced in September that it too was setting up a new division with which to conquer space. With its previous experience in designing space missions (if not launching them), the agency has already recognised the need for ground based mission control and is expected to have an excellent safety record4. The "Theoretical Operations" division is reported to be relieved that, with luck, the new division will divert media attention from their own operations and has diverted a small amount of its 1957 budget to the new SHADO.
Following the re-election of the incumbent Australian government on the 10th of December, the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, announced that, as per his election manifesto, Australia would be setting up space agency to join the race to conquer space. The Australian Space Agency (ASA) has been tasked by the Prime Minister to immediately send a multi-manned mission into space5. As a result of the Prime Minister's enthusiasm for the space agency, ASA will have a massively increased 1957 budget.
Angelo Domenico Malevolti Fencing Print from 1763
I will be hosting a play-by-email version of En Garde!. I will be using GDW's 1977 rule set as my basis as modified by a set of postal rules and further modified to allow a more abstract set of rules for the resolution of duelling. As always though the GM decisions are final. There is a more up-to-date version of the rules available to buy from current copyright owner which has no rule changes that I am aware of.
The important tables which you'll want to consult if you wish to play is available in a four page PDF from the En Garde! website. I do recommend that you download and use the tables as an initial reference!
As with my existing Liftoff! game there's a newspaper to record the events in the game, and there's also a list of characters in the game.
Each turn a player needs to submit a set of orders for their character. To help with that the character sheet page for each character includes an order template. Simply open the twistie on the character sheet page, fill in the details and then use the button to send the orders as an email to me./p>
En Garde! is based on the swashbuckling era
of the Three Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo, Cyrano de Bergerac and the Flashman novels. You will play a young gentleman newly arrived in Paris whose aim is to get to, and stay on, the top of the greasy pole.
I will attempt to guide novice players (which will be most players I expect) though their initial turns as required. Don't be surprised if, during the initial turns you seem to be sliding down the greasy pole, keeping up your status can be expensive!
Each turn there'll be a newspaper detailing the events of the month and showing the current status of the greasy pole. The links to the characters in the example newspaper's greasy pole are active and show the kind of detail I'll attempt to maintain for each character. I intend to avoid secret records as much as possible. I also intend to maintain a cadence of two real life weeks per game month - but that might need to change based on actual experience!
Players are encouraged to talk to each other before submitting their orders. However only what is written in their orders will be acted upon the GM - in particular note that if the GM doesn't know about it, it doesn't happen!
Edward Teach, originally from an engraving by Benjamin Cole in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorius Pirates (1724).
Your character's attributes will be generated by the GM and include:
| Strength | Rolled on 3d6 - used if/when you get involved in a duel and reflects how hard you hit |
| Expertise | Rolled on 3d6 - used if/when you get involved in a duel and reflects how easy it is for you to hit your opponent |
| Constitution | Rolled on 3d6 - used if/when you get involved in a duel and reflects your general health |
| Endurance | Initially Strength multiplied by Constitution - used if/when you get involved in a duel and reflects your ability to take damage |
| Military Ability | Rolled on 1d6 - used when you go on campaign and reflects your leadership ability |
| Cash | How much money you have. The currency unit is the crown. You could start with as little as 9 or as much as 5000 |
| Social Level | A measure of where you are on the greasy pole. The higher the better. You could start with a social level of 1 or as high as 14 |
Note: I recommend gauging your initial progress by how much your social level has changed rather than where you are on the greasy pole since the random variations of the starting positions can vary quite widely.
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (illustration of the Appleton edition)
Every game turn you need to provide the GM with orders covering your actions for the month. There will be a page for each character on this site and that page will allow you to generate a template for your orders. Each month you're in Paris1 you accumulate status points. If you achieve enough status points to equal or exceed three times your next status level your status level goes up by one2. On the other hand if your accumulated status points for the month are less than your current status level your status level will drop by one. You start each month with zero status points and each month is broken into four weeks.
Luckily there are various ways to gain status points:
You can borrow money from other characters (only by agreement obviously) or from local moneylenders. Gentlemen do not charge other gentlemen any interest (but can demand payment at any time after three months). Moneylenders charge 10% interest every six months and if unable to repay at the endof the six months must join the frontier regiments
Margot Grahame as Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers - publicity still
Every month you must have a female companion of some sort or lose status points4. You could go to the bawdyhouse (which will satisfy the female companionship requirement at a cost of your status level in crowns), but ideally you would have a mistress. To do so she will need courting. To do so will cost crowns equal to three times her social level and is not certain. In fact even if you are of a higher social level than your (would-be) companion there is still a good chance of failure. If your social level is more than six levels lower than the good lady's you will automatically fail.
If two gentleman court the same lady on the same week, both will spend their money, both will fail and both will have cause for a duel.
If you court a lady who is already the companion of another gentleman you are less likely to succeed and, if discovered that will be cause for a duel (if you succeed you become the lady's companion replacing the other gentleman who will, obviously, have cause for a duel).
You may take your companion with you on a visit to your club for the week as long as you buy her drinks (at a cost of her social level in crowns).
Some ladies have exceptional beauty. You gain an additional status point if you are her companion. Some ladies are exceptionally wealthy. If you are her companion she will give small gifts if her social level is higher than yours. If not you will need to support her lifestyle at a cost of three times her social level. Some ladies are exceptionally influential. These will help you when you try to influence NPC officials in various actions. A given lady may have all or none of these exceptional attributes.
Depiction of the Cardinal's musketeers, the great rivals of the King's musketeers.
The military is an excellent means to literally promote yourself. There are seventeen regiments ranging in status from the Royal Foot Guards to the lowly Gascon Regiment. Each regiment has an panoply of officers. You can apply to any regiment but obviously can only be a member of one regiment at a time (if you wish to change regiments you must resign from your existing regiment first). If your application is accepted (which will depend on your social level and your luck) you can buy a commission in the regiment rather than have to stay as a private. Note that the position must be available (i.e., not occupied by another character or by a named NPC). Note that the costs on the regiment chart is cumulative, i.e., to become a major you first need to buy a sub-alternship then a captaincy and then finally the major's position.
Some of the regiments are cavalry regiments. If you join a cavalry regiment you will to have a horse (Majors and above need three horses) and hire a groom to look after the horse(s).
Privates must spend two weeks in the month on duty with his regiments. Sub-alterns must spend one week a month. Captains and above need not spend any time being on duty (rank hath its privileges). Privates and sub-alterns may apply to their major to be excused from one week of duty per month.
Each regiment has another regiment with which it is friends and a second with which it regards as enemies. This affects when or if challenges to duels can be validly issued.
Each summer a portion of the army is sent on campaign. If your regiment is one of those sent to the front you will join the campaign and leave Paris for the duration. While out of Paris you gain your pay and allowances, but don't have to spend any money or maintain status points (their status level remains unchanged while out of Paris). At the end of the campaign the results of the campaign will be resolved. You could be a hero and be mentioned in dispatches
, gain loot or even a promotion. Alternatively you could die (I will describe the options when the summer turns arrive). Your military ability will affect your personal outcome and could influence the overall result of the campaign if you hold a senior rank.
As the frontiers of France need guarding and patrolling all the year round, you are always permitted to join the frontier regiments for a non-regular season (autumn, winter, spring) of campaigning. Again the character will be out of Paris for the duration of the season.
There are several missions that can be made - note that any of the manned missions made by sent as unmanned if desired - this allows for systems testing without the risk of a catastrophic failure. The lists below shown the standard mission types and the safety checks that will be made for the mission. If you wish to do a mission that is not listed, please discuss it with me to determine the mission steps and the bonus and/or penalties that will be applied when the mission is complete.
The following two steps are checked in the following year
The following two steps are checked in the following year
Note: This mission type has a compulsory 1d10 month rush applied to it.
The following two steps are checked in the following year
Note: This mission type has a compulsory 1d10 month rush applied to it.
The following two steps are checked in the following year
Note: This mission type has a compulsory 1d10 month rush applied to it.
The following three steps are checked in the following year
The following two steps are checked in the following year (i.e., two years after launch)
The mission types shown above should be completed in order. It is permitted to skip these missions but the agency doing so takes additional risks. For each skipped mission there is a cumulative 3% penalty to each mission step. Once a mission has been completed successfully it counts as having completely both that mission and the earlier ones in the sequence for the purposes of this rule. For example, if your first ever mission is a Manned Lunar Pass, that mission will be subject to a 9% penalty on all its safety checks. If successful that penalty is removed and the agency can attempt that mission and any of its pre-requisite missions without penalty.
Manned capsules must be fully crewed unless performing a rescue mission or sent as an unmanned mission (in which case the capsule and/or lander must be sent completely empty).
Money is measured in millions of dollars and each agency has a budget allocated to it by its government which is paid into cash in hand each turn. Luckily unspent funds are carried forward and not clawed back. Your budget is affected by events and by the success or failure of missions.
Money can be spent on:
Budgets and Cash-in-hand will be declared in the newspaper and hence you will be able to see this information about your rival agencies as well as your own.
Every program has a safety factor recorded as a percentage value. This starts at an initial value (typically 10%) as shown on the R&D worksheet and has a maximum rating that can be achieved by performing Research and Development and an absolute maximum. When a piece of equipment is used on a successful mission it is granted a 1% boost to its safety factor (up to the absolute maximum). When a piece of equipment is the cause of catastrophic failure (i.e., it caused the death of an astronaut) its safety is reduced to its initial value. In this case it may be researched back up to the best value it has ever had.
Your agency automatically has the Photo Reconnaissance program at no cost. This has an initial safety factor of 65% and may be raised to 100%. However it can only be raised by missions that include a "lunar orbital activities" safety check (whose success raises the safety factor by 5%) or by Lunar Probe Landing missions (which, if successful, raise the safety rating by 15% and, if not successful, but did complete a lunar de-orbit burn raise the safety rating by 5%).
Docking can not be improved by research but only by practice. Every attempt at a docking raises the safety rating by 5%, plus an additional 10% if the docking is successful.
You must plan in this turn exactly what missions you intend to launch in the following turns. The mission plan must state what the mission is (from the list of available missions), what kind of equipment is to be used and who (if any) the astronauts who will fly the mission. You may also designate a backup crew for the mission in case a member of the primary crew is affected by a event or death. Any given astronaut may only take part in one mission per year. You also need to declare the order of the missions you have planned.
All of these plans are declared as part of your orders for the turn, but only the number of launches you have planned will be announced to other players via the newspaper unless you order otherwise or the mission is a joint one.
Normally missions are launched in December in order of agency's budgets, with the agency with the lowest budget launching first. However if you wish to launch earlier than this, you may choose to rush one or more of your launches planned for this turn. Each month of rushing costs $1m and the rushed mission has a 1% (per month of rushing) penalty on its safety factors on every mission step.
If, as a result of bad research, lack of hardware or as a result of catastrophic failure of an earlier mission, you feel it is unwise to launch one or more of the missions you have planned you can scrub
the mission. Each mission that you scrub will count as a failure, but not a catastrophic one. If only the launch of the scrubbed mission was announced, the press can only assume that it was a orbital satellite and your budget will only be reduced by $3m.
Each mission is made of a set of mission steps. On each step a percentile die is rolled against the safety factor of the relevant piece of equipment (for example, the initial step of every mission is rolled against the rocket used). If the roll is equal to, or less than, the safety factor, the mission step is successful and mission proceeds. If the roll is higher than the safety factor, a problem arises with that piece of kit and a roll is made against the failure chart of that mission step. The result may be a minor problem (e.g., a problem with the countdown that is resolved the same day), more serious or even catastrophic (e.g., the rocket explodes on the launch pad).
In some cases the failure may leave the astronauts stranded in space. If they are not rescued by the end of the year they will die and the failure counted as catastrophic (if rescued, the astronauts survive and the mission counts as merely "failed").
If a mission is successful your agency's budget will be immediately increased. If this the first time a particular mission has ever succeeded (across all agencies), the increase will be substantially increased (with smaller increases for the second and third agency to successfully complete a mission).
If a mission fails your agency's budget will be reduced.
Successful rescues increase your budget by $12m, while failed rescues still increase your budget by $8m. If multiple agencies participated in the rescue every agency gets the relevant increase.
Joint missions may be conducted if both (or all players) include the joint mission in their orders (it is a failed mission for all participants if the mission fails to launch for any reason). The orders need to indicate who is providing which components of the mission.
Players may sell equipment (but not programs or research) to each other. The seller may choose (secretly) to reduce the safety factor of the equipment provided but if the equipment fails catastrophically, the provider of the equipment will be forced to reduce the safety factor of that program to its initial value as usual (the user of the equipment will suffer the budget effects of the failure).
Every astronaut has a chance to recover a mission from many of the effects of a component failure (e.g., an astronaut may be able to fix radio but they will be unable to prevent a rocket from exploding). Every previous mission that an astronaut has flown gives that astronaut a 10% percent chance of fixing those problems that can be fixed. For a multi-person crew, the chance will be averaged across the members of the crew.
Every rocket has a maximum lift capacity rating. The total weight of equipment launched by a rocket may not exceed that maximum. Multiple missions may be launched from a single rocket as long as this maximum weight is respected (Obviously, if the rocket explodes on launch, all the missions being launched will count as failures (and catastrophic ones if the relevant missions were manned).
Liquid Fuel Strap-ons are not independent rockets, but are "strapped onto" another rocket to increase its maximum lift capacity by 1000. When Liquid Fuel Strap-ons are used, the safety factor for launching the rocket is the average of both the liquid fuel strap-ons and the rocket to which it is attached.
Images on this page from nasa.gov (directly or indirectly) or listed on wikimedia.org as public domain except for the first image which is (indirectly via wikipedia) courtesy of Heritage Auctions and the last image which is CC-BY-SA by "SchuminWeb, Craigboy" (according to wikimedia).
Auriane Delaunay showing off the lacework of Madam Yar
The cries of distress from most of the ladies of Paris can even be heard in the royal palaces. Almost no new silk dresses can be obtained after the audacious theft of several gowns from the establishment of Marie Àpropos on the Île-de-la-Cité. About the only lady sporting the latest fashion is Gisèle Barthélemy, whose latest dress was a gift from her beau, Phillipe Lemoine. Although being denied by the Guild of Tailors, rumours persist that there is a huge stockpile of silk being hoarded by a rich client of the Guild.
One other lady that doesn't seem to be concerned about the shortage is Auriane Delaunay who has been sporting some intricate lace work in place of her linen ruff. This is the work of Aline Yar's Italian Mother and apparently took many hours of patient work. Whether this is the start of a new fashion trend remains to be seen. Madam Àpropos has expressed the view that, unlike the ruff, it fails to encourage the correct posture - though as the ruff can, in general, be only used once, she may have a business reason to support its continued use!
Flora Pernet showing that the silk crisis is requiring some sacrifices.
Meanwhile Cochon de Lait and Marius Thibodeaux have assiduously worked to distract their companions from the crisis. M. de Lait has ensured his continued following of the rules of floral etiquette by presenting Flora Pernet with a bouquet of asters while M. Thibodeaux has presented Émilie Beaufils with the season's finest pruneaux d’Agen fourrés, which were quickly gobbled up!
All of the above were much luckier than Fourier Transformée who was wooing Brigitte Silvestre. When he arrived with a large box, she admitted him at once but when she discovered that the box did not contain the expected silk dress he was quickly shown the door and told to remove the painting kit he had brought. Better luck next month!
After the successful indoor billiards tournament at Hunter's last month, Phillipe Lemoine was invited to give a demonstration at the prestigious Bothwell's club. With an enthusiastic reception there (possibly aided by some of the worst octobre weather making the billiards pitch at Bothwell's completely waterlogged), a competition match between Hunter's and Bothwell's has been set up for the end of novembre. Members of the Hunter's team will be invited into Bothwell's for the event.
With the departure of Jean Huile for the frontier, it seems that Victoria Gainsbourg has been quick to forget him and has been seen in the company of Omer Dalors. M. Huile has cause to issue a challenge to a duel, but does not need to do so until his return from frontier.
It seems that M. Lightfoot has been somewhat distracted by the continued political turmoil in London. Word has reached us that his father had invested in the play A Game of Chess
which played in August until a prosecution against the play was brought by the Privy Council (the pretext being the portrayal of a living king rather than the political content of the play). As a result M. Lightfoot has not been seen around Paris this month and is steadily losing social status.
After watching one of the many plays of the month, Roget was accosted by a small group of gentlemen who suggested that he might like to have them accompany him on his way home for his own safety
. Roget quickly demonstrated how he on his duel against Jean Huile earlier this year to show that he was perfectly safe thank you!
In a clear follow up to last season's successful siege at Château de Montaigle, the army is planning a major advance to the city of Namur next year. All regiments apart from the 69th Arquebusiers and the Gascon Regiment will be required to join the army during julliet, août and septembre 1625. Investors in arms companies receive a payout of 80%, while those investing in finance need to find an additional 60% to keep their investments afloat. Those investing in commerce receive a 10% payout.
As part of the preparation for next year's campaign, the frontier regiments welcome Jean Huile who has decided to spend the autumn season helping them.
Congratulations to OMer Dalors, Cochon de Lait and Phillipe Lemoine who have completed courses in Rapier, Cutlass and Sabre respectively. M. Dalors' Rapier skill is now rated as 10, M. de Lait's Cutlass skill at 11 and M. Lemoine's Sabre skill at 8.
Roget Thésaurus is promoted to subaltern.
Sir Alex Kuzbidon is promoted to captain of C company.
Aline Yar is promoted to captain of C company.
| Name | SL | ± | SP | Position(s) | Last Seen With | Club | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albert Kestrel | 6 | 9 | Queen's Own Carabiniers, Subaltern | Élisabeth Beaumont | |||
| Aline Yar | 5 | 9 | Picardy Musketeers, Captain | Auriane Delaunay | Red Phillips | ||
| Fourier Transformée | 3 | -1 | 2 | Royal Marines, Subaltern | Red Phillips | ||
| Guillame De Batz | 9 | -1 | 4 | Bernadette Cuvier | Hunter's | ||
| Jean Huile | 5 | Picardy Musketeers, Captain | Red Phillips | Frontier | |||
| Marius Thibodeaux | 7 | 13 | Picardy Musketeers, Captain | Émilie Beaufils | The Frog & Peach | ||
| Omer Dalors | 2 | +1 | 9 | 13th Fusiliers, Major | Victoria Gainsbourg | ||
| Phillipe Lemoine | 10 | 16 | Gisèle Barthélemy | Hunter's | |||
| Roget Thésaurus | 4 | 6 | Grand Duke Maximillian Dragoons, Subaltern | Red Phillips | |||
| Sir Alex Kuzbidon | 10 | 16 | Royal Marines, Captain | Aurélie Pueyrredón | Hunter's | ||
| Cochon de Lait | 7 | 10 | Royal Marines, Subaltern | Flora Pernet | The Blue Gables | ||
| Henry Lightfoot | 7 | -1 | -3 | The Frog & Peach |
| Name | SL | Attributes | Last Seen With |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auriane Delaunay | 7 | Influential, Wealthy | Aline Yar |
| Flora Pernet | 7 | Stunning, Influential | Cochon de Lait |
| Solène Prudhomme | 12 | Wealthy | |
| Micheline Barbet | 15 | Influential | |
| Élisabeth Beaumont | 8 | Albert Kestrel | |
| Brigitte Silvestre | 8 | ||
| Albane Bacque | 15 | ||
| Lesly Beaumont | 11 | Wealthy | |
| Aurélie Pueyrredón | 9 | Wealthy | Sir Alex Kuzbidon |
| Bernadette Cuvier | 7 | Stunning, Influential | Guillame De Batz |
| Émilie Beaufils | 11 | Influential, Wealthy | Marius Thibodeux |
| Victoria Gainsbourg | 5 | Wealthy | Omer Dalors |
| Gisèle Barthélemy | 14 | Stunning, Influential | Phillip Lemoine |
| Roseline Geffroy | 11 |
Maja Hansen preparing to collect samples from the lunar surface
GOSsiP's Maja Hansen became the first person to walk on another astronomical body when, on the 30th of December 1972, she left the lunar lander to plant GosSIP's emblem on the lunar surface and then collect samples from the lunar surface.
The successful lunar landing was the third mission from GOSsiP during 1972. The first was another lunar probe lander. This had some tense moments just before touchdown when it looked like the landing site was more dangerous than the initial photo reconnaissance suggested. However the retro rockets from the probe itself cleared some of the moon dust and pebbles from the landing site.
The second GosSIP mission was a manned lunar orbital and docking. This was GOSsiP first ever attempt at a docking and, unsurprisingly, the three person capsule was unable to dock with the lunar module being on the flight for the docking practice. After this failed docking attempt the mission completed its journey to the vicinity of the moon and three lunar orbits were achieved. The return journey, re-entry and recovery of the capsule proceeded smoothly.
It was then onto the main event. GOSsiP's most experienced astronaut team of Maja Hansen, Curtis Adamson and Kristian Swenhaugen climbed aboard the three person capsule and blasted off. Once in earth orbit the crew manoeuvred to dock with their lunar lander abd successfully completed that stage of the mission. Maja commented to ground control that she didn't understand why they thought that docking was difficult as she had found the precise required orbit with ease. Once docked with their module the crew then headed to the moon. Maja Hansen and Curtis Adamson transferred to the lunar lander, undocked and descended to the lunar surface. Easily finding the desired landing site the retro engines were fired and the craft landed at 1630 UTC on the 30th of December. After checking all was well Maja descended the final few steps onto the lunar surface and said the now immortal words: That may be just one step for me, but it is one gigantic leap for the whole of humanity.
.
After staying just long enough to complete a check of the exterior of their lunar lander and to collect several kilograms of rocks from the surface of the moon, Maja and Curtis returned to their lander and blasted off back into lunar orbit. Having gained experience with docking on the way to the moon, Maja was able to dock the lunar lander with the three person capsule containing Kristian Swenhaugen (who, while Maja and Curtis were on the lunar surface became the most isolated person in the universe). Once transferred back into the capsule, the lunar lander was jettisoned and the return journey commenced. The return went smoothly and the crew recovered just in time for the new year's celebrations!
The australian government has announced its intention to convert ASA facilities at Woomera into a theme park. The main roller coaster will traverse the main launch sites giving excellent views of the remaining supply of mega stage rockets and their components. Expected to gain significant audience numbers, the main centrifuge will be opened up to all comers. Rumours that Harold's Bar has made a significant offer for the rights to the theme park have yet to be confirmed.
Smaug Inc is planning three launches next year as part of its program to improve its docking expertise. The organisation has denied suggestions that it is planning to abandon the SHADO astronaut in earth are being strenuously denied by both Smaug Inc and SHADO and it is said that the mission is purely a result of the diplomatic efforts between Smaug Inc and SHADO.
After SARSA was forced to cancel its launches this year and deciding to avoid launches in 1973 as well, it is being rumoured that sabotage could be behind the failures in the SARSA space program. Others, though, are pointing to the continual government interference in the space plans for the problems in the program.
SHADO has continued to make continued research into its rocketry program and has one mission planned for 1973,
The provisional calendar for launches planned in 1973 (assuming none of the missions are rushed or scrubbed) is as follows:
The Clangers spent this turn nearly wiping out the Jerandi People's Republic. They completed the capture of K20 and also attacked (and captured) I20. As a result the Jerandi only have H16.
The Aurons mopped up another Kallikanzaroi world at G14. This didn't stop either the Aurons, who reached Tech Level 5 in Computing or the Kallikanzaroi, who reached Tech Level 5 in Weaponary, from also doing a limited amount of research. For the Kallikanzaroi in particular this breakthrough would mean that taking their homeworld would be quite hard for many turns to come.
Some other people were mainly focused on research however. Strata Inc. reached Tech Level 7 in Communications with the Worati breaking through to Tech Level 5 in Power Plant (the first empire to do so).
After the initial rolls the players ended up with:
| A14 | Pete |
| B11 | Mark |
| D9 | Nik |
| D20 | Lee |
| E18 | Louise |
| F14 | Nigel |
| I7 | Rhodri |
| I18 | Lewis |
| J7 | Phil |
| J9 | Tina |
| K14 | Dave |
| L7 | Neil |
| L12 | John |
| N8 | Steve |
| O9 | Ceri |
| P14 | Chris |
Notice that two pairs of homeworlds that are Jump-1 apart. None of the players expected that!