Madame Guillotine

Thumbnail Analysis Game Review

by Don Lowry


This is another role-playing game, such as TSR's Dungeons & Dragons and GDW's En Garde. The subject of this one is the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, and it is published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (Citadel, Legion, etc.). It consists of an 8 1/2"x11" 12page booklet; six 8/"x11", colored cards of influence point counters (must be cut out); and two 8 1/2"x11" cards that form the playing board. All this is held together by a plastic clip along the spine of the booklet. Two to six players represent notable personalities of the period (Robespierre, Hebert, Danton, St. Juste, Vincent and Carrot). They distribute influence points with the aim of capturing the support of various vital sections of society, while dealing with military and social crises, trying to manuever their opponents into weak positions and yet remain on good terms with the masses.

The map is a schematic representation, having spaces for three different political clubs (Left, Right, and Centre), plus Culture, Press, Tribunal, Assembly, Hotel de Ville, the Aristocracy, the Bourgeoisie, the Lower Classes and the National Guard. Each turn after any diplomacy between players, a die is rolled to see if a crises exists, and if so whether military social or in the provinces. Then players secretly write down their reaction to the crisis. They have six options, varying from soft to extreme. Then another die is rolled to see how serious the crisis is, and this is matched with the player's written reactions, and this determines who gets the most and the least influence points and who controls the "mob" for that turn. The players then secretly decide how to distribute their influence points among the various areas on the boar To control an area a player must be the only one having influence points there and these must equal or exceed an indicated minimum for each area.

Victory points are awarded for controlling areas, but if the area is lost, so are the points. The control of one area often has an affect on another. For example if forces of the player controlling the Culture area are in the Press area, they have three influence points added to their strength. When two or more players have influence points in the same area they can have combat if they like. Enemy points are eliminated on a simple one to one exchange. However "Resentment Points" are incurred for killing Influence Points. Resentment Points are also engendered by overreacting to a crisis. Each Player Personality has a different number of starting Influence Points and normal points/turn and a Resentment Limit and a Victory Point Total.

If a player reaches his resentment limit he loses; if he reaches his victory point total he wins. This looks like an interesting game that would appeal to Diplomacy and Kingmaker players, as well as aficionadoes of other role-playing games. It sells for $4.00 and is available from better hobby shops or by mail from us, Panzerfaust Publications, PC Box 896, Fallbrook, CA 92028.

Thumbnail Analysis


Back to Campaign # 77 Table of Contents
Back to Campaign List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1977 by Donald S. Lowry
This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com