I've run Chris Engle's "The Three Musketeers" Matrix Game scenario twice now -- once for my regular gaming group and once for a group of players at this year's RiverCon. The results were quite different. In my own group, we saw a rapid series of assassinations, soon felling both King and Queen, and Richelieu. An advancing British fleet landed Marines headed by the Duke of Buckingham, which hooked up with the La Rochelle militia and advanced towards Paris. In a climactic battle on the plains outside the city, the King's Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards united "in the name of France" to oppose the invaders, ending the threat. The RiverCon game had seven players, three more than I had for my group's game. One player was common to both groups. This game was much different, a series of classic political machinations. Milady De Winter convinces D'Artagnan, a recent Musketeer commission, to stay in Paris and advance his own interests while the King takes the Cardinal's Guards and His Musketeers for a campaign to La Rochelle. The campaign is short and bloody, and the King returns with his Musketeers (leaving the Guards behind) to rumours of an affair between d'Artagnan and Anne of Austria, with the good Cardinal weighing in on the issue. Louis XIII strips Anne of her courtiers and banishes her to the countryside with her maid. Meanwhile, at Richelieu's behest, the Comte de Rochefort, made a Musketeer during the campaign (a roll of 6!) challenges D'Artagnan to a duel over the Queen's honor. D'Artagnan, and his three friends, are dispatched one at a time. Proof comes out that Anne was conspiring with Richelieu, in the form of a letter or pardon much like that De Winter had in the novel. The King executes the Queen and her maid, throws Richelieu in the Bastille, and marries Lady De Winter, who had started on the King as soon as Anne was exiled. Despite some momentary difficulties due to the large number of people (it's the first live Matrix Game I've run for more than three people) it turned out well, and was well received -- one of the players, an English teacher, said it could be useful for his classes. It was exhausting for me, too, but was a confidence builder for me with regard to the later game. Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #17 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com