Let's face it. If you are a guy and you don't think dueling is cool you may need to go back to guy school.... we all grew up watching amazing duel sequences from films like Cyrano
de Bergerac  (Jose Ferrer version), Three Musketeers (all of 'em), Mark of Zorro (Tyrone Power, not that sissy Banderas), and of course all the Errol Flynn films. Now make it happen while your sweetheart faints Olivia DeHavilland style!

For actual senseless violence thoughout history, you can't beat dueling. Thousands of young nobles were killed during the renaissance in duels that ranged from one-against-one to dozens at a time, some showing up late and asking which side they could join! Kings and Ministers fulminated in vain, passing progressively more dire consequences including the death penalty for even WATCHING a duel, generally to no avail. They would have to wait for the second half of the twentieth century before this fashion craze ended.

Watch your tone, friend, or I shall unleash three feet of steal that will become your schoolmaster in manners.... just kidding, good question! This came about from an idle evening in front of the PC when suddenly the image of a renaissance paper doll came to mind. Who knows from where? Anyway, I thought, wouldn't it be cool to turn this into some kind of dueling game with like one page of rules? True story.

We have rules in some of our games for officers meeting in combat, particularly in Actions! where named Captains may face eachother leading their companies into hand-to-hand combat.  The resolution  of rolling a d6 just didn't do it for us, so why not make it more interesting? Now, when a Galley in Lanterna! or a Galleon in Sail! boards another with Heros and Commodores aboard, you can suddenly stop the game, break out Duel! and in three minutes you have a satisfying conclusion. In the midst of an important melee in Actions!? Take out Duel!, turn on one of the heroic music clips available on this site, and fight it out like champions before awestruck observers! Blow away gawkers at your next convention! Want to introduce your kids to the hobby in a "painless" way? Set up the beautiful components of Duel, read out the rules in a minute, and off you go! Don't forget the heroic music clips. Seriously. Guys, this is more of a novelty than a real game, but what the heck!?


Need to resolve a point of honour with a friend? Need to agree on what restaurant you should go to? Whose car will we take? Who dates that cute girl down the street- you know, the redhead that Charlie Brown is always mooning over? Don't waste time! FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Easy! No, really, there's like two pages of rules, and everything is completely pictorial. I bet if I gave you the components without the rules you'd figure it out anyway.


Each player gets a Hero Display and a Wardrobe. The Hero display (pictured below) is like a picture frame. The Wardrobe is a pile of graphic images showing attacks, defenses, and other amusing tricks. Each turn players secretly choose a guard or an attack, and a footwork stance. These are compared against your opponents choices and let slip the dogs of war! Cards are pulled for results. Players can poke their enemy to goad him into a rash attack, someone may slip, or end up skewered.