I did it 10 years ago. "Morning Noon and Night in Vienna" a game of romance, spying, information gathering, seduction, wine, women, and song. Was a great hit. The main part of the game was getting introduced to the women, then arranging the dates, the gifts, and romantic situations. No dice.
So it was Dinner at Maxime's, Races out by the Landstrasse, intrigue, derring do, and romance.
The basic game was like this.
You were one of the 8 players on the game. You were a naval attache at Vienna in the 1880's at one of the embassies of the great European powers. The reason you were at Vienna was that you had a significantly disastrous career right off the bat, and they relegated you to Vienna, where, far from the sea, a repetition of your fiasco was not likely to happen.
In addition to your job as naval attache, you were all members of a world wide criminal secret society. These could be boring things like the Marxists, or the International Association of Mad Scientists, or the Slavers, Traders, Rum Runners, and Red Light Runners of the World, and so forth.
Now The game was played over a stylized map of Vienna which was simply a series of locations, such as Maxime's, The Grand Hotel, Madame Knorr's Millenry shop, etc.,
Now the plot was that into Vienna at this time came twelve of the richest, most powerful, most beautiful and glamorous women of the world. Your Embassy wanted you to wine and dine and "impress" them with your savoir faire, your character, and your romantic ability, to woo them and convince them to aid your state with their support and so forth. Your secret Society however wanted you to find one particular woman, the head of anew and very powerful Secret Society, the Minions of Cleopatra, who if you could woo and impress and so forth, would form an alliance with your secret society, toss the others into the dustbin of history and rule the world.
The game was played on the squared surface of locations with large 10" high figures of the men, and the women, all taken from Dover books Paper dolls of the Victorian era.
There was no dice, except that used by the umpire now and then to give the illusion of randomness to his decisions. The game relied on you getting introductions to the women (for you could not begin the slightest bit of romance or seduction without a proper introduction, and finding out data and information about them as to what they liked, disliked, were motivated by, and gifts that would appeal to them. This information was gathered from two sources. Rumor and Innuendo, and real Information. The former was a small deck of specially printed cards, that any and all could look through (but not take away) on each location. Most of it was false and misleading. The information was 95% trustworthy and true, but to get information from the deck of information cards you had to answer the question on the front of the card to flip it over and see what was written behind.
The questions were ALL on art, culture, mores, manners or civil events of the 19th century, and for example, would be "Who painted "Truth Rising from her Well" or "What is Franz von Suppe's full name." If you got that last card for example you would say without hesitation, Francesco Ezechiell Ermenegildo Demelli Suppe." The painter of "Truth Rising from Her Well" is of course Gerome. If you answered correctly you got to read the card which would say something like "Donna Diana is besotted with all things American."
If you could not answer that question, I gave you another chance, and all you had to do was post your own question about these things in the 19th century, culture, dance, music, etc., all the things in college you ignored, and ask it. If ANYONE or I could answer it, you lost and couldn't flip the card over and look at the information.
If you could not do that, and ask such a question, you could make up one that was pure bull. For example, something like "Have You seen the monstrously fine painting at Schermerhorn's gallery, the Wreck of the Wabash Cannonball?" In short anything that would fit in with the small talk and polite chatter of society in the 19th century? If I thought it sounded reasonable, and a few others playing the game felt the same, then it would be OK to look at the information.
If you couldn't even do THAT, then all you had to do, was stand on a chair and sing us a song (of course from the 29th century) like Man on the Flying Trapeze, or Itsy-Bitsy Spider, or anything else that was ridiculous and embarrassing, or even a Gilbert and Sullivan song, but you had to really sing it so they could hear you 3 tables away.
Oh… I forgot to tell you, ANY sort of question on war or military history, or the unpleasantness of conflict was right out. One does not discuss such things in front of the ladies. If one tried they were cut off by my Scarlet O'Hara Impression "Oh Mistuh Butlah, all this talk of Waah is so depressin!"
Anyway, once you had the information you could work out what the intended you were pusruing would be impressed with, like, and be dazzled with, and you went out getting Dinner Reservations at the appropriate plce, or the carriage for a morning ride in the Vienna woods, or some louche and decadant entertainment here or there, gypsy musicians, attempting to break the bank at the Casino, etc. You could also steal information from others, steal the fabulous necklace they bought at great price here or there. Also if you were pursuing the goal of your secret society you were searching for which one of the 13 figures on the board was secretly Cleopatra, or rather the reincarnated spirit of the same.
By the way, the game was redolent with clues as to who was who and lots of hints and clues, which could be used to get information without singing or ansering questions. For example, if you knew who The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein or Donna Dianna was, or what costume would be best to wear at the masked ball given by Prince Orlofsky, or could name the two imposters in the crowd.
The whole thing ended when someone declared he was ready to either name Cleopatra, or progress with his wooing of one of the other women. Each person laid out his "pitch" with the day of events (Morning, Noon, and Night) in Vienna and even if you had gotten some bungled items or hadn't been astute in your information gathering, you got to try your hand to better your score with role playing as to how you would explain the gaffe, or charm your way out of a sticky situation.
A few other things. NO chairs were allowed. They got in the way. You had only twenty seconds to move your character figure around to whichever location you wished, and to do your thinking. The game settled down to watch your fellow gamers turn slowly in the wind on the questions.
No dice, and you had to use your wits.
I know, using your wits, no dice, not being to sit on your ass, and nothing about war and violence. A truly cruel game to put wargamers in. Still everyone had a lot of fun. At the end of it I explained all the clues that were out on the table or on the figures for all to see and everyone was amazed that they didn't pick up on it.
By the way, the second time I ran this game two of my friends sandbagged the umpire.
These two friends come up with their niece who was this very pretty 15 year old girl, gorgeous in fact, and she wants to play. Well the game goes along and she comes to the first question. Without picking up a card she says with a smile on her face. "I want to sing!" (Nobody EVER wants to sing! Well she gets on the chair and says "I want to sing "Ah Ah Quato cielo" from Madamma Buterfly."
I turned to my friend and she said "She's in the Met Opera School." Well the girl had a magnificent voice and brought the games in the eight surrounding tables to a halt as they listened to her!
