Lace & Steel (1989)

From the "side" of the box:

"Welcome to a world of grace and beauty, of breathtaking romance and dashing adventure. A fantasy world of swashbuckling, of dire magics and dazzling balls, where the royal court provides as much challenge to a player as the battlefields or the faerie forests.

LACE & STEEL takes role playing games out of their rut of dour violence and aggression to offer a whole universe of other possibilities. Characters establish personalities, friendships and hatreds, fears and loves to make interpersonal relations a vital part of play. Rules for romance, repartee conflict, flirtation and fashion give players the unique opportunity to venture into courtly role play-a playing style where the ladies can truly come into their own. For the military minded, there are rules for massed battles and sea fights, deadly magic and duels.

LACE & STEEL is quite unique - ancient magics mingle wth rapiers and muskets to make life doubly dangerous. It is a world where many races thrive - Humans, Half-Horses (centaurs), Satyrs and Harpies, while at the edges of civilization sinister faeries, trolls and ogres lurk in haunted forests.

The games systems are clean and simple - easy to learn but entirely flexible. The games most unique assets are its card based conflict systems. Hand-to-hand combat, sorcery and repartee are all simulated by special card games - games that are quick to learn but that offer players the opportunity to fail or triumph according to their own efforts, rather than on the mere hazard of a dice.

This box contains three booklets of game rules, an adventure booklet and two decks of special cards."