What do you think?
The Princess Bride Roleplaying Game
Based on the setting of the Princess Bride movie, and funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign, the Princess Bride Roleplaying Game is designed for new and old players. It features graduated character generation that allows you to start at once or design, in detail, the character you want to play. Easy to follow chapters on how to play and run a successful adventure- complete with Romance, Miracles, and Combat- make learning the game easy and fun. The rules use the Fudge roleplaying game engine.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 12, 2019
This roleplaying game is based on the classic movie of the same name. It owes its existence to a successful Kickstarter campaign and the tone of the writing and rules set definitely has fans of the movie in mind. I felt that there was a light-hearted feel to it, not at all gritty, and it supports the recreation of the scenes and setting of the movie it was based on. The game mechanics are based on the Fudge dice system, which uses six-sided dice whose faces have either a plus, minus or blank and the dice results are added together to get the net result (for those that do not own Fudge dice, there is a table to convert the results of normal six-sided dice). The results (rolling four dice) will range from -4 to +4 and each number in this range identifies with an adjective descriptor (such as Poor, Fair or Superb) that represents the result of the roll. This adjective descriptor method is what the game uses to show a character’s ranking in attributes and skills (example: Fair Body attribute or Poor Wits attribute). Unlike the standard Fudge dice mechanics in other games that use these dice mechanics, the Princess Bridge RPG includes the Legendary (+5) ranking for truly heroic playing. I think for the most part the game mechanics are simple enough, though I do have hesitation with systems (Fantasy Flight’s Legend of the Five Rings and Stars Wars RPGs for example) that use custom dice because I think that its just more time to convert results if you don’t have the custom dice and slows game play, though this one is not as complex as the systems I mentioned and should not take too much time for conversion.
There are several character archetypes that players can play, and a lot of customization options, which includes a variety of skills, conveniences (bonuses/boons) and inconveniences (penalties/banes). The combat is actually pretty simple and should make for some fast combats- characters basically have a damage track that starts at Scratches and works up to Mostly Dead, but wounds are not based on receiving prior damage in order to be more seriously injured because a really successful dice roll for an attack can have an opponent jump past lower level injuries. The system does have a Fate Point system (called “Grandpa Wait” Points) where players can spend these limited points to re-roll dice or offset negative effects, but it also includes a mechanic where the Game Master has a limited number of “Life Isn’t Fair” Points that can be spent to offset some of the players’ actions and rolls.
The game has a pretty decent Game Master How To section directed at new Game Masters and it includes a basic bestiary of foes (including R.O.U.S.s), limited setting information and several short adventure scenarios and adventure hooks. Additionally, it includes character sheets for all of the main heroes of the movie if the players wish to take on those roles (Westley is as skilled as you’d expect from the movie).
There are several character archetypes that players can play, and a lot of customization options, which includes a variety of skills, conveniences (bonuses/boons) and inconveniences (penalties/banes). The combat is actually pretty simple and should make for some fast combats- characters basically have a damage track that starts at Scratches and works up to Mostly Dead, but wounds are not based on receiving prior damage in order to be more seriously injured because a really successful dice roll for an attack can have an opponent jump past lower level injuries. The system does have a Fate Point system (called “Grandpa Wait” Points) where players can spend these limited points to re-roll dice or offset negative effects, but it also includes a mechanic where the Game Master has a limited number of “Life Isn’t Fair” Points that can be spent to offset some of the players’ actions and rolls.
The game has a pretty decent Game Master How To section directed at new Game Masters and it includes a basic bestiary of foes (including R.O.U.S.s), limited setting information and several short adventure scenarios and adventure hooks. Additionally, it includes character sheets for all of the main heroes of the movie if the players wish to take on those roles (Westley is as skilled as you’d expect from the movie).
December 21, 2019
If you're a fan of the film and you've ever contemplated trying a tabletop RPG, this is the game for you. It's definitely aimed at beginning players. That's not to say that experienced role-playing game fans won't enjoy it, but the book seems to be especially for the beginner. I can imagine a group of friends who normally play board games giving this a try as something a little different. It uses the Fudge system, which is extremely easy and simple, without a lot of the math and number crunching of a game like D&D. The author gives you the very basic rules early on, and then gives more advanced and slightly more complicated rules that you can either use or not. I can imagine this being a ton of fun, if folks are in the right frame of mind.
The book seems to be of solid quality, with glossy, full-color pages and plenty of images from the movie. (The author makes it clear that the game is based on the film, not the book). It also comes with a fold-out map of Florin. I really wish the map was double sided, with Guilder on the back. Alas, there is no large fold-out map for Guilder.
The other concern I have about the book is the price. Again, it's a quality product, but for a game that has a distinctly 'introductory' vibe, that seems likely to appeal to the casual gamer, or the dabbler, the price tag is somewhat high. I think I payed about $45. for it at a game store. And while you don't need official Fudge or Fate dice, it would be better to have them. As they're not standard six-sided dice, there's not much chance you've got them sitting around, so there's another $10. or $15. Maybe that's my own hangup. I'm very much of the opinion that basic books or starter kits for games should be as inexpensive and easy to use as possible.
As I said, though, if you're a fan of the film and you like tabletop RPGs or you've ever contemplated trying one, this is a darned fine option.
The book seems to be of solid quality, with glossy, full-color pages and plenty of images from the movie. (The author makes it clear that the game is based on the film, not the book). It also comes with a fold-out map of Florin. I really wish the map was double sided, with Guilder on the back. Alas, there is no large fold-out map for Guilder.
The other concern I have about the book is the price. Again, it's a quality product, but for a game that has a distinctly 'introductory' vibe, that seems likely to appeal to the casual gamer, or the dabbler, the price tag is somewhat high. I think I payed about $45. for it at a game store. And while you don't need official Fudge or Fate dice, it would be better to have them. As they're not standard six-sided dice, there's not much chance you've got them sitting around, so there's another $10. or $15. Maybe that's my own hangup. I'm very much of the opinion that basic books or starter kits for games should be as inexpensive and easy to use as possible.
As I said, though, if you're a fan of the film and you like tabletop RPGs or you've ever contemplated trying one, this is a darned fine option.
October 10, 2024
After reading “As You Wish” I knew I had to finally get around to a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while.
I was never able to find the ‘Deluxe’ version, but it’s still a beautiful game. With a few exceptions the books uses a lot of stills from the movie, but they’re used to good effect and I think it helps the book a lot.
The game starts with a fairly traditional explanation of what roleplaying is, though it’s amusingly written and the examples are all based on the Princess Bride movie. There are also movie quotes scattered throughout the text which definitely cements the flavor.
Characters have attributes, gifts, inconveniences and skills. So this is is a classless skill system and no surprises or complaints there.
The rules are definitely target number skill and attribute checks. Though in the example of how a check works, it gives an example of the player explaining that while he doesn’t have the appropriate skill, having another skill gives him similar benefits.
This is all fine and I can see it working, but I can also see it opening the door to a lot of whining.
The only weirdness comes with the dice which are either three six-sided dice rolled on a special table or specially made ‘Fudge/Fate’ dice to give results of -4 to +4.
There are also ‘Grandpa, Wait!’ points that act as fate/stunt/hero points in other games to alter rolls and modify events.
There are also Life Isn’t Fair! points that the GM can use to keep their major villains alive a little longer. This is a nice tough and unlike a-lot of games the rules don’t make the GM an adversary in using these points.
There are six character classes: Agent, Brute, Fencer, Miracle Worker, Pirate and Wandering Farmhand. The Agent being a Vizzini type and Buttercup being a Wandering Farmhand.
There doesn’t appear to be anything particularly unique about each class except specific Gifts (Talents) and suggested Skills.
These cover the classes used in the movie, but another seven are given later: Burglar, Forester, Peddler, Smuggler, Courier, Highway Robber and Rogue.
Kind of surprised, there is no type of Nobility class. What about Count Rugen and Duke Humperdink?
Finally we get to the page (82) where you can create your own character from scratch, taking any Gifts or Skills you wish. It also gives rules for creating a custom Profession, again, taking anything you want. It even gives a section on the Jack or Jen of All Trades which also lets you mix and match Skills and Gifts as you wish (no pun intended). It also gives you a Zero to Hero option that starts the players off weaker.
So this is my biggest complaint so far. These ways of customizing your character take up THREE pages! The previous Class descriptions take up ELEVEN pages and are completely pointless! The Classes are no easier to create - you have to pick most of their Skills and Gifts anyway, so you’ve still got to go on that long shopping list! Why bother at all?
I’d rather those pages had been filled with oh, I don’t know, say the “Guider Gazetteer”!
The next section is equipment and money. It starts off saying that… money is unnecessary in the game. But nice to have. So give a little money to players, give them some reasonable equipment and make sure they are always broke. And of course there are no prices for any equipment.
I’ve personally never seen this work and would be pretty annoyed if some GM tried it on me as a player. It’s just plain lazy not to have it and it certainly eliminates a whole heccuva lot of story possibilities.
And of course, makes no sense for Princess Bride. Vizzini was hired with money, Fezzik fought crowds with money, Inigo got drunk with money, and Miracle Max wanted to get paid with money.
Weapons are a very short and generic selection. Fair enough, since there is not much difference between them anyway.
Equipment gives only the price of Miracle Pills and Potions as 20 florins on up. So… why not price everything else for comparison?
Next is the combat chapter, which the writer notes is only long because RPGers love this kind of thing. He’s right.
Sidebar: For what its worth, I’ve been studying the Fudge game system for a long time. It’s one of the favorite and oldest of the ‘build-your-own-rpg’ kits. Since I know there is a vast amount of alternative and optional rules for Fudge (and very little hard-and-fast rules) I was wondering/hoping that after all this time the ‘best’ rules would float to the surface and be reflected with this undoubted most successful Fudge game.
Since there are no hit points, the combat system is a very complicated set of rolls that determine how wounded one fighter is against another. In other words, a 7 hit point system (3 scratches, hurt, very hurt, incapacitated, and near dead). And the different statuses ultimately result is simply negative modifiers.
The Grandpa, Wait! points are used to… well to make the combat system work at all.
The half-page given over to Ranged Combat will be… either enough or not enough. I’m thinking it’ll need some heavy house rules.
But next chapter is the ‘detailed’ combat rules. Maybe these will do!
A “round of combat” is a vaguely defined amount of time in which there is a flurry of activity between combatants. It might last three seconds, or five, or ten, or whatever suits your group’s needs.
But here’s another thing that sounds great but sucks for shit to play UNLESS the rest of the rules match it. And these rules don’t match it because reloading a crossbow takes EXACTLY 8 or 15 seconds depending on how good you are with a crossbow, so I need to know pretty accurately how long a combat round lasts! And since it needs to be consistent between games it can’t be 3 seconds in one combat and 12 seconds in another!
The detailed combat rules for a difference between Body stats makes it seem even MORE complicated to have the “simple” choice of having merely a ‘description’ of Body.
Also in the name of (presumably) simplicity, armor is pretty much completely ignored. You can say it matches the movie (arguable), but for game play it’s absurd. Someone. Is going to put on heavy plate and want it to be better than the character who is simply ‘Tough’!
Fencing Styles are added as well. Agrippa, Thibault, Capo Ferro, Bonetti, and Fabris. Unfortunately, all they mean is a -1 if they cancel one of the styles you use. It would be nice if they were more interesting than this.
There are some lengthy combat examples, which is good, but none of them involve ranged combat which is… not likely!
Chapter 11 is “True Love” and I commend the author for trying to make it an integral part of the rules. It’s a tough one to do.
Something I have rarely if ever seen in a rule book is a discussing on the type of falling in love and flirting and other disasters that can occur between real people and player characters. Of course, these rules can’t solve these issues, but it’s very useful to point them out. Having experienced these things myself, I find myself hoping that it is an artifact of the past - but I doubt it.
The GM’’s advice section is amazingly unique and interesting in ways that many (if not most) other RPGs are not.
One thing I REALLY appreciate is ‘An Adventure Outline’ which appears as a hand-written note and the claim that the author ran this adventure at a convention. It’s about 13 lines long.
Now I don’t think I could run an adventure on that bare-bones outline, but I appreciate a GM sharing what he did. I wish more RPG books would show ‘real world’ examples like this.
I do however, get pretty sick of the advice “It’s your game, do whatever your gaming group enjoys the most.”
First, because if you already have a gaming group, you’re very likely already doing that. Because if you’re not doing that, you probably don’t have a gaming group.
Second, I paid good money for this book to give given YOUR opinion. Not mine. I already know I can ignore it. I already know I can change it. I already know that I can “do whatever my gaming group enjoys the most”. Don’t waste my time with things I know. Tell me what works for YOU or YOU WHEN RUNNING THIS GAME and let me use my own judgment about what to do with that information. But “It’s your game, do whatever your gaming group enjoys the most.” is NOT INFORMATION OR USEFUL IN ANY WAY!
Oh, and I’m not crazy about being referred to websites that no longer exist either…
The GMing advice however, is uniformly excellent. Moreover it’s delivered in a very experienced voice, that is really good at assuring you that it’s a fairly easy job (it’s not). It definitely gives you the confidence you need as beginning GM however. Wish I’d gotten it when I started playing!
Even excellent advice on Stealth type rolls for groups and individuals!
The background material is also excellent. Exactly how a game like this should work. It even mentions the possibility of Robin Hood being around in the same time period. I have always wanted a good Robin Hood game! Something to think about…
The NPC section has a couple of handy name charts and even better, some fully stated out NPCs with names and some personality. More than 99% of most RPGs give!
Finally, you’re given the full stats for the major characters in the movie! I can’t tell you how many licensed games I’ve bought that DON’T give you the major characters! A main reason to buy the game in the first place!
Buttercup having the skill of ‘Eloquent Facial Expressions That Speak Volumes” pretty much tells you how well this is done!
The monster section is short and the monster stats get short-changed to only three, but otherwise covers as much as the movie and the book. This is not an orc fighting game.
Chapter 15: Adventures! is slightly misnamed. They aren’t really fully fleshed out ‘adventures’ but rather ‘adventure seeds’. In other words, the idea for an adventure, but not fully fleshed out.
If you’ve ever had a friend tell you his ‘great idea for a movie!’ then you know what an adventure seed is. A half-baked idea that you can poke holes in seconds after hearing it.
Most professionally published RPG adventures have holes in them you can drive a truck through! Just read their reviews.
But these are actually a little better than most. They are not only good ideas, but they have enough detail that they could in fact be run in a night without excessive improvising.
Not only are they exceptionally well done, but they have a kind of charm that fits in perfectly with the flavor of the movie.
In Chapter 16, call “Adventure Seeds” are the much shorter and less fleshed out ideas, but even still they are very nicely written. They are much more interesting and social than the usual fantasy type idea. These are for role-players, not hack-and-slashers
Any adventure that has players finding Saltpeter is a good one to me!
There are a LOT of skills in this game. And a LOT of confusing overlap among the skills. It seems the intent is to have the GM just hand-wave whatever the player wants, but my experience with players is that they want whatever will give them the most bang for the buck. So this level of fuzziness seems more detrimental than helpful.
Sidebar: The skills rules and a few other rules made me go looking for other optional Fudge rules (the basic system for this game). There is a Grey Ghost website that supposedly supports the game so I tried to join it. It refused to let me join saying “Your IP address is our spam database. If you feel this is in error, please contact the webmaster. So I went to the contact page and tried to send an email and which point it said This email cannot be send because your IP address is our spam database.. I do realize that Grey Goose did not publish this game, but the publisher (toy vault) also has not support pages for this game either. Make of that what you will. What I make of it is that this game is going to be very challenging to play.
The Gifts & Inconveniences Appendix is another case of the style perfectly matching the source material but also being the kind of rules that greatly encourage roleplaying. All of them add ‘character’ to characters, in addition to just rule benefits (or negatives). I wish all rules writers thought this way.
This is the most charming god-damned game I’ve read in…. I don’t know how long, but my first RPG is also called “White Box”.
The truth is you have a really good game here! Unfortunately it is also marred by some hand-waveyness that may be appropriate to the movie but is detrimental to getting players to try.
For example, the entire text of the Languages skill is ”Eh, you’ll get by. Don’t worry about it. Just speak more loudly and slowly.” Funny? Yes. Useful rules? No.
The damage rules (in both the non-complicated and the ‘advanced’ chapter) are bafflingly complex and non-intuitive. I suppose it works, but I wouldn’t want to explain it to anyone who was interested in playing.
An interesting and applauded method of describing the types of “Inconveniences” that a character can have is for the player to not overdue the roleplaying so much that he becomes obnoxious to play with. This should be written into every RPG in existence!
At the end of the day, this is a wonderful piece of work. Perfectly encapsulating the style of the Book and Movie and one that would made a really fun game.
It’s also probably the best example of using Fudge to craft a game there is. Take that for what it’s worth.
I’ll give this 4 stars and constantly be thinking of how I can adapt it to the Robin Hood game I’ve always wanted to play.
I highly recommend this game - especially if you like the source material.
I was never able to find the ‘Deluxe’ version, but it’s still a beautiful game. With a few exceptions the books uses a lot of stills from the movie, but they’re used to good effect and I think it helps the book a lot.
The game starts with a fairly traditional explanation of what roleplaying is, though it’s amusingly written and the examples are all based on the Princess Bride movie. There are also movie quotes scattered throughout the text which definitely cements the flavor.
Characters have attributes, gifts, inconveniences and skills. So this is is a classless skill system and no surprises or complaints there.
The rules are definitely target number skill and attribute checks. Though in the example of how a check works, it gives an example of the player explaining that while he doesn’t have the appropriate skill, having another skill gives him similar benefits.
This is all fine and I can see it working, but I can also see it opening the door to a lot of whining.
The only weirdness comes with the dice which are either three six-sided dice rolled on a special table or specially made ‘Fudge/Fate’ dice to give results of -4 to +4.
There are also ‘Grandpa, Wait!’ points that act as fate/stunt/hero points in other games to alter rolls and modify events.
There are also Life Isn’t Fair! points that the GM can use to keep their major villains alive a little longer. This is a nice tough and unlike a-lot of games the rules don’t make the GM an adversary in using these points.
There are six character classes: Agent, Brute, Fencer, Miracle Worker, Pirate and Wandering Farmhand. The Agent being a Vizzini type and Buttercup being a Wandering Farmhand.
There doesn’t appear to be anything particularly unique about each class except specific Gifts (Talents) and suggested Skills.
These cover the classes used in the movie, but another seven are given later: Burglar, Forester, Peddler, Smuggler, Courier, Highway Robber and Rogue.
Kind of surprised, there is no type of Nobility class. What about Count Rugen and Duke Humperdink?
Finally we get to the page (82) where you can create your own character from scratch, taking any Gifts or Skills you wish. It also gives rules for creating a custom Profession, again, taking anything you want. It even gives a section on the Jack or Jen of All Trades which also lets you mix and match Skills and Gifts as you wish (no pun intended). It also gives you a Zero to Hero option that starts the players off weaker.
So this is my biggest complaint so far. These ways of customizing your character take up THREE pages! The previous Class descriptions take up ELEVEN pages and are completely pointless! The Classes are no easier to create - you have to pick most of their Skills and Gifts anyway, so you’ve still got to go on that long shopping list! Why bother at all?
I’d rather those pages had been filled with oh, I don’t know, say the “Guider Gazetteer”!
The next section is equipment and money. It starts off saying that… money is unnecessary in the game. But nice to have. So give a little money to players, give them some reasonable equipment and make sure they are always broke. And of course there are no prices for any equipment.
I’ve personally never seen this work and would be pretty annoyed if some GM tried it on me as a player. It’s just plain lazy not to have it and it certainly eliminates a whole heccuva lot of story possibilities.
And of course, makes no sense for Princess Bride. Vizzini was hired with money, Fezzik fought crowds with money, Inigo got drunk with money, and Miracle Max wanted to get paid with money.
Weapons are a very short and generic selection. Fair enough, since there is not much difference between them anyway.
Equipment gives only the price of Miracle Pills and Potions as 20 florins on up. So… why not price everything else for comparison?
Next is the combat chapter, which the writer notes is only long because RPGers love this kind of thing. He’s right.
Sidebar: For what its worth, I’ve been studying the Fudge game system for a long time. It’s one of the favorite and oldest of the ‘build-your-own-rpg’ kits. Since I know there is a vast amount of alternative and optional rules for Fudge (and very little hard-and-fast rules) I was wondering/hoping that after all this time the ‘best’ rules would float to the surface and be reflected with this undoubted most successful Fudge game.
Since there are no hit points, the combat system is a very complicated set of rolls that determine how wounded one fighter is against another. In other words, a 7 hit point system (3 scratches, hurt, very hurt, incapacitated, and near dead). And the different statuses ultimately result is simply negative modifiers.
The Grandpa, Wait! points are used to… well to make the combat system work at all.
The half-page given over to Ranged Combat will be… either enough or not enough. I’m thinking it’ll need some heavy house rules.
But next chapter is the ‘detailed’ combat rules. Maybe these will do!
A “round of combat” is a vaguely defined amount of time in which there is a flurry of activity between combatants. It might last three seconds, or five, or ten, or whatever suits your group’s needs.
But here’s another thing that sounds great but sucks for shit to play UNLESS the rest of the rules match it. And these rules don’t match it because reloading a crossbow takes EXACTLY 8 or 15 seconds depending on how good you are with a crossbow, so I need to know pretty accurately how long a combat round lasts! And since it needs to be consistent between games it can’t be 3 seconds in one combat and 12 seconds in another!
The detailed combat rules for a difference between Body stats makes it seem even MORE complicated to have the “simple” choice of having merely a ‘description’ of Body.
Also in the name of (presumably) simplicity, armor is pretty much completely ignored. You can say it matches the movie (arguable), but for game play it’s absurd. Someone. Is going to put on heavy plate and want it to be better than the character who is simply ‘Tough’!
Fencing Styles are added as well. Agrippa, Thibault, Capo Ferro, Bonetti, and Fabris. Unfortunately, all they mean is a -1 if they cancel one of the styles you use. It would be nice if they were more interesting than this.
There are some lengthy combat examples, which is good, but none of them involve ranged combat which is… not likely!
Chapter 11 is “True Love” and I commend the author for trying to make it an integral part of the rules. It’s a tough one to do.
Something I have rarely if ever seen in a rule book is a discussing on the type of falling in love and flirting and other disasters that can occur between real people and player characters. Of course, these rules can’t solve these issues, but it’s very useful to point them out. Having experienced these things myself, I find myself hoping that it is an artifact of the past - but I doubt it.
The GM’’s advice section is amazingly unique and interesting in ways that many (if not most) other RPGs are not.
One thing I REALLY appreciate is ‘An Adventure Outline’ which appears as a hand-written note and the claim that the author ran this adventure at a convention. It’s about 13 lines long.
Now I don’t think I could run an adventure on that bare-bones outline, but I appreciate a GM sharing what he did. I wish more RPG books would show ‘real world’ examples like this.
I do however, get pretty sick of the advice “It’s your game, do whatever your gaming group enjoys the most.”
First, because if you already have a gaming group, you’re very likely already doing that. Because if you’re not doing that, you probably don’t have a gaming group.
Second, I paid good money for this book to give given YOUR opinion. Not mine. I already know I can ignore it. I already know I can change it. I already know that I can “do whatever my gaming group enjoys the most”. Don’t waste my time with things I know. Tell me what works for YOU or YOU WHEN RUNNING THIS GAME and let me use my own judgment about what to do with that information. But “It’s your game, do whatever your gaming group enjoys the most.” is NOT INFORMATION OR USEFUL IN ANY WAY!
Oh, and I’m not crazy about being referred to websites that no longer exist either…
The GMing advice however, is uniformly excellent. Moreover it’s delivered in a very experienced voice, that is really good at assuring you that it’s a fairly easy job (it’s not). It definitely gives you the confidence you need as beginning GM however. Wish I’d gotten it when I started playing!
Even excellent advice on Stealth type rolls for groups and individuals!
The background material is also excellent. Exactly how a game like this should work. It even mentions the possibility of Robin Hood being around in the same time period. I have always wanted a good Robin Hood game! Something to think about…
The NPC section has a couple of handy name charts and even better, some fully stated out NPCs with names and some personality. More than 99% of most RPGs give!
Finally, you’re given the full stats for the major characters in the movie! I can’t tell you how many licensed games I’ve bought that DON’T give you the major characters! A main reason to buy the game in the first place!
Buttercup having the skill of ‘Eloquent Facial Expressions That Speak Volumes” pretty much tells you how well this is done!
The monster section is short and the monster stats get short-changed to only three, but otherwise covers as much as the movie and the book. This is not an orc fighting game.
Chapter 15: Adventures! is slightly misnamed. They aren’t really fully fleshed out ‘adventures’ but rather ‘adventure seeds’. In other words, the idea for an adventure, but not fully fleshed out.
If you’ve ever had a friend tell you his ‘great idea for a movie!’ then you know what an adventure seed is. A half-baked idea that you can poke holes in seconds after hearing it.
Most professionally published RPG adventures have holes in them you can drive a truck through! Just read their reviews.
But these are actually a little better than most. They are not only good ideas, but they have enough detail that they could in fact be run in a night without excessive improvising.
Not only are they exceptionally well done, but they have a kind of charm that fits in perfectly with the flavor of the movie.
In Chapter 16, call “Adventure Seeds” are the much shorter and less fleshed out ideas, but even still they are very nicely written. They are much more interesting and social than the usual fantasy type idea. These are for role-players, not hack-and-slashers
Any adventure that has players finding Saltpeter is a good one to me!
There are a LOT of skills in this game. And a LOT of confusing overlap among the skills. It seems the intent is to have the GM just hand-wave whatever the player wants, but my experience with players is that they want whatever will give them the most bang for the buck. So this level of fuzziness seems more detrimental than helpful.
Sidebar: The skills rules and a few other rules made me go looking for other optional Fudge rules (the basic system for this game). There is a Grey Ghost website that supposedly supports the game so I tried to join it. It refused to let me join saying “Your IP address is our spam database. If you feel this is in error, please contact the webmaster. So I went to the contact page and tried to send an email and which point it said This email cannot be send because your IP address is our spam database.. I do realize that Grey Goose did not publish this game, but the publisher (toy vault) also has not support pages for this game either. Make of that what you will. What I make of it is that this game is going to be very challenging to play.
The Gifts & Inconveniences Appendix is another case of the style perfectly matching the source material but also being the kind of rules that greatly encourage roleplaying. All of them add ‘character’ to characters, in addition to just rule benefits (or negatives). I wish all rules writers thought this way.
This is the most charming god-damned game I’ve read in…. I don’t know how long, but my first RPG is also called “White Box”.
The truth is you have a really good game here! Unfortunately it is also marred by some hand-waveyness that may be appropriate to the movie but is detrimental to getting players to try.
For example, the entire text of the Languages skill is ”Eh, you’ll get by. Don’t worry about it. Just speak more loudly and slowly.” Funny? Yes. Useful rules? No.
The damage rules (in both the non-complicated and the ‘advanced’ chapter) are bafflingly complex and non-intuitive. I suppose it works, but I wouldn’t want to explain it to anyone who was interested in playing.
An interesting and applauded method of describing the types of “Inconveniences” that a character can have is for the player to not overdue the roleplaying so much that he becomes obnoxious to play with. This should be written into every RPG in existence!
At the end of the day, this is a wonderful piece of work. Perfectly encapsulating the style of the Book and Movie and one that would made a really fun game.
It’s also probably the best example of using Fudge to craft a game there is. Take that for what it’s worth.
I’ll give this 4 stars and constantly be thinking of how I can adapt it to the Robin Hood game I’ve always wanted to play.
I highly recommend this game - especially if you like the source material.
February 9, 2021
Based on the Fudge game engine, the book is more of a settings book than a core rulebook. It's unclear how much contact the author had with the original authors of either the script or the novel, so a significant amount of world-building is made up from scratch. This isn't too bad, and the author is pretty straightforward about what is canon and what is new material.
October 1, 2023
While I haven't had a chance to play it yet, the rules and system seem to set up an experience that feels just like the movie. My favorite mechanic is the use of "Grandpa Wait" points.
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