Author Topic: The Princess Bride  (Read 933 times)

Dragon

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The Princess Bride
« on: January 03, 2022, 08:54:47 »
The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game was one of my Christmas gifts. The game is based on one of my favorite movies. As a bit of background, the movie has some great scenes, quotable lines, and is a classic that I can't imagine having the same charm if someone tried to remake it, however I always thought the scenes with the grandson and grandfather interrupting the movie were pointless and annoying and were more akin to commercial breaks than characters that were part of the movie. I was surprised to see with this board game that they've included the grandson and grandfather as components in the game, referenced every turn to determine the random positions of things and potential game ending.

It seems that the game was designed to fit into the current popularity of legacy-style and co-op games like Pandemic and Gloomhaven, but on a much lighter level. The game has 6 pages in the book, which has thick cardboard pages like a pre-schoolers book, and opens up to reveal the board for the session with special rules for each "Chapter" to explain how the cards are used for each different scenario. There are miniature figures for the main characters of the movie, Westley, Buttercup, Vizzini, Fezzik, Inigo, Prince Humperdink, and Count Rugen, and depending on the scenario, certain characters will be used. There is a Special Deck of cards which is separate from the main deck that everyone uses throughout the game. By using "Miracles" and completing challenges for a given scenario, players are able to draw from the Special Deck, which give a little boost such as moving all the characters or being usable in place of any other card needed to complete a challenge.

I played this game with my wife, Beth, and son, Isaac. Our first attempt to play the game was messed up, since I had setup the "Special Deck" and the "Story Deck" opposite of what they were supposed to be. Initially, I thought the Story Deck was the set of cards where it looked like scenes from the movie were being told, but actually, that's the Special Deck. The Story Deck has the same backing, because they will eventually be merged together, but all the cards that make up the original main deck are generalized categories, basically the catch phrases that you see on the box... Adventure, Intrigue, Love, Courage, and Revenge.

After getting the Story Deck vs. Special Deck straightened out, we got into the game and were easily making progress. Chapter 1 only has Westley and Buttercup, and simply introduces us to the basics of the game. Since we've played Pandemic and a few other co-op games, it seemed like something was missing... but I'm pretty sure that was all there was to it. Chapter 2 was a little more difficult than Chapter 1, simply because the random "Plot" cards would cause Vizzini to jump around to different locations on the ship while we were trying to get him to move to a specific area.

The rules have instructions for putting the game away in between chapters and continuing another time with the Story Deck being saved with the Special cards that had been collected. Since I usually bag up game components into sandwich bags when I'm putting them away, there was just a tiny extra effort to keep the uncollected Special cards separate.

So far, I'm curious to see if the game gets any more challenging. Even my wife thought that the game seems to be lacking. Most likely, we'll play through the remaining Chapters just to see how it goes, but unless my youngest girls are interested in playing it at some point, I can't imagine it will be brought to the table.
"Hello IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? ... OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?... Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on. Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes." - Roy (The IT Crowd)

Dragon

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Re: The Princess Bride
« Reply #1 on: February 27, 2022, 16:10:14 »
Today, I played The Princess Bride Adventure Book Game with my youngest, 8-year old daughter, Grace. We completed all 6 chapters of the game today without any difficulty. The game was fun to play for nostalgia about the movie. Even though the game is suggested for players age 10+, my daughter was able to catch onto the strategy easily and was even able to see how to complete challenges for each section without my assistance. Each Chapter gives the players a chance to "Replay" if after failing one time, but we didn't even need to Replay a single Chapter, and one Chapter was completed after only 2 turns played by my daughter and on the 3rd turn by me.

I think the game would be considered a light-weight version of some currently popular game styles, specifically co-op, legacy games. In the beginning of the game, players have access to only the standard "Story" cards. As the game progresses, "Special" cards are added to the game, which makes it  easier for the players to complete the challenges. After each Chapter, all the acquired "Special" cards are included with the "Story" cards, but there isn't much else that changes from one to the next.

The game goes right along with the flow of the movie, and to make the most of the game, just simply must read all the quotes that have been included from the movie, preferably doing your best imitations. Surprisingly to me, even though I consider the banter with the grandson the most annoying part of the movie, playing this game has given me a new appreciation of those thematically unrelated characters.

After finishing all 6 Chapters of the Adventure Book, I asked Grace when she thought of the game. She said she really had fun and would like to play it again. I think if it weren't for her input on this, I'd be getting rid of this game without much thought. There really isn't enough of a challenge in this game for me to want to play it again. Since it's a game she said she'd like to play again, I'd much prefer it over playing Candyland again. We actually ended up watching the movie again after playing this game today... so it made for a memorable experience for a game and a movie themed day.
"Hello IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again? ... OK, well, the button on the side. Is it glowing?... Yeah, you need to turn it on. Err, the button turns it on. Yeah, you do know how a button works, don't you? No, not on clothes." - Roy (The IT Crowd)