Thanks very much, guys. I worried that it was so long, but I was too lazy to cut it.
Here are some useful or potentially amusing internet threads about the game:
Isle of Nightmares - An island with talking animals, humans and a bogeyman. Point of interest: You get to see an island description "ladderized." Plus, it gives new groups an island to play.
Carnation Island - My "princess island," alluded to in the review.
Greyorm's actual-play with his children. Worth it for his report that his seven-year-old daughter, unlike my six-year-old, seemed to handle the struggle mechanics okay.
Best,
Jim
__________________
"I mean, how many GMs make you beat up all the weasels before they give you back the chair? " - Brand Robins
-------------------------------------------- Unqualified Offerings - Looking Sideways at your World Since October 2001 *** LJ with Occasional Gaming - Because 20 x 20 Room is defunct
I think this misses a bet. If little girls wrote the Preamble to the US Constitution, it would begin, "We, the people of the United States, love Princesses!" You'll find no end of feminist disquiet about Princess Obsession by little girls. As the father of a daughter, who wants his daughter to succeed in life, I can relate to some of these. The thing is, a game like Princes' Kingdom offers a constructive way to engage "the Princess problem." Because you can draw them in with the chance to "play a Princess," but then the game itself is all about doing things. That is, it can help girls associate wisdom, courage and usefulness with the Princess archetype over prettiness and fashion. The defult unisex designator, "Prince," needlessly narrows the appeal of the game to half of its potential audience.
I'll keep reading the review after this little piece of crap but I'l have to breath heavily first. BTW, I'm the father of three. Two are girls. I'm taking this into consideation when I mean that "The defult unisex designator, "Prince," needlessly narrows the appeal of the game to half of its potential audience" is just PC crap.
What do you want? Princesses' Kingdoms? In which sense would that increase the appeal to more than half of its potential audience? Or else, Princes and Princesses' Kingdoms? Still sexist. Princesses' and Princes's Kingdoms? No less sexist (but of course, today sexism against males is perfectly ok).
Not only PC crap. It's also logical crap. How is it possible for a person to write "The defult unisex designator, "Prince,"", and next imply that it is sexist? How can "unisex" be sexist? If defies logic.
I really mean, I need a good breath to get out of this paragraph of crap and keep reading the review. I'll do it.
He isn't talking about the title. He is talking about the fact that in the book there is a line that says there are no princesses. There are girl princes, but they are just called princes.
Said line has been the center of much controversy, almost all of it better explained, supported, and reported than your petulant little rant.
I'll keep reading the review after this little piece of crap but I'l have to breath heavily first. BTW, I'm the father of three. Two are girls. I'm taking this into consideation when I mean that "The defult unisex designator, "Prince," needlessly narrows the appeal of the game to half of its potential audience" is just PC crap.
What do you want? Princesses' Kingdoms? In which sense would that increase the appeal to more than half of its potential audience? Or else, Princes and Princesses' Kingdoms? Still sexist. Princesses' and Princes's Kingdoms? No less sexist (but of course, today sexism against males is perfectly ok).
Not only PC crap. It's also logical crap. How is it possible for a person to write "The defult unisex designator, "Prince,"", and next imply that it is sexist? How can "unisex" be sexist? If defies logic.
I really mean, I need a good breath to get out of this paragraph of crap and keep reading the review. I'll do it.
Strictly speaking, there are a number of ways the system can incorporate PC crap. A PC really could have "a piece of crap," even an AWESOME piece of crap (d8), as a belonging. Whether to allow that kind of thing is up to the individual play group. I think fourth graders might really go for it, though their parents might not. You could even, again, depending on the level of magic and silliness you want in the game, let a PC have a TALKING piece of crap, like Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo from South Park.
If you've clicked through to my Carnation Island writeup you'll see that it has NPC crap in the form of the boys who fling manure at the sailors.
Somewhat more edgily, a PC wanting to deal with self-esteem issues could have "I am a piece of crap" as a quality, and the hell of it is, it doesn't have to be a troublesome quality, it could be a strong one. That's pretty powerful! On the other hand, if one of my kids wanted to make that PC, I would think I had a parenting issue before I had a gaming issue. (Consider also the possible quality, "Princess Morgan is a piece of crap." If the player of Princess Morgan is the "crapper's" real life sibling, well, looks like somebody has some anger issues to work through.)
A player who gives his PC a quality like "I have trouble crapping" though, is just being silly. This isn't The Princes' GRANDPARENTS' Kingdom, after all.
OTOH! Remember the kid from On Golden Pond, the one who's always saying "Bullshit?" You could base a PC on him, and he could have a quality like "EVERYTHING is crap." And again, it could be a Strong OR Troublesome quality.
My favorite passage from that movie is where the kid says "Bullshit!" for like the thirtieth time and Henry Fonda looks at him and says, "You like that word, don't you?"
And the kid looks right back at him and half-shouts, "Yeah! I do!"
And then Henry Fonda pauses a second and just says:
"It's a good word."
Best,
Jim
__________________
"I mean, how many GMs make you beat up all the weasels before they give you back the chair? " - Brand Robins
-------------------------------------------- Unqualified Offerings - Looking Sideways at your World Since October 2001 *** LJ with Occasional Gaming - Because 20 x 20 Room is defunct
Re: [RPG]: The Princes' Kingdom, reviewed by Supplanter (4/4)
This is a good review, I really liked your discussion of your experiences of playing it with your kids. My daughter is of course much too young for any roleplaying at this stage (being only four months old), but since my wife and I are both roleplayers I can see that we will want to introduce her to roleplaying at some stage so I am very interested in how others have done it.
Re: [RPG]: The Princes' Kingdom, reviewed by Supplanter (4/4)
Thank you, jimbo! Remember, if you get impatient there's always the Growth Tanks!
Also, I found another Actual Play account, this one by Doyce Testerman about chargen and proof struggles in a session with his ex-wife and friends' daughter. This part, about the six-year-old, rings true: she "got the mechanics of it, if not the tactics of it."
Best,
Jim
__________________
"I mean, how many GMs make you beat up all the weasels before they give you back the chair? " - Brand Robins
-------------------------------------------- Unqualified Offerings - Looking Sideways at your World Since October 2001 *** LJ with Occasional Gaming - Because 20 x 20 Room is defunct
Linear Mode
