http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2017/01/princess-bride-rpg-announced.html
I vaguely recalled reading about this back in January and then forgot all about it until a thread here was talking about games that could be used to play in the style of The Princess Bride . Anybody hear any updates on this? Or has it gone the way of the previously announced Buckaroo Banzai and Flash Gordon RPGs?
Last I heard regarding the Princess Bride rpg was was a call for playtesters/reviewers in April on the Fudge mail list it , so it must be in a pretty advanced state. I haven't heard anything since.
I have to wonder how that would even work, since almost all the action (save the one sword fight) takes place off stage and it's mostly a comedy. And the best part of the book is all the hilarious parenthetical remarks which couldn't make it into the movie.
Quote from: JeremyR;976005I have to wonder how that would even work, since almost all the action (save the one sword fight) takes place off stage and it's mostly a comedy. And the best part of the book is all the hilarious parenthetical remarks which couldn't make it into the movie.
The book is a different animal altogether, but if the art in the article is any indication the game will be based on the movie. Oddly, as much as I have loved that movie since I was a kid, I've never really desired to play a campaign based on it or its mechanics. The sword fight was great fodder for the imagination based around my D&D habit, but I never connected the two beyond that, especially with the comedic aspects. My D&D games as a player and DM were far more bloody and serious.
Quote from: JeremyR;976005I have to wonder how that would even work, since almost all the action (save the one sword fight) takes place off stage and it's mostly a comedy. And the best part of the book is all the hilarious parenthetical remarks which couldn't make it into the movie.
In other words, what the players are used to at the table when they talk out of character about anything but the game they are playing in.
I enjoyed the book and the movie, but I have to confess that when I saw a Princess Bride board game in a store I wasn't taken by it enough to actually buy it. I suspect the RPG would be the same thing. Neat idea, not enough substance.
Oh, I don't know if I would actually use the game but it might be cool if it has nice artwork and maps and if they can come up with some adventure ideas. So much depends on overall utility.
I doubt it would happen, but it would be neat if they got setting input from Goldman the way the DC Heroes Watchmen sourcebook got material from Alan Moore that wasn't in the comic books.
Quote from: Dumarest;976286Oh, I don't know if I would actually use the game but it might be cool if it has nice artwork and maps and if they can come up with some adventure ideas. So much depends on overall utility.
I doubt it would happen, but it would be neat if they got setting input from Goldman...
S. Morgenstern would know so much more. :)
Not to mention all the wealth of information you can get from the Royal Florinese Digital LIbrary these days...
Quote from: Harlock;976321S. Morgenstern would know so much more. :)
Yeah, but he's too busy working on the sourcebook for
The Silent Gondoliers RPG.
What the fuck would you even run with it?
Quote from: RPGPundit;977047What the fuck would you even run with it?
I presume you would have to buy the game to find out.
Princess Bride is sort of a book/movie of stereotypes, and perhaps therein lies the answers. Quests to save a princess. Dread Pirate Roberts. The Giant. Great swordsmen and three-musketeers style dueling. Political intrigue between nations. Lots of this stuff is in the book, or at least hinted at.
Lots of choices and ideas here just no real world to go with it yet, but one can assume that the designers will be building up some depth in the setting. Perhaps your goal is simply to become one of the greats at something and take on the bad guys. It could be that simple.
Quote from: RPGPundit;977047What the fuck would you even run with it?
I think that's kind of what everyone else in the thread has said. What's the 'there' there? Going by the movie, what are the defining features of gaming-adventuring in a Princess Bride universe?
- A swashbuckling universe where people fight with rapiers and no armor, and that's a sane decision.
- A combat system where swinging from chandeliers, or summersaulting over bars, is a logical course of action.
- A reward system (xp or otherwise) that rewards pre-arranged goals (rescue princess, avenge father, help party members on their goals).
- Entirely too much sense of camaraderie with one's opponents, and sense of fair play, along with a remarkably carefree attitude towards the situation, even when one's life is on the line.
- The mightiest of warriors (assuming Fezzik approaches that) can defeat many normal soldiers, but not 20 or 60 (except through deception and guile). For some reason, can also be defeated by one opponent who exploits the fatigue rules or something.
- Good guys do not throat-slit their opponents when they are unconscious, even if said individual was trying to kill them.
- After you defeat the bad guy, you get to ride off into the sunset (strangely devoid of any guards, despite this guy being a sitting monarch with guards and navies and things, and only the guards at the gates had been routed).
Now some of these might be hero-specific. Inigo and Wesley might be throwing the swords down to summersault around beams or whatnot because they are so confident that they can be reckless, not because doing so is actually a good idea. But in general the setting rewards audacity, swashbuckling, and heroism.
That said, other than putting your game on the idealistic side of the grit spectrum, why do you need a specific system to run this?
The Princess Bride is a parody and inversion of fairy tale tropes. So is the movie, if you read the script straight and ignore the fact that Reiner tried to make it all heartwarming and comedic. A Princess Bride RPG would make as much sense as a Spaceballs RPG.
Quote from: daniel_ream;977157The Princess Bride is a parody and inversion of fairy tale tropes. So is the movie, if you read the script straight and ignore the fact that Reiner tried to make it all heartwarming and comedic. A Princess Bride RPG would make as much sense as a Spaceballs RPG.
Believe it or not there is a thread on ENWorld of someone asking why it has never been done. Yes. We live in a screwed up world.
As a point of interest, I was searching the web for "princess bride" and found that there is a main website that sells all kinds of stuff. There are a couple of games (even Bride-opoly) and lunch boxes and posters and so on. If folks are buying that stuff, why not an RPG?
It was probably mentioned earlier, but the fact that the RPG will be done using FUDGE saddens me. I'm not into that system so much, so whatever interest I might have had in the game has now become more diminished. :(
I suspect it'd not appeal to the trad gamer since I suspect the only point of a Princess Bride game would be to have a system that supports a story that is ironic, self referential, and quixotic. Thing is.. you can do that already with a range of systems from pure trad to pure story game.
Maybe a better book would be 'how to run any rpg like Princess Bride'?
But it's FUDGE, which means that it'll potentially be just that.. a resource on how to run rpgs that tend to that style.
Oh and there'll be some setting stuff.
I am not convinced but it might just work, I've played very trad FUDGE type rpgs and very story driven FATE games.. let's see...
Quote from: RPGPundit;977047What the fuck would you even run with it?
A "movie swashbuckling" campaign?
Quote from: Willie the Duck;977118I think that's kind of what everyone else in the thread has said. What's the 'there' there? Going by the movie, what are the defining features of gaming-adventuring in a Princess Bride universe?
- A swashbuckling universe where people fight with rapiers and no armor, and that's a sane decision.
- A combat system where swinging from chandeliers, or summersaulting over bars, is a logical course of action.
- A reward system (xp or otherwise) that rewards pre-arranged goals (rescue princess, avenge father, help party members on their goals).
- Entirely too much sense of camaraderie with one's opponents, and sense of fair play, along with a remarkably carefree attitude towards the situation, even when one's life is on the line.
- The mightiest of warriors (assuming Fezzik approaches that) can defeat many normal soldiers, but not 20 or 60 (except through deception and guile). For some reason, can also be defeated by one opponent who exploits the fatigue rules or something.
- Good guys do not throat-slit their opponents when they are unconscious, even if said individual was trying to kill them.
- After you defeat the bad guy, you get to ride off into the sunset (strangely devoid of any guards, despite this guy being a sitting monarch with guards and navies and things, and only the guards at the gates had been routed).
Now some of these might be hero-specific. Inigo and Wesley might be throwing the swords down to summersault around beams or whatnot because they are so confident that they can be reckless, not because doing so is actually a good idea. But in general the setting rewards audacity, swashbuckling, and heroism.
There are systems like that already, but they can't advertise as"the Princess Bride RPG".
Quote from: daniel_ream;977157The Princess Bride is a parody and inversion of fairy tale tropes. So is the movie, if you read the script straight and ignore the fact that Reiner tried to make it all heartwarming and comedic. A Princess Bride RPG would make as much sense as a Spaceballs RPG.
By now, it has defined it's own genre.
Quote from: finarvyn;977282It was probably mentioned earlier, but the fact that the RPG will be done using FUDGE saddens me. I'm not into that system so much, so whatever interest I might have had in the game has now become more diminished. :(
The author, Steffan O'Sullivan, stated that it will be a very different take on Fudge. He said that in the context of managing the expectation of the faithful Fudge devotees, but it might offer you a glimmer of hope however slight. In the Fudge is a toolset, it is not so much a flavour as a base ingredient and a lot depends on how you customise it.
Quote from: RPGPundit;977047What the fuck would you even run with it?
Right, a Renaissance Europe fairytale would be as stupid as a War of the Roses setting with evil frogmen.
At least the War of the Roses is a full fledged setting. Princess Bride is nothing but fun characters and good dialogue. We know that there are countries named Florin and Guilder that are at each other's throats, but nothing really about either of them.
Quote from: Dumarest;977374Right, a Renaissance Europe fairytale would be as stupid as a War of the Roses setting with evil frogmen.
Ahem, the versions of most Western European fairytales that have reached us are based around a Renaissance Europe setting:). But I don't recall many frogmen detachments in the War of the Roses, do you mean Pundit's game?
Quote from: Manic Modron;977425At least the War of the Roses is a full fledged setting. Princess Bride is nothing but fun characters and good dialogue. We know that there are countries named Florin and Guilder that are at each other's throats, but nothing really about either of them.
The names alone are enough to know that they're talking about Florence and the Netherlands;).
I was talking with my daughter about this last night. For us what makes Princess Bride Princess Bride is the witty banter between opponents, the snappy dialogue and the various bits of swashbuckling high adventure. The players in a game will either be able to play in this fashion or they won't. No amount of game mechanics will suffice. "I roll a crit on my Sharp Reparte skill" just won't cut it.
It is style over substance and that style could be played in almost any game world. I could also run a hack and slash D&D game in world with Guilder, Florin, Greenland and Australia, ROUSes, etc.The one would feel like Princess Bride, the other not.
Quote from: AsenRG;977431The names alone are enough to know that they're talking about Florence and the Netherlands;).
Thank you for reminding me, we do know one thing about the two of them. Florin and Guilder share a border. So yeah, totally Florence and the Netherlands. ;)
Quote from: RPGPundit;977047What the fuck would you even run with it?
What would you run in the Princess Bride? What the fuck would you run in a fantasy War of the Roses? Or a pseudo-medival pastiche? Or Wagon Train to the Stars? If you really need to ask what would you run in a Princess Bride RPG I have to question if you have enough imagination to run any RPG without being handed a prewritten adventure module.
Run fucking Adventures! With swashbucklers, and pirates, and revenge, and giants, and princesses to rescue, and sea voyages, and villains, and heroes.
Quote from: Manic Modron;977536Thank you for reminding me, we do know one thing about the two of them. Florin and Guilder share a border. So yeah, totally Florence and the Netherlands. ;)
OK, if that's the case, it's one thing that I'd forgotten about the fictional countries, so obviously I didn't take it in account:).
Which means I might be wrong about the two, and they might be Spain and the Netherlands (there were Spanish florins). Or it might be a border between their colonies;).
Regarding what one would run with it...I ran several one-shot larps inspired by The Princess Bride, which were comedy fantasy, and worked very well. It would be significantly different to adapt it to tabletop, but some similar principles could apply. For the larps, my assumptions were:
1) Characters are defined by exaggerated traits - i.e. the strongest, the wiliest, the greatest swordsman, etc. - as well as exaggerated personality.
2) Main characters won't die outright - at most being mostly dead, but can have very horrible things happen to them.
3) Adventures are both comedic and full of action.
I can see various possibilities for a tabletop game - particularly as an episodic series game like Monster of the Week. I could see a pirate campaign, with various misadventures of a peculiar crew of pirates. Alternately, there could be a court game - which could be more troupe style with different characters coming in and out. Thirdly, there could be an officials campaign following an inspector-general or similar figure who looks into problems scattered around the kingdom.
Quote from: AsenRG;977574OK, if that's the case, it's one thing that I'd forgotten about the fictional countries, so obviously I didn't take it in account:).
Which means I might be wrong about the two, and they might be Spain and the Netherlands (there were Spanish florins). Or it might be a border between their colonies;).
Spain is a separate country though, Inigo being a Spaniard and not Florinese!
But really, Florin is just a Ruritania and Guilder is just the faceless enemy that doesn't matter farther than the Prince is willing to kill to start a war.
Quote from: jhkim;9779373) Adventures are both comedic and full of action.
I'm hoping that most of the comedic parts come out of play and not from a rulebook written to be funny. I find that most "funny" rpg books really aren't, but that characters in the right situations can be hilarious.
Quote from: Manic Modron;977948Spain is a separate country though, Inigo being a Spaniard and not Florinese!
Point, but Florin might be the name for a province that has separate opinions on foreign policy:). Such has happened a lot.
QuoteBut really, Florin is just a Ruritania and Guilder is just the faceless enemy that doesn't matter farther than the Prince is willing to kill to start a war.
Sure, but it's more fun to think of justifications and ways to map them back to the real Europe:D!
Florincrantz and Guilderstern are dead.
Quote from: AsenRG;978863Point, but Florin might be the name for a province that has separate opinions on foreign policy:). Such has happened a lot.
Solid point there, sure!
QuoteSure, but it's more fun to think of justifications and ways to map them back to the real Europe:D!
It is, true. My intentions weren't to be belligerent about it, so it was fun batting the justifications back and forth.
Quote from: Manic Modron;978915Solid point there, sure!
It is, true. My intentions weren't to be belligerent about it, so it was fun batting the justifications back and forth.
Likewise, I can say;)!