Pretty Princess Wars - Third Playtest

Had another playtest of Pretty Princess Wars (thanks, Donna and Sarah!). We had a little trouble keeping track of whose turn it was, which may have been because a lack of focus as much as lack of clarity in the game pieces. The Clothes and Friends stacks for each color are still a pain to sift through when you are trying to find something you want to buy. Donna suggested that I make a cheat sheet with thumbnails of everything you can buy to make it easier to find what you want. Great idea! I will definitely do that.

We only had one Battle the entire game, which we sort of flubbed our way through. I will need to review the rules for Battles again. As much as I like the theme of battling princesses, I'm beginning to think that the game doesn't really need that element of game play. Or maybe I just need to simplify it to a single round of combat.

Pretty Princess Wars - Unit Types

My first attempt on units ("Cute Things") for Pretty Princess Wars was fairly arbitrary in the way that values and costs were assigned to units. The result was that during play, a player didn't have much reason to choose one unit over another.

In order to make the different types of units stand out more, I'm giving each category of unit (which correspond to the different colors of the Rainbow Realms) a different ability/advantage.

Red (Food) - Extra Income
Little Food units allow you to collect one extra Candy when you collect Allowance.

Orange (Animals) - Extra Cute
Little Animals are worth one more Love than normal.

Yellow (Toys) - Interchangeable Parts
Still deciding between these two ideas:
Either a Toy can be killed to revive any other dead Cute Thing
OR
Any living Cute Thing can be killed to revive a dead Toy.

Green (Bears) - Dangerous
Bears win ties, except against Trump.

Blue (Fairies) - Crafty
Little Fairies offer a discount when purchasing Clothes of a specific type (Hats, Shoes, or Accessories).

Purple (Mythical Creatures) - Mountable
Some Mythical Creatures count as Accessories of a particular type (Fancy, Simple, Spooky, Cheerful) when collecting Handsome Princes.

I hoping this will add some identity to each color, so that they seem a little more distinct from each other.

Pretty Princess Wars - First Playtest

Sarah and I playtested PPW last night. The rules seem pretty solid. We found a few things that need to be tweaked, but overall, I'm pretty happy with how it plays. The costs and grouping of the Cute Things and Clothes is a little disorganized, so I will probably re-do those components before we play again.

Pretty Princess Wars - Prototype Done!

After much printing and cutting, my first prototype of Pretty Princess Wars is done! It's...very colorful.

I did a quick playtest by myself (it's not as lame as it sounds -- it's good to work out the major kinks by oneself before asking someone else to learn the rules). Some number tweaks aside, everything worked tolerably well.

I do have one major concern about the relationship between resources and player choices. As I was playing, my decisions of what to buy were often dictated by the resources I had in my hand. Ideally, the relationship should work in the other direction -- the things I want should inform the resources I try to collect. As is, the gameplay is reactive. I would rather have a game that is proactive, i.e. rewards planning. I may have to change the way resources are collected in order to dial in to the playstyle I'm looking for.

Pretty Princess Wars - First Prototype

I'm working on a prototype of Pretty Princess Wars -- a tongue-in-cheek strategy board game about bitchy fantasy princesses. Each player plays a Pretty Princess of the Rainbow Realms. King Daddy, the ruler of the Rainbow Realms, is on death's door, and only one princess can succeed him as Crown Princess. When King Daddy's heart finally gives out, the princess with the most Love -- from Cute Things (the loyal subjects of the Realms), Handsome Princes, and King Daddy himself -- will become the new ruler of the Rainbow Realms.

Each source of Love shapes a major element of gameplay. Cute Things are bribed into friendship with Candy, and can be sent into Battle with rival Cute Things to prove their Love for you. Handsome Princes are shallow and fickle, and must be impressed with Clothes that suit their tastes. King Daddy is bloodthirsty and a little senile, and awards his affections to princesses that win fights and remember to visit him from time to time.

The game board is made up of seven castles - six that correspond to a color in the rainbow and a seventh Cloud Castle that connects to the other castles. During the game, players move their princesses to different castles to enable different actions each turn (similar to the strategy cards in Twilight Imperium) and determine what followers and Clothes a player can buy during the turn. My prototype board is done -- it's made up of seven hex tiles that can be arranged differently each time you play.

I've also completed all the parts for major resources in the game: Candy (the currency of the Realms), Daddy's Love, and the Handsome Princes. For card layout, I'm using hand-designed tables in Word 2007 (which is a nice update from Word 2000, what I formerly used in other projects). I really like the built-in online clipart library -- it has saved me a lot of trips back and forth to Google Image Search for placeholder art.

Only two components remaining: Cute Thing tiles and Princess pawns. I have the fronts for the Cute Things done -- just need to finish up the backs and balance out their Love values. For player pawns, I'd like to find some nice plastic princess figurines, but I may settle for cardboard standees (it is just a prototype, after all!).