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Princesses & Palaces Rule Book

1. Introduction ...... p. 2

2. Building The Palace ...... p. 3

3. Character Creation ...... p. 4-7 Preparation The Character Sheet Descriptions Attributes Life & Fortune Treasures Pets 4. The Princesses ...... p. 6

5. How To Play ...... p. 7-9 Role-Playing Action A Battle In Detail 6. NPCs, Pets, & ...... p. 10 7. Magic ...... p. 10

8. Items & Treasure ...... p. 11 9. Movement ...... p. 11 10. Experience, Age, & ...... p. 11 Leveling 11. Math & The Dice ...... p. 11-12 12. The Worksheet ...... p. 12-13 2

The comic book describes in detail how to approach the game as a player. This brief rule book is the Game Master's Guide, and shouldn't be shared much with the players. If any of the terms or ideas in the rule book are confusing or unfamiliar, look to the comic book for narrative desciptions of how the game is run.

We supplement my daughter's education with homeschool-type projects, and I've always believed that role-playing-games are one of the best educational tools that exist. Once the student falls in love with the world or the character or the story and becomes immersed in the gameplay, academic subjects that have been difficult to teach suddenly become easy.

With the dice and the numbered skills, math is an important part of the game. Spells need to be memorized, giving you a place to practice rehearsing Shakespeare's sonnets or the Gettysburg Address. Action 1. INTRODUCTION and puzzle sequences teach reasoning and conflict-resolution and ethics. It happens Princesses & Palaces is a traditional so easily and naturally when clad in the tabletop role-playing-game for young girls gown of a Princess on a magical adventure. and the gamer adults in their lives. It is an introduction to the fascinating world of The purpose of the game is not to win, it is character sheets, dice, and figurines. to enter a world of shared imagination. Yet each child imagines in unique ways, so the The rules are quite simple, yet detailed rules described here are only suggestions. enough to bring the story to life. Character My daughter and I began Princesses & creation and game sessions are generally Palaces when she was three years old. The only an hour or two in length, with plenty rules have evolved and grown detailed over of tiaras and treasure and maybe even a time. The important thing, of course, is to birthday at the end. The entire experience have fun, and to share the most exciting is a chocolate sundae with a cherry on top. story you can. 3

W ith glitter & glue, paint & pens, construction paper & fabric, and scissors & tape Kit & Mimi built the Palace's rooms.

2. BUILDING THE PALACE

Palace Example

Cardstock walls Paper towel rolls

Cardstock balcony

Toilet paper rolls 2 ft.

3 ft.

The Palace is the location of all the action in the game. You will be surprised how many games can be played within the confines of these walls. A big part of making this game fun is having a Palace that your players are excited to play in. It can be large or small, empty or full of rooms. Just make sure that you can access each room comfortably and have enough space to maneuver the figurines. 4

• Any material can be used to make • Provide access to every room with the Palace. Our first was card stock cut-away walls and removable roofs. and glue. Our second is plywood. • Give control to the players. The Other choices are Legos, sugar more they design and build the cubes, papier-mâché, and balsa Palace themselves, the more they wood. will love it. • Make the Palace as big as you can, • Decorate it in detail: windows, almost as large as the table on which balconies, flags, tapestries, curtains, you play. thrones, chests, beds, furniture, • Building the structure may be your kennels for the pets, etc. Don't job, especially with children under 5. forget turrets, drawbridges, and a Save their creativity for decorating moat! and painting the walls. Older • Expect the Palace to change and children may want to do everything, grow over time. You may not build a from drawing the blueprints to dungeon until someone needs to be wielding glue-guns. jailed. You may not have a banquet • The floor is 10 foot (3 m) squares. hall or a kitchen until a big birthday Draw them whatever size you like, dance. but be consistent. Mats and tiles • The excessive use of ribbons, glitter, from game companies also work. and jewels is highly recommended.

3. CHARACTER CREATION

Preparation: ad drew a picture on the As with many things in this game, floor.D “Now this,” he told them, numbers and statistics are introduced “is a garden. And you can see with stories. Once the palace is the Princesses laughing and constructed, the character-creation playing and dancing in a ring, story begins. holding hands.” He arranged the Princesses around the pond Remove from the game box the five he had drawn. . . Princess figurines. Set them up on the table in a small circle.

Each player chooses a Princess and receives the figurine and matching character sheet. This is their character until they choose a different one. This character persists past the end of each game session, growing and developing into a unique creation. 5

The Character Sheet:

The character sheets are laminated and the player uses only Dry-Erase markers on it.

Description:

Name Level Naming the Princess gets the player to Every Princess starts at level 1, regardless think about who she is. If her last name is of Her age. At the end of each adventure, Moonglow ask her if she comes from the the Princess gains half a level. Moonglow family and what her parents are like. Does she have brothers and sisters? Age Details can be noted and used later. On each birthday, the Princess is awarded one point to spend on Her attributes. Title Like a name, the formal title the Princess Hair Color / Eye Color takes tells a larger story about who she is The player can color the picture of the and what kind of Princess she is. No title Princess to create a custom image of their is too grand, even Princess of the Universe. Princess.

“N ow look at where it says Strengths, Smarts, and Sweets,” Dad said. “These are your Attributes. They describe your Princess with numbers. A bigger number means you have more of that Attribute.”

Attributes:

attack magic charm + _ protect + _ senses + _ heal move puzzles command strengths smarts sweets Strengths Smarts Sweets Any physical task, from All mental and magical Princesses are very combat maneuvers such as tasks, from “thinking” of a charming, and many NPCs swinging a sword, shooting clue to casting a spell to are willing to do what they an arrow, or climbing a wall, figuring out a way to defeat ask if a princess makes a to running to opening a door, an opponent, require a successful Sweets roll. Even requires a Strengths roll. Smarts roll. Initiative and monsters can be persuaded. Damage is also increased magical damage are also Also, all pet interactions with high Strengths. decided by Smarts. require a Sweets roll. 6

The Princesses:

Yellow Green Purple Blue Pink Princess of Princess of Princess of pets. Princess of Princess of magic. Smart, nature. Quick, Charming and fighting. Strong, healing. Lots of clever, and clever, wise. full of sweets. fast, the best sweets and strong-willed. Connected to She is better dancer. She smarts. She She sees and Her pets, the with pets than likes to fight takes care of hears things weather, and any other without magic or everyone around others don't. wild things. princess. pets. Her.

imi was unhappy until she learned that a Purple Princess M needs so many Sweets to work with all her animals that she got to write a 13 in that box! For Kit, the Pink Princess also needed a lot of Sweets, because she was a Princess of Healing, so she wrote down a 12.

The five laminated color-coded Princess character sheets each corresponds to a Princess. Princesses start with these different attribute modifiers:

Yellow Princess Green Princess Purple Princess Blue Princess Pink Princess

10 + 0 12 + 2 10 + 0 13 + 3 10 + 0 strengths strengths strengths strengths strengths

13 + 3 11 + 1 10 + 0 10 + 0 11 + 1

smarts smarts smarts smarts smarts

10 10 13 10 12 + 0 + 0 + 3 + 0 + 2

sweets sweets sweets sweets sweets 7

Life & Fortune:

Life is the amount of points each Princess possesses. Damage of different kinds can take points away. If a Princess reaches 0 points she is dead, and placed in a crystal casket until someone daring can awaken Her. If death is too difficult a subject for the player(s), have her get “knocked-out” instead. If killing monsters is too violent, have the monsters be summoned, and after enough damage they can be “banished” in a puff of smoke.

Fortune is the amount of treasure a Princess possesses. The number ad had them scoop up their six dice, written is the worth of Her entire Done of each kind, and roll them all at once. Fortune in gold coins. Once again, Kit rolled 38. Mimi rolled 42. introduce math, using conversions of “I'm rich!” Mimi cried, writing down worth between coin types (10 coppers that she owned 42 gold coins of Fortune. = 1 silver, 10 silvers = 1 gold, etc.).

Treasures:

A Princess wears Her most important treasures, whether it is a Crown Of Flying, A Of Healing, or a Necklace of Shooting Stars. Leave room for the item's effects in the space provided. Feel free to decorate the illustration of the Princess with Her treasures.

Pets:

Princesses are known to have pets: dogs, pigs, ducks, , walruses, baby , bats, etc. A lucky Princess might have a pet as strong as a d12 creature, but no more. Put what die class next to its name in the space provided, along with its life points.

4. HOW TO PLAY

The two main modes of the game are Role-Playing and Action.

“ F ocus is going to hit that Goblin on the head with a pot!” Mimi said. She rolled a 4, which the Goblin couldn't beat, and 3 points of damage. The Goblin fell over dead. Mimi cackled again. 8

Role-Playing:

Speak in character and The Godmother The Butler is in charge of physically act things out. watches over the Princess the Palace and introduces Role-playing with children and the Palace. She can the action with a few choice can easily derail plots and also explain any amount of words such as: “I heard a lead to a never-ending plot. Basically, the Fairy knocking, Your Highness!” series of ideas. The Game Godmother is the Game or “A horse approaches, Master has two special Master's in-game voice, and Your Highness!” Between NPCs to help keep the story allows the GM to plainly the Butler and the Fairy afloat: the describe what comes next Godmother, the players can and the Butler. and why. be helped along.

Action:

Action can be battling Goblins or solving a The Ring Of Firebolts only does d6 puzzle or charming a visiting Princess. damage, but the Yellow Princess adds +3 from her Smarts to that amount. The Everything is rolled and entered into the Goblin dies! worksheet. For example, if the Princess wants to know what the knocking was, Physical battle is purely a Strengths affair. have Her make a Smarts roll against the A Princess with many pets will have mystery. She is a Yellow Princess with +3 several attacks per round. A Purple to her Smarts so she rolls a d20+3. Princess, for example, with Dog and Bear Because it is an easy mystery to solve, the pets will have the Dog roll a d4 when it GM rolls a d6. The higher score prevails, attacks and a d8 when the Bear does. A with the Princess identifying the knocking Dog does d4 damage and a Bear does d8. as coming from beneath the flagstones! When attacked, a Princess still gets to roll The flagstones erupt and 3 Goblins emerge. her d10 to block the attack or otherwise The Princess rolls initiative (Smarts) on protect herself from it. The Dog (d4) and her d20, as do the Goblins. The higher Bear (d8) also get to roll to avoid damage number goes first. Each player rolls once, when attacked. The higher roll always regardless of how many pets and NPCs wins, and Princesses avoid a lot of trouble they represent. All of their attacks go at this way! the same time. The Goblins also attack in unison. Everything is oppositional and requires a counter-roll, even innocuous things like The Princess fires a Ring Of Firebolts at charming a person or solving a puzzle. The the first Goblin, making a d10 Smarts roll larger the die used for the counter-roll +3 against the Goblin's d4. She rolls the determines how difficult that action is. As higher number and successfully burns the Game Master, use common sense to assign Goblin! ballpark probabilities to each action. 9

A Battle In Detail:

Goblin is a d4 creature,” he told them. “A “They didn't know you'd be here, but you didn't know they'd be here either. So after a moment blinking in the light, the first one charges at. . .” Dad rolled a die behind his hand and then pointed at Mimi. “. . . you!”

e?” Mimi gasped, horrified. She ducked under the table. “M “Oh. Don't worry, Mimi,” Dad told her. “Your dogs are in the way. So the Goblins attacked the closest one. This one.” Dad pointed at her gray Dog.

Dog is also a d4 creature, so let's see who rolls the higher number!” “AMimi liked to roll the dice. She rolled a 2 on her own four-sided die. Dad rolled a 1. “Oh!” Dad said. “Your Dog made my Goblin miss!” Mimi cackled in delight. She shared a look with Kit, smug and confident they could beat these monsters.

he next Goblin scratched her Dog Tand rolled a 1 on a d4 for damage. The two other Goblins missed the Dogs I t was Mimi's turn. and then their turn was over. She had the dogs bite Mimi made a note on her character sheet at the Goblin's ankles. that one of her Dogs lost 1 point of Life. “IIIEEEE!!” Dad howled, hopping up and down and holding his ankle while making a Goblin face. 10

NPCs, Pets, & Monsters:

Everyone in the game is rated by dice. Fairy Godmothers are d20 creatures. They attack, protect, and do damage with a d20. They have up to 20 life. Only the most powerful NPCs, pets, & monsters do too. The weakest are d4 creatures. A 20 year-old Princess attacking a Goblin gets to roll a d20 to attack. The Goblin only gets to roll a d4 to protect.

Examples: d4 d6 d8 Princesses age 1-4 Princesses age 5-6 Princesses age 7-8 Slimes Lions Bears Goblins Dwarves Dogs

d10 d12 d20 Princesses age 9-10 Princesses age 11-12 Princesses age 13+ Dragons Witches Sorcerers Ghosts Fairy Godmothers

Magic:

Magic can come from magical items or creatures that are inherently magical. The is extremely simple and based on common sense. There are no tables or canonical spell-books that describe the magical effects of a scroll or a sorcerer, and no underlying system of points or mana. There are only simple artifacts such as the Wand Of Flying (move 2 squares per round, rise 1 square per round) or creatures such as the Firetoad (shoots d4 damage of burning spit). Design your own magical items and creatures based on the likes and dislikes of the players. Reward them with what they love most and threaten them with what they hate.

Feel free to create spells, scrolls, and spellbooks yourself. The best spells have visual effects and simple mechanics with clear outcomes. You might confuse a 6 year-old with psionics. Limit the amount of magic in each game session's action to a few spectacular displays. Make them the fireworks punctuating the physical battle.

Permanent charms, illusions, or buffs may sound like a good idea, but constantly adding in their modifiers takes the shine off them and get them taken for granted. 11

Items & Treasure:

The accumulation of rare treasures and magical items is very important. Each adventure ends with a pile of loot. Make the treasure simple, and not too powerful. The Princess will be overjoyed with the smallest, shiniest object and the weakest magical effect. Certain items can operate as creatures with their own dice rating, but more often they are tools that provide bonuses to the Princess or extra types of damage.

Movement:

During action, the Princess may choose to move herself or her pets instead of fight. Each square or hex of the Palace is 10 feet or 3 meters, and a Princess can move one square per round, unless modifiers allow her to travel faster. There are no half-movements with half-attacks in this system. Taking cover is effective, and can add 1-3 points of difficulty to an attack. Range can also modify an attack. Use common sense to decide how much more or less difficult movement makes the action.

Experience, Age, & Leveling:

At the end of each game session, assuming the Princess was victorious or learned something or just generally moved ahead with the story, she gains six months of Age or one-half of a Level. For every two sessions successfully completed, the Princess gets a birthday with a BIG PARTY, goes up a year in Age, and gains one point to spend on Her Strengths, Smarts, or Sweets.

Math & The Dice:

Children love the different shapes of the dice and they provide an exciting entry into basic math. Your players will learn with the greatest urgency what the numbers mean when the health and welfare of their Princess is on the line. It makes them the most motivated students of math you could ever want.

Dice are also one of the ways players learn to trust the Game Master. Make sure they can see your rolls unless you're intentionally keeping a secret. Let them do your math for you. They will learn that the dice are capricious and lead the game in unexpected directions, random number generators modeling life-like scenarios. Now you 12 are just a short step from statistics and probability. But make sure to keep the math accessible and always tie it to human concerns within the narrative structure of the game. Allow yourself to be as surprised by the direction the game goes in as the players and they will learn that you are not driving the game toward some single end but that you are exploring it together.

The Worksheet:

The worksheet on the back of the character sheet is a script each player can follow. It displays the important numbers and basic equations for action sequences.

Life Points Below the space for the Princess' name are 15 hearts. Have the player fill in the amount of Life Points they have with numbers (write the number 1 in the first heart, the number 2 in the second heart, etc.). Erase each number when the Princess takes damage, add when the Princess heals.

Below the hearts are three lines of 10 circles each. These record the Life Points of each pet in the same way.

Initiative The Princess rolls a d20, adds modifiers she may have, and writes the result in this box. For math beginners having this number and the one the Game Master rolled written beside each other helps them see which is bigger. The bigger roll goes first!*

The Princess' Die Players circle the die of their Princess based on their age.

Attribute Check Whether Strengths, Smarts, or Sweets, the Princess rolls Her die and adds any modifiers to the total. If her check is higher than the Game Master's, then it is successful.**

Action Before the player rolls the die they write down any modifiers they may have: • Environment Any external feature that helps or hinders action, such as cover behind a wall or a storm or darkness • Treasures The relevant effects of magical trinkets • Attributes Any bonuses the Princess has in Strengths, Smarts, or Sweets • Difficulty

* Use the Action equation to calculate both Initiative and Attribute Check modifiers. 13

Add or subtract a point or two depending on the difficulty of the action

Damage At the end of each action, damage is either doled out or taken. Calculate the total and make sure to erase or add to the Life Points at the top of the page.

Round Keep track of the rounds in the same way as Life Points. Write down the number for each round as it begins. This helps keep the action clear and sequential.