“I’m a Pretty Princess!” — first part of the rules
Posted on: September 13, 2009
I’m a Pretty Princess!
A story game by Caoimhe Ora Snow <caoimhe.snow@gmail.com>
Bold Pueblo Games
Written for Game Chef 2009
“As you hurry past the banquet table, the troll king sees through your disguise. ‘Halt! Look, everyone! That is not my serving boy at all — this is one of those meddling princesses! Seize her, and her little friends too!’ His guards start coming toward you! What do you do?”
“I’ll try to distract him with my golden hairbrush! ‘Look! Shiny!’ I’m going to color it in with the orange crayon, and that will give me three dice ‘cuz I’m rich! Uh oh… I only rolled a 5 total.”
“Hmm, that doesn’t seem to be enough. The troll guard captain says scowls at you and snorts derisively at the brush. He reaches for you, and –”
“I’M A PRETTY PRINCESS!”
“– um, then he stops! ‘Oooh. Shiny. Me like shiny! You is pretty princess with shiny brush!’ He staggers backward, a goofy grin on his face, captivated.”
“Yay!”
“Yay!”
Introduction
IAPP is a story game for three or more players, one of whom takes the role of the Fairy Godmother (FGM); the others are all pretty princesses. IAPP is rules-light, easy to learn, quick to play, and family friendly.
To play this game, you need:
- One player to be the FGM
- Two or more other players to be princesses
- A deck of playing cards
- A coloring book with pictures of princesses
- A box of crayons
- One character sheet per princess
- At least four dice (six-sided dice) per princess
If you don’t have a coloring book, you can probably pick one up for cheap at a dollar store. You’ll probably want a box of at least 48 crayons, just for variety’s sake, but the game can be played with as few as four per princess.
Background
There are many kingdoms in many stories, and most of those kingdoms have princesses. All the best kingdoms do, certainly. Some princesses may not even know they are princesses! Not all princesses come from royal families; being a princess is a state of mind, not an accident of birth.
Watching over all of these princesses are fairy godmothers, although not all go by that title. Sometimes they look like little plump women in bonnets with wands, for sure, but others may be little bell-fairies, or genies, or singing trees, or good witches, or talking animals; a fairy godmother can even appear as a male if she wants!
Each fairy godmother is assigned several princesses by the Fairy High Command, all from different kingdoms. She may not even appear the same to each, especially if they are from quite different kingdoms with very different stories! The fairy godmother assists each of her princesses in their own stories — and when needed, she can bring them all together!
For all kingdoms in all stories — those with princesses, at least — are neighbors to the land of Herstoria, whether they know it or not. This magical land is home to many awesome women heroes, as well as the headquarters of the Fairy High Command. A fairy godmother has the magical power to draw her princesses to Herstoria, and from there they can enter each others’ stories — or explore entirely new ones!
One of the most active fairy godmothers is Fleur de Lis — young by fairy standards, she sees herself as a troubleshooter of sorts, righting that which is wrong and encouraging the princesses under her care to be all that they can be. The Fairy High Command sometimes finds her enthusiasm and methods to be a bit unorthodox, but they can’t deny the good that she does for Herstoria and for princesses everywhere.
Preparing to Play
Before you can start playing, you’ll need to do some preparation. If you’re the FGM, you can do these yourself — or you can delegate out to your princesses! It good to be the FGM.
Print out copies of the character sheet; you need one per princess. You can download the character sheet from the Bold Pueblo Games web site at http://boldpueblo.com/iapp/
Take apart the coloring book into individual pages. If you’re lucky, the pages may already be perforated and easy to remove; otherwise, get out the scissors or a paper cutter. These become character portraits used — and colored in — by the princesses as they play IAPP.
Sort the deck of cards out into two stacks: Face cards (King, Queen, Jack, plus Ace) in one pile, and the other cards (Deuce through Ten) in the other pile. Shuffle each stack separately.
Decide who is going to be the FGM; everyone else gets to be a princess. If someone’s already played this game before, she might want to be the FGM; otherwise, choose by whatever method you like. Maybe the oldest, or youngest, or the one with the next upcoming birthday will play the FGM role — and next time, play a pretty princess!
Character Creation
Sidebar: The FGM’s role in character creation
When you’re the Fairy Godmother for a game of IAPP, you don’t have to create a princess character, but it’s your job to explain the concepts of the game to new princesses and help them fill out their character sheets. Distribute the character sheets, crayons, and portraits to the princesses and explain how they’re used; the “helpful advice” sections of these rules can give you some tips or ideas as well.
The first thing to do when you’re playing a pretty princess is to grab one of the character sheets — with the blank spaces at the top and a big fleur de lis in the middle. Don’t start filling it out yet, though!
Next, look through the pages from the coloring book, and choose a portrait. This doesn’t have to be exactly what your princess looks like! You’ll be coloring in this picture during game play — but don’t color it in yet, either!
Several princesses may be looking through the portrait pages at the same time. If two of you want the same page — or one wants the picture on the front, the other the one on the back — try to resolve it peacefully! If you can’t work it out, then either set that page aside and both of you pick a new portrait, or if you both agree, roll two dice and the higher roll gets to choose who will use the portrait.
You’re also going to need crayons for this game. Choose four colors that you like and remove them from the crayon box, and keep them in front of you for the rest of the game. These are your colors until the game is over. Make sure that they are contrasting colors — you’ll need to tell them apart. Sky blue, light blue, baby blue, and turquoise comprise a bad set; red, green, blue, and pink are much better. You’ll also want something that you’ll be able to read easily; light colors, especially yellow, may not be the best choice!
If you and other princesses find yourself fighting over the same crayons, use the methods described for resolving portrait conflicts — or get a bigger box of crayons!
Filling in the character sheet
Now that you’ve got everything you need — character sheet, portrait page, and crayons — you’re ready to begin! This is where you use your imagination and decide what your princess is like, while filling in the character sheet.
Take any of your crayons and on the first blank line, write in your princess’s name. You can write “Princess” before your name if you want, but you don’t have to. On the next blank line, write the name of the kingdom you come from, and on the third blank line, write the names or titles of one or both of your parents. Use whatever colors of crayons you want when filling in these blanks!
You can name yourself anything you like — well, except really rude words — and you can come from any kingdom you want, and you can name your parent or parents anything you like. You can be the daughter of a king, a queen, a president, two duchesses, an empress, or anyone else. It’s your story, after all! When you’re done, your character sheet will say “Princess-name of Kingdom-name, Daughter of Parent(s)” — such as “Tourmaline of Atlantia, Daughter of Queen Jasper.”
Next, you’re going to complete your fleur de lis — symbol of your fairy godmother — using your four crayons. There are three petals and one crossbar; beside each one is a die symbol. You’re going to fill in the blank spaces — including the middle part of the crossbar — with one word describing your princess, with each word written with a different color of crayon.
Think a little about what your princess is like. What’s her personality? How does she solve problems? What kind of life does she lead? Does she have any special pets?
The four words you can use are all adjectives — words that fit in the sentence “I’m a _____ princess!” — such as “silly,” “grumpy,” “clever,” “mermaid,” “disguised,” or “lonely.” There are two exceptions: You can also write “Pet” or “Pony”, even though those don’t fit the normal pattern. After all, most princesses love having ponies or cute animal companions, right?
Also, you can’t write the word “pretty” or any other word that means pretty (such as “beautiful”). Why? Because we already assume you’re playing a pretty princess! All princesses in this game are pretty; “I’m an Ugly Peasant” is a completely different game, and you probably wouldn’t want to play that anyway.
You’ve probably already noticed there are dice symbols next to each part of the fleur de lis; put your favorite of the four words in the center petal, next to the 4 symbol. You’ll learn about how to use the dice later in the rules.
In the upper right-hand corner of the character sheet, there are three crowns. Those represent your special Pretty Princess power; leave them alone for now. Also, don’t start coloring your portrait either; that will be done during the game itself.
Starting the Story
Sidebar: The Rituals of this Game
You don’t have to follow this suggested language for telling your story; you can adapt the game to fit your group’s playing style. If this is less fun for you, go ahead and try something else — but keep in mind that the point of these ritual-like phrases is to invoke a particular feel and mindset. You can also paraphrase or change any details you wish!
Once the princesses have filled in their character sheets, you’re ready to play. The FGM begins the story, as all good stories begin, with:
“Once Upon A Time, there were three (or two, or four, or five, …) princesses, each one from a different kingdom.”
Then, each princess introduces herself — in third person, usually:
“Princess Tourmaline was from the kingdom of Atlantia, where she lived with her mother, Queen Jasper. Tourmaline was a stubborn princess, a sneaky princess, a clever princess, and a brave princess. Oh, and she was also a very pretty princess.”
Once the princesses have all been introduced, the FGM continues:
“And each of these princesses had the same fairy godmother, Fleur de Lis, who gave each one a magical birthmark that showed they were under her guidance. Then one day, Fleur de Lis needed some help with a problem, and so she gathered all of her charges together, and…”
(to be continued)
The Bold Game Chef 
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