Prince Valiant: The Storytelling Game
by Greg Stafford, Harold Foster
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Book Summary Information
Author: Greg Stafford, Harold FosterEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1989-06
ISBN: 0933635508
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Chaosium
Book Reviews of Prince Valiant: The Storytelling Game
Book Review: By far, the most underrated RPG of all time.
Summary: 5 Stars
At the time of it's printing in 1989, Prince Valiant was a nifty, light game in a heavy-gamed RPG world. Even though it was penned by the legendary Greg Stafford, it failed miserably. If one could ever equivocate a game failing to a tragedy, Prince Valiant's failure would be it.
Most everyone who sees a copy realizes that it is about 10 years ahead of it's time. It has innovations within that were not redone for several years thereafter. I'm reitorating because it bears repeating. It was also a complete game in one book, 128 pages. And that's a good thing, because Prince Valiant never saw a supplement.
As there is no product description here, I will try to summarize:
The Setting of the Prince Valiant RPG is of the wonderful Hal Foster comic of the same name, that being a King Arther/Knights of the Round setting (low/no magic). The Players usually play knights as characters, though other options are made open in the Advanced Characters chapter.
The game system uses coins instead of dice, heads were figured as "successes" and tails as "not successes". The stats are Brawn, being everything physical, and Presence, being everything else. Skills add to the core ratings of Brawn and Presence, making it a "dice pool" system without the dice part.
Now, a few glimpses into the text:
There is a several page long Example of Play where everything goes wrong for the GM, and the players run amok over his plot ideas. It's the only time I've ever seen that happen in the Example of Play in a core RPG, before or since. It's both funny and rings true with most experienced GMs.
The "Storyteller Certificate" was (probably) the first time a player was allowed to make use GM Fiat in a RPG. It has since become almost a cliche for RPGs to do such.
There are 20 adventure seeds in the back of the book, at least a page long each, which give a GM the understanding of what types/flavors of adventures he should use.
The Storytelling chapters actually give great advice on how to run Prince Valiant, with the goal of making the Players have fun (including the GM) with the game, rather than just set up opponents for the players to battle.
I'd have to say that this is probably the best RPG to teach children how to play RPGs, and when I have kids I'll teach them gaming with my copy.
With all these words I've written, I still don't feel I've done a good service in describing Prince Valiant. I simply don't possess the words to accurately describe it's greatness.
I recommend all roleplayers interested in simpler rules or teaching their kids to play RPGs to hunt down a copy of Prince Valiant immediately. If you don't like it, go to RPGnet and sell or trade it. People there will be interested in getting a copy, I guarantee it.
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