Print and Play Delux – Barbarian Prince
I recently downloaded and played a solo game from the early 80’s called Barbarian Prince. This game has its roots firmly in the age when fantasy gaming was king and solo gaming had mass appeal. The fighting fantasy books from Steve Jackson games opening up a world of interactive reading to everyone and computer games like the Hobbit were changing the way we played games on our own.
The premise of the game is that you are a Prince to the Kingdom who has been kidnapped to be killed and have to win your kigdom back by accumilating enough gold to buy back the throne.
You play the game in days. Each day starts with you selecting an action such as travelling to a new hex on the map. Depending on the action selected, you will be referred to a chart, where you roll one or two dice. The dice roll and chart may then indicate a special event section, which you then resolve. After all events (if any) are resolved for your daily action, you must then eat your main (evening) meal, and if in a town, castle, or temple hex, you must also purchase lodging.
This ends the day, and you continue play with the start of the next day, where you select another action, etc. The game continues until either you are killed, or 70 days (10 weeks) elapse. If you haven’t won after 70 days, the game is automatically lost!
Many events may lead to fighting, You may also have additional characters join your “party.” These additional characters are especially useful in fights, although some may have special knowledge or abilities useful in certain events. Magicians, wizards, witches, priests and monks are especially useful people to have in your party.
It is by far the most difficult game to win I have ever played, I now just measure how many weeks I have survived or the amount of Gold I have accumilated. After 10 plays I have not won and I challenge anyone to win a single game. So why play you ask? Well my answer is “The challenge” I wont stop playing this game till I do, and while I am trying I love how the story of your Prince develops.
Her are some pictures of the pimped up version of the print and play components I created. I decided to back the board with Foam Core and mount the tables on cardboard. I also bound the books using plastic folders with transparent covers. I use a miniature for my Prince and wooden euro cubes from my game of Pandemic to record hit pojn ts, rations, skills and money. I finaly mounted the colour counter sheets on plastic card.
Let me know if you like what I have done, if anyone is interested I will bring down the club and have a barbarian prince challenge all commers welcome, the winner will be measured by who can get the furthest or finish quickest.
Main components and my counter container with random encounter ruins table shown
Character sheet with coloured boxes for rations, gold time and a closeup of the map board with combat tracker sheet on the left.
Closeup of the combat tracker sheet for controlling upto 7 opponents and the tray I keep my items and additional party member counters in
Closeup of the Ruins random encounter table and the character and followers sheets
Finally the character sheet were you use cubes to track all the Princes stats and belongings
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