I have always been a fan of The Princess Bride, both the book and movie, so when Game Salute announced that a series of games based off of this wonderful story were being made, I enthusiastically followed every bit of information I could find about it. Last month, we told you about the first of these games, Prepare to Die!, had hit Kickstarter, and the project was funded within 2 days. Well on its way to being mass-produced, we were lucky enough to get a preview sample pack of the game to give a test run. Prepare to Die! is a funny, refreshing card game that takes the silliest of combinations and challenges players to passionately justify these crazy reasons for vengeance.
What Was Inside
The Princess Bride : Prepare To Die! Preview Sample Pack came with rules for a few formats. We received 25 Hello My Name Is cards, and 25 Prepare To Die cards. The card quality even before a successful funding is high, so I feel that will set a good tone for the official game publication. The cards are clear and legible with a healthy serving of variation in subject among them.
How To Play
There are three game modes to play the game with. These modes are Hello!, You… , and The Full Montoya. In all formats, players draw 3 of the indicated card type (except The Full Montoya, where you draw 3 of each card type). Whenever a card is played, that player draws that card type to keep the full hand specified by the format they are playing.
Both Hello! and You… formats play out similarly. In Hello!, each player takes three Prepare To Die cards. A player is chosen as judge, and flips a Hello My Name Is card and places it on the table. The other players then choose their best Prepare To Die card to go along with the chosen character and place them face down. The judge shuffles the cards and chooses which card completes the phrase in the best way. The player who placed the winning card gets the Hello My Name Is card, and the first player to 3 “won” cards is the winner. In You… , the game plays out the same way, except players keep a hand of Hello My Name Is cards, and the judge is flipping a Prepare To Die card.
The Full Montoya employs the same basic concepts, but each player draws 3 of both Hello My Name Is and Prepare To Die cards. The rules state that the judge can declare a personal preference for the combination they want, whether it be “funniest”, “most logical”, etc, but is not required. All players but the judge choose one of each card type from their hand to play. The judge shuffles all of the cards turned in and chooses the best combination. The player or players who threw in the winning cards get to put those cards into their score piles.
Our Thoughts
In our sample games, we played until we ran out of cards and counted points at that time to determine a winner. My personal favorite is The Full Montoya, and my prediction is that most players will be playing with this format most frequently, though for quicker games, both Hello! And You… will come in handy. This game was easy to learn with simple and clear instructions and comes out to the table quickly. The game gave us quite a few laughs, and I believe will be a fun party game or something light to play in between strenuous bigger games on tabletop nights. Winning combinations that climbed our favorites lists included
Hello, my name is Wil Wheaton. You hypnotized my wallaby. Prepare to die!
Hello, my name is Michael Jackson. You cultivated my cumquat. Prepare to die!
Hello, my name is Katara of the Water Tribe. You quaffed my potion. Prepare to die!
Other Things You Should Know!
With the successful funding of The Princess Bride : Prepare To Die, you have until June 18th to back their Kickstarter to get the game for a $30 pledge. With that, you will get the full game which includes hundreds of cards and clear rule sheets on the various game formats. Something to note as well is that with the growing funding, additional cards are being made based off of fan suggestions which will be included for those that back their current project. If a light, fun party game is something you and your gaming group or family are interested in, this should be on your radar for future purchases!