Long, long ago, there were stories about princes and princesses. In these stories, the princes took on a heroic and brave role, while the princesses were in distress. The princes had to rescue the princesses by freeing them from a tower, defeating their evil stepmother, or kissing them back to life. All fantasy. Fables. Nonsense. In reality, women are often victims too, but largely because the man does not take on such a heroic role, but rather a villainous one. It’s time for a more feminist fairy tale. One where the princesses take matters into their own hands. It’s time for the rebellious princesses of Rebel Princess.
In Rebel Princess, well-known fairy tale princesses like Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Mulan, and many other fairy tale princesses take matters into their own hands. As befits princesses, they celebrate a grand ball. Not just any ball, but a five-day party. Not to find a man, quite the opposite, the princes on white horses, the slimy charmers, are not even invited. The princesses have enough fun with themselves and other fairy tale characters, but unfortunately, the princes want to spoil the party and will try to infiltrate the ball to propose to the girls. The players take on the role of these rebellious princesses and must prevent marriage proposals in this fast-paced card game and remain single and independent after the party.
Rebel Princess takes place over five rounds, representing the five days of the grand ball. Each party night has a different theme, and thus each round has a special rule that turns each night upside down. Each round, players turn over a card with the rules for that round, and there are enough of these cards in the box to ensure that each game has a different course and each game is surprising. Every night, the princes try to enter the ballroom again. Players play a number of tricks but try to avoid winning tricks involving princes.
Rebel Princess is derived from the classic trick-taking game Hearts, but with a few twists. First, the basics: a trick-taking game is a game where each player plays a numbered card in a trick, according to one of the four suits in the game. This is the suit that other players must “follow.” If you cannot follow, you may play a card of your choice. Players may not initially lead with princes, but once a prince has entered the ballroom earlier in the round (a player has played a prince because they could not follow the chosen suit), all princes may enter the ballroom.
The player with the highest number of the suit that started the trick takes all the cards from that trick – but this is not necessarily good in this game, as players want to avoid taking cards with princely charms, each bringing one marriage proposal, except for the enchanted frog, which brings even five proposals. The player with the fewest marriage proposals after five rounds wins.
In addition to the special rules per round, each player has a unique princess with a unique power that they may use once per round. With the unique powers, players can try to turn the game to their advantage. Hearts is a classic that still plays very smoothly, but these twists turn the game positively upside down. The special rules make each game unique, dynamic, and challenging. The strong mechanism, the cheerful theme, and the delightful illustrations make for an infectious card game.
