Post by Gilvan Blight on May 23, 2011 16:15:10 GMT -5
Quickly: Quite a bit of fun but needs the right players.
Summary:
The Bullwinkle and Rocky Roleplaying Party Game was released by TSR back in 1988 and was the first in a series of games that was meant to broaden the RPG market to non-gamers. It bombed, bad. So bad the other two games in the series (The Honeymooners and Days of their Lives (or was it All My Children, one of those daytime shows)) were cancelled and never saw the light of day. From what I was able to gather online sales were so bad that TSR started giving the game away as gifts and prizes and even then had a hard time finding people to take it. Due to this the game is pretty rare. I didn't even know it existed until I saw it pop up on a generic RPG search I did on eBay.
The game comes in a bright orange box that's the same size as the other TSR boxed set's of the late 80s. Inside we find three thin books, two diplomas, some Spinners, 108 cards, some character standees, a narrator standee and 10 hand puppets. Yes you read that right, hand puppets.
The three books are The Rules, the book of stories and a guide to Frostbite falls. The Rule book contains the rules for three styles of play. The book of stories gives summaries of a wide variety of Rocky and Bullwinkle stories including what characters are in each one, the start of the story, how it ended in the show and goals for the various groups of characters. The final book is a fluff book that explains a bit about the fictional location of Frostbite Falls as well as the characters. There is also an explanation of what all 108 cards are and what they represented in the show.
The Rules:
The rule book breaks the game down into three separate games. The Narration game, The Everyone Can Do Something Game and the Graduate Game.
The Narration game is a card game that is nearly identical to Fairy Tale by Atlas games. I actually wonder if the designer may have tried this game at one time. This is a story telling game in which the one player picks a story from the story book and read out loud the beginning of the story and the end. Each player is dealt 4 or 5 cards, depending on the number of players. Players get an option to swap out cards and then the player who read the intro continues the story by incorporating one of the cards in their hand and playing it. Once they have played a card the next player can interrupt at any time and continue the story, incorporating one of their cards and playing it. The game continues around the table with each person in turn continuing the story and playing cards trying to work the story towards the ending. Once all players are down to one card there is a final toss off to see who gets to finish off the story. The player who tosses first gets the honour and is considered to have 'won' the game. I put quotes on won as the goal is really to tell a good (well at least funny) story and it's encouraged that a player who has a good ending convince the other players to let them win the toss.
The Everyone Can Do Something Game is more like a traditional RPG. Players select a story just like the Narration game and get a hand of 5 cards. In addition each player selects a character and gets a standee for that character and grabs a spinner for their character. The player who picked the story also gets the Narrator Standee. Each character has a set of powers they can do. These are pretty much silly things based on the show. For example Bullwinkle gets Moose Muscles and Boris is The Master of Disguise. The Narrator also gets powers which let him swap out cards. The narrator acts like a Games Master and begins the story using the intro from the story book. Then she or he asks each character questions to find out what they are doing. The player asked then dictates what they want to do, this can be anything they want, a power from their standee or something based on a card in their hand. The narrator then can call for a spin if there is any doubt whether the action will succeed or fail (some powers and all card based plays are automatic). If the action is against another player they can respond with a card, power or action of their own and there is usually a spin off. The narrator then dictates the outcome based on the results of the spin. They can base the outcome on their imagination or they can use a card in their hand to determine what happens. Any time the narrator is able to play a card, the narrator standee moves to the next player and they become the narrator.
Interestingly you play The Everyone Can Do Something Game to win. Players are split up into teams based on the story being told and each team has a specific goal they have to achieve (also listed in the story book). To succeed at your goal one of the players on a team has to get the story to a point where they play their final card and win a spin on their spinner. If they pass they end the story and win the game. If they fail on the spin they must draw more cards.
The Graduate game I wouldn't actually call a game at all. It's just The Everyone Can Do Something Game with rules for making your own characters and some suggestions for making your own stories. The character generation rules are pretty lame, where you just spin on each spinner and if you win you pick one of the powers from a list. All of the powers are the ones the actual characters have. There are suggestions for making your own powers but no real hard and fast rules.
That's pretty much it. I was amused to see that the game did have a player based XP system in it. After each game (of any of the three types) the players award each other with diplomas. This is done as a group and appropriate rewards include Worst Pun, Best Story Finish, Best Characterizations etc. The group makes these up as they go with a few suggestions given in the book. These actually have an in game effect as well. When playing either mode besides the Narration game the players can 'trade in' two diplomas for a re-spin or five diplomas for an automatic success at whatever they are trying to do.
The Good:
Personally I thought this entire boxed set was just an awesome piece of collectible gaming history. It's silly, it's bright, it's garish and it comes with hand puppets! What I was really surprised by though was the fact that it was quite a bit of fun to play. The Narration game I actually enjoyed more then the much more modern Fairy Tale game. Something about the silliness of the settings and cards and knowing the ending you are going for ahead of time made the game work really well. The full on RPG of The Everybody Gets To Do Something game was also quite a bit of fun. I liked the RPG light feel of it and the mechanic of the ever changing Narrator was actually somewhat brilliant. Having a group of friends around talking in funny voices, wearing plastic hand puppets and trying to figure out the secret formula for rocket fuel was quite a bit of fun. The other thing I liked is that it was pretty quick. We were able to fit in 2 rounds of the narration game and play through two stories in RPG mode and still had time left in the night for a boardgame. That was a nice change compared to a 5 hour heavy rpg session.
The Bad:
The one thing that hurts this game is the fact the subject matter isn't really current. I don't think Rocky and Bullwinkle even shows up on stations like the Cartoon Network anymore. For the group we had play only I had recently watched the show (which I did online in prep for the game) and there were quite a few characters we didn't remember so well. None the less we had fun but everyone pretty much left saying that if we ever played again they would need to brush up on the show first.
I wasn't happy with the fact that the story book only really dealt with Rocky and Bullwinkle and Dudly Dooright stories. Things like Aesop and Son, Fractured Fairtales and Dr. Peabody are just glossed over with a few suggestions on making up stories for The Graduate Game. This seemed like a bit of a cop out to me. Actually the entire Graduate Game was disappointing. The character generation rules were lame and the suggestions for making up stories were pretty basic and common sense. I wouldn't call it a 'third way to play' at all.
The Ugly:
It has to be mentioned. The hand puppets are that thin plastic kind. After about 5 minutes of wearing them they get quite nasty and sweaty. If anything classifies as Ugly, it's the inside of those puppets after a session of play. Amusing gimmick but yuck.
The biggest problem this game has is that it needs the right kind of players. It needs a group that not only knows the shows pretty well but is good a telling a group story and coming up with that story off the top of their head. If you aren't into this kind of thing you will not enjoy this game. You probably won't 'get it' and you will probably adversely affect the game for the players that do 'get it'. During our play a couple days ago, we had one of these players. On the spot improvisation and storytelling just aren't his thing, and this game just did not go well for him and went less well for the rest of us due to that. Nothing against the player, he kicks my butt in Power Grid all the time, but this game just isn't for him or other players like him.
Overall:
Personally I'm still very happy to have found a copy of this true collectors item. I've even happier to find out that it's a rather fun game. It's not the best game I own by far, but it doesn't even come close to the worst. I was happy to find a rather good card game and a real RPG hidden in this box with plastic puppets. It's worth trying out sometime if you are familiar with the show and enjoy group storytelling. If you aren't one who is good at improve storytelling though stay away from this one. It's not for you. With the right group of people willing to laugh and wear a sweaty hand-puppet this can be great way to spend an evening.
Summary:
The Bullwinkle and Rocky Roleplaying Party Game was released by TSR back in 1988 and was the first in a series of games that was meant to broaden the RPG market to non-gamers. It bombed, bad. So bad the other two games in the series (The Honeymooners and Days of their Lives (or was it All My Children, one of those daytime shows)) were cancelled and never saw the light of day. From what I was able to gather online sales were so bad that TSR started giving the game away as gifts and prizes and even then had a hard time finding people to take it. Due to this the game is pretty rare. I didn't even know it existed until I saw it pop up on a generic RPG search I did on eBay.
The game comes in a bright orange box that's the same size as the other TSR boxed set's of the late 80s. Inside we find three thin books, two diplomas, some Spinners, 108 cards, some character standees, a narrator standee and 10 hand puppets. Yes you read that right, hand puppets.
The three books are The Rules, the book of stories and a guide to Frostbite falls. The Rule book contains the rules for three styles of play. The book of stories gives summaries of a wide variety of Rocky and Bullwinkle stories including what characters are in each one, the start of the story, how it ended in the show and goals for the various groups of characters. The final book is a fluff book that explains a bit about the fictional location of Frostbite Falls as well as the characters. There is also an explanation of what all 108 cards are and what they represented in the show.
The Rules:
The rule book breaks the game down into three separate games. The Narration game, The Everyone Can Do Something Game and the Graduate Game.
The Narration game is a card game that is nearly identical to Fairy Tale by Atlas games. I actually wonder if the designer may have tried this game at one time. This is a story telling game in which the one player picks a story from the story book and read out loud the beginning of the story and the end. Each player is dealt 4 or 5 cards, depending on the number of players. Players get an option to swap out cards and then the player who read the intro continues the story by incorporating one of the cards in their hand and playing it. Once they have played a card the next player can interrupt at any time and continue the story, incorporating one of their cards and playing it. The game continues around the table with each person in turn continuing the story and playing cards trying to work the story towards the ending. Once all players are down to one card there is a final toss off to see who gets to finish off the story. The player who tosses first gets the honour and is considered to have 'won' the game. I put quotes on won as the goal is really to tell a good (well at least funny) story and it's encouraged that a player who has a good ending convince the other players to let them win the toss.
The Everyone Can Do Something Game is more like a traditional RPG. Players select a story just like the Narration game and get a hand of 5 cards. In addition each player selects a character and gets a standee for that character and grabs a spinner for their character. The player who picked the story also gets the Narrator Standee. Each character has a set of powers they can do. These are pretty much silly things based on the show. For example Bullwinkle gets Moose Muscles and Boris is The Master of Disguise. The Narrator also gets powers which let him swap out cards. The narrator acts like a Games Master and begins the story using the intro from the story book. Then she or he asks each character questions to find out what they are doing. The player asked then dictates what they want to do, this can be anything they want, a power from their standee or something based on a card in their hand. The narrator then can call for a spin if there is any doubt whether the action will succeed or fail (some powers and all card based plays are automatic). If the action is against another player they can respond with a card, power or action of their own and there is usually a spin off. The narrator then dictates the outcome based on the results of the spin. They can base the outcome on their imagination or they can use a card in their hand to determine what happens. Any time the narrator is able to play a card, the narrator standee moves to the next player and they become the narrator.
Interestingly you play The Everyone Can Do Something Game to win. Players are split up into teams based on the story being told and each team has a specific goal they have to achieve (also listed in the story book). To succeed at your goal one of the players on a team has to get the story to a point where they play their final card and win a spin on their spinner. If they pass they end the story and win the game. If they fail on the spin they must draw more cards.
The Graduate game I wouldn't actually call a game at all. It's just The Everyone Can Do Something Game with rules for making your own characters and some suggestions for making your own stories. The character generation rules are pretty lame, where you just spin on each spinner and if you win you pick one of the powers from a list. All of the powers are the ones the actual characters have. There are suggestions for making your own powers but no real hard and fast rules.
That's pretty much it. I was amused to see that the game did have a player based XP system in it. After each game (of any of the three types) the players award each other with diplomas. This is done as a group and appropriate rewards include Worst Pun, Best Story Finish, Best Characterizations etc. The group makes these up as they go with a few suggestions given in the book. These actually have an in game effect as well. When playing either mode besides the Narration game the players can 'trade in' two diplomas for a re-spin or five diplomas for an automatic success at whatever they are trying to do.
The Good:
Personally I thought this entire boxed set was just an awesome piece of collectible gaming history. It's silly, it's bright, it's garish and it comes with hand puppets! What I was really surprised by though was the fact that it was quite a bit of fun to play. The Narration game I actually enjoyed more then the much more modern Fairy Tale game. Something about the silliness of the settings and cards and knowing the ending you are going for ahead of time made the game work really well. The full on RPG of The Everybody Gets To Do Something game was also quite a bit of fun. I liked the RPG light feel of it and the mechanic of the ever changing Narrator was actually somewhat brilliant. Having a group of friends around talking in funny voices, wearing plastic hand puppets and trying to figure out the secret formula for rocket fuel was quite a bit of fun. The other thing I liked is that it was pretty quick. We were able to fit in 2 rounds of the narration game and play through two stories in RPG mode and still had time left in the night for a boardgame. That was a nice change compared to a 5 hour heavy rpg session.
The Bad:
The one thing that hurts this game is the fact the subject matter isn't really current. I don't think Rocky and Bullwinkle even shows up on stations like the Cartoon Network anymore. For the group we had play only I had recently watched the show (which I did online in prep for the game) and there were quite a few characters we didn't remember so well. None the less we had fun but everyone pretty much left saying that if we ever played again they would need to brush up on the show first.
I wasn't happy with the fact that the story book only really dealt with Rocky and Bullwinkle and Dudly Dooright stories. Things like Aesop and Son, Fractured Fairtales and Dr. Peabody are just glossed over with a few suggestions on making up stories for The Graduate Game. This seemed like a bit of a cop out to me. Actually the entire Graduate Game was disappointing. The character generation rules were lame and the suggestions for making up stories were pretty basic and common sense. I wouldn't call it a 'third way to play' at all.
The Ugly:
It has to be mentioned. The hand puppets are that thin plastic kind. After about 5 minutes of wearing them they get quite nasty and sweaty. If anything classifies as Ugly, it's the inside of those puppets after a session of play. Amusing gimmick but yuck.
The biggest problem this game has is that it needs the right kind of players. It needs a group that not only knows the shows pretty well but is good a telling a group story and coming up with that story off the top of their head. If you aren't into this kind of thing you will not enjoy this game. You probably won't 'get it' and you will probably adversely affect the game for the players that do 'get it'. During our play a couple days ago, we had one of these players. On the spot improvisation and storytelling just aren't his thing, and this game just did not go well for him and went less well for the rest of us due to that. Nothing against the player, he kicks my butt in Power Grid all the time, but this game just isn't for him or other players like him.
Overall:
Personally I'm still very happy to have found a copy of this true collectors item. I've even happier to find out that it's a rather fun game. It's not the best game I own by far, but it doesn't even come close to the worst. I was happy to find a rather good card game and a real RPG hidden in this box with plastic puppets. It's worth trying out sometime if you are familiar with the show and enjoy group storytelling. If you aren't one who is good at improve storytelling though stay away from this one. It's not for you. With the right group of people willing to laugh and wear a sweaty hand-puppet this can be great way to spend an evening.