Roux Dat #68: Rebel Princess (Happily Never After) and Ready Set Bet

What a weekend. My son is getting married, and his brother wanted to do something different for the bachelor party. So, he surprised him with a trip to Broken Bow, complete with fishing, golf, and pickle ball, with ten of my son’s closest friends. 

Plus, he invited me and all of the uncles, too, and I was put in charge of just one thing: bring the board games.

I am used to this request. It sends me to that familiar scurry around the Gumbo Pot, trying to find the perfect games for such a big group with a varied level of gaming knowledge. 

Two of the games I settled on were big hits, luckily for me. But they illustrated a point about teaching games that I think is important when you are playing with family or friends who are not as well-versed in gaming rules as your regular game night buds. 

I love, love, love Rebel Princesses. My original copy is the version from Zombi Paella, which is basically a card game as the princesses and round rules are all the same medium. But, I also have access to the new Deluxe Edition, published by Bézier Games. 

What’s different about the Deluxe Edition? As the publisher says: 
-Two new Princesses and six new Round cards
-Princess cards upgraded to thick punchboard tiles
-Round cards upgraded to Tarot-sized cards with rules text on each card
-Balance tweaks to existing rules, rounds, and princesses
-A new “Rebel of the Ball” mechanism to allow players to catch up if they are falling too far behind

But, you also get access to the new Happily Never After expansion, which is supposedly not compatible with the original game. It is a small wallet sized expansion that comes with two more princesses, six more round cards, and an extra scorepad. The reason it doesn’t really fit with the Zombi Paella edition is that the round cards and princesses would be hard to randomize, since the original edition was just regular sized cards and these new ones are either cardboard or larger sized. 

Here’s the thing. The guys we played with are very familiar with trick-taking games — we grew up on Bourré and Hearts and Spades. So, teaching them that part of the game just involved explaining what was the lead card and whether you had to follow or play better. But they do not have a lot of experience with games that break the normal rules of the game, and Rebel Princesses does it twice. 

So, using tried-and-true methods I have seen other teachers like Paul Grogan use, I explained that we were going to play a trick-taking game based on Hearts. They started nodding their heads. I showed them the round card and said this is what cards we would trade. I explained the theme of the game and how it was integrated into the card art and suits. And then I explained that the princes won’t come into the ball until someone is able to invite them in. 

Then we played a round. At the end, I handed each player a princess and went over their player rules. And then we finished the game. It was easy — Rebel Princesses, even with the new expansion, is an easy teach especially for players that already know the basics of trick-taking.

The same thing happened with our very next game, Ready Set Bet. 

Ready Set Bet is one of my favorite betting style games, sort of an advanced Camel Cup (without the fun but chaotic elements from that game involving the stacking camels.) The host runs a race with horses based on frenetic dice rolls using 2d6. In real time, players can throw their betting chips down on the different bets — mostly bets about which horse will win, place, and show. 

The betting chips are multipliers, and some of the slots have costs, so tension is created right away especially as the horses near the “no more bets” line. Plus, there are incentives for the horses with low probability numbers like two and twelve, because if they do happen to get rolled twice in a row, they get big boosts down the track. 

It’s super simple, and the guys got the high level overview right away. I knew that we would just play the first round with the basic set up, and it worked. After the first race happened, and the bets were cleared, I introduced the VIP cards which gave them each special player powers. I explained the different powers to help them make a choice, and I added one special prop bet from the deck (again with an explanation) and then we race the race again, with no problems.

Then, after that race, I added more prop bets and VIP cards, with another race with no problems. In the final race, I added the Exotic bets, the ones that multiple players can bet on that have wild requirements. By this time, the players were old hands at the game and easily understood the risks and rewards of the Exotic bets. 

I would only use this method with gamers new to the hobby, and each of the players remarked how easy it was just learning a rule or two each round. It was a very successful night of gaming! 

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler! 
— BJ from Board Game Gumbo