Prince Valiant® Storytelling Game by Greg Stafford
Created by Nocturnal Media
An elegant RPG by Greg Stafford for players both young & old based on the thrilling stories & gorgeous artwork by Hal Foster.
Also available: Path of Chivalry, a new deck of Storypath Cards; Once Upon a Time in Camelot, a Prince Valiant-themed edition of the acclaimed OUAT storytelling card game; and King Arthur Edition 5.2, a comprehensively corrected update to Edition 5.1 featuring the artwork from the recent Spanish translation of KAP.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Magic and Monsters in Prince Valiant®
over 7 years ago
– Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 05:43:49 PM
The Basic Game of Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game suggests that players play knights in their first game. The Advanced Game offers additional occupations such as squires, monks, hunters and merchants as well as a number of advanced skills, such as disguise, lore and stealth. No where in either set of rules are there wizards, and while the monks may be skilled orators, they don't possess magical healing.
To clarify, here's text from the game titled...
Magic and Monsters
The supernatural exists in the Prince Valiant comic alongside the pseudo-supernatural, which includes all phenomena not understood by the medieval mind but known to us today, as well as outright fakery (stone monsters, false troll fangs). the inhabitants of the medieval world had little education or scientific information to go on, so superstitious terror and belief in magic were a part of life.
In the comic, Morgan le Fay has very real abilities to summon otherworldly, nightmare monsters to her aid. The implication of the strip is that these are demonic creatures summoned from Hell, for they cannot cross the barrier of a crucifix hung across the road. They never physically harm anyone, as if they are manifestations of evil dreams which cause mental and psychic illness.
On occasion, magic works in dramatic fashion. The awesome magician Belsatan desperately wanted his wife back, and whisked her from the saddle of a horse many miles away (10-3-41) after performing a ceremony of tremendous power.
Some apparently magical events are never quite explained. Is Prince Valiant truly cursed by the hag Horrit, as he thinks? Or is he only subject to the plight of all mankind, as indicated by Merlin? What power locks Val and Aleta into their immutable love bond, apparently stronger than any curse?
Most mysterious events, however, are pseudo-supernatural. Merlin the Magician continually lectures Val on the subject. Most of the magician's skills are based on scientific knowledge rather than mumbo jumbo. Yet, as the duel with Morgan le Fey shows, Merlin is capable of his share of real magic.
Storytellers must determine how much magic will exist in their campaign. Always reserve the right to use both real and pseudo-supernatural creatures, spells, and charms. Consistency is not necessarily absolute: fake magicians would certainly exist in a realm where real magicians thrived. Surprise the players with a real troll after they encounter several fakes. Of course, a real troll might simply be a person with a frightening disease, such as elephantiasis, rather than a magical being. The “giant" Val encounters in one adventure is a perfect example of this point.
In any case, the existence of powerful magic ought to be a rare and unusual event, concentrated in the hands of specialists like Morgan le Fay and Merlin the Magician. Note that there is no magical skill available in the Adventurer creation process. This ensures that only you, the Storyteller, have access to effective magic in the game, should you want it.
Prince Valiant encounters several real monsters during his travels. His earliest days were spent fighting giant turtles, alligators, and prehistoric reptiles which lived in the great marsh of his youthful upbringing. Hal Foster has said that he originally intended that Val's setting be full of the fantastic, but the story more or less controlled itself and steered away from that line.
Nonetheless, most of the inhabitants of Val's world accept the existence of monsters as unusual but possible. In several stories monsters or demons appear to terrorize the countryside and cause trouble to man and beast. Valiant's healthy skepticism and lack of superstition, fostered by Merlin's teaching, gives him a confidence against these fears which most people, even knights, do not have. Invariably he discovers it to be a human masquerading as something worse. Often he fights fire with fire, disguising himself as a demon or witch to terrify the masqueraders.
Most of the people in the world are very gullible and superstitious. Barbarians are very prone to panic at the sight of the apparently supernatural. For instance, take the sequence concerning the Goths who were panicked by the sight of a dragon in the mists, unknowing that it was a mere sculpture made by a clever and highly gifted monk.
The Storyteller should determine how real monsters are in his campaign. As with other supernatural events, the line may be crossed back and forth with different stories. The existence of both real and fake trolls, for instance, will keep Adventurers cautious until they determine whether the monster can be defeated by simple force of arms, as in the case of fake trolls, or whether they must resort to trickery. Trickery is the only solution against magical monsters which are too tough to combat directly.
Remember that the comic shows many animals in a larger size than these species are normally found during the present day (see Update #1). This is an enjoyable way to create monsters that are natural, yet terrifying. Crocodiles, gorillas, giant squids, octopi, and elephants are all incredibly huge in the comic, with greater excitement and drama the result. Remember that some of these animals actually can grow to such massive size, the octopus for example (although such monsters are rare indeed today).
We'll have to wait and see if Ed Greenwood takes me up on my suggestion that his stretch goal scenario should involve such an octopus!
New Stretch Goal List
over 7 years ago
– Thu, Aug 18, 2016 at 08:41:16 AM
I’ve just announced the talented John Harper as the stretch goal author at $30,000. Like many of the writers and designers on this list, John reports being a fan of the original edition of Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game and/or the Prince Valiant® comic strip, so it will be a pleasure to add his scenario to the new edition.
We’re still not even halfway through the project, but I’ve been busy contacting more authors to see if they’d like to contribute and I now have a list brimming with awesome. So instead of revealing the stretch goal authors one-by-one, I’ve made a schedule. I’ve also created special groups of authors at the $40k, $50 and $60k funding amounts. Instead of adding a single author at these levels, there’s a group of authors! I may even add to these lists if I hear back from other authors.
I’ll introduce the each person more individually as we achieve the stretch goals involving them. For now, I give you this list of amazing people:
$40,000 —Indie RPG Designers: Bret Gillan (The Final Girl), Sage LaTorra (Dungeon World) and Epidiah Ravachol (Dread, Worlds Without Master)
$42,500 — James Lowder (novelist & editor)
$45,00 — Jeff Grubb (Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms)
$47,500 — Chris Klug (DragonQuest, James Bond RPG)
$50,000 —White Wolf Alumni: Justin Achilli (Vampire: The Masquerade), Bill Bridges (Werewolf: The Apocalypse), Phil Brucato (Mage: The Ascension), Richard Dansky (Wraith: The Oblivion), Will Hindmarch (Vampire: The Masquerade), Ethan Skemp (Werewolf: The Apocalypse). And my partner in creating the entire World of Darkness, Mark Rein•Hagen.
$52,500 — Jeff Barber (Blue Planet, Midnight)
$55,000 — Steve Sechi (Talislanta)
$60,000 —King Arthur Pendragon Authors: David Larkins (Book of Feasts), Robert Schroeder (Book of Sires), Malcolm Wolter (Book of Records), and of course Greg Stafford!
$60,000+ — ??. Can we go this high? If we approach this level, then I’ll get in touch with more authors. Virtually everyone I’ve contacted has been anxious to write for this new edition of Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game.
Thanks everyone for your great support. Will you please take a moment to post a link to our Facebook posting about the game, or otherwise share the project with your friends? The more support we receive the more free bonus scenarios we can include from these outstanding writers and designers.
Feast of an Update
almost 8 years ago
– Thu, Aug 04, 2016 at 12:28:39 AM
This is a really meaty update with lots of great information and links, so get your finger bowls ready and prepare to feast!
First, I discovered that Fantagraphics Books offers the first ten strips of the Prince Valiant® comic strip as a free PDF.
Foster’s artwork in these early strips is still developing, but his storytelling is already in great evidence as we see Val before he embarks for Camelot.
Next, as I write, we’re pushing toward adding Robin Laws as a stretch goal author. Robin is obviously a superb game designer (his Hillfolk RPG is a Bundle of Holding offering for a few more days), but I’m especially pleased to include him in the new edition because he’s been a huge champion of Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game. You see, Robin opted to write about PV in his essay for 100 Best Family Games (edited by Jim Lowder, a pending stretch goal author!) and published by Green Ronin Publishing (also represented in the stretch goals by Chris Pramas and Nicole Lindroos!).
Here’s Robin’s conclusion: “The solid structure of Prince Valiant: The Storytelling Game provides the ideal platform for the family gamer to introduce his or her brood to the joys of role-playing. This is only fitting, as lead designer Greg Stafford’s love of storytelling in general and the classic strips of Hal Foster shines through on every infectious page.”
Along the same lines, pending stretch goal author Shannon Appelcline (Designers & Dragons) wrote an essay in the earlier 100 Best Hobby Games about King Arthur Pendragon. My thanks to Shannon and again to Chris for permission to make that essay available too. It’s a great introduction to KAP.
Before concluding that the edition of KAP that I published at White Wolf is “the most perfect embodiment of this brilliant game” (thanks, Shannon!), he wrote:
“King Arthur Pendragon could be lauded as a top RPG solely based upon the innovation it brought to the industry. Its concentration on epic storytelling and its traits mechanic were both notable and original when the game was released in1985. However, even today, Pendragon remains vital. It provides a picture-perfect model of literary knighthood and, through its well-crafted and well-considered design, effortlessly conjures its theme — so successfully, in fact, that few other publishers in the last 20 years have even tried to bring another Arthurian roleplaying game to market. You just can’t improve on perfection.”
The two books containing these essays are excellent reading and I highly recommend them. I asked Chris Pramas if if Green Ronin would extend a discount to backers interested and he obliged with these coupon links for a 25% discount. Just click of the title to activate the discount on DriveThruRPG.com:
[You can also read my gushing essay about Ars Magica in the 100 Best Hobby Games book.]
Another link is one that I mentioned in the project comments, but have failed to highlight elsewhere. There’s an older King Arthur Pendragon product called Book of Knights that provides an overview of the game system in KAP. It’s more relevant for the 4th edition of the game, but the essence of it is still useful for those who are new to KAP.
For the duration of this project, Book of Knights is available as free download on the Nocturnal Media website.
Finally, I’m pleased to announce more authors who have agreed to write stretch goal scenarios:
John Harper is the creator of Lady Blackbird (available as a free download) and the highly-anticipated Blades in the Dark.
Sage LaTorra is the co-author of the acclaimed Dungeon World.
And more are pending, so please continue to share the project so we can get scenarios by all these amazing designers into the new edition!
Stretch Goal Update
almost 8 years ago
– Wed, Aug 03, 2016 at 03:52:45 PM
Thank you, everyone, for the continuing support. Thanks to you spreading the news, we continue to knock down stretch goals and add more Episodes to the new edition. Each of these scenarios is written by a notable author or designer in our game hobby.
At $20,000, you've added a piece by Chris Pramas, a versatile author and designer who has contributed to or created countless games, including the recent Dragon Age RPG. Next up is John Wick who recently set Kickstarter on fire with his 7th Sea RPG. I should note that Nocturnal Media will soon have a hand in 7th Sea as we've started to design a 7th Sea video game.
I also did not give proper introduction to two other authors, Monica Valentinelli and John Nephew. Monica was the lead designer on the much-loved Firefly RPG and she writes a lot for my friends at Onyx Path Publishing. John has been in roleplaying for a long time. He was a freelancer for the original Dragon Magazine, had a hand in Ars Magica as a part of Lion Rampant, and now publishes Ars Magica and a number of other great products as his Atlas Games.
Here's the complete list of authors with work added to the new rulebook:
$7500 = Rick Meints (Chaosium, Inc.)
$10,000 = Kenneth Hite (Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents)
$12,500 = Cam Banks (Marvel Heroic Roleplaying)
$15,000 = Monica Valentinelli (Firefly)
$17,500 = John Nephew (Atlas Games)
$20,000 = Chris Pramas (Green Ronin Publishing)
$22,500 (PENDING) = John Wick (7th Sea)
We have a number of great authors forthcoming and add one every $2500. Here are the ones currently awaiting more stretch goals: Shannon Appelcline (Designers & Dragons), Bret Gillan (The Final Girl), BJ Hensley (Playground Adventures), Robin Laws (Feng Shui, Hillfolk), Nicole Lindroos (Green Ronin Publishing), James Lowder (novelist & editor) and Epidiah Ravachol (Dread, Worlds Without Master).
$12,500 Stretch Goal = Cam Banks
almost 8 years ago
– Sat, Jul 30, 2016 at 04:18:49 AM
We're still surging and overnight passed the $10,000 goal to add an Episode by Ken Hite. Next up at $12,500 is Cam Banks, RPG Director at Atlas Games, publisher of a game very close to my heart, Ars Magica. Cam is celebrated for the Cortex Plus game system and his design of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. He's a huge King Arthur Pendragon fan, and I'm pleased that he'll contribute to another Arthurian game by Greg Stafford.
Ars Magica meets Prince Valiant® The Storytelling Game!
