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ljwritesMy husband and I are going through a Pride and Prejudice kick. It started with pitching in to fund the card game based on the novel, Marrying Mr. Darcy. When the funding for the game was successful and we got our PDF version, I printed out the sheets on cardstock paper and cut the printouts into cards. (It now occurs to me shelling out for overseas shipping might have been a better use of resources, but what's done is done.)
MMD is a game where the main female characters of Pride and Prejudice compete with each other to become the most accomplished and happiest woman. The final points come from two main sources: The first is character points in stats like Beauty, Wit, and Reputation, which are accumulated by drawing and playing character cards. The second is marriage points (or, if you end up with no one, Old Maid points) with different suitors offering different bonuses. Elizabeth's highest-ranked suitor is Mr. Darcy and Jane's is Mr. Bingley, as expected, but there are some surprises in there like aggressive Darcy-pursuer Caroline Bingley's highest-ranked suitor actually being Colonel Fitzwilliam, or Lydia Bennet's best suitor actually being Mr. Denny. Cunning and Dowry offer advantages in-game--you get a wider range of suitors, for instance--but do not count toward the final tally.
We had a total blast with the game, playing four games yesterday in which the following events went down:
Game 1: Elizabeth married Mr. Darcy and Caroline Bingley married Colonel Fitzwilliam. Evidently Miss Bingley's affections wandered from Darcy after Lady Catherine chewed her out when I drew the "Stubborn, Headstrong Girl!" card. That was fine with me, since Caroline actually gets one more point from marrying Fitzwilliam than Darcy, and ultimately won the game with more character points. This was the first of my three victories against Husband.
Game 2: In a match-off between Lydia and Mary Bennet, Lydia fittingly ended up with the dreaded Elopement card where she lost all her Reputation and Wickam ended up her only suitor. Her Dowry wasn't high enough for them to be automatically engaged at the Proposal Stage, however, and he would only propose when a six-sided die came up 5 or 6. This did not happen and Lydia rolled for Old Maid points, which came up reasonably well resulting in a resentful uncle (the lawyer from the book?) and cheerful cousins taking her in for 8 points.
If she'd gotten just one higher on the die she would have become a celebrated author.
The real surprise was Mary, however. I was totally angling for Mr. Collins, Mary's highest-ranked suitor. In the course of playing I ended up drawing the surprise proposal card where Mr. Darcy proposed to Mary (!) out of the blue. If I'd kept the card it would have been worth an automatic marriage to Darcy for 9 marriage points, but I turned him down in the hopes of Mr. Collins and his 12 marriage points. I failed to rack up the 2 Beauty necessary to get Collins interested, however, but did end up playing a buttload of Wit cards, enough for the 5 Wit points Mr. Darcy required before he considered proposing (again). In the end Mary ended up "settling" for Darcy for the 10 points he gave plus her accumulated character points. Victory #2!
She looks thrilled to have him.
Game 3: In another sister-to-sister matchup, I played Lydia with the intention of setting her up with Denny, her highest-ranked suitor, while Mark played Kitty, whose ability to use discarded Event cards turned out to be pretty neat. Kitty did well but failed all her proposal rolls to become an Old Maid, while Lydia never got enough Friendliness cards to interest Denny and ended up with... Darcy for my third victory in a row. Mr. Darcy was turning out to be surprisingly attainable, since the 5 Wit points he required for proposal were often easier to acquire than getting 2 in multiple stats like Beauty or Friendliness like some of the other suitors wanted. Maybe the cards weren't shuffled thoroughly enough or something.
Game 4: This time Husband picked Jane while I played Georgiana. Jane played incredibly viciously, knocking out all my highest character cards while racking up her own. And then Georgiana drew the dreaded Elopement! card for automatic betrothal and marriage with Wickam, since her dowry was natively high enough for him to propose even without enhancements. This actually wasn't too terrible for Georgie game-wise, since Wickam is her second-ranked suitor after Colonel Fitzwilliam (whom I'd had my sights on, but became impossible after the elopement trashed my Reputation). Nevertheless, the loss of so many character cards plus Jane's ending up with her first-choice suitor Bingley meant Husband got his first victory over me. Drat!
The verdict: We both had a lot of fun with the games, but after four two-person games we agreed they'd probably be more fun with more people. With only two people we only got to play half the Event cards, and with no one else to play against, characters who have no conflict of interest (like, say, Jane and Georgiana) ended up at each others' throats. With more characters and alliances as well as rivalries, plus some scene setup and roleplaying to match the Event cards, I think we could end up having even more fun.
And of course, we'll totally be playing the zombie expansion pack after reading the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book. Which is lying on the table next to the Pride and Prejudice BBC miniseries DVD. DON"T YOU JUDGE US WE'RE ACTUALLY WELL-ADJUSTED AND MATURE ADULTS OKAY
MMD is a game where the main female characters of Pride and Prejudice compete with each other to become the most accomplished and happiest woman. The final points come from two main sources: The first is character points in stats like Beauty, Wit, and Reputation, which are accumulated by drawing and playing character cards. The second is marriage points (or, if you end up with no one, Old Maid points) with different suitors offering different bonuses. Elizabeth's highest-ranked suitor is Mr. Darcy and Jane's is Mr. Bingley, as expected, but there are some surprises in there like aggressive Darcy-pursuer Caroline Bingley's highest-ranked suitor actually being Colonel Fitzwilliam, or Lydia Bennet's best suitor actually being Mr. Denny. Cunning and Dowry offer advantages in-game--you get a wider range of suitors, for instance--but do not count toward the final tally.
We had a total blast with the game, playing four games yesterday in which the following events went down:
Game 1: Elizabeth married Mr. Darcy and Caroline Bingley married Colonel Fitzwilliam. Evidently Miss Bingley's affections wandered from Darcy after Lady Catherine chewed her out when I drew the "Stubborn, Headstrong Girl!" card. That was fine with me, since Caroline actually gets one more point from marrying Fitzwilliam than Darcy, and ultimately won the game with more character points. This was the first of my three victories against Husband.
Game 2: In a match-off between Lydia and Mary Bennet, Lydia fittingly ended up with the dreaded Elopement card where she lost all her Reputation and Wickam ended up her only suitor. Her Dowry wasn't high enough for them to be automatically engaged at the Proposal Stage, however, and he would only propose when a six-sided die came up 5 or 6. This did not happen and Lydia rolled for Old Maid points, which came up reasonably well resulting in a resentful uncle (the lawyer from the book?) and cheerful cousins taking her in for 8 points.
If she'd gotten just one higher on the die she would have become a celebrated author.
The real surprise was Mary, however. I was totally angling for Mr. Collins, Mary's highest-ranked suitor. In the course of playing I ended up drawing the surprise proposal card where Mr. Darcy proposed to Mary (!) out of the blue. If I'd kept the card it would have been worth an automatic marriage to Darcy for 9 marriage points, but I turned him down in the hopes of Mr. Collins and his 12 marriage points. I failed to rack up the 2 Beauty necessary to get Collins interested, however, but did end up playing a buttload of Wit cards, enough for the 5 Wit points Mr. Darcy required before he considered proposing (again). In the end Mary ended up "settling" for Darcy for the 10 points he gave plus her accumulated character points. Victory #2!
She looks thrilled to have him.
Game 3: In another sister-to-sister matchup, I played Lydia with the intention of setting her up with Denny, her highest-ranked suitor, while Mark played Kitty, whose ability to use discarded Event cards turned out to be pretty neat. Kitty did well but failed all her proposal rolls to become an Old Maid, while Lydia never got enough Friendliness cards to interest Denny and ended up with... Darcy for my third victory in a row. Mr. Darcy was turning out to be surprisingly attainable, since the 5 Wit points he required for proposal were often easier to acquire than getting 2 in multiple stats like Beauty or Friendliness like some of the other suitors wanted. Maybe the cards weren't shuffled thoroughly enough or something.
Game 4: This time Husband picked Jane while I played Georgiana. Jane played incredibly viciously, knocking out all my highest character cards while racking up her own. And then Georgiana drew the dreaded Elopement! card for automatic betrothal and marriage with Wickam, since her dowry was natively high enough for him to propose even without enhancements. This actually wasn't too terrible for Georgie game-wise, since Wickam is her second-ranked suitor after Colonel Fitzwilliam (whom I'd had my sights on, but became impossible after the elopement trashed my Reputation). Nevertheless, the loss of so many character cards plus Jane's ending up with her first-choice suitor Bingley meant Husband got his first victory over me. Drat!
The verdict: We both had a lot of fun with the games, but after four two-person games we agreed they'd probably be more fun with more people. With only two people we only got to play half the Event cards, and with no one else to play against, characters who have no conflict of interest (like, say, Jane and Georgiana) ended up at each others' throats. With more characters and alliances as well as rivalries, plus some scene setup and roleplaying to match the Event cards, I think we could end up having even more fun.
And of course, we'll totally be playing the zombie expansion pack after reading the Pride and Prejudice and Zombies book. Which is lying on the table next to the Pride and Prejudice BBC miniseries DVD. DON"T YOU JUDGE US WE'RE ACTUALLY WELL-ADJUSTED AND MATURE ADULTS OKAY
