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  1
  The Princess Game
  This is a game about a little girl.
  The only little girl in the whole wide world.
  The only person there is, really.
  This is a game about her dreams and her imagina-
  tion, about make-believe and magic, and the world 
  of stories. But mostly it’s about the girl.
  You play different parts of her — her love, her 
  fear, her curiosity, and more. Together with her 
  Imagination, you go out to see what there is in 
  the world, and invent some of it yourself.
  
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  Parts to Play
  You’ll need at least four people to play this game, 
  but not more than seven. The first four people 
  decide who gets to be...
  * Love
  * Curiosity
  * Fear
  * Imagination
  Love makes the girl want to help and talk to other 
  people. Love is what makes her create the world 
  and the people in it.
  Curiosity makes her want to investigate. The little 
  girl wants to know everything and meet everyone.
  Fear makes her want to run away. When she’s 
  scared, she has to find a different way to do 
  things. The person who plays Fear has a tough 
  job, because we don’t always want to be afraid, 
  but sometimes it happens.
  Imagination has the biggest job: making the world. 
  The person who gets to be Imagination tells ev-
  eryone else what the rest of the world looks like, 
  what the people in it are doing, and how they act. 
  Imagination has to be very descriptive without 
  using too many words, and sometimes has to say 
  mean things — because sometimes scary things 
  happen to the girl. But in the end, she won’t be 
  afraid forever, so it’ll be ok.
  
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  If there are more people who want to play, they 
  can pick one of these to be:
  * The Companion
  * The Toy
  * Responsibility
  The Companion is the girl’s BEST FRIEND EVER. 
  It could be her kid brother or sister, a cat or a 
  dog, a teddy bear, or even some kind of magic fairy. 
  The companion gives the girl advice and helps her 
  when things are hard.
  The Toy is magical and powerful and wonderful, 
  and everyone wants to play with it. Sometimes 
  the girl gets bored with the Toy, though. If you 
  have someone who wants to play, but can’t stay 
  for the whole game, they can be the Toy.
  Responsibility is what makes the girl help even 
  the people she doesn’t want to love. It’s yucky 
  and sometimes it’s no fun, but I’ll tell you a 
  secret: it’s what makes little girls into big girls.
  Once you know who’s playing what, you can turn 
  the page.
  
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  Now We Can Start
  Now that everyone has a part to play, we can 
  start the game.
  We talk in a special way when we play this game. 
  Every time Love, Curiosity, or Fear talks, they 
  pretend they’re the little girl talking to herself, 
  because she does that a lot. The Companion and 
  the Toy can talk for themselves, though some-
  times the Toy can’t talk. Responsibility talks like 
  the girl’s mother, telling her what she has to do 
  even if she doesn’t like it. Imagination talks like 
  someone reading a book to the girl, one of the 
  big kind with pretty stories but without many 
  pictures.
  The girl’s Imagination starts by describing a place. 
  It can be any kind of place, anywhere at all. Since 
  this is a fantasy kind of game, it might help to 
  have a fantasy kind of place, like a castle or an 
  enchanted forest or the middle of the night sky.
  Everyone listens carefully, because when they 
  hear something that fits their part, they think 
  out loud about it. Curiosity starts first, then 
  Love, then Fear. If there are other people, they 
  have to wait for right now — they can talk later.
  If the Imagination talks about a beautiful green 
  forest with an old cottage near a stream...
  ... Curiosity might say, “I wonder who lives in 
  that house,” or, “I wonder if there’s a wood-
  
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  5
  chopper out back,” or even, “I wonder whether 
  there are talking fish in that stream.” Curiosity 
  makes the first move, you see?
  And then Love might say, “Oh, how old and run-
  down that house is! Let me help them make it 
  better,” or, “I have to keep the woodchopper 
  from cutting down the whole forest,” or even, 
  “Don’t worry little fish! I’ll make sure no one 
  catches you!” The little girl wants to do things 
  because of Love.
  But then Fear talks, and Fear might say, “But how 
  could I do that when I don’t know how to build 
  a house?” or, “But the woodchopper is so big 
  and scary!” or even, “But fish are gross and icky 
  and I’m afraid of them!” Fear talks about what 
  makes things hard for the girl.
  Finally, Imagination gets to bring in the first 
  Character. A Character is a person or a creature 
  or even a magic spirit. In this story, it might be 
  an old lady who lives in the cottage, or the big 
  ogre woodchopper, or the king of the fish. What 
  makes Characters special is that they can talk to 
  the girl, even though they’re just made-up parts 
  of her imagination. (Did we mention she thinks 
  out loud a lot?) And from that first Character 
  will come the rest of the game, and many more 
  places and Characters, until the story comes to 
  an end.
  How does it go from here? Just turn the page...
  
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  Talking to People
  This game is all about the girl talking to Charac-
  ters. Every Character, from the first one to the 
  last one, is part of the adventure.
  The girl is still very young, and needs help often. 
  Any character could help her, but each of them 
  needs something in return. She’ll go from one 
  person to another, asking for help, getting more 
  things to do before she can fix what needs to be 
  fixed. However, eventually, she will find someone 
  who needs just what she has. Maybe it’s a hand 
  crossing the street, or a kiss on the cheek, or a 
  little piece of her hair to remember her by. That 
  person will help the girl help the last Character, 
  who helps the one before that, and eventually the 
  original problem will be solved!
  The Imagination talks for all the Characters. 
  Usually there’s just one or two around at a time. 
  The Imagination tries to use the Character’s 
  voice and do things that Character would do. 
  When the girl talks, the different parts of her 
  can’t talk all at once — that would sound silly! 
  Instead, they have to take turns. Everyone will 
  get some pennies, and when you spend a penny, 
  you get a short turn at talking for the girl. (If 
  you don’t have pennies, you can use other things, 
  like buttons or toy blocks. We’ll tell you how 
  many you get later on.)
  
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  7
  The first part of the girl that talks is always the 
  part that the Character brings out. Some Char-
  acters bring out Love, some bring out Fear, some 
  bring out Curiosity. That part of the girl talks to 
  the Imagination, and they have a conversation, as 
  if they were the girl and the Character.
  If a different player wants to have the girl say 
  something, or even just make the girl think hard 
  about something, they pay a penny. Once everyone 
  is done talking, and no one wants to use any more 
  pennies, figure out who spent the most pennies. 
  That person “led the conversation,” and gets to 
  describe what the girl does next. If there’s a tie, 
  the kind of Character it was is who wins.
  If Love led the conversation, the girl gets the 
  Character to help, in exchange for something. 
  Love gets to say what help the girl asks for, but 
  Imagination (speaking for the Character) says 
  what the girl has to do in return.
  If Curiosity led the conversation, the girl asked 
  too many questions! The Character is insulted, 
  or tired of talking to her. The girl will find out 
  what needs to be done next (and Curiosity gets 
  to say what that is), but the Character won’t 
  help.
  If Fear led the conversation, the girl has to run 
  away. She can’t talk to this person any more, and 
  has to find a different way to do things. Fear 
  describes the girl running away, and where she 
  runs to. Imagination says who she finds there.
  
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  The Companion, Toy, and Responsibility talk in 
  special cases. 
  The Companion only talks after you find out who 
  led the conversation. If the Companion doesn’t 
  like what happened, he or she pays TWO pen-
  nies to make things go differently. The Companion 
  might talk to the girl and change her mind, or talk 
  to Characters and convince them to help, or even 
  just refuse to run away, making the girl turn 
  around and stay instead of running in fear. The 
  Companion doesn’t get many pennies, but they’re 
  very powerful pennies. Remember: TWO pennies.
  The Toy doesn’t talk, but can give pennies to 
  other people, saying how the Toy helps. The Toy 
  has a BIG stack of pennies in the beginning of 
  the game, but doesn’t get any more later on — 
  once people are tired of the Toy, it doesn’t work 
  any more.
  Responsibility has a special role. When the girl 
  meets someone that she really should help, but 
  she doesn’t, Responsibility can spend TWO pen-
  nies to step in. Responsibility talks to the rest 
  of the girl and makes her help, even if she doesn’t 
  love that person. Like the Companion, Responsi-
  bility doesn’t get very many pennies, but is very 
  powerful when she speaks. Remember: TWO.
  
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  9
  Exploring Her World
  The girl often travels from one part of the world 
  to another. The Imagination always decides who 
  the girl runs into, but other parts of her can 
  decide where to go. 
  The part of the girl who led the conversation can 
  decide where the girl goes — whether it’s into a 
  forest, or up a mountain, or across a huge des-
  ert. Because the girl is a magical princess, she 
  can go anywhere, even up into the sky. 
  If the last leader doesn’t know where to go next, 
  the Imagination takes over, as the girl wanders 
  across the world of her creation, looking for 
  someone who might help.
  No matter where she goes, what matters most is 
  who the girl talks to. The things she wants can 
  only be found from other people.
  
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  Numbers and Stuff
  Here’s how many pennies everyone gets to use.
  At the beginning of each game, give out this many 
  pennies to each person:
  * Give Love, Fear and Curiosity five pennies 
  each.
  * The Companion and Responsibility get 
  two pennies each.
  * The Toy gets 30 pennies.
  * Imagination doesn’t need pennies.
  At the beginning of each Conversation, give out 
  this many pennies to each person:
  * Love, Fear and Curiosity get three more 
  pennies each.
  * The Companion and Responsibility get 
  one more penny each.
  * The Toy doesn’t get any more pennies. 
  When the game starts, the Toy gets 30 
  pennies, but no more.
  Everyone but Imagination spends one penny every 
  time they talk.
  Everyone keeps any pennies that they don’t spend, 
  until the end of the game.
  
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  Secrets
  Here are some secrets for playing this game.
  You don’t want to spend all your pennies ev-
  ery time. Because you can’t win every time, you 
  should save your pennies for the times when you 
  think it’s more important.
  Here’s a Secret for the Imagination: Characters 
  should always have something to do with what 
  happened at the start of the game, even if it’s 
  only a little bit.
  You can never lose the game — the fun comes 
  from pretending to be the girl, and talking to the 
  different Characters.
  The game is all about starting with one sort 
  of Character, and realizing that they’re different 
  from how they looked at first. This will happen 
  a lot.
  Every Character is an important person. A lot of 
  them are kings and queens, princes and princesses, 
  but even the ones who aren’t are very important.
  The little girl can’t hurt anyone, except with her 
  words. Even if she is very cross, she can only yell 
  at someone or storm off.
  I think the little girl might be a little lonely.
  
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  People, Places, Things
  Characters who are unusual, funny, or interest-
  ing bring out Curiosity. If you talk to them long 
  enough, they could become either loveable or 
  scary, but if you ask too many questions they’ll 
  stop talking to you.
  Characters who are creepy, scary-looking, or who 
  act mean create Fear. If the girl overcomes her 
  fear, some of these are really good people, or are 
  just misunderstood. However, if she stays afraid 
  of them, she has to go away from them.
  Characters that are cuddly, beautiful, or sad 
  bring out Love. Characters who love the girl back 
  will help her, but sometimes even people you love 
  turn out to be scary or weird in the end.
  Here’s a list of Characters you might want to 
  use. It’s just their names; you get to make up 
  more about them.
  STRANGE Characters
  The Storm Crow  
  Father Time
  Grandfather Clock 
  The Old Mariner
  The Schooleroo  
  The Hopping Flock 
  The Fisher Boy 
   
  The Clock King
  The Sporting Lad  
  The Turtle Queen
  Pibbitybop the Gnome King
  The Captain of the Toy Soldiers
  
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  SCARY Characters
  The Great Dragon  
  Grandmother Ogre
  The Three Trolls  
  The Spider Queen
  The Scorpion Horde 
  Slug Colony Four
  The Fire Breather  
  The Night People
  Lord Elk 
   
   
  The Beast
  LOVEABLE Characters
  The Phoenix Queen 
  The Nameless Prince
  The Princess of Stars The Whale King
  The Singer of Stones 
  The Silver Unicorn
  Piggy Bear 
   
   
  Green Maia
  Lady Ermine  
   
  The Butterfly Woman
  The Sad Loon 
   
  Here are some places the girl might go:
  The Jungle of Danger 
  The Dark Forest
  The Starlit Realm  
  Fairy Village
  Gnome Home 
   
  The Lantern Court
  The Misty Mountains 
  The High Seas
  Beyond the Stars  
  The Unicorn Forest
  Here are some toys she might carry:
  The Robe of Feathers The Wand of Stars
  The Vanishing Cloak 
  Grandmother’s Scarf
  A Paper Lantern 
   
  A Singing Sword
  An Umbrella  
   
  A Heart Ring 
  The Girl’s Secret Diary 
  The Wicked Witch’s Amulet
  The Good Witch’s Broom
  
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  A Taste of a Game
  Starting the Game:
  Imagination: I bet there’s a place where you can 
  swim forever, with mermaids and seahorses. It 
  has castles made from snail shells -
  Curiosity: And look at them with their pretty 
  spirals! I wonder who lives in there?
  Love: It’s a lot of people, who need more homes! 
  I could help them find another shell.
  Fear: But the shells are SO BIG. A snail that big 
  could eat me right up...
  The First Character:
  I: Along comes the Queen of the Mermen! She’s 
  green all over, with weird squiggles on her arms 
  and legs, and bubbles come up when she talks. 
  She says, “Oh, if only...”
  C (spends a penny): “If only what?”
  I: “If only we had a shell for our people, so 
  they could have somewhere to live!”
  L (spends a penny): “I can find one for you!”
  F (spends a penny): But should I? She’s a little 
  creepy...
  C (spends a penny): Yeah, what’s with those 
  squiggles?
  (No one else spends a penny. Curiosity wins.)
  C: “Hey, what are those squiggles?” I asked, and 
  she said I’m not cool enough to know! So now 
  I’m going to the Snail Trails to get a really big 
  shell to show her how cool I am. The Snail 
  Trails are underwater, on a huge rock, with hun-
  dreds of ‘em everywhere!
  
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  The Second Character
  I: Along comes a Gigantic Snail! It’s huge and 
  slimy and gross! It has big feelers and it’s look-
  ing right at the girl, saying, “What are you doin’ 
  here?”
  F (spends a penny): “AHHHHHHH!”
  L (spends a penny): Maybe he’s not so bad? Maybe 
  he’s so strong he doesn’t even need his shell?
  F (spends a penny): No, he’s ferocious and hor-
  rible and I d-d-don’t want to be here!
  (No one else spends a penny. Fear wins.)
  F: She swims swims swims away as fast as she 
  can! She goes into a little hole in the sand nearby 
  to hide until the Giant Snail can’t find her.
  The Third Character
  I: Eventually, inside the hole, she sees two lights 
  floating around. They turn out to be the eyes of 
  a huge Hermit Crab, hiding in the hole. He stares 
  at the girl silently, moving his big pinchers back 
  and forth.
  F (spends a penny): Oh no... it’s worse than the 
  snail...
  L (spends a penny): But he’s hiding too. “Hey, 
  Mister Crab. Why are you hiding?”
  I: “I’ts Miss Crab, and I’m hiding because I’m 
  about to change my shell.”
  C (spends a penny): “Why?”
  I: “I’m getting older and bigger, and I’m going 
  to need a new shell because this one’s getting 
  smaller. Oh, if only I knew where one was...
  L (spends a penny): “I know! I know! Miss Crab, 
  I can show you where there’s a really big shell, 
  but there’s a catch...”
  
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  16
  The Last Page
  My name is Colin Fredericks, and I wrote this 
  while thinking about the Childlike Empress and 
  the Never-Ending Story. I made the background 
  and did the layout on my Macintosh. The font is 
  Dakota Handwriting, with the titles in Harrington. 
  I found the little girl pictures on iStockArt.
  com, and she was drawn by KOSON.
  Thank you for reading my game! I hope you enjoy 
  it and play it with lots of people.
  http://www.valentgames.com/
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Collections/Kid Friendly/The Princess Game/PrincessGame lowink.pdf