For The Queen Review - She Has Always Been Your Dearest Friend...What Do You Do?

hey I'm Alex rack from board Gameco and today I'm reviewing for the Queen by darington press this is the game designed by Alex Roberts and this is actually a second edition of that game it's a redone by Derek impress it got some nice little uh magnetic class box I believe there's redone art and the basic idea is this is a roleplaying game in a box the idea and we'll walk you through it right now because honestly it's easy enough to give you the whole entire experience in a very short demo well not the whole experience but a sample of what the experience would be but the basic idea is you have a question over here the queen is under attack what do you do now that question gets shuffled up into the deck where you place it depends on how long you want the game I'm going to leave off to the side because well I want it accessible for what I'm doing over here we have a little bit of a note of the various artists behind the various Queens because we have this little thing over here we have the X Card which is basically a way of any player saying they don't want to engage with any particular question which is fair and we have the rules things over here this is the rule book over here you're going to go ahead and read through these cards one at a time and it's just going to give you the rules just straight out of time what you do what's going on you're all around the table because the queen chose you to be here because she loves you and you she knows you love her and all those things and then a few different rules as far as how the game actually operates it's 17 cards with rules in them very simple straightforward from there you're going to go ahead and choose a queen technically this is part of the rules you go through all these different Illustrated Queens there's no game difference between them they might drive your actions in some way but they're double doublesided cards different art we're going to go ahead and choose that Queen now I will say in this game you will have a slightly different spin or perspective of how you choose to answer Things based on what queen you choose some questions might not matter some might be answered very differently if you dealing with you know this older queen versus this younger queen that might alter your experience as far as how you engage with certain questions but for right now we're going to keep that older Queen over here we're going to put this here this is our Queen and then players are going to take turns answering questions from this deck of cards I'm actually going to shuffle it up because I don't know if it's been shuffled my last place so let's give it a little bit of a shuffle and we'll go ahead and just answer questions now again remember this is a role playing game there's no real mechanics to it past building a story and a narrative and eventually concluding with the question the queen is under attack what do you do which all players can answer but let's go ahe and start off and I as one of the players one of the various members of the uh group around the table I'll answer this question this journey isn't just about diplomatic negotiations what else do you suspect is going on and why this is where the players have a chance to start drafting their own Narrative of what's going on why are you here what's happening build the story as you go because all games are going to end with this single question the queen is under attack what do you do but what happens and how you answer this question is going to change depending on the questions and the stories that have been built up by you and the other players around the table as you engage with these story cards so again this journey isn't just about diplomatic negotiations what else do you suspect is going on and why well frankly I think the queen has actually been uh trying to fight a revolution underground for a long time there's been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the Empire with the kingdom and I think the queen is not just here to gather us around but she's is worried about which one of us are on her side which one of us aren't which of us are aligned with the allegiance of the people who are upset about the way the kingdom is R is run versus which of us are actually true loyalists to the queen now by the way I answer that question by the story I crafted as I go I've not just def some of my relationship with the queen but I've also put thoughts into the minds of the other players around the table now they have this Narrative of what's Happening players around the table are starting to mentally shift are they for the loyalist are they for the queen are they against the kingdom what's going on here players are going to start adjusting their own stories based on not just their own answers but on yours let's have another player answer another question the next question goes some would that say the queen is not your queen why do you serve her anyway see this actually feeds nicely into what I just said and that will happen as you play this game as you play through this game you'll get these interesting questions that feed off of things that already happened that was completely random the way those cards follow each other Shuffle this up just completely random but you will have those kinds of things some would say the queen is not your queen why do you serve anyway might be answered very differently if I hadn't just given the own answer I gave well go that some would say the queen is not your queen why do you serve her anyway and another player might answer you know they go ahead and say well you know despite the fact that the kingdom has not always been run the way I want despite the fact that not everything is happy and despite the fact that not all people seem to be thrilled with the Queen's rule she's always been someone who helped and guided me and mentored me she's always been someone who looked out for me even as not everything is run perfectly but I acknowledge that it's hard to run a country it's hard to be a leader and so I'm not satis IED with everything going on but she's always had my best interest at heart and it's hard not to take that into account when I think of my relationship with her when I think of my relationship to the kingdom okay next question when was the last time the queen gave you a compliment and why have her rewards stayed with you now this is where depending on the player account you're going to have you know I think it's a two to six player game if I'm not mistaken two to six players depending on the player account you're going to have different players and by the way I don't see a reason you can't play the solo I think it would be less interesting because the The Narrative won't be crafted by the other players just by you but I think you could play the solo if you wanted but let's pretend we're playing a three player game so it's a third player now when was the last time the queen gave you a compliment and why have herward stayed with you now this could be a pivotal moment this person this third person at the table might choose to go with last week and or the alternatively it might be four years ago let's go with the four years ago honestly I can't remember the last time the queen paid me a compliment I I remember that she drafted me into her service years ago and we became close early on but I feel like it's been forever since she actually appreciated me I feel like it might have been 7 years ago and I don't think it was that big a deal in of itself but the reason the word stuck with me was because it was 7 years ago she thanked me for a job well done but since then I feel she's taken others more into her confidence left me a bit by the wayside and it could be because I've been critical of some of the ways she runs the kingdom but I I have her best interests at heart I just don't agree with everything she's doing but it's been so long it's been so very long since she played me a compliment go back to that first player and we'll do one or two more of these and then we'll go to the card we have another one over here how can people tell just by looking at you that you serve the queen do you mind it being so obvious I wear her colors I wear her colors with pride she is a true leader of this country she has done everything she can she has suffered through the death of multiple husbands she has raised children some who have been been murdered and the you have been killed in pursuit of defending the country she is tried and true and again this is where it's interesting this is where you have different cards where you know having a young little Queen like this over here versus this queen will affect the way you perceive the answers that's why these art the art does matter to an extent I don't know if we need all of them but the art matters to an extent so she's had her children killed in defense of the country she she is a little jaded that makes sense but she has always looked out for the kingdom above all you cannot make everyone happy that's just the way countries are run but for me is so clear that she has sacrificed her blood her sweat her toil her family for for this country L said no I don't mind it being obvious I wear her colors with pride now this is where the players all going to go around depending how long you play the game you might go through half the cards two-thirds of the cards if you want a short game maybe a third of the cards but you will go through a bunch of the cards and they all craft a story that all plays off everything that's being done by the players as you go the way you answer a card is going to be different depending on the story that's been crafted by yourself and others as you play through it and then eventually in the deck you'll hit this card the queen is under attack do you defend her and that's where all players have a chance to answer this this this penultimate question or I guess not penultimate it's the ultimate question is the the end question of everything players have a chance to engage in the answer the queen is under attack do you defend defend her so for the first player the first play I sit there and say of course I defend her it is ridiculous and and and and horrifying that the people of this country have turned up against turned against her despite everything she has done to build a safer more prosperous kingdom if they can't see what she has sacrificed if they can't see what she has done that is on them of course I Rise to her defense she deserves to be here she belongs here and she has given up everything for this Kingdom the people who don't see that are ungrateful maybe the third player who is most discontent might answer no while once upon a time I respected the queen well once upon a time I I believed in everything she was doing it's clear that years and years of making hard decision it's clear that years and years of making decisions that prioritize some over others even though it's meant for the good of the kingdom and even though I believe her intent is Noble it has jaded her it has changed her and has been for the kingdom has done the kingdom a disservice I respect everything she has done but it's hard as much as it pains me to say this she's not the queen I once served she's not the queen I grew to love she's now A A A Remnant and a a a symbol an emblem of a civilization that needs to change and as much as it hurts me and as much as I won't lift my own sword against her I won't defend her I think it's in the Kingdom's best interests if she's no longer the queen that's for the queen that is how you play for the Queen the general idea of for the queen is there a bunch of questions being asked a whole stack full of questions each crafting a bit of a story each giving the other players a chance to answer to build a story to build a narrative together at the table to go through a role play experience and then to eventually answer the question the queen is under attack do you defend her that's the game that's how it plays let's talk about riew first of all production wise and this won't follow my usual sequence my usual format but I won't go into the whole what I like don't like and See's not liking I'll say ease of play incredible 17 tiny little rule cards I mean the the text on this is huge so you have like a bunch of cards to go through half of them are still flavor Texs it's an incredibly easy game to get up and running uh it can run a little long especially if you play a longer game like you can play a short game of this and maybe half an hour but it takes time to build that story and you don't want to rush people I mean I went through four questions and I I could have gone more and more into it this is a question this is a game that can take time small form factor relatively affordable price point easy to learn but it can run a little longer especially if you're playing a middle or longer game as far as my overall opinion of the game and this is where it's basically just going to go into straight into opinion because frankly this isn't the game for me this is a very much an RPG game it's a game that's all about the story being told it's all about crafting a narrative and I appreciate that to a degree but I don't I don't think that's my go-to genre I like mechanics above all else I can lean into the role playing I can even this game this game is actually a good idea because both things are true this is not a game for me this is not a game I'll be keeping and this is not the kind of experience I'll play I also also think it's a very good experience for what it's trying to do I have some small nitpicks we'll get into shortly but uh I think it's a very good experience for what it's trying to do I think it crafts a I think it it allows the players to craft a story to build off what other players are doing if you're looking for that kind of story prompt uh basically what is it called again improv if you're looking for that improv story prompt kind of game I think this does a great job and I think that one of the things I find fascinating is how differently the same cards will be answered depending on how previous story elements were built around the table so there's a lot of gameplay in this box despite the same ending question every single time there is a lot of gameplay in this box that is intriguing uh so so overall I think this is a very welldone game that allows players who want that RPG feel to engage in it and to bring out those RPG elements if you are someone who's trying to get your group or your friends into RPGs I think this is a good starting off point for me it's still ultimately RPG above all else there's no gameplay mechanics this is all about crafting that story and as as much as I appreciate it that's not what I'm here for it's not what I look for in games it's something that to me complement a set of mechanics but for me story on its own I prefer a book if it's just about the story if it's just about The Crafting of the story that's not why I'm here I don't mind story interwoven in mechanics but on its own it's not for me so I don't think for the queen is for me but I think it does do a good job at what it's trying to do for the target audience but you should know the target audience no mechanics pure 100% role playing as far as some small other nitpicks get get into I do wish there was more than one card I think that the story it's being crafted along the way is excellent but I wish there were more than one card you could come upon I wish there were like even even three or four cards that had a ultimate question at the end and you didn't know which was which one was coming and I wish that for two reasons I think there'd be more variety to the gam playay but more importantly it means that right now the players are all answering the questions knowing the card that's coming and I think that affects things I think that affects the story that you're telling uh the story could be different in different ways you could have a question of you know the queen approaches you I don't know to be her next husband she she wants to marry you I have no clue you could have different questions with drastically different ways that everything led up to that moment and I think I think it could go both ways I think if you players wanted to craft a story knowing which card is coming they can Shuffle that in and if they didn't they can shuffle a few cards in being uncertain which one is going to be the Game ending question so I wish there were more cards in the experience that would allow players to interact with the experience without knowing for sure exactly what's coming that's one complaint I also wish these cards look different by the way there's no difference between the way this card looks like the back should look the same obviously but make the front more obviously different so it stands out uh it's a little I wish you could just like riffle through these cards and just pull out the card and that would also help if you had more cards Al that's not relevant but yeah I wish the card would stand out a bit and then the last thing I'll note and this is obviously going to be group dependent but I think a lot of the cards especially if you're dealing with a younger Queen a more you know a younger queen or whatnot a lot of the cards can lend themselves to a degree of suggestive romantic talk or conversations that that have their own degree of entertainment or humor but I don't know if that necessarily was the experience like I mean I think that to to the game's credit it allows for a bit of an NSFW approach to it just by the players playing it but also I think some cards kind of lean that way in a weird way so again I'm not sure if that's a necessarily a complaint so much as a commentary uh this is a game that I've played and had serious conversations and development like you just saw and this is a game where you can start getting into um romantic interests based on the cards being present which again arguably I think would be interesting if you had different types of questions at the end of it but I think it feels a little bit out of place when you know the ultimate question is the queen is under attack do you defend her and so that's what we have over here for the queen uh rating wise I I don't know if I really want to rate this one again it's not I think that primarily because it's not my genre it's not my genre of games so strictly speaking according to my rating scale this would be a two out of five it's a game I'm not really interested in playing again it's not for me but I also think it is very good at what it's trying to do I think this is is an experience that I've enjoyed despite it not being my genre it's just not an experience I'm going to pull out because I want more mechanics heavy games so strict rating wise I think it' be a two out of five but I almost don't want to rate it because I think it's good for someone who's looking for an intro RPG experience I'm just not that person in any case and until next time I'm Alex rad from board Gameco I hope you found this review helpful and as always I hope you have a good one

Channel: BoardGameCo

Views: 1,190

Keywords: review

Id: Qc3INRPhZAg

Length: 14min 53sec (893 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2024