Well I’m still not quite sure what’s the best language to use in this blog, so I’ll do the next best thing and (if time allows) publish my entries in english and german. This time it’s about  aproduct I stumbled about by chance when looking for opportunities  to spend my money 😀

Chris A. Fields „Adventurer Princesses“ is a curious product, which made me a bit hesitant at first, but in the end, curiosity won.

The strangeness begins with the cover illustration, a manga-style princess in a blue ball gown and a golden crown on her head, which seems to fit in a grimm-style fairy tale but doesn’t seem too adventurous. I’m not too wrong with this interpretation but we’ll come back to that. The layout of the product is fine with and while I not particularly like all of the interior illustrations that’s certainly a matter of taste and it doesn’t take away from the product in any way.

The Strangeness continues with the categorization of the Adventurer Princess as a race (instead of a class as I had assumed first). So the product starts on the first three pages of this 16-page product with a description of the background of this „race“. Princesses typically aren’t of noble blood but most often maidens from the common folk who excel with courage, charisma and leadership abilities. And while they are humanoids with the human subtype, they have different racial traits; the have their own ability modifiers, start with an animal friend who functions like a wizard’s familiar, can choose between different skills they get bonuses for, and they get a 3x/day spell-like ability as a bard of the same level.

There are also some alternative racial traits offered, for example the Foreign Princess which enables you to play a non-human adventurer princess, or the Modern Princess to use in a modern setting (immediately Lara Croft comes to mind). For Xena-style characters, there is the Warrior Princess. Other alternatives modify the spell-like ability, the skill choices and look interesting and playable as well.

Next three pages are filled with 19 base character traits. For combat traits, we have the Air Princess (fly as class skill with +1 bonus on skill checks), the Dragon Slayer (bonus against dragon-type monsters) which I really like for how it plays with the normal stereotypes. The Duell Princess gets a magical one-hand weapon from the start and the Tomboy gets bonuses when competing with men (see my criticism at the end of the review).

With the magic traits we’ll finally land in the realms of Grimm fairy tales I alluded to at the start. Animal Helper makes Cinderella’s doves (or other animals) help with the daily chores and the Fairy-woven Finery obviously comes from the same source (the ball gown even changes back to normal at midnight), while the Little animated Buddy seems inspired by the Disney version of Beauty and the beast (I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want a two-legged candelabra as companion – or better yet- an animated snowman). The Ball-gown Parachute does exactly, what he says and the Elemental Birth Sign increases the damage of elemental spell damage. At last, there’s the Princess countersong, which enhances the respective bard’s class feature.

The social traits encompass the Centre of Courtly Life, the Fairest of them All (Mirror, Mirror…), the Orphan Princess (free Courtier’s Outfit), the Rat Princess (which prefers Intimidate over Diplomacy) and the Student of History, who gets bonuses on Knowledge (nobility) and Knowledge (history).

Finally, there are racial traits like the Fairie’s Blessing (Little Briar Rose says hello), the mysterious Night’s Princess (gets low-light vision) and the Sibling’s Bond which creates an especially narrow bond between Little Brother and Little Sister. This trait seems mechanically problematic, because it relates to the psion’s sense link ability which is known from 3.5 but has no official equivalent in Pathfinder. Now we have the Dreamscarred version, but as there’s no entry in the OGL section 15 and as this version not quite equals it’s predecessor, I assume that the author rather meant the older version. I guess one could easily adapt the Binder’s sense link ability but if so, that should be clarified in the text.

Now let’s return to the fairie tales realm with the racial feat Fairie Coach functioning like Disney’s Cinderella version (even transforming the animal friend into two coach horses). It gets even better at level 10 when you get two winged coach horses instead which enable the coach to soar through the air. The second racial feat, the Noble Equipage is a bit more down to earth and may be inspired by Joan of Arc. It’s mainly chivalric equipment you get (including a war horse or pony).

And then, there’s five and a half pages full of magic items. I won’t go into detail too much, but it’s 3 armors, 3 weapons and 10 wondrous items, some of them also inspired by Grimms‘ Fairie Tales. For example, there’s the Applewood Bow bestowing resistance bonuses against poisons, or the Princess‘ basket preparing fine meals from the raw ingredients put within. Another item, the Farie Dust, gold certainly takes its inspiration from Peter Pan (and I let you guess what it does 😉 )

Conclusion: I’m still not sure what to make out of this product. I can see the advantage in making the Adventure Princess a race rather than a class, because it enables the author to take inspiration from diverse sources; still, most members of this group are of human stock, so the concept doesn’t quite fit into this mechanic. Another thing is about the definition of this „race“. There’s basically no need for a category including extraordinary women in a game, which already defines an adventurer as an extraordinary person and makes it quite clear that men and women are absolutely equal in game terms. Which would make every female adventurer to an Adventurer Princess.

This said, I still like the product. I don’t think that children are it’s main target group but I guess that the fairie tale elements are perfect to introduce them into the game. I can easily imagine my daughter wanting to play an Adventurer Princess inspired by Frozen’s Elsa (especially if she is allowed to use an animated snowman as familiar). But even for me as a male adult, who likes to play female characters, the product contains quite some ideas to use in my own games. I mean; what’s not to love about Xena, Joan of Arc or Lara Croft inspired characters.

And even if you don’t like the Adventure Princess as a race (or even as a concept), the product still contains 16 pages full of rules material to use or be inspired from in your own game, and that for a real fair price. So 3 of 5 stars, because you still get useful material even if I have my doubts about the concept. Should you even like the concept, than add another star to my rating.