- by Jeremiah A few months ago we interviewed Dan Yarrington the man behind Game Salute, as well as the upcoming Princess Bride board game. While the details of the game are still coming together, Game Salute did send out a preview pack of cards for one of the many games that will fall under the umbrella of the Princess Bride experience: Prepare to Die.

The quickest way to describe the game is to say that it is an edgier, more geeked-up version of Apples to Apples. And when I say "geeked-up" I mean that some of the cards have some definite geeky influences. For example: Samus Aran, Wil Wheaton, and Princess Zelda. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Gameplay

Prepare to Die is more versatile than...that other game I mentioned earlier, as it can be played three different ways:

• Prepare to Die! You...
• Prepare to Die! Hello!
• Prepare to Die! The Full Montoya

There are two decks of cards, one set has backing art to resemble a name tag and on the face of the card it simply says, "Hello! My name is.. (insert name here)" The other set is the Prepare To Die deck, and those read "You, sank my battleship, Prepare to die!" (or "lip synced my hit single," or "put my princess in another castle"). In the first two variations of the game, players take turns being the judge for a round, and flip over a card (either a "Hello, my name is..." or a "Prepare to Die!" card, depending on the variation you are playing) and the rest of the players anonymously hand in a card, and the judge selects the best phrase.

In the Full Montoya version, players keep a hand of both types of cards, and the judge declares that the phrase should be the the funniest, most evil, most genre crossing, etc. Players then submit two cards and the judge picks two. These are mixed again so more than one player can score each round.

The final game will support up to 12 players, so it will surely be something to pull out for a larger gathering.

Pre-Final Thoughts

I was super excited to check out this preview of the game, but when I read the rules and quickly discovered it was similar to Apples to Apples, I have to say my expectations dropped quite a bit. I have played waaaayyy too much A-to-A in my life to get excited about this type of game.

But when I started leafing through the cards my interest was stirred again. They seem to be going down the road that most games of Apples to Apples could only dream of: getting a little more into the sub-culture that most folks I game with would appreciate. That being said, the audience of the game may be pretty narrow, thanks to the geek path they're taking. For example, I pulled out the game at my parents' house; they are big A-to-A players (I know...) and I thought they would appreciate the spin on the game. But there were many geeky names and actions that they just flat-out didn't know. This prototype version was void of any descriptors as well, so you may very well be staring at a card with a name and be completely at a loss. Hopefully Game Salute will remedy that to make the game more accessible.

Otherwise they are really on to something here. Thematically it is PERFECT; the idea of this one aspect of the movie being drawn out into a bunch of ridiculous circumstances can be quite hilarious, and lead to some witty banter between players. This is a game that could topple the Apples-to-Apples cart, and I'm all in favor of that!

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**UPDATE**

Game Salute has launched the Kickstarter campaign for this game, you can go check it out right here!!