Fairy Tale In My Pocket

Fairy Tale In My Pocket is a re-skin of Zombie In My Pocket, although it does change the rules around a little bit as well. In this game the you are a hero in a fairy-tale kingdom. The Princess is about to marry the Prince. Except only you know the truth; the Princess has been replaced by an evil impostor, and the real Princess is under an enchantment, asleep in a hidden cottage in the forest. You must find the Princess, wake her with a magic rose from the rose-garden then travel with her back to the kingdom and present her at the castle before the wedding takes place at sunset. Easy.

The mechanisms are the same as ZimP - you move from tile to tile in the first area (in this case the Forest), and on each draw a card to see what you encounter. When the card deck runs out you reshuffle it and time advances. The game runs  for three passes through the deck. You start at a lake, and must find the Rose garden and Cottage tiles in order to wake the Princess. Then you must find and/or travel to the Forest/kingdom Path tiles, enter the Kingdom and find the castle where you can stop the wedding.

Here's the game set up. The art is charming, although I think the location tiles are a little murky and hard to read.

Here I am on my quest. I used a spare 15mm figure as a marker.

I found the rose fairly quickly, and even managed to acquire a shield. One change in this game is that you don't just stumble across items; you encounter a peddler instead, who has a random selection of items for you to purchase. The game adds a Gold attribute which you use to buy the items. Gold can be gained by opting to help people in some of the encounters (which costs you time).

Here's the end of the first stage of the game; I had awoken the Princess (who joins you and adds to your combat score), acquired a cat wearing boots (another increase in my combat score) and even helped Snow White find the cottage of the seven dwarves (for a generous cash reward). And I was now on the path out of the forest and into the Kingdom with a reasonable amount of time to spare.

A good first game. I walked straight into the castle and stopped the wedding before the second deck had ended.

My second game went less well. I wandered the forest for ages finding both the path out and the sleeping Princess, but unable to track down the Rose Garden, which was at the bottom of the deck. Fortunately I started the game with some Seven League Boots - you start with one of three magical items - which meant that I could teleport to any other tile on the board.

I used the boots to get me back to the Cottage and wake the Princess, but then we spent forever crossing the Kingdom, and failed to get to the castle before the wedding took place. Like the Rose Garden, it was also at the bottom of the deck.

So, one win and one loss.

This is a fun little game; the look of it instantly gives it a different feel to the Zombie version, and the slight rule changes add to the character and make for some slightly different decisions. I do like games that re-skin like this; it allows you to enjoy a game for the mechanisms whilst setting it in a background in which you can have an investment. BGG has a number of versions, ranging from the original Zombie setup, to Aliens, this Fairy Tale one, and even one where you are a paratrooper knocking out a German bunker on D-Day. They're all worth a look.

Did I say the art was charming?