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Erich Vereen
United States
Leland
North Carolina
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Well, to help me push through all the reviews I have been wanting to write, I have joined in the Iron Reviewer contest. Feel free to click on the link to see all the participants and the rules. My first entry for this prestigious contest is my second anime RPG review. I hope you enjoy it.
Maid the Role Playing Game is a Japanese RPG that was written by Kamiya Ryo and translated to English by Ewen Cluney. In it's current form, it is presented as a single RPG book at 208 pages in length (not including a lot of the extras and character sheets in the appendices. However, the version that you can purchase is actually three books in one, incorporating the original Maid the Role Playing Game plus both supplements; Maids in Love and Dreaming Maids. From the name, you might think that you would be playing a maid in the service of a master or mistress.
You would be right.
The players all play the maids of a house. The maids have six stats: Athletics, Affection, Skill, Cunning, Luck and Will. Each of these stats range from zero to four (2d6/3, round down) and is modified by the character's maid type. This is similar to origins in the current Gamma World release and will modify the the maid's stats.
After determining the maid's color of her outfits and special qualities, such as being a cross dressing guy, a neat freak or a delinquent who always has a cigarette in her mouth, the player determines a maid power and her favor and spirit. These final two stats are very important, so let me explain them a little.
Favor is how pleased the master is with the maid. The higher the maid's favor, the more perks she can receive from the master, such raising an attribute or causing a random event. Think of favor as XP that can come and go.
Spirit on the other hand can be thought of as Hit Points. However, maid's don't die, they just get stressed out and eventually have a stress explosion. Stress explosions can range from full on screaming and crying to a sudden sadistic streak that has to work its way out of the maid's system, usually at the expense of another player. A stress explosion happens when the maid's stress level exceeds her spirit level.
Action resolution is simple. Roll a d6 and multiply it by the appropriate stat. Whoever has the highest score wins the action and causes the other party to take stress at the level of the difference between the two scores.
While the players are the maids of the house, the GM is the master or mistress. The Master has stats just like the maids and even has a spirit score for stress explosions. While the maids can't directly oppose the master, they can twist his wishes to their own means or do what they think is right, as long as they convince the master they've done as he wished. So, there is a bit of interplay not only with the other players but the GM as well.
Now, as I mentioned in the paragraph about Focus, the players can somewhat affect the game. While the GM presents the basic scenario, the players can spend favor points to try to create surprises for everyone to deal with. They can also use favor points to modify those surprises, or cancel them all together through climactic battles or amazing cleaning montages.
I guess I didn't mention before now that Maid is primarily a comedy game. This is evident in the replays presented throughout the book. Replays are Japan's invention of presenting and explaining rules through the use of transcriptions of actual games. The ones in Maid are pretty silly at times, but they do a good job explaining a lot of the rules and how they can be applied. There are even replays of a few actual games, leading to some interesting cliffhangers for players to ponder on.
And while Maid is primarily a comedy game, it can be as serious or comedic as the group wishes. The rules discussed above are the basic rules and cover the first forty seven pages of the book. The rest of the book is used for optional rules, like butler and master creation rules, players as masters with the GM acting as referee only, and other sub-genres to break out for story ideas. There are quite a few replay examples, as well as many scenarios pre-designed for use by the group.
Most of those who know me know I am an anime nut. I'm also a fan of comedy RPGS. This game rolls both of my happiness factors into one wonderful and simple game. The game is PG-13 at the most, unless your group is adult enough to handle those situations. However, it's funnier to have those situations to almost happen only to see them fall apart due to unexpected complications.
My take on this game is a solid 8 out of 10. It plays well, it is simple to learn with the replay examples, and it is great fun. If you can get people who are use to the tropes of the genre you wish to portray, as well as who have a fun and strange sense of humor, it gets even better.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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You're running this at MACE this year, right?
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Erich Vereen
United States
Leland
North Carolina
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I'm already making plans to be there this year, and yes, if I can make it, I'll run a game or two ^_^
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