Maid: Romance Sprouts at the Princess' Castle! A Royal Stranger Appears?

Thursday, 4 July 2013, 9am: Maid: "Romance Sprouts at the Princess' Castle! A Royal Stranger Appears?"

From the description, this Maid game was clearly themed as set in Princess Peach's castle from the Mario games. For any who don't know: Mario is a plumber who tries to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser, only to discover that she is perpetually In Another Castle. I don't know much beyond that, but that's really all I needed to know, as the RPG took several liberties.

The PCs were maids of Princess Peach's castle. As I understand it, there are mushroom guys in the games, so we were mushroom women who looked human, but had a mushroom on top of their head. Of course, since it was Maid, there was a maid's cap on top. Maids' powers came from their maid uniforms, especially their hats. We were named for the colors of our mushrooms:

• GM: Emily Keppen
• Matthew Stewart - Red
• Ami Silberman - Silver
• Timothy Hulse - Pink
• Steven Decker - Orange
• Me - Purple

IIRC, Silver was in charge. Orange was very bouncy and unconventional. Pink was tough, and I think Red was, too. Purple was shy and easily frightened. Princess Peach's castle included Go Karts, Tennis Courts, and CheepCheeps. Princess Peach herself, as I'd anticipated, was very spoiled and temperamental, especially before breakfast. I think Pink and Silver almost came to blows over who would serve her breakfast, and it was edible, but nothing special.

The princess was reading a newspaper that mentioned an Italian Count. This caught her interest, as, of course, she wanted to marry a nobleman. The staff worked to make the castle presentable. This involved chasing and dusting the tapestries, which created a dust bunny that Purple eventually adopted, making dust carrots for it to eat.

Somewhere along the line, something prompted the comment, "Don't hit Peach with it", but I forget what the context was. Meanwhile, we got a little more familiar with the system.

Maid has a Favor economy. That is, each PC has a certain number of Favor points indicating how in or out of favor she is. If the Favor rating of a maid ever goes down to zero, the maid is dismissed from her position, in disgrace. The head maid earns both favor for what she does and half of the favor awarded to other maids. That is, if Princess Peach gives everyone 2 Favor, everyone except for Silver gets 2 Favor points, and Silver gets 3 Favor points.

Favor points can also be spent. One of the things on which they can be spend is a roll on the Random Events table. For this game, maids were allowed to give some of their Favor points to other maids. I don't know if this is a rule that exists in the game as printed. We used it so that people wouldn't feel they didn't dare spend Favor points.

I'm not sure how well this works in other games, as it seemed that the Random Events were the main plot drivers. If this is usually true, then there needs to be a lot of Favor in play, for otherwise, nothing much happens. But, it may be that other games of Maid have more set things that will happen.

Someone rang the bell. The maids opened it to find an Italian man named Mario. He entered, finding several lovely maids and Princess Peach arranged to meet him. Now, the maids had to ensure everything was clean and everything went well, and to deal with the temperamental princess and the supposed count.

Someone, possibly Orange, did something involving a cloud in the outdoor fountain. I forget the context:

GM (finishing an explanation): ...if the cloud was actually tangible and not under water.

Orange (I think): I must have squishiness! Squishiness seems right to me!

The male hangers-on, according to my notes, were sent to wash the floor. If that's not a typo, that probably means the male mushroom folk. When they were done, one of the maids put up a sign: CAUTION - WET FLOOR DO NOT ENTER WHEN WAXED

Meanwhile, the maids were beginning to have doubts about Mario. He seemed to go about pocketing silverware, and his reaction to strange events was often lacking, as when a bomb with feet escaped from a picture and Mario did not bravely deal with it. The maids did something so that all that was left was a singe mark, though again, I forget the details. And I think Mario was sent to get cleaned up.

GM: He looks _slightly_ better.

Maid: It's a low bar.

General Maid Consensus about Mario: This is not the kind of Italian prince we want!

Indeed, in the temporary absence of Peach, he was looking over Pink quite appreciatively, wondering about the various, er, Assets...

Pink (offering): A Comfy Chair!

Mario (flirting): Only if you'll sit with me.

Pink: ...of course ... I am here to.... attend to your. Every. Need. <SHUDDER> As I was instructed to. By the _Princess_ of this Castle.

Pink kept her virtue and her reputation. But, another cloud appeared, floating in the castle. A turtle was on top of it, fishing, and he caught Purple with his fishing rod! Silver instructed the others to rescue her.

Pink: But we have such a Valiant Nobleman!

Silver: Go. Rescue. Purple.

Pink: Sure thing, boss!

Orange (having jumped onto the cloud, cheering it and the turtle on: Loop the loop!

And there was an amusing chase sequence which ended with Purple rescued, the turtle convinced Orange was crazy, and many people in a Go Kart, regularly getting tossed into the air and falling down in a new pattern every time the Kart hit a bump.

Mario's behavior did not improve, however. He sat down to a meal with the princess, and there was a flash of silverware before it vanished. One of the maids retrieved it and shook her finger at Mario. Pink made eggs and, when the princess turned up her nose at them, ordered her to eat them. Intimidated, Princess Peach did so.

Maid (catching Mario pocketing more items as she's dusting): Have you no loyalty?

Mario (groping for an excuse, and probably for the maid as well): I was just dusting yours!

Someone bought a roll on the random event table and the result was -- Bowser kidnapped Princess Peach! Oh no!

The maids hustled Mario out into the Go Kart and the chase was on! It involved racing Go Karts, smashing Go Karts that had only just been repaired, and a ladder of mushroom maids. And Red did something valiant.

Maid (to Red): You look just like a spiky red ball -- but I'm glad you're not!

Once everyone was safely inside the castle (well, except for Bowser, obviously), the maids discussed the problem of Mario. By now, they knew that he was a plumber, not a count (although possibly his brother Luigi was a count). The Princess was convinced he was a nobleman, and they had no way to prove to her that he was a gold digger and a thief.

Maid: If you didn't take those things out of the pocket, we'd've _had_ something!

Maid who took them out: We've got it back! (realizing that there went the evidence) Oh -- yeah.

They decided to cook a meal and to make sure that Mario's food caused him some digestion problems.

Someone: Murder at Princess Peach's castle!

Well, no. Mario merely got sick enough to vomit.

GM: And you know the princess is a sympathetic puker.

Oh dear. Still, it did give the maids a way to get rid of Mario. He was taken to a hospital by the Mushroom Paramedics. As they loaded him into the ambulance, Silver whispered to him that he was never to return to the castle, and he promised that he would not.

The princess was sad that Mario had left, and sadder to learn that he hadn't really been a nobleman. Still, there was always tomorrow!

Someone: And that is how the mushroom crumbles!