Marrying Mr. Darcy

I am and will be exposed to Pride and Prejudice often in my lifetime, and that's okay. To date I have watched (always with Jenni) the BBC P&P five-and-a-half-hour miniseries, the Knightly P&P movie, and the P&P: Pink Bible Edition movie as well as film adaptations of P&P spin-offs like Lost in Austen (a favourite), Death Comes to Pemberly, and Austenland. I have not personally read the book, nor any of the fan spin-offs in book form, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (is there a film adaptation of that one?), nor do I plan to. But I'm alright to watch the movies.

So what better homage to Valentine's Day than a game of Marrying Mr. Darcy.

Jenni and I introduced some of her family to the card game this past weekend . Having already played 1.5 games with members of my family, this brings my total play-count to 2.5 games.

My wife and I enjoy strategy-rich games. Marrying Mr. Darcy is not a strategy-rich game. It is a story driven by a mix of random events and occasional player choices. While I knew the theme would be a hit with my wife, I read numerous reviews to see how well others enjoyed it before deciding to get this game as a gift for Jenni. And now I add a small one of my own.

In Marrying Mr. Darcy players take the roles of the female characters from the Pride and Prejudice story. Players build up their characters RPG-style by playing cards to improve their stats in six categories: friendliness, wit, beauty, reputation, cunning, and wealth (or dowry). Values of the first four stats translate into victory points at the end of the game (most points wins).

The main interest in the game, of course, is to get your character married off. But not just any guy will do. There are six available suitors and each player's character card lists them from most to least desirable for that character; additional victory points are awarded for the suitor your character manages to wed (Example: Elizabeth gets mega points for marrying Darcy but almost nothing if wed to Collins). The suitors too are a picky bunch, each one requiring a different combination of traits to be interested in your character; this is the reason you are trying to build up your stats. Even if your stats satisfy a suitor's requirements, you only have a chance for a proposal, decided by a dice roll that can be modified by certain conditions. Thus one, or indeed all of the ladies could end up old maids, again with varying degrees of happiness (victory points) decided by dice roll.

This game is heavily luck-based, but any disappointment that might have caused me is negated by the fact that (a) I know the story enough to get into the theme of the game and enjoy the alternate story being played out, (b) there is some player choice involved, and (c) I enjoy seeing the reactions of my wife (and others) to the alternate story being played out. Most enjoyable are exclamations about how the play that just happened actually happens in the story or, even better, how the event that just happened could have never happened for such-and-such a character because (insert reasons). Of course, there's always "the busty Scandal" card, which is especially funny if a guy draws it.

There is an expansion featuring the undead. It sounds fun and many of the reviewers I read recommended using it. Maybe I will, but we're fine for now.

So, there you have it. Probably the least manly game I've ever played and I enjoy it well enough. Real men wear pink? Maybe. Real men can admit to liking non-manly games!

Right?...