When I get a new toy to play with, especially if that toy allows me to make new toys, I tend to obsess over them. Such has been the case when, after sufficient prodding from a variety of sources, I bought the PDF version of the Maid RPG sourcebook. Yes, you read that correctly: it is a tabletop pen-and-paper roleplaying game involving maids.

Anime maids, that is. With everything that entails.

I've chronicled the creation of a basic cast of characters on my Livejournal, as posted in five parts. So far, at least; it is only on subsequent read-throughs that I realized how remarkably filling the game can actually be, despite its fluffy, light exterior. This is a game which can be adapted to a vast number of settings and situations, often in the same campaign. In fact, if you use the Random Events table, this is most likely going to be the case.

So far, the most fun I've had is in rolling up new characters. Unlike the HERO System, this takes something like ten to fifteen minutes, or maybe five minutes if you don't bother to write everything down longhand. Justifying the rolls may take longer, depending on how long you've been doing this sort of thing, but when you end up with a loli vampire maid with an affinity for magic and a great big axe for a weapon (the character I'm currently playing in a play-by-post, at least until the GM vetoes me), the justification may take strange forms.

Actually playing the game probably depends on how good at roleplaying everyone is, as well as how secure everyone is in their manhood. This is not a game for minmaxers, or those who prize an unsullied character concept above all. This is the sort of game for people who're willing to just go with the flow and play something, possibly because the designated cleric is a no-show.

And if, like me, you are a fan of moe harem comedy anime, with or without maids, this is perfect for you.

You can, if you want to, play as a butler, but then butlers are basically a side-show to the maids (automatically losing any challenge against a maid character), even if they are more accurately combat butlers. You can also play the "master" of the house, but you'll be stuck with even worse stats, and nothing to do except dispense Favour (the experience points of the game) like a particularly sad and geeky vending machine.

You can also, and this is allowed in the rules, pick and choose your desired character traits from the many (many many many) tables, but this kind of takes some of the fun out of it.

A great deal of the charm of the rulebook is the presence of the example characters, who do not just show us how the rules work, but enact little skits where they actually apply the rules directly, rolling their own dice. This is a great help in explaining the sometimes complex interaction of rules, as well as providing a decidedly moe heroine in Bashful Demon Maid Hizumi, who has no idea how she managed to roll a Demon trait.

This is a fun, light rules system, made for playing fun, light games. The best word I can think of to describe Maid RPG is "charming"; it's not perfect, but it's hard to fault it for its flaws. We have the core rules weighing in at about thirty pages, and then one hundred and eighty pages of optional rules that add a great deal more depth to the game.

At eight dollars for the PDF of 223 pages, this game is incredible value for money. There is even a little note from the translator telling anyone who pirates the game that the most important thing they should do is to play it, not just let it sit and rot on the hard drive. I cannot think of better advertising than that.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28th, 2009 at 9:23 pm and is filed under blatant filler, tabletop roleplaying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.