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Prince Valiant, the Roleplaying Game
Prince Valiant was a weekly comic strip written and drawn by Hal Foster (1892-1982). The first strip ran in 1937, and through the hand of other artists continues to this day. It appeared at its height in over 200 papers.
Foster is credited as the first person to use a realistic drawing style and sophisticated compositions to the comic page. "Foster’s meticulously detailed, painstakingly researched, vividly realistic, and often breathtaking illustration made him one of the most revered artists in the comic field," said the prestigious Library Journal.
Prince Valiant has been one of my favorite Arthurian stories for much of my life. I do not remember when I began to read it--it is as if I was reading it all my life. Heck, I bet I was looking at the pictures in my Sunday paper before I could read!
In 1989 Chaosium published my game based on the comic strip. It was unique and, for its time, revolutionary. Its influence goes beyond its rather meager sales for the time. Its subtitle, "The Story Telling Game," provides the hint that it was instrumental in the creation of the Vampire and related games later published by White Wolf. (I don't claim any creative part in designing the game, just that I used to discuss the theory and practice of roleplaying with Mark ReinHagen for years before he was ever published.)
Here is my essay about “How I Made Prince Valiant, the Storytelling Game.
Here is a pretty nice review of the game.
Principe Valiante
Chaosium also licensed JOC Internacional, one of our licensors, to produce a version of this in Spanish.
Prince Valiant Sources
Fantagraphics Books has reprinted the entire series of strips drawn by Foster, reproduced at full size and full color. They are the source reference for the analytical work of Todd Jensen, who has written a series of entertaining essays that reveal the myriad of sources that Foster used for the series.
Here is Part 1
Here is Part 2
Here is Part 3
Here is Part 4
Here is Part 5
Prince Valiant Links
Here is the Prince Valiant Fan page, with more stuff than yo can imagine.
The official Prince Valiant website & resource center!
Here is an index to the series. It's excellent.
Prince Valiant Index