Knights of Pen & Paper

Two weeks ago I became the proud owner of a brand new Galaxy S III. It felt like I’d finally been given the golden ticket to the future my eight-year-old self had imagined. When I finally figured out how to turn it on, I found myself in a whole new world of games. I was sad to discover that most of these cool looking fantasy and sci-fi games listed in Google Play offered nothing more slightly more complicated versions of Farmville, but I did find a few excellent games that I want to promote. I’m excited to recommend Behold Studio’s table-top inspired Knights of Pen & Paper for the Android and iOS.

Charmingly Old School

You are already familiar with the gameplay in Knights of Pen & Paper: you control a group of five heroes, go on quests, kill monsters, equip swords +n, and level up. While this is a well tested formula for fun it’s often hard to make a game so familiar feel interesting and fresh. Knights of Pen & Paper pulls off being both simple and entertaining. It has kept me busy for consecutive hours, my butt firmly planted on the couch with my phone tethered to an outlet, while still managing to provide a meaningful experience during bathroom breaks.

While the core of Knights of Pen & Paper is a well designed RPG, the creative hook is so excellent and obvious that I’m amazed that I haven’t seen it done before. Your party consists of gamers playing their characters in a D&D-esque table-top game. Instead of the classic race-plus-class format (like an “elf wizard” or a “halfling rogue”) you choose a player type and a class. (For example, the “jock” player type gives your character added attack damage, making a jock rogue particularly deadly.)

Unless you have a menu open, you never stop seeing the players, the table, and the Dungeon Master on the screen while the imagined enemies and locations are displayed above. You can even purchase decor upgrades to the “real-world” room that your players are occupying: adding soda will make your potions more powerful, changing your table to a swanky glass table will increase the rate that you find magic items, and so on. It never stops being clever.

The game also has moments of genuinely funny dialogue between the players and the DM and includes a reality-bending storyline that will defy your expectations for such a simple app. Pour some vibrant pixel art and chip tunes and you have a game that is exactly what I want in a mobile RPG.

I will mention that the game includes an upgrade system that, for some reason, has real time delayed built in. (An equipment upgrade will take 8 hours.) It’s one of the only elements in the game that involves real world time and it’s sorely out of place, even if it isn’t a big problem. There is also a noticeable amount of spelling and grammatical errors.

The App, The Cost

Knights of Pen & Paper achieves what every mobile app aims for: the mechanics are clearly communicated, the feedback is immediate, and the interface is intuitive. From the first moments of the game, you know what you’re doing and you’re having fun doing it.

It’s also worth noting that Knights of Pen & Paper is only 99 cents. It does not attempt to squeeze additional dollars out of you in exchange for Pre
mium Red Crystals that are only $4.99 for a bushel. There is the option to purchase in game currency with real money, but the rate that you acquire the in game currency by killing monsters and completing quests is more than adequate. The only reason you would want to spend real money is impatience.

I can’t say enough about the Knights of Pen & Paper. It’s kept my attention for far longer than any other mobile game and it’s pressed all of my classic RPG video game pleasure buttons. The humor and the clever table-top theme is icing on an already delicious cake. It is worth far more than it’s thrift store price, and since it’s available for iOS as well as the Android, there is no excuse for you to not immediately buy this game.