Rebel Princess: Happily Never After

A year has passed since the princesses last gathered for their five‑day celebration. Invitations have gone out, and this time Red Riding Hood and The Swan Maiden will join the festivities! Just like before, keeping those needy princes away is crucial to the celebration’s success. These partying princesses want to avoid surprise proposals—after all, they intend it to be a ladies‑only affair

Happily Never After is an expansion for Rebel Princess: Deluxe Edition designed by Daniel Byrne, José Gerardo Guerrero, Kevin Peláez, and Tirso Virgós designed the game, with art by Alfredo Cáceres. Bezier Games publishes it for 3-6 players, ages 15 and up.

Your Invitation to the Party

I previously reviewed Rebel Princess: Deluxe Edition, but here’s a brief reminder of how to play. In Rebel Princess, players take part in five rounds of trick-taking, aiming to avoid collecting Prince cards and unwanted proposals. Each round starts with passing cards and revealing a Round card that twists the rules. The starting player leads the first trick, and others must follow suit if possible. The highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. Players use their Princess powers once per round to shift the odds in their favor.

After players play all tricks, they score one proposal point for every heart-bearing card they collected, including Princes and the dreaded Frog. The player with the fewest proposals after five rounds wins the game.

Happily Never After

Now that you know how the base game plays, let’s talk about it’s expansion: Happily Never After. This small expansion adds two new princesses and six new round cards to the game.

New Rebel Princesses

At the start of the game, mix Red Riding Hood and The Swan Maiden in with the other princesses. Then deal two princesses to each player; they select one to use for the game and discards the other.

Red Riding Hood’s special power Unmask lets the player ask for any specific card (number and suit), except the Frog Prince. The player holding that card must give it up in exchange for a card of the same suit. If no one has the named card, the player still spends their power for the round.

Swan Maiden’s power, Temporarily Hidden, activates on the last trick. If you are the leading player when she activates it, the player to your left leads instead.

New Round Cards

Happily Never After also includes six new round cards that players can select from. You can use them to replace the base goals or mix them together with the base game. Let’s a closer look at each.

• It’s 2 Drafty in Here – Keep two cards facedown and pass the rest to the left. Repeat until you have passed all your cards. You can always review the cards you placed face down.
• Secret Bid – Before the first trick, place one card face down under your Princess (not a Prince or Frog). At the end of the round, reveal it: if its number matches the number of tricks you won, you cancel proposals on your tricks and score -1 proposal per trick. 
• Bequeathed – The player who wins the last trick of the round must give all their tricks to the player on their left.
• Same Old Story – Each Prince card is worth -1 proposal and you WANT to win them! The Frog is still worth +5 proposals though.
• Sum Enchanted Evening – Introduces a persistent ‘limit-break’ for the round. After exchanging cards, players discard a card valued under eight face down. Then reveal these cards and add them together to form the round’s limit. During a trick, the player who plays the card that exceeds the sum wins the trick. If no card breaks the limit, the highest card of the lead suit takes it instead. This keeps gameplay unpredictable and high-stakes throughout the entire round.
• Surprise Wedding – The leading player announces the suit and plays their card facedown. After everyone plays, the leader reveals their card.

Royal Reflections

In my earlier review of Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition, I praised the fun theme and the unique twist its round cards brought to trick-taking. My group enjoyed it too, and we laughed out loud plenty of times when a prince landed in someone’s pile. Nothing is more satisfying than passing a prince off to another player!

Happily Never After is a small expansion, but it adds big excitement to this game. While the two new princesses bring some cool tricks, the round cards really shine. Bequeathed is my favorite because it’s crazy fun—if you win the last trick, you pass ALL your tricks to the player on your left. It takes some careful planning and luck, but forcefully passing a bunch of princes to another player feels completely bonkers!

Enchanted Evening keeps gameplay unpredictable and high-stakes throughout the entire round. A limit-break in a trick-taking game is a really cool idea, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before in this genre. Usually breaking past the limit makes you bust (Quacks of Quedlinburg or Incan Gold), so I found it clever that you actually win if you are the first to go past the limit!

A Regal Wrap-Up

I love the content Happily Never After expansion adds—the new princesses and round cards add exciting new ways to play Rebel Princess. The packaging makes it feel a little more premium than necessary; a simple booster pack style would have worked just as well. It’s still good value for fans, but not essential for casual players.

Ready to dodge unwanted princely proposals? Pick up a copy of Happily Never After directly from Bezier Games, your friendly local game store, or on Amazon.

---

The Family Gamers received a copy of Rebel Princess and Happily Never After from Bezier Games for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.