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Appearance
The book is attractive, with fabulous art by Patricia Ann Lewis-MacDougall and Jennifer Meyer. It’s nice - though, unfortunately, rare - to see artwork that so perfectly fits the subject matter and feel of a game. The layout is clear, with well-chosen typefaces and easy-to-read page design.
Setting
The setting is an easy-to-grasp mix of the most common European fairy tales, with emphasis on the British tradition. There are no great surprises: Giants, trolls and dragons are much as you’d expect them to be, as are the tiny faeries and enchanted lands. The tone is light, happy and naïve; there are dark faeries, who do bad things, but the lines between good and evil are clearly drawn (mostly; see below), and faeries that are hurt never actually die - they just go to sleep for a while and get back to business. There’s one thing that makes for a slightly darker game: Dark Essence. This is an optional rule for faeries that are tainted by their evil acts. Doing bad deeds will lead faeries down a dark path - if they don’t change their ways in time, they might permanently become Dark Faeries.
Rules
The rules are simple, using well-known design patterns. Faeries have three attributes (Body, Mind, Spirit) that determine how many dice players roll in challenges. In addition, they have Gifts that let them do special stuff, such as Flying, Animal Friend and Whirlwind Strike. While adventuring, they may gain Boons that can be converted into just about anything that enhances the faerie’s effectiveness: Attribute points, favors, Gifts, items - or magical passages to the moon. A faery’s Essence score serves two purposes. It’s a measure of how much damage the faery can take (before falling asleep), but also a resource the player can expend to alter the story. Essence can be gained for doing things the Narrator likes, or from adding complications the faeries must overcome; it can be spent to alter reality. There are more rules - for creating Charms, using armor, having Passions, even live-action role-play; in fact, it’s easy to be deceived by the book’s small size, because it covers quite a lot. I’m much impressed by how the rules support the genre and style of play. Throughout the rules there are boxes of hints for playing with kids. These are often useful, but don’t really cover as much as I’d wished - especially for this kind of game.
Personal opinion: Good & bad
I haven't playtested Faery's Tale. The system does seem very well designed, and it’s clear that the designers know what they’re doing. It encourages active participation in the setting (by letting players spend Essence to affect the story). However, I have a feeling there may be too many different rules elements to keep track of for younger players; obviously, the GM is supposed to know the rules well, and help the players along. I’m not sure if I agree with this design philosophy - personally, I’d rather have rules that an eight-year-old could remember and comprehend in full. I wish the authors had included more notes on how to play with young children. They’re a very different audience from mature players, with different wishes, needs, attention spans, dramatic expectations, social codes, status interactions, group dynamics etc. More of this could have been addressed. I believe the game will work best with an adult GM and a smallish group of players aged 6-10. Younger children won’t be able to use many of the rules; older children will probably not want to play faeries. Adults of any age who enjoy fairy tales will probably also enjoy Faery’s Tale.
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