Faery’s Tale Deluxe is a role playing game set in a world of fairies and magical creatures. The copy on the back of the book suggests that it is well suited for children ages six and up. I purchased Faery’s Tale Deluxe (FTD) in order to review it for my blog on children’s board and role playing games. That gives my impression of it a certain skew since I was not reading it with the intention of playing per se. Further, I was interested to see how it looked as a children’s game. Based on reading positive prior reviews I was surprised by my final assessment.

The game is physically flawless. The layout is clear, the text is well edited, and the illustrations are fabulous. The artistic style is in the school of Arthur Rackham and prospective GMs could probably conceive entire scenarios based on the artwork alone. The rules also include a handy index, always appreciated.

Characters in FTD can be pixies, brownies, sprites or pookas. Briefly, pixies are creatures of nature. They embody aspects of mischief, pranks, magic and merriment. Brownies are domestic beings. They live secretly in human dwellings and manifest by doing helpful chores at night, or by subtle and humorous pranks. Sprites exist as a martial class, acting to physically defend good creatures against evil and wicked beings. Finally the pooka is a shapechanger with ties to the animal world. All fairies begin the game with three attributes: Body, Mind, and Spirit. The former is related to any physical challenge or activity, the second to intelligence and will, and the third to magical aptitude and sensitivity. Attributes are initially set by character race, sprites for example having a high initial Body rating. You may then add a few points to your attributes. This could result in a strong sprite for example. The available points are limited so a player is best served improving attributes which start high rather than creating the world’s strongest pixie.

Characters then receive an Essence rating, and finally a set of Gifts. Gifts include the various powers and abilities we associate with fairies- the more magical ones such as flight or invisibility may be assigned based on your race. Other Gifts, like unusual fame or luck, are purchased via a points-based system. Essence is an important attribute. Based on the character’s Spirit rating, Essence acts as a form of hit points. In addition you may temporarily “spend” points to improve game results, briefly acquire new powers, or simply cause some beneficial event to occur. For example, for one Essence point the GM might decide that your character notes some subtle clue, or that a friend comes by with a helpful item. Essence can be temporarily increased at GM’s fiat, generally as a reward. This increase is limited to the game session in question. In a new game it returns to its Spirit based total.

The game mechanic is based on rolling a number of six sided dice and tallying up the number of successes. In FTD an even number is deemed a success, with sixes allowing an additional reroll. Completing a task requires a number of successes, with more difficult tasks requiring more numbers of successes. The number of dice one rolls is based on the attribute most relevant to the task- so lifting a tree branch would tie in to Body for example. The odds that this system engenders are interesting- you have a one in six chance of a reroll for each die you initially roll, but a one in three chance of a reroll for each success you roll (as one third of your successes with be sixes). This seems to create a situation where any successful rolls are likely to create further and more dramatic successes.

One twist on this straightforward system is combat. Characters divide up their total die pool into “attack” and defense” dice. If one’s Body rating is three then one could attack with two dice and defend with one, or parry madly with all three dice and roll none for the attack. If the attack dice yield more successes than the opposing defense dice, the defender loses one point of Essence.

The game system includes further rules concerning magic, creatures, and the social structure of the fairy world. There is a brief list of creatures, monsters, animals and foes. In addition there are tips for creating new beings with magical or unusual powers. Finally the volume concludes with several scenarios and a section of GM’s advice. The scenarios are extensive and well detailed, including tips, passages to read out loud, and more of those awesome and inspiring illustrations.

I finished the text with a great deal of admiration for this well put together game, and yet I’m not sure I would strongly recommend it. One concern I have is that the game straddles two types of RPG. In one type the author delivers a unique and proprietary world. In this case you may receive extensive maps, creature lists, pages of political and cultural background and so on. The author is saying, “Here is my vision, here’s how to bring it to life.” The other variety of RPG presents you with a game mechanic and a suggested setting, but one which you are expected to already know or one which you are expected to easily flesh out. One example of this is Agon. While that game takes place in an interesting and specific setting the author leaves it to the GM to flesh out the political and ecological details.

FTD spends some time describing the lives of the fairies. You read about their social structure, the fairy nobility, and especially about their occupations. Specifically “they are the hidden guardians of the world.” Fairies “set wrong things right,” and are engaged in a constant struggle with dark fairies, who “seek to bring ruin to the whole world.” Of the dark fairies we know that Goblins, for example, “hate beauty and happiness, and take joy in hurting others…” The text regarding this struggle is fairly extensive and refers often to this struggle between good and evil. In a personal sense this doesn’t fit my image of the fairy world which I imagine as being a bit more chaotic and less structured. In traditional stories the antagonist is also often a “lone wolf” of sorts rather than a member of a larger sinister group. Nevertheless this is the author’s particular vision so I’d like some more details. Those details do not appear. The dark fairies receive quite a bit of individual description but if you’re presented with two conflicting forces then you immediately want to know where they live, what are their long term goals, where do they run when they’ve lost a battle? When we ask these questions have we deviated from the spirit of classic fairy tales? Of course that’s a subjective question. It does seem as though FTD can’t decide whether to be traditional fairy tale simulation or a game set in a specific and well documented world. The text suggests both are options but the content makes either choice less than satisfactory. If FTD is a traditional fairy tale game then I have some issue with the organized struggle between good and evil. If FTD is set in a specific game world then I need more background.

My second, and again fairly subjective, difficulty stems from the textual style. The author has a very clear idea of how fairies behave and the lives that they lead. In conveying that we are subjected to what seems like excessive use of words like “mischief,” “merry,” and “prank.” On page eleven we are told fairies are mischievous. On the next page we are reminded that they like pranks- in three separate paragraphs. Likewise there is no question that these are joyful creatures. If there was you would be reminded otherwise multiple times in the same few pages. The evil creatures fare even worse. “Twisted,” “wicked,” “malign,” and “sinister” feature heavily in their sections. In one sense the this is purely a style issue and I prefer a drier writing style. In a different sense I feel like the dark fairies are being portrayed as pretty dark indeed. Dark enough that if taken at face value they’re a collection of blood thirsty sociopaths. Dark enough to push them well beyond the bounds of what I would consider children’s fare.

This question of children’s fare is what brought me to purchase the rules in the first place. Certainly the subject matter is of interest to children. I’m left unsure as to whether the rule system is well suited for younger players, however. Numerical attributes are second nature to adult gamers but how does a child interpret a Body of “two”? The combat system of attack and defense pools seems a bit subtle for younger players. The system of gifts involves bonus dice when resolving certain types of challenges. Even my adult friends forget often when they have a specific bonus to put into play. And finally, the use of Essence as a resource pool is ingenious, but is it manageable by the typical younger player? The system as a whole is very grounded in numerical attributes and modifiers in contrast, say, to Zorcerer of Zo’s system. This is not to say that children haven’t or wouldn’t enjoy FTD, but I think I would aim for a more narrative system. Zo comes to mind as a first choice. Alternately I might turn to a system with numerical attributes but infrequent use of skill rolls, early Dungeons and Dragons or one of the retro-clones are examples. I wouldn’t expect a child to grasp the concept of “dexterity” but once past that hurdle the rest of old school Dungeons and Dragons may require little number crunching.

In my opinion FTD is a well designed and package game for adults. I found the writing style difficult to get through and the author’s vision of the world of fairies is different from my own. Since these are completely subjective issues they may prove no obstacle to other players and GMs. The rules system is solid, workable, and well explained. I’m not convinced it’s ideal for younger players and would probably aim for a more narrative system personally. That being said I think Faery’s Tale could be a good addition to many player’s repertoire of games.