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First things first: Try to overlook the Y's. It's easy to play, it's cheap, it's a game about wishes, and no sheep were harmed in the making of this document. The authors went out of their way to assure us of that last concern.

Wyshmaykers is a game about people who discover they can make their wishes come true, if they do it right. It's set in modern-day, so obviously conspiracies are involved. There's this group that calls itself The Society, with The Council on top, Council Advocates in the middle, Knights making up the enforcement arm, and lay members (like the PCs) just getting introduced. They have three basic laws that every member must abide by, and not joining is not an attractive option. Ordinarily, big shadowy conspiracies inevitably break my suspension of disbelief, but given the fact that it's a game about people who can change the world just by wishing, I can give it a pass. Hell, finding out the secret history could easily be a diverting pastime. Also, The Society is left vague, so that they can be the altruists they are presented as, a shadowy Mafia-like conspiracy, or something in between.

The mechanics are dirt simple: Roll three six-sided dice, and look for matching numbers. Two matching numbers is a success (43% chance, rounded down), and three matching numbers is a critical success (3% chance per roll, rounded up), which means success plus benefits. These are the only type of rolls you'll make in the game.

But then what do the stats mean? Well, each point in the main stats (Action, Thought, or X) allows you one roll, which means if you're good in that particular area (more than one point in the stat), you can roll multiple times until you either get the roll you want, or keep rolling to get a number of successes. If you have a Study (skill or knowledge) or an Item (equipment) that can aid you, then it adds its points to the chances to re-roll. Action is physical stuff, Thought is stuff involving thinking and planning, and X is a grab-bag stat for luck, social-fu, and the base stat for making wishes. (Wyshes, pardon me.) If you've read their game -U-, you know how it works. There are some other things to keep in mind, but the game itself is easy to read.

The main thing to keep in mind is the Wysh Difficulty Chart, which makes it harder (subtracts potential re-rolls) for wishes that outrageously defy known laws of science, are very complicated, or which affect a large area or number of people. If the subtraction ends up higher than the chances for re-rolls (which can easily happen early on), you still get a chance to roll, but you must roll a critical success to make the wish happen.

GOOD: It's a serviceable, light-mechanics game with special-case rules kept to the absolute minimum. It takes on the challenge of people who can wish for anything they want to happen, which most games shy away from. It's cheap.

NOT-SO-GOOD: If you want this game to sing for you, customization is a necessary thing. The rules are flexible enough that it's easy to make house-rules, which mitigates most of the problems. However, when I pay for a game, I like to see at least suggestions for how to fine-tune it. There's a thin line between, "season this to taste" and "haven't quite thought all this through" which may be a thin line indeed for some purchasers. More examples of what types of Wysh fall where on the Difficulty Chart would be nice, for starters. Broadening Items to include things like Relationships, Wealth, or even narrow special abilities wouldn't hurt, either. Options for drifting the setting to fantasy, sci-fi, etc. would also not be a bad thing. And last but not least, what's supposed to happen when Wyshing fails? Is it a whiff, or are there consequences? if so, how do we scale those consequences accordingly? The bones are there, but some meat with them would be nice.

And then there's the setting, which suffers from Unnecessary Capitalization, as well as an excess of Y's. Also, why hasn't The Society taken over the world yet? Some ideas about that would be helpful. Even if we reject those suggestions and substitute our own, it's still nice to have them there to help with the brainstorming.

That's my main complaint with the system, but let's face it: if you're buying this, you're a gamer, and there's a tradition of gamers dissecting games and making houserules anyway. Plus, for five bucks, why not buy it and let it inspire you to make your own game about wishing?

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