In my never ending quest for good games, I was blessed to be presented with this little gem.
A game of fairy tales, where Alice of Wonderland can meet Peter Pan or the Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West can plot with Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother.
But before I gush and make a mess all over my monitor, let's break it down.
Substance: 5/5
For a game about fairy tales, it's written in an adult manner, exploring the various types of stories and how their presented. From the Victorian syrupy sweet happy endings to the Brother's Grimm more sober (Or dare I say, grim) versions.
The rules are laid out in a concise manner, having it's own section after laying out the setting. The way it's set up gets you engaged in the game almost immediately, and for those people who like a simple engine that deals with everything using the same mechanic, the 'good parts' PDQ system is excellent.
It also only requires two dice, with the attributes being broad and descriptive in nature. They can be just about anything from skills, to pets and minions, to social standing, as well as magic in all it's forms. There are five ranks, ranging from Poor at -2 to the dice, up to Master at +6, the ranks going up by twos.
Example, I am playing a version of The Beast from the tale The Beauty and The Beast. He would have Monster: Expert +4 meaning that he would get to add that bonus to his dice rolls should something come up in game that being a savage creature would be helpful, like combat or intimidating someone.
However, as everyone has a low Quality as they're called, my example would have Temper: Poor -2. That means that his anger would get the better of him, and make his life miserable at the worst time.
The average 'stat' is a 0, which means anyone can try it unless the skill is special, esoteric or magical. So no untrained brain surgery here, kids.
Magical Qualities are marked with a star or asterisks and have special circumstances attached to them. But I won't spoil that, go get the game!
Although the attributes are in an even pattern of numbers, the suggested difficulties are in an odd sequence, starting at 'poor' which is a 5. The highest is Master which requires one to beat 13 on 2d6 including which ever applicably bonus.
As this game uses the same mechanic to resolve all conflicts from, stealth to combat to social interaction, damage is dealt to your attributes, so say the Beast was talking to a shifty merchant, and using his Nobleman: Good +2 Quality, he fails by one and takes a 'hit'. Well, because this is a social situation the repercussions won't be long lasting, although they could be embarrassing. However, when you take 'damage' you choose an attribute or attributes that is lowered by one rank for ever number you miss by, which gives the GM a story hook to play with, but only one that pertains to the first Quality that you chose. In this case our hero decides to take the hit on his highest which is Monster, lowering it from Expert to Good and generating a story element that may be used later. However, if he had blown it by three he would have to choose to take it all in one, two or three separate ones.
When you take enough 'hits' to bring one of your Qualities to below poor, it's called Zeroing Out and it means you lost the conflict. In a fight it could mean death or just left unconscious depending on the level of gaming. In a social situation, you are embarrassed or otherwise out of the engagement.
Simple, easy to remember and wonderfully effective.
The GM'ing section isn't all that different from all other good ones out there, with the usual 'Play nice, play fair, but most importantly, play to have fun' you find in there. Functional, but not abrasive. A plus.
Style: 4/5
The setting itself is well written, gives a great feel for what the lands of The Zantabulous Zorcerer of Zo are like.
The art is sparse and generally cutesy, but I would have preferred a tad more.
If there's any flaw, it's that the setting has some already preset conceptions which are tied together, like certain characters such as the Blue Hood (A woman bandit who's a cross of Robin and Little Red Riding Hood, also unusually tall for a female Fairy Tale protagonist) who is tied to the world's villain, Shaykosch, the Deathless Wolf, and potentially to the throne of one of the countries that make up the Land of Zo.
Now for some, that would be easy to remove and alter to suit, but I'm not that imaginative, so to rebuild these ties would be hard, and frankly, the rest of the setting is incredibly well written that it would break my heart to make a new one.
The only other flaw is how Western the entire thing is. The Film, Biblio and Ludography are filled with sources from all around the world, but not one is touched for Zo, other than an offhand 'there could be kingdoms anywhere!'
Still, it's a minor nitpick compared to the rest.
As a bonus, my version has notes on the original campaign with comments from the players and an actual play, to give you a feel as to what was the intent behind the game.
That was very nice, and gives people like me a good starting point for any game I wish to run.
So if you like simple systems that still has a bit a meat on it's bones and are wanting a rollicking good Fairy Tale game, this is the one for you!
Review Summary