The Land of Oz has been around for 110 years now, sprung from the mind of L. Frank Baum. It has delighted and enthralled children of all ages whether they are 5 or 50. Despite being one of the most popular and well known fantasy settings, the merry Land of Oz never made the leap into fantasy tabletop roleplaying until now.
Adventures in Oz is a roleplaying game based on the beloved Oz stories of Mr. Baum. Like the stories, it has been designed for the youngest and oldest of children. Adventures in Oz is a small soft-covered 130 page book. The inside illustrations are in black and white, the cover art is more colorful though and depicts The Hungry Tiger, The Patchwork Girl, The Tin Soldier and an unknown Munchkin boy strolling down the Yellow Brick Road towards adventure. The entire game retails for $14.99. All you need to play is the book, a pencil and 2d6. The game’s website (www.adventuresinoz-rpg.com) has both characters sheets, sample characters and a map of Oz as a free download.
Introduction: This chapter contains a brief one page description of role-playing, perfect for those new to the game. Considering that the game itself seems mostly targeted to a younger audience, this is invaluable for newer players. For old hands, this is nothing new.
Chapter 1: Chapter 1 is an overview of a history of the Land of Oz. It covers the creation of Oz up until Ozma takes the throne. It also covers life in Oz and discusses the five major countries of Oz: Munchkin Country, Winkie Country, Gillikin Country, Quadling Country and the Emerald City. The information on the countries is a bit sparse but later chapters go into a bit more detail. Still it would have been nice to see another line or two about each country.
We learn that the citizens of Oz have no need for money and everyone helps out everyone else. They also can’t be killed. Even if chopped to bits, all the pieces will still live. This is my biggest problem with this chapter. From that basic description, it seems like there is little to no reason for the average citizen of Oz to go off wandering except through boredom. Players will need to think long and hard about why their character has decided to forsake civilization to push on into the wilderness. Furthermore, I can only imagine players rushing headlong into battle as they know they don’t need to fear death. This will require a clever Narrator who will be able to think of different ways to challenge her players; the Oz books are full of ideas and a great start towards this.
Chapter 2: Chapter 2 is where the book gets into the system and how to create a character. The character creation system is simple and quick. Anyone can make a character in about ten minutes merely by picking a template.
Each template is based off a common archetype that is found in Oz such as Crafted Person (Scarecrow and Tin Man) or Animal (Toto and The Cowardly Lion). This determines the character’s Size, Athletics, Awareness, Brains, Sneaking, Presence and Wits. Some of these templates also give you traits. Traits can be either negative or positive and help define who you are. Sample traits are Crafted (you aren’t made of flesh and bone) or No Arms.
After picking traits, you get extra points to fill in. Taking negative traits will give you more points. Next, you have to decide your friends list and how many Oz points you receive. Oz points are where I feel that the system starts to really stand out. Oz points represent the people that you meet along the way in your journeys. You receive one Oz point for each player at the table. You get another point for a character in your background. For each friend that you make along the way, you’ll get another point. The points can be spent to do one of two things. They can either give you a +1 bonus to a skill for a single roll or they can be spent to receive help from your friend. For example: The Wizard’s balloon takes off, leaving Dorothy stranded. Dorothy’s player remembers that she has Glinda the Good on her friend’s list. She spends the Oz point and the Narrator decides that Glinda floats in and tells Dorothy how to use the Silver Slippers properly.
Chapter 3: Chapter 3 discusses the system of the game. To find out if you succeed or fail, the player rolls 2d6. If one of the dice is equal to or lower than the skill, they succeed. If both dice roll higher than the skill, they fail. If both dice roll low then it is a special success. This is another point in the game’s favor, but it is the combat/wounds section that makes me hesitate.
In combat, there are two types of attacks. Painful Strikes such as punching, kicking and scratching do Will damage. Will damage represent your desire to fight so at 0 Will someone might surrender or flee. Injuring Strikes (such as the Tin Woodman’s axe or the Lion’s claws) make you lose Will and roll on the injury table. After rolling on this table, you’ll lose whichever body part comes off. You don’t just get a bit bruised; you actually get an arm or leg lopped off. Since this is Oz, it won’t kill you.
After reading this, I immediately started to think of the Black Knight from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. This could be hard to play straight and I can see older groups breaking into laughter at the thought of their characters hopping around on one leg. This is heightened by how easy it is to lose a limb. To the game’s credit, it suggests using this scene as a reference because the loss of limbs (in Oz) should not be played for the gore. It suggests sending players on quests for lost limbs or to replace them with magic. I’m still not sure if I fully agree with it but I can understand where the author is coming from. However, due to it being easy to lose a limb, it seems like the search for lost limbs could become cheapened and lose its shine.
Chapter 4: Chapter 4 talks about magic in Oz and adds the Sorcerer template. Spell casting works similar to skill rolls but bonuses and penalties are added to the roll depending on how many people you are targeting or how hard the spell is. The chapter finishes with a list of magic items from the stories. These follow the same rules as magic.
The big problem in this chapter is I could not find what skill to roll against to cast magic. My first guess would be to use Brains or Wits. The other big problem is it does not clearly stat which modifiers are bonuses or penalties. Again, it is obvious that most of them are penalties but it is something that needs to be clearly written out in the rulebook. Overall, I felt that this chapter was rushed and needs a good rewrite to clear up some of the muddiness with the magic rules.
Chapter 5: This chapter is full of helpful advice on how to run a game in Oz. One of the best written parts of the book, it is full of advice for running a game in a humorous world like Oz. I recommend it for anyone wanting to run a game in a fairytale world.
Chapters 6-11: These chapters discuss the lands of Oz in more detail. Each chapter goes into the various countries and towns of this magical land and their inhabitants. These chapters are full of adventure and character ideas. At the end of each chapter, it gives rules for creating a denizen of that land (such as the Hammerheads or Wheelers) or ideas for further adventures in that country.
The last chapter is an adventure, ‘The Jaded City of Oz’, which involves the characters marching in a parade for Melting Day, the holiday which was founded after the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. It involves traveling through a few popular locations from the stories and possibly gaining Glinda as an ally.
The book ends with a map of Oz and character sheets. I would have liked an index or a list of the Oz stories as well but it’s as easy as going to Wikipedia for the stories.
Overall, I like ‘Adventures in Oz’. The magic chapter needs a clearer rewrite but the system itself seems very solid and playable. The artwork is a bit sparse but well done.
I could see the system working well for a Harry Potter game, or for a ‘Wicked’ style game. I recommend this game to anyone looking for something to run for younger players or anyone wanting a rules light system for a fantasy game.
Review Summary