How silly, this game is French ! No one speaks French here. Go away, stinking frog !

I think this game is very interesting, and a particular phenomenon. It is a RPG based on a series of French "comics", themselves based on a parody of RPGs.
It is made by the publishers of the "comics", which is not a new phenomenon in France, and one of the comic's authors is heavily involved in the original design of the game, which is interesting.
I've written this humble review to enlighten the world. Since an interest for some French productions (Bloodlust, Agone, etc.) seems to exist in savage & foreign lands, I would like to present some recent and interesting French productions, and "Donjon" is one of the most interesting RPG book published in 2001, regardless of language (I've heard they publish things in Britain and British colonies, too).

Before we kill you, tell us about the comics

The "comics" (I hate this word) tell the stories of monsters living in a D&D-like Dungeon. There is a main series ("Donjon Zenith") which is the continued story of the Donjon itself. There are also other series such as "Donjon Parade" a series of humorous one-shot stories, "Donjon Monsters" telling the stories of characters outside / before the Donjon, "Donjon Potron-Minet" ("Donjon Early-in-the-morning") about the tumultuous youth of the Dungeon Keeper and "Donjon Crépuscule" ("Donjon Sunset") about the dark future of the land (the sun stopped to move).
The character evolve during the series : the misanthropic Dungeon Keeper used to be a optimistic young man (in love with an assassin), Marvin the Dragon and Herbert the Duck, main characters in "Zenith", are very very different in "Crépuscule" ...
These are not series for children. "Zenith", "Parade" and "Monsters" are very humourous indeed, but the humour is very subtle ; it's not only slapstick comedy about RPGs. "Donjon Potron-Minet" and "Donjon Crépuscule" are very melancholic stories, even if humour dominates most of the time. The main authors, Johan Sfar and Lewis Trondheim used to be important figures of underground "comics" publications in France, and they are very respected as real artists and graphic novelists.
There are other artists involved in the series : mainly Christophe Blain and Manuel Larcenet (another gamer, like Joann Sfar, and co-author of "Raoul", a comedic RPG).
Arnaud Moragues is the guy who wrote the RPG.

And the world ?

The world is called "Terra Amata". Apparently no human people live there ; "normal" people are anthropomorphic races : birds (mostly ducks), cats (the Kochaques, a tartar-like people), rabbits (local hobbits, especially annoying), dogs, elephants (the Babars, quite a violent people with a kind of "Drunken Master" martial art), pigs, etc. Also, many fantasy races are present, some of them very classical (goblins, etc), some of them coming directly from RPGs (Broos, Cthonians, etc), most of them completely unique (for example, the Olf, a race of stinking gnomes with strange traditions).
There are no elves, no dwarves and no kenders.
The biggest town is Antipolis, a metropolis not far away from the Donjon. Many other towns exists, most of them dominated by one race or kind of people (such as Poissonville, a half-underwater city of amphibious creatures).

What means "Donjon", anyway ?

"Donjon" is the French name for "Keep" (central tower of a medieval castle). Those places generally contained the jails, hence the English word "Dungeon".
Funny note : "Dungeons and Dragons" was translated in French as "Donjons et Dragons", completely reversing the perspective compared to the original (French "donjons" are towers instead of underground complexes).

What's this particular "Donjon" of the comics / RPG ?

Like most French D&D dungeons, the place is a high tower full'o'monsters. The Dungeon Keeper is a clever manager, and the Dungeon is a successful business. Adventurers come in, they get killed, the money is taken, distributed and re-invested.
Sometimes, when the adventurers are worthy, the Dungeon denizens let them go away with some riches : they go to town and spread the word of a dungeon full of treasures. New adventurers come, and the money keeps rolling in.

And the game ? Yet another rip-off from D&D, where "the only limit is your imagination" ?

In this game, you play monsters. A lot of races are proposed, based on characters appearing in the comics. Almost every intelligent "monster" race can be played as PC's, though some of them are not recommmended : Trolls (over-Powerful human-looking giants) and evil races (such as the "Capuchons", tentacled monstruosities). Everything else is possible, from the zombie babar to the (small) dragon, from the tentacled behemoth to the goblin cheftain (with his horde of goblin mooks).
You can't play a mage with this basic book alone, which is the only sad thing about the game. Necromancers kick ass in the comics : they are more like Adepts of Life (like in Mage : the Ascension) with strange Powers upon other's living (or dead) bodies.

How does the system work ?

Like in Nighlife (and Chill), monsters may have certain Powers at the creation of the character and for every race there's a specific list of Powers they can buy when they evolve. There's also a list of "generic" Powers everyone can buy. Powers are not "rated", but they give bonus for certain actions, or give you possibilities (flight, etc.).
There are 6 generic Powers (strong, hardy, lucky, hero, healthy, innocent-looking) : "Hero" is a must-have for PCs and makes you almost unkillable (they die at -10 instead of 0).
There are 33 specific Powers (horde of followers, flight, bad smell, chameleon ...) and 3 social Powers (noble, contacts, rich).
Also, 3 Very Special Powers are described. These are very rare and, like in the series are very hard to learn : mastery of the feather (a martial art permitting to kill green monsters with a single feather), Tong Teum (spitting explosive mushrooms) and Spit Spiders (bleah!).

Aside from Powers, characters are defined by four Attributes and some Skills, rated with adjectives, ala FUDGE. The Attributes are "Acrobatics", "Brawl", "Charm" and "Awareness". The Attributes depend on your race, the Skills depend on your occupation and your age.

The resolution system is simple, relying on an universal table and a d100 roll. I give the table here, because it's freely available on Joann Sfar's web site :

	Nul	Pas très doué	Bon	Habile	Balaise	Hyper-Fortiche
Nul	50%	30%	10%	5%	1%	1%
Pas très doué	70%	50%	30%	10%	5%	1%
Bon	90%	70%	50%	30%	10%	5%
Habile	95%	90%	70%	50%	30%	10%
Balaise	99%	95%	90%	70%	50%	30%
Hyper-Fortiche	99%	99%	95%	90%	70%	50%

In oppositions (like combat), only one side rolls the dice (the player, generally). Damage is handled simply : everyone has got Hit Points (rolled at character creation depending on one's race and certain Powers) and a hit does 2d6 damage, whatever the weapon (but there are some rare 3d6 weapons, and hand-to-hand damage is 1d6 for most non-monstrous races).
Few people wear armour, but rules are given anyway. Shields are sometimes used, but they're rather useless.

What does the book look like ?

The book is a A4, 128-page, black-and-white book
Contents :

Introduction to RPGs (4 pages) with a sample dialog and a mini-glossary

Description of the World (12 pages) with a map (drawn by Sfar), a summary of the situation ( stats for the characters of the series) for the 3 periods (potron-minet, zenith, crépuscule), a description of famous places ...

Character Creation (12 pages) with the description of the Attributes, a method to generate your character's background and psychology, a description of the skills ...

Bestiary (44 pages) : a presentation of the Powers, and a description of the dozens of creatures populating Terra Amata, complete with original illustrations, description, PC templates, sample NPCs, etc.

Armory (4 pages) : weapons and armour

Other Equipment Economics (4 pages)

Magic (8 pages) : you can't play a magician with the basic rules in this book, but this chapter gives suggestions to include magic in your game, and some sample magic objects (most of them coming from the series)

System (14 pages) : the resolution system

Time (4 pages) : considerations on game time, and also, more interesting, the possibility to play an older version of your character, with rules to do so !

Telling Stories (12 pages) : advice to the novice Dungeon Keeper. The chapter also includes a summary of the albums published, with a list of the characters, magical objects, monsters ... involved

Adventure! (8 pages) : 2 short scenarii, taking place at the "Zenith" period. One of them is about hiring new monsters for the Dungeon, the other one is about going to town to buy some fish. Like in the series, the goal is not about killing monsters and take their stuff (that's the job of the so-called "adventurers") but are about peace, making new friends and live a happy life.

So what ?

This is an excellent RPG, well-written, funny and simple. Maybe it will attract fans of the series to the hobby (fans of Sfar, Trondheim and Larcenet are not always gamers), maybe not, but anyway it's one of the best adaptations of a comics-to-RPG to be seen. It's quite normal, because the RPG was planned by Sfar since the beginning of the series.
The problem is the impossibility to play a magic-wielding character, which is not justified since some very important characters in the series wield magic. The rules will appear in a supplement, but I would have prefered a simple freeform system in 2-3 pages. A consolation : some of the Powers are magic-like, and there are guidelines to create magical objects.
Anyway, this book absolutely rocks. Learn French and buy it NOW !

Links

Donjonland (the Donjon official site)
Lewis Trondheim
Joann Sfar
Manuel Larcenet
Article and Reviews on the GROG (French)