Trenchcoats & Tinies

Small Folk in Big Coats is a roleplaying game about small folk not getting noticed in the big world and deciding to work together to get noticed and get what they want done by collectively wearing the same outfit and trying to work together. Of course, whilst the temporary small folk collective might share an aim or two, every individual has his aims and wants to be in charge. So whatever the agreed plan might have been at the start, the attempts to fulfil that are going to go awry as chaos ensues… Fortunately, everyone around the collective just thinks that they are dealing with a hopefully charming, if hapless and probably accident prone eccentric rather than what they actually are. And what they actually are is several small creatures in an overcoat! Small Folk in Big Coats is a roleplaying game that draws the roleplaying meme of ‘three kobolds in a trench coat’ or ‘three goblins in a trench coat’. The meme is humorous and thus so is Small Folk in Big Coats. It is also designed to be played with as minimum an amount of preparation possible—even no preparation at all—and as one-shots. What this means is that Small Folk in Big Coats works as well for convention sessions as well as those nights when not everyone is available to play.

Small Folk in Big Coats is published by Armstrong Games following a successful Kickstarter campaign. The game needs a single six-sided die and ten tokens per player, and it works best with at least three or four players who together choose from or roll on the tables that make up the first half of the slim rulebook. This includes ‘Species’, ‘In A’, and ‘Flourishes’, the latter the only thing that the Small Folk Player Characters can agree on. So for example, this might be ‘Ratmen In A Plumber’s Outfit’, ‘Little Mushroom Guys In A Cocktail Dress’, or ‘Owls In A Suit of Full Plate’, and their Flourish might be to ‘Down your pint’, ‘Leave a generous tip’, or ‘Do a backflip’. Each player’s Small Folk has two objectives, one big, one small. A Small Objective might be ‘Show of Skill’ such as to ‘Juggle something valuable’ or ‘Lie’ and ‘Reassure someone by saying you’re a doctor’. A Big Objective could be to ‘Defeat A Dragon’, ‘Change The World’ and ‘Found a Religion’, or ‘Win A Quiz for Boffins’. These objectives are kept secret, whereas a Player Character’s skills, of which he has two, need not be. Skills include Pickin’ Pockets, Inciting Riots, Knives (Chopping), Seamanship, Correct Dinner Party Etiquette, and (knowing) The Exits. Lastly, each player begins play with ten tokens. Everyone is randomly assigned a role—Head, Legs, or Limbs—and anyone who is Limbs receives a Mischief which is a different colour to the normal tokens. Set-up like this is simple and quick.

There are three Roles in Small Folk in Big Coats, which all together form the Stack. At the top is the Head, at the bottom is the Legs, and in between are the Limbs. One Player Character is the Head, another is the Legs, and everyone else is the Limbs. The Head is in charge—nominally—and can interact with the world and speak. If the Head wants to act and failure is likely, or better still, funny, his player must roll a six-sided die. The action is a success on a result of six, though if the Head has a relevant skill, there is a bonus. Alternatively, a player can spend coins to adjust the roll. If the Head succeeds, he can continue to act, but any failure is automatically a dramatic failure and can trigger a ‘Contest’ with his ‘allies’ lower down in the trenchcoat (or other outfit). The Legs handle movement, and whilst the Head can tell the Legs where to go, the Legs can negotiate the exact details of where he goes. If this takes too long, the Game Master can decide that the Player Character to the left of the Legs kicks him out and replaces him.

Player Characters who are Limbs cannot handle either the walking or the talking, but can add to the chaos by causing something that the Head has to deal with such as grabbing something, pushing a button, knocking a pile of crockery over, and so on. This requires a Mischief token. This is the only way in which Mischief tokens change hands and if the current Head later ends up as a Limb, then his player now has one or Mischief tokens to cause mayhem with.

Contests occur when everyone else in the Stack decides the Head is having it too good or too bad. A closed auction occurs with everyone bidding as many or as few of their tokens as they want. Whomever bids the most becomes the new Head, whilst whomever bids the lowest becomes the new Legs, and everyone becomes Limbs. However, everyone, but the new Head keeps his bid, half of which goes to the new Legs and the other half is lost. What this means is that both tokens and Mischief tokens can flow back and forth between the different roles and players can bid low in order to refresh or gain more tokens in readiness to try and grab the Head position later in the game. Game play continues until all but one player offers an empty fist in a bid to be the new Head.

Small Folk in Big Coats is a competitive roleplaying game, meaning that a player can win. This is determined by whomever scores the most points and points are scored by achieving Objectives and performing a Flourish. A Flourish can only be performed once an Objective has been achieved and the Head only has a short time in which to do it before the Legs and Limbs trigger a Contest.

Physically, Small Folk in Big Coats is decently, simply presented, with daft pictures. The writing is clear and simple.

Small Folk in Big Coats is a very quick and easy roleplaying game in every sense. That includes preparing it, learning it, and teaching it. That can all be done in minutes and so it is a perfect back up roleplaying game to have in the bag or on the shelf.