Thra & Away

One of the most elegant pieces of roleplaying design in recent times is Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Adventure Game published by River Horse Press. Adapted from the 1982 Jim Henson film of the same name, this presented a way to explore a story similar to that of the film, with the Player Characters chasing the Goblin King through the labyrinth, visiting many of the locations in the film as well as others new, in random order, but always pushing forward. It presented what was in effect a roleplaying game and a roleplaying campaign in the one book, and because it included some one hundred locations, the randomness meant that it could be played more than once because the players and their characters were unlikely to visit the same location twice between play throughs. Further, the complete nature of the roleplaying game was cemented with a pair of six-sided dice which sat in a cut-out within the book’s pages. The result was simple, elegant, and clever, and the good news is that River Horse Press has gone and done it again with The Dark Crystal Adventure Game.

The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is based upon the 1982 film Dark Crystal and its more recent television series, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, on Netflix. Instead of taking the Player Characters into a maze as in Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, what The Dark Crystal Adventure Game does is send a band of Gelflings on a grand quest across the strange and magical world of Thra to collect seven seeds from the seven great trees and return them to Mystic Valley within ninety-nine days, before the next conjunction. Together they will journey across Thra and back again, surviving dangers, helping each other, and hopefully returning stronger and wiser. Theirs is a great task and Gelflings are fragile in some ways, but strong in others.

A Gelfling can be from one of seven Clans. These include the aquatic, and direct in manner Drenchen; the nomadic and spiritual Dousan who prefer silence and stillness; the cave-dwelling Grottan, able to see in the dark; the Sifa who have a reputation for gregariousness and roguishness; the Spriton, clever crafters and traders; the Stonewood, dedicated warriors; and Vapra, renowned as crafters and artists and scholars. All female Gelflings, apart from those of the Drenchen clan can fly. Each Clan provides four traits and a Gelfling also begins with two skills selected from Agility, Animals, Brawn, Fighting, Lore, Scouting, and Social, as well as a Specialisation for these skills. Later on, a player can expend Experience Points to give his Gelfling new skills, buy new specialisations, and raise a specialisation to a mastery. A Gelfling also has a flaw and a reason why he was summoned to Mystic Valley.

Greyon
Gender: Female
Clan: Stonewood
Traits: Stonewood, Living Weapons, Unparalleled Fighter, Fated Warrior
Skills: Agility (Reflexes), Fighting (Ferocity)
Flaw: Prideful
Summons: A Lost Wanderer
Equipment: Sharp Blade

Mechanically, The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is very simple. To undertake an action, a player’s Gelfling rolls his creature die, which is a six-sided die for a healthy Gelfling, and attempts to best a difficulty ranging between two and ten. This is typically a single die, but if the attempt is Improved, perhaps because the Gelfling has the right equipment or if there is an appropriate trait, the player rolls two dice and keeps the best result. If the Hindered, perhaps because the Gelfling does not have the right equipment or the Gelfling has an appropriate Flaw, the player rolls two dice and keeps the worst result. Either way, the player adds a bonus to the result if the Gelfling is trained in a skill, for an appropriate specialisation, an appropriate Mastery, and also if an Gelfling is helping out.

Fighting is as equally as simple. Instead of rolling against a Difficulty number, any attack is an opposed roll against the opponent’s Creature Die, which for some monsters can be as high as a ten- or twelve-sided die! When a creature or a Gelfling suffers damage, his Creature Die reduced one step and this is what the Game Master or player rolls until healing is received. In the case of a Gelfling, if his Creature Die is reduced below a four-sided die, he is Injured. This might result in his being knocked out, having his arm broken, her wings torn, and more. It might even result in the Gelfling’s death. This is final, but on the World of Thra and thus in The Dark Crystal Adventure Game, it triggers a special encounter as a funeral for the unfortunate Gelfling is held, everyone tells stories about him (earning them Experience Points), and the player creates a new character, which may or not be a Gelfling.

The campaign in The Dark Crystal Adventure Game consists of thirty scenes and over two thirds of the book. These can be divided into four types—Region, Location, Event, and Darkened Scenes, the latter representing the dark poison which flows across Thra and threatens to corrupt everything if the Gelflings do not fulfil their quest in time. Certain scenes or locations, such as the Plains of the Castle and the Caves of Grot already begin as being Darkened. When Darkened certain scenes cause nightmares, but the general effect is inflict damage when a Gelfling uses ‘Vliyaya’, the essence whose manipulation can lead to amazing magical effects. Play itself is player-led, they together deciding where their Gelflings go in search of the seven seeds, based upon the information they know and rumours they have. The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is thus a sandbox campaign, but one with a countdown, represented by a spiral calendar of Thra. As time passes and the Gelflings travel between scenes, the Game Master will mark off days around this calendar, which can trigger events such as the spreading of the Darkening.

Each scene typically details the particular locations to be found there, an encounter table, an appendix of further details, and the extra effects of what happens if the Darkening spreads there. Spread across a two-page spread, it is often quite not enough information, as the Game Master will need to refer elsewhere in the book—especially the ‘Creatures of Thra’ in the Toolkit chapter. Unlike Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, what this means is that The Dark Crystal Adventure Game cannot as easily be run on the go, there being a constant start and stop as the Game Master quickly refers to and gathers the stats and details she needs to run the Scene. Ideally the Game Master should prepare and read through the campaign pretty much as she would a standard roleplaying campaign. The other indication that the campaign in The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is more traditional is that with thirty scenes it does not offer the same replay value that Labyrinth: The Adventure Game does. The campaign itself is fairly dark as the corrupting effects of Darkening spread across the land and so more mature in nature than that in Labyrinth: The Adventure Game.

Elsewhere, there is good advice for both player and Game Master, and some background on the world of Thra and its history, as well as decent bestiary. The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is not a sourcebook though for The Dark Crystal, its focus being much on its campaign.

Physically, The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is nicely presented. The artwork is excellent throughout, including the fully painted illustrations in the bestiary and the photographs taken from the film. It does need an edit in places and an index in the book would have been useful. There is though an index on the inside of the dusk jacket which also doubles as a map. The cover of the book has been pleasingly etched with suitable symbols and it feels lovely in the hand.

The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is something that fans of The Dark Crystal will enjoy and likely will playing. Yet unlike Labyrinth: The Adventure Game it is too much of a traditional roleplaying game and campaign for the casual roleplayer to really run as is, because it just requires that little bit more preparation than a ‘pick up and play’ game warrants, whereas for the player this is very much less of an issue.

The Dark Crystal Adventure Game is definitely one for fans of The Dark Crystal as it gives them the chance to explore the world of Thra just this once in the face of a spreading doom. Although The Dark Crystal Adventure Game will require a Game Master with some experience, but is more than suitable for players new to the hobby.

—oOo—

River Horse Press will be at UK Games Expo which takes place from Friday, June 3rd to Sunday, June 5th, 2022.

An Amazing Game

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is a roleplaying game based upon the 1986 film Labyrinth. In that film, the frustrated sixteen-year old Sarah wishes away her baby brother, Toby, whom she has to babysit, but upon discovering that he has been kidnapped by Goblins, realises her error. However, Jareth, the Goblin King, offers here a deal—her dreams in exchange for the return of her brother. When she refuses, he gives an ultimatum: Enter and solve his labyrinth and find Toby before thirteen hours are up and he is turned into a goblin forever. In the course of the story, Sarah will find her way through the labyrinth, passing through the Hedge Maze, the Goblin City, and more, to confront the Goblin King in his castle and so gain her brother back, all with the help of friends and allies. In Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, several brave adventurers—each of whom has also lost something to the Goblin King—shall venture into the Labyrinth, solve its puzzles, overcome its challenges, make allies, and help each other in order to get back that which was lost.

Published by River Horse Games—the publisher of the surprisingly good Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game—Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is a self-contained roleplaying game, designed to be played by four or five players plus the Goblin King. In fact, it is so self-contained that open up the book and you will find a pair of dice sitting in a pocket punched through the corner of the pages. This is of course, in addition to the full rules and some ninety or so locations and encounters the adventurers can explore and have in the course of their making their way to the Goblin King’s Castle. Its format and style of play echo the solo adventure books of Fighting Fantasy—and others, but the number of encounters and scenes means that even if a group of players get through the Labyrinth and defeat the Goblin King, they could play through again and not necessarily repeat either encounters or scenes. The roleplaying game’s simple mechanics, quick set-up time, and linear way in which the encounters organised—though not necessarily played—means that the Goblin King, as the Game Master is known in Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, could bring to the game to the table with relatively little preparation.

Each Player Character in Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is defined by three things—his Kin or Race, a Trait—something that he is good at, and a Flaw—something that he is bad at. The six given Traits are paired abilities like ‘Singing and Dancing’ and ‘Lifting and Pushing’, but a player is always free to create his own as long as they fit the setting. The Flaws include ‘Overconfident’ and ‘Coward’, and again, a player is free to create his own. The listed Kin include not just the protagonists as in the film, but others that were at best minor members of the cast or adversaries. So, they include Human, like Sarah; Dwarf, like Hoggle; Horned Beast, like Ludo; and Knight of Yore, like Sir Didymus. The others are Firey, Goblin, and Worm. Each Kin has its own particular Trait. So, a Dwarf has a Job like Gardner or Plumber and associated tools; a Firey can separate his limbs and head and create small fires from his fingertips with Detachable Limbs and Fire Fingers; a Goblin gas Goblin Features and can get into a lot places unnoticed that others cannot; a Horned Beast has the Very Big Flaw, but can mentally control a type of object like plants or water; a Human has two Traits, not one; a Knight of Yore is Honourable and can find and tame a Steed; and a Worm has the Very Small Flaw and the Wall Climbing Trait. All of these model the character types seen on screen in the film, but there is nothing to stop a player and the Goblin King working out something else about their character if he wants to play something different.

To create a character, a player simply selects a Kin, a Trait, and a Flaw. He also decides on a name and a reason why he is in the Labyrinth, that is, what exactly does the Goblin King have of his? Given the limited number of options, a player could actually create his character in sixty-seconds, and four or five players create theirs and be ready to play in five minutes! Where there is a problem is with what drives the Player Characters forward, further into the Labyrinth. The discussion of this is a little light, and whilst experienced roleplayers will have no problems coming up with ideas, for anyone new to the hobby via Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, well some suggestions and inspiration might have been useful for them.

Our sample character is Bobby, a teenager with well-deserved reputation as a sneak and a thief. At home he is bratty and difficult as his parents are going through a divorce, and most recently his mother’s jewellery has disappeared. He fears for the consequences should he be blamed and desperately wants to get them back.

Bobby
Traits: Listening and Spotting, Sneaking and Hiding
Flaw: Selfish
Goal: To recover his mother’s jewellery

Mechanically, Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is very simple. Whenever a Player Character wants to undertake an action which has consequences, his player rolls a single six-sided die. If the result is equal to, or exceeds, a difficulty—ranging from two or ‘Piece of Cake’ to six or ‘It’s not fair!’—the Player Character succeeds. Should a Player Character have an advantage, such as from a Trait, the player rolls two dice and takes the better result. Conversely, if a Player Character is at a disadvantage, his player rolls two dice and takes the worse result. Having a suitable piece of equipment or another Player Character help a Player Character out using one of his Traits, lowers the Difficulty, or in some cases ensures that the acting Player Character succeeds.

Instead of combat mechanics, Labyrinth: The Adventure Game opts for action scenes, since this is not a game where the Player Characters or NPCs can be killed, or violence is necessarily the answer. In purely mechanical terms, characters do not have weapons, armour, or even the equivalent of Hit Points. This is not to say that neither weapons or armour could come into play, but their effects would really be narrative rather than mechanical, and the same goes for injuries suffered. However, there are no rules or little in the way of guidance for handling this and again, for anyone coming to Labyrinth: The Adventure Game as their first roleplaying game, this may be a problem. 

What it means though, is that the players and their characters will need to be more inventive in how they overcome the challenges they face. Ideally though, both the Goblin King and her players should be taking a cue for this from the film itself, so action scenes and what might be combats in other roleplaying games should here be slightly cartoonish in style and the way that they play out. 

Another aspect of the mechanics is that they are player facing, that is, the Goblin King never roles against the Player Characters—only the players roll, either to act, to persuade, or avoid a threat. The Goblin King can roll though on any one of the random tables that litter the scenes and encounters to determine something about the scene or an NPC, and she also rolls to determine how far the Player Characters will progress into the Labyrinth as they move from scene to scene. Throughout their progress through the Labyrinth, the Player Characters will find equipment and potions and things to help them, and these can be used to get past obstacles, to barter with the inhabitants of the Labyrinth, and so on. Ideally, although each Player Character can carry a limited number of items, each player should be looking to pick up as many as they can and be inventive in their use.

All of the rules, character creation, and advice for the Goblin King take up just the first thirty-five pages of the two-hundred-and-ninety-two pages of Labyrinth: The Adventure Game. The other almost ninety percent consists of descriptions of the Labyrinth itself. These are divided across five chapters—the Stonewalls, the Hedge Maze, the Land of Yore, the Goblin City, and finally the Castle of the Goblin King. Each one is strictly a two-page spread, which makes them very to use at the table—no need to flip back and forth anywhere. Each comes with a description to read to the players, a map and a key explaining its features and challenges, a table of random elements, and possible consequences. So ‘The Wrecking Crew’ in the Stone Walls has the Player Characters run into a Goblin gang demolishing a corridor for renovation and the bad news is that they have no idea what they are doing! Tables enable the Goblin King to randomise both explosives and the Goblins, and the consequences are either that they get past and continue onward, or the explosives are detonated, and the Player Characters are blinded, knocked down, coughing, and covered in green powder in the next scene. Some of Scenes, such as the Oubliette, The Land of Stench, and Ted’s Quest will be familiar from the film, but many are not from the film and so will surprise anyone who knows the film well.

These Scenes are ordered one after the other from The Gatekeepers to the Goblin Castle. Now the Player Characters will start at The Gatekeepers and end at the Goblin Castle, but they will not play them one after the other. Instead, at the end of most scenes, the Goblin King will roll a die and move the number rolled that number of Scenes forward. Their movement forward is measured as Progress and they need to complete Scenes to increase their Progress, but if a Scene proves too challenging or they want to revisit an earlier Scene, the Player Characters can move backwards. This does not mean that they reduce their Progress, but it does mean that Player Characters can go back to an earlier Scene and attempt to find another route forward if they get stuck, and it also builds the labyrinthine feel of the game. 

What this also means is that on an average playthrough of Labyrinth: The Adventure Game, a group of Player Characters will play between twenty-five and thirty Scenes before getting to the Goblin Castle. This is played differently to the previous Scenes, with the Player Characters chasing the Goblin King round his castle, moving more freely from room to room, and it more has the feel of a board game, Tortoise and the Hare-like, as they chase down the Goblin King and he runs away from them.

The other tracking factor that runs throughout Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is the time limit. Just like the film, the Player Characters have thirteen hours in which to penetrate the Labyrinth and get to the Goblin King’s Castle and defeat him. In general, as long as the Player Characters are moving forward and overcoming obstacles and challenges from one Scene to the next, they will not lose time. However, failing to overcome challenges in some Scenes, wasting time in certain Scenes, and occasionally, but not always, going back to an earlier scene, will cost the Player Characters time—an hour each time. Specifically, there is no countdown—though it would be fantastic to have a thirteen hour countdown at the table when playing Labyrinth: The Adventure Game—but when the thirteen hours are up and the Player Characters have failed to get to the Goblin Castle or have got there and failed to defeat him, then they do actually lose.

To win though, all the Player Characters have to do is defeat the Goblin King. That though is not physical confrontation, but rather like the film, a demonstration that he has not influence or power over the Player Characters. Fans of the film can of course cite the mantra from the end of the Labyrinth—and that is included in Labyrinth: The Adventure Game. Success means that the Player Characters can grab back stolen goods, kidnap victims, or the solution to whatever was driving them to enter the Labyrinth. Afterwards, Human characters can go home, other characters can get on with their lives, but in a nicer world free of the Goblin King.

Unfortunately, this final confrontation is really underdeveloped. The problem is that the Goblin King is not really described and whilst there is a Goblin King character sheet for the Goblin King to use, and it is suggested that the Goblin King create a Goblin King NPC of her own, there is no advice or help to that end either. Now obviously in the film, the Goblin King is mean to be ephemeral, almost a cypher, but Labyrinth: The Adventure Game leaves the Goblin King to make him as best she can, perhaps basing upon the version played by David Bowie in the film. Given that it is possible to play through Labyrinth: The Adventure Game more than once, this seems such a missed opportunity upon the part of the designers.

Physically, Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is stunning little digest-sized hardback. The artwork by Brian Froud—whose illustrations formed the basis of the film—is excellent as you would expect, but the other illustrations are also good. The writing is decent, and the maps are fantastic, and it is clear that a lot of thought put into layout and the organisation which make the book so easy to use. Further, Labyrinth: The Adventure Game comes with not one, but three cloth bookmarks, and not just because. The red bookmark is used to mark the Player Characters’ progress, the others where they might actually be in the Labyrinth, and so on, which is easier than perhaps making a physical note of it.

Of course, anyone who is fan of the film coming to Labyrinth: The Adventure Game needs to know that this is not something like the board game—also published by River Horse Games—that can be brought to the table, played in a single session, and put away again. As easy as it is to set up and start playing, Labyrinth: The Adventure Game will take multiple sessions to play through, unless you want to play through it in one long session.

Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is not the roleplaying game for the film, Labyrinth. In other words, it is not a sourcebook for the setting portrayed on the screen and it does not allow a Game Master or Goblin King to create that world which her players can visit again and again. Almost like a programmed module or solo adventure—or even a co-operative board game like Pandemic—Labyrinth: The Adventure Game presents a series of challenges and obstacles which the players and their characters can play through multiple times to see if they can defeat the Goblin King. In fact, they may need to if they do not first succeed, and further, the linear order of the Scenes combined with the Progress mechanic means that on a second, or even a third playthrough, the players might not repeat any Scenes except those at the beginning or the end. Though again, playing through it more than once is not a topic that Labyrinth: The Adventure Game addresses.

Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is adorable and charming and it captures the feel of the Labyrinth world with its mixture of bolshiness and bravado and beauty through Scene after Scene, but it is incredibly underdeveloped in places—motivations for the Player Characters, creation and portrayal of the Goblin King, revisiting the Labyrinth, and so on, are just explored enough or at all. None of this will challenge an experienced Game Master, but anyone coming to Labyrinth: The Adventure Game new to roleplaying games and they will find it challenging because Labyrinth: The Adventure Game provides no help—and it should do.

Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is a fantastic format and a fantastic adaptation of the Labyrinth film. It enables a playing group to revisit the story of the film multiple times—whether they succeed or feel in defeating the Goblin King—and do so with very light, easy to grasp storytelling mechanics that emphasise problem-solving and co-operation, all packaged in a beautiful book.

The Pony Game

Rest assured that when I write that the My Little Pony RPG is a reality, it is not a sign of the impending apocalypse. Mostly because what we actually have is Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game, a light, family-friendly RPG that is based upon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the cartoon in which anthropomorphic ponies with bright, pastel coloured bodies, manes, and ‘cutie’ marks have adventures in the magical land of Equestria and learn all about friendship. Originally, both the cartoon and My Little Pony were aimed at young girls, but in more recent years it has been adopted by an older audience, including boys and men who are known as ‘bronies’. It should be made clear that primary reason that Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game is not the My Little Pony RPG is because players do not take on the roles of the characters from the cartoon—Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Spike the Dragon, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and so on—but rather create a pony and then take them on magical adventures of their own and learn about friendship through the roleplaying rather than through just watching the cartoon.

Published by River Horse Games, Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game is a Class and Level game which uses simple mechanics and the full set of polyhedral dice. It comes as a very bright and very breezy hardback that is written in a light and easy style such that an experienced roleplayer can read through it in a couple of hours or so and be ready to run the adventure included in the book, ‘The Pet Predicament’, with ease.

So what can you play in the Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game? Ponies of course, but the choices are Earth Ponies, best known for their Stout Hearts; Unicorns, best known for their horn which grants them Telekinesis; and Pegasi, who with their wings can Fly. The fourth type of Pony, the Alicorn, is not available to play, but might be something that a Pony can aspire to become. Each Pony is aligned with one of the six Elements of Harmony, “…the most powerful magic known to ponydom.” These are Honesty, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, Kindness, and Magic. This alignment has no particular in-game effect, but rather it reflects a dominant aspect of a Pony’s personality.

Each Pony has three Traits—Body, Mind, and Charm—and each Trait is rated by a die type, typically a four or six-sided die at game’s start. Similarly, each Pony will have one or two Talents, one related to the type of Pony he is and one related to his Cutie Mark that he is very good at. So this includes the Stout Heart, Telekinesis, and Fly Talents of the Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi, as well as Creative Flair, Healing Touch, Pony Sense, Speak with Animals, and so on. Such Talents are also rated by die types, typically a six-sided die at First Level. As a Pony gains new Levels, he can increase the die for the Traits and Talents he has or choose a new Talent. Every Pony has a Quirk like Bossy or Too Silly. Pony creation is very quick and easy.

Pook the Pony
First Level Pegasi
Element of Harmony: Loyalty
Body d4 Mind d6 Charm d6
Stamina 10
Cutie Mark – Book
Tokens of Friendship 2+ 
Talents
Fly d6, Keen Knowledge (History) d6
Quirk – Needs Glasses

Mechanically, Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game continues this simplicity. To undertake a task, a Pony rolls the die type associated with a Trait, aiming to beat a Difficulty set by the GM. So a very easy task has a Difficulty of two, a Quite Easy task a difficulty of four, and so on, all the way up to ‘Has anyone ever done this?’ with a Difficulty of anywhere between thirteen and twenty. A roll of a one is always bad news, whilst rolling double or more the Difficulty of a task is counted as an Amazing Success! Further, if a Pony has a Talent appropriate to the Task, he gains an extra die to roll or the Trait die is upgraded to the next die type depending upon the Talent. Similarly, a Pony can gain extra dice for a task if other Ponies help him and working together like this might even lower the Difficulty of the task. However many dice are rolled, the highest result rolled determines the success or failure of a task.

A Pony always has a chance at succeeding at an impossible task because of a technique called the ‘Exploding Hoof!’. This is a variant of the exploding die mechanic found in other RPGs. In the Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game, when the maximum on a die is rolled, then a Pony gets to roll the next highest die, and if he rolls the maximum on that die, then he gets to roll the next highest die, and so on. Only the single highest die is kept—the dice are not added together.

So for example, Pook the Pony has an important editing task to undertake which the GM sets at a Difficulty of Very hard, which is seven. Of course Pook the Pony will use his Mind Trait and because the editing involves something historical, the GM allows him to use his Keen Knowledge (History) Talent, which gives him another die. So Pook the Pony’s player has two six-sided dice to roll, but the Difficulty is still seven, so he is going to rely on the ‘Exploding Hoof!’ technique in order to succeed. Pook the Pony’s player rolls both dice, getting a result of one and six. This is good news because it enables Pook the Pony to use the ‘Exploding Hoof!’ technique, which in this case means that his player can roll an eight-sided die. This he does and not only does Pook the Pony’s player succeed, he rolls an eight and activates the ‘Exploding Hoof!’ technique a second time. This allows the player to roll a ten-sided die, but this time he rolls only a one. This means that the result of the eight-sided die, an eight, is the best result and this is what the player keeps and means that Pook the Pony succeeds and manages to successfully edit the document.

Of course a big factor in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the importance of friendship and so it needs to be a major factor in Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game. One way in which the game addresses this is with the possible lowering of the Difficulty of a task when Ponies work together to complete or overcome a task. The other way is through the use of Tokens of Friendship. Every Pony begins with a number of these equal to the number of players round the table, including the GM. These can be spent to reroll a die, reroll a die, but use a twenty-sided die instead, or to automatically succeed. This costs one, two, or three Tokens of Friendship respectively. If the GM allows it, they can also be spent to change minor aspects of the story.

This though, is just the effect of one Pony using his Tokens of Friendship. If two or more Ponies mix their Tokens of Friendship, then the effect of these Tokens of Friendship can be increased. For example, two Ponies might expend a Token of Friendship each and the GM could rule that instead of this allowing a task to be rerolled using a twenty-sided die, which costs Tokens of Friendship, the Ponies automatically succeed at the task, which normally costs three. Presumably, this increased effect applies to possible changes made to the story, but this is not developed.

The downside to using Tokens of Friendship is that once used, they are gone and cannot be used again. The primary way of a regaining Tokens of Friendship is to gain a new Level which typically happens at the successful completion of an adventure. Ponies can also acquire new Tokens of Friendship when another Pony and his player joins the group, but the primary in-game method of regaining them is through roleplaying great acts of friendship. It is up to the GM to decide what such acts are.

Once the GM is ready and the players have created their Ponies, Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game includes a lengthy scenario, ‘The Pet Predicament’, which takes up a fifth of the book. In this the Ponies are visiting Ponyville when they rescue a pet belonging to one of the characters from the cartoon, Fluttershy. This leads to the Ponies being asked to pet-sit not only Fluttershy’s pet, but also to look after all of those belonging to the Mane Six from the cartoon series, as they go to investigate a threat to Equestria. Of course this does not go as well as expected and the Ponies need to make every effort together to locate and rescue these pets when they escape. Their efforts will be hampered by the personalities and abilities of the pets, but everything should work out in the end. The scenario could have been slightly better structured to make it easier to run, but it should last one or two sessions of play.

Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game ends with the stats for not only the characters and animals involved in ‘The Pet Predicament’, but also the members of the Mane Six and other characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The book also includes a good index and a set of die charts. There is one for each die type and allows the game to be played if a group lacks polyhedral dice, by having the players close their eyes and then point at a number on the chart. It is a solution, but it is a somewhat clumsy one.

The roleplaying game includes advice for players on creating their Ponies and for playing Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game. There is also advice for the GM on how to run game. All three sections of advice are in the same chapter and in each case the advice is good enough. Yet there is an issue with Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game and that is that the authors are not quite sure who the target audience is for the game—or if they are sure, it certainly is not clear in the book itself. Is it for the original audience for My Little Pony, that is, young girls? Is it for traditional roleplayers? Is it for bronies? The subject matter and background material will probably not interest the majority of traditional roleplayers, so not them. This does not mean that experienced roleplayers could not play Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game and enjoy it. 

That said, there is a box of advice aimed at older readers (or roleplayers) about running Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game for a younger audience. Again, the experienced roleplayer will have no difficulty running Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game for a younger audience. For the inexperienced roleplayer or anyone new to roleplaying, it is another matter—and that no matter if the prospective GM is an adult, a young fan of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or a Brony. In other words, they all need to have roleplayed before if they are to get the most out of Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game, because as much the game uses simple rules, it is not as good an introductory game as it could be. One problem is that the use of polyhedral dice could be confusing to an audience being more used to dice being ‘square’. The charts help somewhat, but they are cumbersome. Another problem is that as an introductory roleplaying game, what it really lacks to that end, is a thoroughly good example of play that would illustrate how both the game and roleplaying works. Had that been included, as well as a guide to rolling the funny shaped dice, Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game would be a much stronger introductory roleplaying game.

Certainly a further challenging issue for the inexperienced GM is handling Tokens of Friendship when the players decide to mix them up. This could have been given much more attention, especially when it comes to altering the story. The experienced GM will probably be able to find advice elsewhere or know how to handle such situations, but not the inexperienced GM.

Physically, Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game is big, bold, bright, and breezy. It is illustrated with lots images from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and once you get past compound words such as ‘anypony’ and ‘somepony’, the book is also well written.

Where Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game really comes into its own is as game for the traditional roleplayer to run for younger players. The rules are simple and very easy to pick up and within an hour or two of picking up the book to read, an experienced GM will be ready to run the scenario in the book. The player new to being a GM might want to play Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game first with another GM to learn the rules before running it himself, but again, the rules are simple and easy to learn, such that they would not impede initial refereeing efforts. Not the perfect introductory roleplaying game that it could have been, Tails of Equestria – The Storytelling Game is nevertheless, a nice, familiar way to many with which to introduce certain audiences to the hobby.