Having had a chance to play this game, now, I can say that it lived up to all my expectations. The system is incredibly simple yet effective. My entire family can sit down at the table and enjoy it. Heck, even my 4 yr old has managed to get into a game or two.
So, you all may be asking yourselves what does this game really have to offer me?
For GMs
A chance to work with a different sort of setting. Leave your monsters and traps behind and enter a world where you have to think from the animals' points of view. I find that this is a really challening and fulfilling genre to write in.
Coming up with stories and encounters that fit the setting but that still allow for the sense of adventure and majesty you want in an RPG can seem tough at first but after a few tries it all falls into place. You do have have a certain sense of whimsy to make it all work, but I think you'll find it worthwhile.
For Players
A chance to play something different. Playing an animal character is a new experience. Without hands, equipment and possessing the smallest of stature, you really do have to fall back onn your role-playing skills to get throug hthe adventures. When you are a mouse or a frog, the world is indeed a very big place.
Your adventures tend to be about survival and the mystery of the world outside your confined little community (The Wood). Danger lurks in nearly everything. Man, other animals, natural disasters and combinations of any of these. How you deal with these is greatly determined by the things nature has granted you (unless you have somebody playing a gnome).
What sorts of things can I do?
The game lays a lot of this out for you, but I'll share the few adventures I have run or am working on.
In one of my adventures farm animals have escaped from the nearby farm and have strayed into the woods causing no end of trouble for the creatures of The Wood. The PCs must come up with a plan to try and get the animals out of their home before they cause more damage or, even worse, bring the farmer and his dogs into the wood looking for them.
Another of my adventures was a very quick story of exploration as the PCs went to the river to investigate a strange thing one of the NPCs had seen there. What they found was a toy boat. What was fun is seeing how the animals interpreted and responded to this find.
A recent tale was a sort of ghost story where the creatures of The Wood are being haunted by something in the trees that shows up on moon-lit nights and stares down at them. What the creatures do not know is that the thing that rustles and crackles through the tree is simply a plastic bag, carelessly discarded by Man and blown on the wind.
Encounters
Encounter in TFTW tend to be with other animals. Avoiding Man is best as most encounters with humans tend to end poorly. Rats seem to be the orcs of this game. They are the common foe and always seem to turn up wherever you are. Foxes as well as owls and kestrels are your greater threats with weasels and stoats falling someplace in between. These are by no means the only animals in the game (it includes rules on how to create new animals within the system) and I have used rats as useful NPC encounters as well (they know things). Even the nastiest of predator can be an ally at times.
Conclusion
Tales from the Wood is a splendid game that offers experienced gamers something new to play. For new gamers it is a simple, non-threatening system that they can cut their role-playing teeth on. If you are a family gamer, this is a game you can play with the whole family in which just about anyone can find something they like. This is also a good game to lure RPG-curious folks into.
Thanks for reading,
Eli
