As advertised, a good (G-rated) introductory adventure for a parent to run a single child through. It has lots of guidance, enough challenges to keep it fun, and is short enough to keep a child’s attention.

grubman sez...

OK, I purchased this...it's digest size, so its really only about 30 pages of reading. I read the entire rulebook in about an hour. I haven't played it yet, but have played enough games (33 years of role playing) to know how this one stacks up. I'd like to give a comprehensive rules review, but to be honest, giving too detailed a mechanical review would pretty much give away the game, and might actually take away from sales because a descent GM (or game designer) could take the basics and just run with them.

Thumbs Up On the one read, I will say it's a pretty nice little light game. Very traditional meat and potatoes skill system stuff (If you are like me and don't care for artsy fartsy games). It has a very streamlined and simple core mechanic that would handle any situation (using a single D6 roll). It also has rules that cover most everything you would expect from a generic game system in the most concise, yet "complete" way possible. It has a satisfactory looking advancement system, so you could potentially use this for a longer campaign, not just one shots (although I still think it would be a sort of one-shot campaign...if that makes sense). All in all it's pretty comprehensive for such a small package.

Thumbs Down I would have liked a little art to break up the text. While the core game is pretty good at covering large ideas in a concise way, some people might be put off by the lack of more details. The game is really a centerpiece for games, not a full universal game by itself. The GM is going to have to have his own setting (that's a given), but they are going to have to invest some time in expanding and modifying the skill lists and bestiary (which sadly lacks guidelines for creating balanced "monsters"). The "skins" (genre settings, fantasy, supers, sci-fi) provided in the game are such barebones examples as to be pretty much unplayable as-is settings (although the authors are upfront about this). I think the superhero skin was a particularly poor choice, because there is no way anyone would choose this game for superheroes over other much more complete light super hero games (like Supers!, Icons, or BASH for example).

In Summary Comprehensive, concise, lite universal system with core rules that will satisfy the need of most games. Good traditional mechanics that are easy to comprehend and learn and will raise very few questions. Good for one shots or longer term play. Will require GM to do modest to a significant amount of work before playing an actual game. Will only appeal to people who like lite games and prefer to develop their character through role playing and not through cool powers.

Overall good...a little pricy for what it is (I think $2-$3 is more reasonable). I look forward to seeing what the genre games look like...but wish this one included longer "lists" (skills, vehicles, creatures & monsters) to make this more of a pick-up and play universal game out of the box with less GM work.