Rich H wrote:fbnaulin wrote:Rich H, did you try it as an addon to The One Ring? In wich way is meaningful to the RPG experience?
I'm afraid those parts of the rules weren't areas that I playtested so I'm as intrigued as everyone else is as to how they integrate with the RPG. My playtest was very informal; basically Francesco dropped me an email asking if I'd be interested in giving it a spin with my gaming group - you can imagine my response! I wasn't signed up to a formal NDA, he just asked me to respect his wishes which I obviously did; it was very difficult to keep quiet though as I've been itching to say something about Hobbit Tales as it will be a lovely game once the illustrations are added to each card and it was lots of fun to play.
fbnaulin wrote:Please share some general impressions, if possible.
Okay, I'll try my best...
As you can all gather from the product blurb, the premise of the game is to tell 'Hobbit Tales' based upon cards that are drawn from a deck. Each player takes a turn (or two - depends on how long you want to play it) as the narrator and plays what are effectively 'location' cards sequentially (those referred to as adventure cards within the product outline), narrating their content as part of the bigger story they are telling. At each point a card is played, the other players may play appropriate/matching 'hazard' cards that the narrator needs to overcome with a dice roll. When the narrator's played all his cards he gets tokens for each 'successful card' that was played and can either keep these tokens or buy rounds of ale for the patrons of the Green Dragon Inn. How these tokens are spent contribute to the final score of each player, so there's a tactical element to consider.
The above is repeated for each player and at the end their tokens are tallied and a winner is declared. There are particular rules on how this is all scored which I won't got into here.
When I playtested it, I effectively GMd it in order to take notes as we played. I actually integrated it into my 'Three's Company' campaign - the hobbits returning to Bree after they themselves had overcome an encounter with an ancient Barrow Wight on the Barrow Downs. They therefore played their hobbit characters within the game which they said really helped them to set the mood and 'get into' the storytelling.
The game *is* an interactive storytelling game so it won't appeal to everyone - this was the case with my group; there are 5 of us but Rick really struggles with this kind of game whereas Colin and Vinny loved it. This could really be seen in how they narrated their stories - ie, Colin and Vinny were exuberant and enthusiastic in their descriptions, creative with how they narrated each card's content, adding embellishments all over the place along with using hazards within their story that others played. Rick's story was a bit more 'stop/start' in nature but was still very entertaining. Everyone enjoyed the experience but I think some players will get more out of listening to other players than actually narrating themselves. I loved watching them play through their respective hands of adventure cards - I was thoroughly entertained, so it's great to watch even if you're a spectator; for instance, I RP'd some of the Prancing Pony patrons prodding the hobbits/players for more information and also asked questions and/or teased them like an audience would in such situations.
Highlights of our game were many but some particular ones were as follows:
- Colin combined a 'Riddles in the Dark' adventure card with a Wight hazard; the old lord of the barrow losing to the brave hobbit in a contest of wits and therefore telling him how the 'magic map' he carried with him could be deciphered.
- Vinny played a 'Broken Bridge' card whilst regaling us with a tale of the old dwarf Thogrim (his dwarf PC from my other campaign) searching for gold in Mirkwood. The bridge was an elven moon bridge which 'solidified' when bathed in the light of the full moon thus allowing the dwarf to cross it and continue his quest.
- Neil followed Vinny and cleverly continued Thogrim's story, as he hunted down the goblin gold thieves, thus avenging his father and reclaiming his clan's honour.
- Rick told a morality tale about a hobbit 'thief' that was 'too clever for his own good', the narrative placing the hobbit into more precarious situations because he refused to return a ruby red dragon gem to its rightful owner.
Players are allowed to look at the cards they draw in order to plan their narrative and it was interesting to see how they were interpreted and how each player used them in subtle but different ways. For instance, some of the players really used the hazard cards as part of the story using their success/failure as springboards for the story, whereas others merely acknowledged their existence within their story as encounters or embellishments rather than more active story components.
It's a clever little game and very interesting in how each player uses the adventure and hazard cards within their own story. The cards are not too prescriptive so leave a lot of room for personal interpretation and differing storytelling approaches which I found very interesting as too many times games such as these promote some kind of 'one true wayism' of playing it which thankfully Hobbit Tales doesn't do.
I'd wholeheartedly recommend it.
(Really hope the above didn't overstep the mark with regards to disclosing too much, Jon/Francesco, and hope it was enough for others with regards to being informative).
