Scan barcode
erfenden's review
5.0
I was expecting this to be a beautiful but generally uninteresting RPG book. And that would have been enough for me, I would have been excited enough just to own an official Jim Henson game.
However, I think it's much more than that. The mechanics of the game are pretty standard for contemporary rukes-lite games (players looking for complexity and depth will be disappointed) but that's ok. It makes the game easy to learn and fits my tastes. But beyond the rules (and taking up the majority of the page count) is a catalogue of scenes and a system for progressing through them. This part of the game, likely invisible to the players, is this game's "killer app". It should make it very easy to GM the game and be a huge boon to new GMs. It's just a really cool framework!
Aside from that the book itself is gorgeous. The layout and art are fantastic. It's a hardcover with 3 ribbons which makes it feel quite special. And the fact that it contains within its pages a little book for storing the necessary dice is thoroughly amusing.
However, I think it's much more than that. The mechanics of the game are pretty standard for contemporary rukes-lite games (players looking for complexity and depth will be disappointed) but that's ok. It makes the game easy to learn and fits my tastes. But beyond the rules (and taking up the majority of the page count) is a catalogue of scenes and a system for progressing through them. This part of the game, likely invisible to the players, is this game's "killer app". It should make it very easy to GM the game and be a huge boon to new GMs. It's just a really cool framework!
Aside from that the book itself is gorgeous. The layout and art are fantastic. It's a hardcover with 3 ribbons which makes it feel quite special. And the fact that it contains within its pages a little book for storing the necessary dice is thoroughly amusing.
jeffhall's review
4.0
Ben Milton and his fellow contributors have done a great job of mining the movie version of The Labyrinth as inspiration for a TTRPG setting. In the spirit of the film (and Jim Henson's work in general), the emphasis is on problem-solving and teamwork, with no real provision for handling combat, which so many other TTRPGs place front-and-center.
Even if you have no intention of ever playing a game following the rules included in the book, the adventure scenarios (and the maps that go with them) are so well done that they can readily serve as prompts to the imagination, or even as drop-in encounters in any fantasy-oriented game system that you may already be using.
Kudos to the designers of this volume as well - it's beautifully printed and bound, and is a joy to read and handle.
Even if you have no intention of ever playing a game following the rules included in the book, the adventure scenarios (and the maps that go with them) are so well done that they can readily serve as prompts to the imagination, or even as drop-in encounters in any fantasy-oriented game system that you may already be using.
Kudos to the designers of this volume as well - it's beautifully printed and bound, and is a joy to read and handle.
More...