Why Review a Free Product? It will still cost you some time to read and some ink to print if you choose. I'd like to know if it's worth it and I thought someone else might as well. I will not hesitate to spoil the adventure (SPOILER ALERT).

Physical Product This is a 50 page PDF with a single-column format. Normally that would be hard to read on a phone but the fonts are large and the margins are large as well. I paid for a printed copy.

Description I was very curious as to what the design of a two-player RPG could be. I've always been skeptical that you really could role play with two people and I've tried with little success. The "storyteller" in the title gives me pause because I'm not that kind of player or GM but my biases may not be the same as yours.

The illustrations are well done. A good cover and a good city illustration.

Hrrmm. The introduction states that the game has been through several major revisions and doesn't resemble two other games I've never heard of so I'm kind of wondering who this introduction is for. "No pre-planned adventures here I'm afraid - it's just the way I roll nowadays!" How nice for you. Then why are you posting this on the web?

It also states that we are encouraged to publish our own setting packs if we want. Go wild! Gee thanks.

You'll need every kind of polyhedral dice but d20s. Ok.

Character Creation is done by allocated different dice sizes (d4, d6, d8, d10 and one "d0" to five statistics - here pointlessly renamed. Strength (Fire), Intelligence (Craft), Charisma (Song), Wisdom (Granite) and Agility (Ice). You give a 'Tag' description to each of these statistics. The example of setting d0 to Intelligence is "Has no truck with magic'.

Next Equipment (Trappings) is assigned. You can have three pieces of equipment given a d4, d6 and d8. These should be 'special'. The example given is not a Greatsword but 'The Executioner's Sword from the City State of Chun'. It is also given an "element" as well. So you could give your Greatsword Charisma which will represent that it is a "status symbol". So I guess this means it will have d0 Fire and harmless if you try to attack with it?

Another example is that you might be given tattoos with a d6 Intelligence and a necklace of teeth that is given a d4 of Wisdom.

You could also give two Elements to the same piece of equipment. So you could have your sword do damage after all I guess.

A little throw up is entering my mouth.

Next you give your character five "Lore" which are stories of our exploits, assigning d4, d6, d6, d8 and d10 to them.

It seems to be setting maximums that you can also 'Specialize' by having a maximum of 2d10 and 3d8 in the same element. So at least a token node to game balance is given.

Next chapter is "Tales of Legends" which shows how adventures are constructed. Apparently they are all supposed to be conducted on-the-fly but it doesn't explicitly say so. The author not really writing for anyone other than himself.

You construct an adventure Seven Scenes. Each one defined by two of the attributes reshaped as Combat (Fire), Magic (Craft), Intelligence (Granite), Persuasion (Song) and Quick Moving Scenes (Ice). There is a beginning scene where the two elements are chosen by the GM and an ending scene where the two elements are chosen by the player and five scenes in between. After the beginning scene the "loser" of the scene chooses the two elements of the next scenes until the Ending scene where the player chooses the two elements. I guess if there are two players they have to argue amongst themselves which elements are part of the final scene? Or the middle scenes?

No elements can follow a scene that had the same elements.

Actually as a basic outline for constructing an adventure I can't really find fault with it. It's a little 'forced' but that really works well in most adventure tales.

The next chapter is Creating Challenges. It starts by showing how to create NPCs and Monsters (and possibly anything else) by assigning static numbers according to the challenge of the foe - Minion, Standard, Elite, and Legend. Then it gives an example of a pack of wolves which seems to be built like a normal character. I'm not sure but I think you start by assigning them dice sizes and THEN using the static number instead. In other words, the wolves have d8 fight - which then means that the wolves are.... I have no idea. There seems to be no difference in the pack of wolves’ example than just making up a character.

Though it does say you can create one set of statistics for a group of enemies.

It also talks about 'Inanimate' adversaries which only have three static numbers of the same dice. For example a standard door is 4, 4, 4, Fire (because 4 is the static number for either a Legendary d4 or a Standard d8). WTF?

In the Example Adversary Levels they show the Pack of Wolves using only static numbers instead of the dice sizes they used before. I guess this is a second step you have to go through when creating adversaries to simplify them? Double the work to simplify the stats?

The example shows three different wolves, each with higher static attributes.

Resolving Conflicts is next. Elements may not be the same in a conflict. Unless it is a door I guess.

Apparently to resolve a conflict you take one dice from you statistics (that match the element of the conflict), two dice from each piece of equipment and two dice from you Backstory.

In the example, the sample PC tries to include his tattoos in the conflict, but "...concedes that he would be reaching to bring them into this particular conflict." So the author seems to admit there will be a lot of arguments in this game.

"If the players can legitimately find a reason to include their dice, allow it." Oh yeah. A lot of arguments.

So it looks like Combat only takes three rounds. Each side allocates dice (for the PCs) or static numbers (for the GM) to each of the three phases. Whoever scores the most wins (highest number in each phase) wins the conflict.

The winner of each phase is allowed to make a 'declaration' for each phase they won. In a tie, the player who picked the elements for the scenes makes the declaration.

The declaration is "Like this happened!” The loser must agree that this is what happens unless they decide to give up one of their declarations and then they can change it.

To cause a "wound" (physical, emotional, social or organizational) you roll your highest dice of the first Element of the scene. So I guess you have to keep track of each scenes First and Second element?

You beat a dice for the NPC and a static number for the PC, which is the reverse of how it's normally done. Why are there static numbers at all? It doesn’t seem to make any scene and way overcomplicates things. It’s a dice pool system after all. Wounds are subtracted from the Element they are used against in the future. Healing reverses the process.

You may not make the same declaration twice or negate a declaration later that you agreed with.

Then there is a page which says what to do when the declaration is "I kill him." Basically, argue it out.

After that it is a chapter on Advancement. It looks like you gain stuff no matter whether you win or lose.

For a very high fantasy setting magic doesn’t seem to have any rules but handwaving.

Next is a chapter on the 2nd player who has less stats as the ‘main’ hero and they share their dice in the dice pool, sometimes alternating between Main Hero and Companion. Two sample Companions are given.

Storyteller advice follows. Good in that it makes it clear you cannot possibly plan anything ahead of time.

Next is a sample setting. A very high fantasy mountain with a witch and goblins. Two more sample PCs follow and some sample NPCs and a bear. Following are apparently NPCs, a witch, a pack of goblins and another pack of wolves. Also two different types of demons. Also an elemental spirit and a couple more monsters. Five adventure seeds follow that.

There are also some nice sheets diagraming the combat phase and story structure (which is my favorite part of the game so far). Then there is a character sheet.

Overall For a good review I should go one, but I basically don’t want to bother. It's not complete gibberish. There was obviously an intent to put some sort of structure in place for free-form arguing (or roleplaying if you prefer).

For as much as it wasn’t my cup of tea, it’s probably the BEST storytelling game I’ve ever seen. The rules are sub-light Savage Worlds (highest roll wins on a bunch of different sided dice), but that’s a least some system.

Should I Check Out Their Other Products? I can’t really believe that there are any other products or that anyone other than the author and his sister will ever try to play the game. Personally, I have no interest in finding out.

However, it is a good solid interesting way to structure a free-form roleplaying game and I chalk up the experience to “Okay, now I know what Storytelling games are” so for that I’m glad I read it. Was it worth $10 I paid to print it – no. There are eight good illustrations though.

The storytelling structure is actually the best part of the game and it might be interesting to write a computer program to spew out these ‘structures’ programmatically to have a handy set of outlines for writing your own stories.

But of course, I’m not really downloading here for inspiration in writing my own stories.

So I can really only recommend this game as a basis for ideas on how to construct an adventure and for that I’ll give it more than the one it deserves.