From Spicy Green Iguana, Review by Elizabeth Barrette, February 2001

World Tree: A Role-Playing Game of Species and Civilization by Bard Bloom and Victoria Borah Bloom. Padwolf Publishing, 2000. U.S. $29.95 softcover, 318 pages. ISBN: 1-890096-10-5. Five stars.

Break out the pizza and the bubbly beverages! Pass the dice! Pull up a chair and kiss the old world goodbye! It's gamin' time. Okay, so this is a book, but I'm putting it down as a product review because the game part is more important. You actually can sit down and just read the thing cover-to-cover; it's the most entertaining RPG handbook I've ever read, in that regard. You can read the parts in order, or skip around. But the most fun will be playing it with other folks. Alas, I don't have access to a gaming group right now, or I'd have playtested it myself - but I do have enough past experience to gauge its playability and I will definitely keep an eye out for "World Tree" games in convention programming.

A number of features leaped out as particularly noteworthy when I read this. First, the setting is highly original. Your characters live in a gigantic tree, which is not much like Earth or any other gameworld I've heard of. Extensive background material tells you about the physical and cultural features. Second, there are the characters. You have eight "prime" races to choose from, some humanoid and others not, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. The authors put a massive amount of thought into constructing plausible and fascinating races. If you want a very slapstick game, or a very aggressive game, or a very thoughtful game, or a very social game, all you need to do is weight the character selection appropriately (towards Orren and Khtsoyis, Gormoror and Sleeth, Rassimel and Zi Ri, and Herethroy and Cani respectively). The game mechanics also support role-playing every step of the way. You can do stuff in this system that you couldn't do in others, and it will work smoothly into the play. Yet the game mechanics support combat just as thoroughly - you can streamline it if it's not your favorite part, or you can flesh it out in as much depth as you wish. The magic system is completely original, exquisitely detailed, and ubiquitous. Everybody does magic, so if you're tired of playing fragile mages who die the first time a monster sneezes at them, you'll love this part. Magic comes directly from the gods, of which there are 7 "Verbs" and 12 "Nouns" that combine in many ways. The lavish artwork ranges from mediocre to magnificent - which is typical for a guidebook - leaning heavily towards the latter, which is not typical. My favorite artists include M.C.A. Hogarth, Mel White, and Mike Raabe; those of you active in furry/anthropomorphic circles should recognize these and other names on the art credits. Some of the book's content is aimed primarily at players, some at gamemasters, much at both.

It's a pretty magnetic game, too. I found out about it because some of my friends were involved in the project. When you hang out with creative folks, everybody likes to talk about their current project. I heard tantalizing bits and pieces about this one for months, so that by the time it actually came out I was on the edge of my seat, despite not having a group to test it with. (Someday I will, and much hijinks will ensue...)

In reading the book, it was the attention to detail and the wild sense of humor that really stole my heart. I'll give you a few examples. Right at the beginning comes an impressive display of xenolinguistics, using foreign words to describe foreign experiences: the customs of affan (authority based on being the best at something) and choofing (contesting for such authority), plus the emotions of salaffan (what the winner feels) and deffa (what the winner feels); all of which are crucial if you play a Cani character. The spell titles are often hilariously descriptive: "I Really Didn't Fall," "Flushing the Emperor's Commode," "Hold the Tasty Snack," "Revenge of the Enraged Lover," and "Bite the Spell's Head Off." And just wait till you find out what they do. The tidbit stories tucked in to give a sense of the setting, like "Flokin and the Baker," are excellent reading in their own right. You'll also see snippets of dialog or text in the voices of various World Tree characters decorating some sections: "A decent adventurer should be able to run three miles, tell fire-magic from wind-magic, climb a tree, fast- talk a city guard, use a weapon, ride a horse, cast a few kinds of spells. All basic stuff. Also better be really good at one or two things." The Advantages/Disadvantages section includes such howlers as "Curse of Beauty: People you despise frequently get crushes on you; people you like rarely do." Even the technical discussions can get funny, as with this bit on unusual fighting techniques: "Attacking a sleeping Sleeth: It would have given the 'Prepared Attack' bonus, except that the Sleeth heard the attacker coming and woke up." http://www.world-tree-rpg.com Most highly recommended.

( Spicy Green Iguana does not archive its past issues. Go see more of Elizabeth's reviews of fun stuff at Hypatia's Hoard.)