Warriors Adventure Game

The second free Tabletop RPG promo featured this week is an interesting offering for kids. The Warriors Adventure Game is a short RPG based around the popular ‘warrior cats’ books by Erin Hunter. Unsurprisingly, players roleplay the adventures of  the wild cats featured in the books.

The Warriors franchise adopts the Dragon Age: Origins Tabletop RPG model of offering a relatively simple, conventional set of introductory tabletop rules to extend the overall appeal of the brand. The target audience is a bit younger, but the same principles apply in terms of trying to build community and presence.

The 54 pages of rules are beautifully presented, with excellent illustrations throughout. This makes the game easier to learn and it wouldn’t be hard to persuade fans of the books to try the game. It helps that the cats’ skills are suitably feline, while the use of knacks, clans, skill checks and advancement puts across many of the basic features found in most Tabletop RPGs.

Warriors #1: Into the Wild

There’s some useful advice on running the game built into the rules. This includes help with balancing exploration and storytelling during play.

Material about the books crops up frequently, but more in the interests of building up the setting than simply promoting the books. Gamesmasters and players who enjoy the setting and the game can find further adventures stuck at the back of the books.

Our young playtesters were already used to complete ‘rules light’ fantasy games, but knew nothing about the books. They weren’t really up for a game of internecine cat warfare, so a quick patch seemed in order.

A rapid re-brand to ‘Sabretooth’ had them running around an ‘Ice Age’ setting complete with mammoths and melting glaciers. This particular adaptation retained the anthropomorphic fun involved in being a ‘cat’, while opening up a wider ‘sandbox’ than that offered by the books.

The adventurers soon wanted their swords and spells back, but they left Warrior Cats aka ‘Sabretooth’ with lots of ideas about roleplaying pets and rides in other RPGs. At 50 pages it’s a bit much to expect a basic RPG to provide the framework for months or years of varied play.

That said, the Warriors Adventure Game offers a more straighforward and story-centred way to introduce RPGs to young kids than most full-blown RPGs. It’s also a safe, (and potentially popular), bet for schools and libraries interested in trying out roleplaying activities. The game is available HERE.