by M4LYSS

So, I've been sitting here for a while now, pondering exactly how to express and explain my love for this quirky, unique and utterly absorbing indie RPG called Tales of the Kytin Age. Now, I could give you a dry, in-depth review of its rules system, what it's like to play or referee, whether I think it's worth the money (it so is!) etc. Instead, I finally decided to just simply write the five things that made me fall in love with this game.

1. The beauty of its artwork turned my head. I'd love to say I discovered this game at UKGE or some other expo, but that's not how it happened. I found out about this game whilst scrolling through the list of new product arrivals at Dungeonland (a UK online games store and reseller). I saw the beautiful front cover and immediately clicked on the link to find out more. Mr Stoilov's artwork throughout this book isn't just beautiful - it is an essential ingredient in immersing you in the world that Gray and Stoilov have created. Evocative, informative and thoroughly mesmerising - it accomplishes what can sometimes be the most challenging task of any RPG: helping you visualise the world, bringing it to life and evoking a sense of grandeur and scale (in EVERY sense of the word!)

2. The range of character types you can play is some of the most exciting I've seen in a long time. Now, I'll be honest, there are many games that I either own or have played, where there are a few really stand-out character types or classes you can play where you think "ooh yep - I really want to try that", but with just as many options that are, well... a bit more "meh". I have to tell you I looked through the character creation options of this game and was dumbfounded. There are no 'classes' as such (or even roles/professions) as you would find in most RPGs. Instead there are 'Forms of Being' (akin to races, heredities, genetic subtypes - call them what you will) - and there are just 4! But, oh my, what a 4 they are! Each of them is so flavourful, so intriguing and (most importantly) so interesting to play in their own right that I found myself truly struggling to decide which Form I wanted to choose. Plus, each type of Form can be personalised to your vision of how you want it, whether by the choice of which skills you decide to invest it, what insect type you choose to descend from, what guild you associate with, etc. No cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all characters here!

3. The game system immediately reminded me of my favourite RPG system: Basic Roleplaying by Chaosium. TotKA is NOT a percentile-based system though - it uses a D20 instead of D100 for skill resolution mechanics. But in every other way, there is so much here that is similar to BRP: degrees of success or failure, characteristics linked to skills, even the Guilds give discounts for training certain skills - exactly like RuneQuest 2 first envisaged back in the day (yep - I'm an old duffer!) So, aside from using a different type of die to BRP - everything else felt so familiar that I picked it up almost instantly. Of course - if you haven't played and BRP games or their derivatives, then this probably is not saying much for you - but even then, you'll find the basic rules system and mechanics extremely straightforward to learn and use.

4. The world is - well there's nothing else out there quite like it. There are several post-apocalypse genre RPGs on the market. But none of them have imagined our own world in the future after an apocalyptic event quite like TotKA has. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but the basic jist is this: imagine a world of Kaiju - except instead of creatures like Kong or Godzilla, you have giant spiders the size of a double decker bus, mantids the size of a T-Rex, or dragonflies the size of a 747!

5. The big bads of this game are, well, BIG! You won't find any fantastical creatures here like dragons, hydras or chimaeras - which have just had the word 'mutant' added to their names to justify their existence. You won't find much of anything here - as nearly all Earth's species and biodiversity has died out. But what you WILL find is insects, arachnids, arthropods and other invertebrates. And they are HUGE! Huge, and utterly terrifying - but also a thrilling challenge to encounter and have to defeat.

Given that Gray and Stoilov are pretty much a 2 man band, with no team of dedicated colleagues to help them, it makes what they have achieved with this game all the more impressive. I can't wait to see what they do with it next!

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