This month we have Stuffed Fables! 
Stuffed Fables is one of those unusual family games that you don’t come across that often. What makes it so unusual is that it is played on an adventure story book rather that the usual board.
The book acts as the game board, rules, reference and story guide all in one and the game plays like an adventure quest.
The book has some pretty spectacular colourful scenes and images on its pages, all of which become like the board game. The other page contains the rules and story choices etc.
The playing pieces look like mythical creatures and statues!
Known as “Stuffies” I believe these can actually be painted and decorated to make them more colourful and personal.
The plotline – “Sworn to protect the little girl that loves them, a group of stuffed toys has been drawn into the Fall, an otherworldly, fantastic realm ruled by a brooding master of nightmares”
Playing – players start by taking five dice from a bag. The dice all have different colours and these colours determine the actions and options of the players game play. White dice re-stuff the stuffies when injured in battle. Red dice perform melee attacks and green dice perform ranged attacks. Yellow dice search the area. The blue dice get used for special actions and purple dice can be used as any color. The dice are also used for strategic which includes using items, moving or contributing to group tasks. Dice can also be stored for later use and combined for stronger actions.
Add to this that the dice also represent various character attributes too and it can quickly become a confusing game with lots of rules.
These are the character cards listing attributes and abilities. The sort of thing that accompanies most RPG type games. The characters or stuffies seem to be based on the lost girls teddies and cuddlies.
Of course no adventure or RPG would be complete without an enemy or an evil force to fight against and defeat, and in this case it’s the “Minions”
Minions look similar to the play characters except they are not cutesy bears but more weird looking creatures with weapons and again varying powers and agilities. They must be defeated to win the game. Again the dice and other things determine defeat.
There are so many rules to this rather stunning adventure game that younger players may get bored and give up whilst older children and adults may get stuck and not know what to do. I’m fairly sure that this will be one of those games (if not already) that will come with the option of expansion packs and extra characters making it an endless play. I’m surprised there isn’t an app yet to accompany the game or even an online version, or at least I don’t think there is.
It’s quite a beautiful and very unusual game which can take up to two hours to play. The stories change as the dice determine how it goes each time thus making a new adventure each time it’s played.
The game costs between £50-£60 so I would only recommend buying if you know it’s something that will get played on.
