Simply wonderful. Whether you are looking for something you can play with the family or just something new to try, this game will not let you down. Simple and direct and lovingly dedicated in both style and design to its subject matter, "Tales from the Wood" is a delight.

The system is simple and straight forward but with enough detail to leave it accessible to new players and enjoyable by experienced gamers. The game world is vividly portrayed in the mere 50+ pages of game, using sidebar stories and consistent language geared toward establishing setting and theme.

The setting is charming as is the intended stroyline with small wodland creatures exploring the countryside around them and having to cope with the trials and tribulations of a world being tainted by Man and populated by menaces both natural and man-made.

The setting is written around a simple morality with nature being the primary focal point. There is a bit of an imposed goo/evil dynamic, but not in a way that distracts from the overall feel of the work and which never gets preachy or "political".

All in all I would recommend this game to old and new players who love the idea of playing out stories as found in classic works of literature such as "Watership Down", "Duncton Wood", Farthing Wood" and others such as Bambi and some of the classic live-action Disney animal adventure classics.

The Good: A very evocative, balanced setting. Players take the place of small animals, and can use the power of the Way (from Nature) or the Bane (from Man -- always Man with a capital M, no women here!) Think of it as Star Wars meets Glorantha, but set in Redwall. Combatie, evocativelly named "Tooth and Claw" is deadly, with rules for maiming. Most modern tech (magic) is usually instant death. Rules for overpowered NPCs (large animals), monsters (common predators) and new creature generation are also included. The Bad: The setting could have been explictly expanded. The two included adventures take PCs to places that are not listed on the map, or talked about elsewhere in the book.

I was one of the play-testers for this game so I am unashamedly going to plug it to death.

Seriously this is an exceptionally well thought-out game where players take the roles of woodland animals trying to survive and doing what's best for their area.

Think Duncton Wood, Watership Down and any other similar things andyou have a good idea what this is all about.

You won't find broadswords or laser guns here, it's tooth and claw decides the victor, and just in case you think bigger is better my character saw off a Mink in one-to one combat, and i was a shrew!!!! (okay I was in a hole so it couldn't get at me properly) but you have to think fast on your paws in this game!