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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
 
$12.99
Average Rating:4.5 / 5
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/24/2024 13:25:50

I've now run several games with Kids on Brooms, and there is a fun, simple rules light RPG to be enjoyed. But there are some things missing that would help flesh out the experience. In an effort to keep the rulebook as small as possible it feels like a little of the connective tissue is missing. The biggest thing is guidance on weaving class weeks and months into a school year.

Everything comes down to one of 6 skill tests, which I'm fine with, and I really like the six common die sizes being your ability scores, but more guidance on fleshing out challenges, and how to build challenges into an adventure would be helpful. As is I've been winging it and we've been having fun, but I don't feel there is enough here to last a whole magical school career, just a short campaign, which is fine, but a bit more robustness (while keeping the rules light) would have afforded some more flexibility.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Derrick [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/20/2024 21:26:19

It's a simplified system that is great for RPG beginners. It has rules for player safety and gives people who frequently have their voice silenced a chance to speak up by addressing this in the rules. Some people may object to this because they don't want to admit that marginalized groups exist but I guess if you don't want your 12 or 14 year old boys to learn that the world is a diverse place...I guess you don't play this system and move on.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Oliver S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/17/2022 15:05:00

I bought this for to play with my kids, i found the setting cool and the coverart appealing so i bought it.

But what kills this for me its is constant reminder in this game to have players think about ethnicity, sexuality, race and gender. Call me old fashioned but for my 12 to 14 year old boys I just want to enjoy a game of high school magic, not really have a discussion with them about their characters sexuality or ethnic systemic oppression.

But on the flipside, if those things are important for your game group you will find plenty there. Its just not for us.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Zachary E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/05/2021 14:27:51

I came across this system by chance, having heard of the original (Kids on Bikes) but unaware of other settings, and I have been very happy/excited to get my hands on it. This is a very rules light system overall which is my big draw as a player of some more crunchier game systems. I am not sure if I see this system as being able to do a long term campaign, while the system contains some progression systems I have mostly played games fitting more of a D&D formula and without specifics around combat it just is hard for me to work out what this loooks like in a long form game. The book does go a bit deep into a lot of diversity and inclusion style specifics that I personally feel came off a bit too much, I understand the importance of those but they are things that neither my players or I have ever had trouble just naturally doing in games we play/run.

I fell in love with this game because of the simple rules and just how open it allows someone to be with the game. Players and GMs can sit and have a very indepth roleplay session working together to build relationships and the world. It has a few issues here an there, these are mostly with book layout though. Almost all the tables are at the very back of the book but several are sitting with the chapter they pertain too, I am unsure why some are kept in the back while others are not. This was a bit of a hassle for my players having to jump back and forth during creation. All in all a system well worth the price though, even if you only ever play it in a one off capacity.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Jonathan R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/22/2021 00:49:15

This game does have its pros.The design is lovely. The system is rules light, quick and easy, and manageable for young players. If you're playing with kids, I think this is a great purchase. That said, the overall content is lacking, and the product as a whole feels padded and riddled with blank space and editorialization. For example, this is a setting that lends itself to campaign play--it's essentially an unlicensed Harry Potter simulator, and those stories are structured around academic years. Who wants to sit down and play a single session of this? There's little guidance for longer play, no mechanism for advancement, etc. It reads like an unofficial Savage Worlds setting with less actual game and less world content. And--I have to say this--I support inclusivity in gaming, and I think the emergence of safety caveats at the outset of rulebooks is a positive thing, but Hunters has turned it into the Theatre of the Absurd.

TL:DR: way too little meat on the bone, frequently infantalizing, good for kids.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by James H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/07/2020 10:51:32

If they put as much effort into creating content for the actual game as they did with all the diversity/inclusion/safe space verbiage, organize the chapters and rules into something sensible, and reprint it, it might be worth buying. Most of it reads like a fantasy world HR handbook instead of a RPG. There are better homebrew systems on the web for free that capture the style of a Potter-esqe world.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/28/2020 15:07:36

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/10/witch-week-review-kids-on-brooms.html

Kids on Brooms

Before I get too far into this review I want to start off by saying how much I love the art by Heather Vaughan. It just fits, or more importantly sets, the tone of this book. This could have been a cheap "Harry Potter" knock off, but Vaughan's art makes it feel darker and more dangerous. The kids in her art have power, but they also have fear, and even a little hope. So kudos to Vaughan for really setting this book up for success from the cover and into the book.

Again for this review, I am considering the PDF from DriveThruRPG and the physical copy I picked up at my FLGS.

The game is 96 pages, roughly digest-sized. The art is full color and used to great effect. The layout is crisp and clean and very easy to read.

Kids on Brooms (KoB) is a new (newish) game from the same team that gave us Kids on Bikes. Authors Doug Levandowski and Jonathan Gilmour with artist Heather Vaughan. New to the team is author Spenser Starke. If Kids on Bikes was "Stranger Things" inspired then the obvious inspiration here for Kids on Brooms is Harry Potter. If it were only a Harry Potter pastiche then there would be nothing to offer us.

The game follows in the footsteps of many newer games in that narrative control is shared. The players help decide what is going on. So our Session 0 for this game is to have the players come up with their school. This can be just about anything to be honest, Harry Potter's Hogwarts is the obvious model, but I also got some solid Night School from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as well. Also, I could see a Breakbills Academy easily being created here, though the characters in Magicians were older. These students are very much of the 12+, highschool age, variety.

The players create their school and even provide some background history and some rumors. It all looks rather fun to be honest. This section starts with the first of many questionnaires to do your world-building. None are very long, but they are rather helpful to have. I should point out that prior to this school building you are tasked with setting the boundaries of the gameplay. What is and what is not involved. A LOT of people think this is a means to stifle creativity. It is not. It is a means to keep everyone at the table comfortable and playing what they want. I mean a drug-fueled sex party prior to a big magical battle is not something you would find in Harry Potter, but it is the exact sort of thing that happens in Magicians or Sabrina.

Something else that is a nice added touch is talking about the systems of power in the game world. So figuring out things like "This form of bigotry exists (or doesn't) in the game world and is different/same/better/worse than the real world." To quote Magicians, "magic comes from pain." Happy people in that world are not spell-casters. Quentin, the star, was depressive and suicidal. The other characters had their own issues, or as Quentin would say "we are fucked in our own ways, as usual." To ignore this page is to rob your game of something that makes your world fuller.

Character creation is equally a group effort, though the mechanic's piece of it is largely up to the player. The player selects one of the Tropes from the end of the book, these are only starting points and are more flexible than say a D&D Class. You introduce your character (after all they are young and this is the first day of class) and then you answer some questions about your character to build up the relationships.

Mechanics wise your six abilities, Brains, Brawn, Fight, Flight, Charm, and Grit are all given a die type; d4 to d20, with d10 being average. You roll on these dice for these abilities to get above a target number set by the Game Master.

As expected there are ways to modify your rolls and even sometimes get a reroll (a "Lucky Break"). The "classes" (not D&D, but academic levels) also gain some benefits. You also gain some strengths and flaws. So if it sounds like there are a lot of ways to describe your character then yes! There is.

There is a chapter on Magic and this game follows a streamlined version of the Mage-like (as opposed to D&D-like, or WitchCraftRPG-like) magic system. You describe the magic effect and the GM adjudicated how it might work. Say my witch Taryn wants to move a heavy object. Well that would be a Brawn roll, but I say that since her Brawn is lower and instead I think her Grit should come into play. So that is how it works. Rather nice really.

At this point, I should say that you are not limited to playing students. You can also play younger faculty members too.

Filling out the details of your character involves answering some questions and getting creative with other ideas. You also fill out your class schedule, since there are mechanical benefits to taking some classes.

The mechanics as mentioned are simple. Roll higher than the difficulty. Difficulty levels are given on page 45, but range from 1 to 2 all the way up to 20 or more. Rolls and difficulties can be modified by almost anything. The first game might involve the looking up of mods and numbers for a bit, but it gets very natural very quickly. As expected there are benefits to success above and beyond the target difficulty numbers and consequences for falling short of the numbers.

Some threats are covered and there is a GM section. But since a lot of the heavy lifting on this game is in the laps of the players the GM section is not long.

There is also a Free Edition of Kids on Brooms if you want to see what the game is about. It has enough to get you going right away.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Kids on Brooms: Core Rulebook
Publisher: Hunters Entertainment
by Taegi K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/21/2020 05:11:58

Don't buy this. This is one of the most rip-off rpg book I have ever seen in my life. The only pros of this book is that they give attention to player saftey and inclusiveness. Since I am a South Korean, seeing South Korean example character did excite me, at first. In this 100 pages book, there are almost no original contents(most of the "contents" are Harry Potter ripoffs), rules are underwhelming and table-dependant, the letterspace is too large and there are so much blank spaces. If you change the content of this book to other rpg's editing style, the volume would be reduced to half. The writers make a cheap attempt to hide this lack of creativity by throwing a lot of random generating tables and "create your own setting" style. If this is a $7 minor rule, I'm willing to let this slide and look at the bright parts. Hey, at least I saved a 3-hour work in making a DIY HP rule(yes, that is as much as I give credit to this rule). But this is a twenty five dollar priced rule. You know what other rulebooks that 25 bucks can give you? Exalted 3rd Edition, VtM 5th Edition, and the brand new Alien RPG.

To the writers: Please, don't you have conscience? Do you honestly think this 100 page book with no real innovation deserves $25 price?



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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