WyshMaykers is a storytelling game about a special group of people who have the power to make wishes (sorry... "Wyshes") come true.

The setting is rather open-ended - no time period is implied (though it seems to assume a contemporary one), so GMs could set their stories in almost any era they liked. Virtually no mention is given to the repercussions of this wanton WyshMayking. Do Wyshes cause any kind of karmic backlash? Are WyshMaykers only allowed to make Wyshes when the mundanes aren't looking? If not, what would happen if a mundane witnessed a Wysh in action? None of these questions are answered, but the right group of players may have a good time making up their own.

The game uses -U-, a fairly rules-lite system. Characters are detailed by three Attributes (Action, Thought, and X, which is sort of a catch-all attribute for things such as Will and Luck), a list of Studies (areas In which they have some level of expertise), and any Items that they possess. To create a character, players assign dots to these Attributes, Studies, and Items. Actions are resolved by rolling 3d6 for each dot in the appropriate Attribute (plus any dots in related Studies and/or Items). If any of the 3d6 rolls come up with a pair of matching numbers, the action is a success, while three matching numbers indicate a critical success. No matches denotes failure.

It's a very freeform system - possibly too much so. The Wyshing ability allows a character to do pretty much anything they desire, with little in the way of limitation (a table of modifiers makes larger acts of Wyshing more difficult, but at the very worst, there's still a 1 in 36 chance that a WyshMayker can topple a skyscraper). There is a large and powerful group - the Society of WyshMaykers - who work to keep any such activity in check, but even with them in place, I fear for any gamemaster who ends up with even a single powergamer in their group. Please choose your players responsibly if you decide to run a session of WyshMaykers.

The artwork is rough and sort of "scratchy," and leaves a bit to be desired - thankfully, it is somewhat sparse and non-distracting. The crumpled paper background for the "World of WyshMaykers" section makes it a little more difficult to read, but is absent in the b&w version of the document.

WyshMaykers gets bonus points from me for the inclusion of the "Print 2 Play" pages at the end of the book. These include character record sheets, story outline cards, and cards to help players keep track of their points, as well as "Rules-at-a-glance" cards. These cards contain a simple synopsis of the rules so that the Story Referee and players can check them quickly, without having to reference the rulebook. They even have the page arranged in sections, so you can fold or cut it apart to make it pocket-sized. This is something that I wish every RPG publisher would do with their game.