Smallfolk

Designed by Gloria Lau and Alfie Wright, and published by Roc Nest Games, Smallfolk is a light but entertaining card-driven game that brings together stories from folklore and mythology originating all around the world. The game benefits from an array of impressive art from Thomas Chamberlain-Keen, Ver Fadul, Angela Gubert, Nadine Jakubowski, Moreno Paissan and Sandra Singh. As a competitive game it takes 2-4 players, but it's also playable in solitaire mode.

Shown here on Board's Eye View is the preview prototype of Smallfolk. It actually plays much more smoothly than we anticipated from the rather detailed draft rules. In actuality, Smallfolk is primarily a card and resource management game where player are each building their individual 'story' tableaus. On your turn you either Discover, Journey or Quest.

To take a Discover action, you add a story card from your hand to your tableau. You pay the resources indicated on the card and you take any instant effect indicated on that card. Journey involves moving your token on a central board and taking the action of the adjacent space to which you move, but additionally you must either add to your hand a story card in the 'Tapestry' market display or exhaust a card in your tableau to activate its effect. If you take a Quest action you activate one of your Hero cards (larger Tarot-sized cards) and take the single-use action indicated on the Hero card.

Separate from the cost to add a story card to your tableau, the story cards also show what's required to make them 'happy'. Happiness requirements are met by having the requisite icons on other cards in your tableau, and then give you a victory point and/or an additional action or effect.

Smallfolk then is a puzzle optimisation game because you really need to ensure you take actions in just the right order to maximise their effectiveness. Ideally, you'll be able to pull off a chain of actions, each triggering the next. It's especially satisfying when you pull off one of these combos but this is such a beautifully illustrated game that even on less impressive turns we've been more than happy just admiring the view.

Roc Nest Games are planning to bring Smallfolk to Kickstarter in September. Click here to register your interest.

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