Jerry Hawthorne Invites You to Play Familiar Tales

Designer Jerry Hawthorne loves to create rich worlds with stories that players can live in, walk through, and explore, often pitting players as tiny forces in a much larger world. He's done this in Mice and Mystics, Stuffed Fables, and Aftermath, and he's doing so once again in Familiar Tales, a new "Adventure Book" game that publisher Plaid Hat Games will release in Q1 2022.

Here's an overview of the setting and the challenges that players will face:

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Familiar Tales is a co-operative, deck-building, fantasy adventure for 1-4 players. It's an exciting narrative game in which players take on the roles of a wizard's familiars, entrusted with saving and raising a displaced princess. They must keep her safe from the evil forces that would see her dead, but when it comes to children, it is not enough to merely survive! The familiars know that every choice they make will affect the young one in their care. If they are victorious and the throne is reclaimed, what kind of woman will sit upon it?

Players will explore a massive world through the pages of a fantastical story book filled with branching paths and memorable characters. Fight off enemies, and explore the many nooks and crannies of an enchanted world. Experience a professionally narrated, fully scored, decade-spanning fantasy epic. Easily downloadable for both Mac and Windows, this browser-based app is required to play Familiar Tales. Think of it as an automated game master and storyteller! The app also features a digital, searchable rulebook.

An innovative card play system allows players to level up their familiars by building and customizing their skill decks. Players will use their skill cards to perform all manner of exciting actions throughout their campaign.

Familiar Tales retails for US$80, and Plaid Hat Games is currently taking pre-orders on its website, with the English rules (PDF) available for those who want a more detailed overview of gameplay.

Note that while the game is for 1-4 players, you must use all four familiars no matter the player count, and familiars take turns in order. Each familiar has their own card box to hold their starting cards, and as that familiar acquires new items, gathers resources, and suffers afflictions, you'll maintain all of those items in the box so that whoever controls that familiar in any particular game has an up-to-date record of their situation.

As noted in the description, an app is required for play, and Plaid Hat Games demonstrates some features of the app — along with background on the familiars — in this video trailer: