I actually just got this game as a Kickstarter reward not too long ago, but I don't have a lot of Xmas themed games and it looks cool so I don't want to wait another year.
The Game: 'TWAS - The Roleplaying Game Before Christmas
The Publisher: ACE Gamebooks
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one
I rather regret not backing for a physical copy of this book, actually, but I think maybe I thought it was too niche to bother with beyond a PDF. Silly me.
Anyway, the conceit here is that we're all toys, animated by Santa's magic as he is kidnapped by the Krampus. Our mission, then, is to rescue the jolly ol' elf. Sounds pretty cool.
Character creation begins with a quick explanation of stats and then tells us that the easiest way to get started is to pick a pre-gen. Possibly so, but that's not why I'm here.
There's not a step-by-step, unfortunately, but basically I need to allocate points and then pick three special abilities (the book doesn't say I get three, but all the pregens have three, so). I guess I should figure out what kind of toy I want to be, hmm? Well, how about a car? My toy is a red-and-blue sports car, the kind that you can pull back and rev up to make it go. Good start; I now have to do stats.
OK, I get Agility and Combat at 6, Endurance at 20, and Magic at 0 to start. I get 10 points to throw around, though I can only pump 5 points into Agility, Combat, or Magic.
Well, I don't know that Magic makes a great deal of sense for a car, but let's check the magic system. Ah, nah. My car can just be super fast, and that'll be fine. I'll leave magic at 0, pump 5 points into Agility (11), 3 points into Combat (9), and the other 2 into Endurance (22).
Then three special abilities. OK, I'll take Acrobatics (maneuverability, good handling), Bravery, and Clockwork (this requires another toy to wind or "rev" me, but then I can flip out in battle).
And that's basically it. The Race Car has red and blue trim, a sturdy front bumper it can bonk imps and monsters with, and the heart of a champion. It's so fast it can drive right up walls, and it can turn on a dime. It's not terribly tough, though - a sharp enough blow would send its bits flying.
And that's all she wrote. Ho ho ho!
