Facilitator: Randy Lubin
Players: Mari Amend, Adrian Vasquez, Sean Nittner
System: Zhenya’s Wonder Tales
Enter a dark world of Slavic- and Baltic-inspired fairy stories. Your perfectly innocent and kindhearted host, Zhenya, will guide you. Fall in love with a bear. Bow before the King of the Snakes. Marry a shape-changing fairy—or fight one to the death. Search for your stolen skin, high above Devil’s Bridge. Attend the funeral of Night and console their children, Dawn and Dusk.
Randy had played once before, so he offered us Zhenya’s tales that he hadn’t already played. We immediately gravitated towards The Bear Lovers because…well, bears.
I played Basia, who had been left by her husband Lada a year ago. Now she was days (or hours) away from giving birth. I opened the scene with Basia trapped in her house, the door was frozen shut. Though a window she called for Janusz, her neighbor and Lada’s half-brother. Janusz was a strong, burly man, who had been tending to her (and all the village women) in Lada’s absence. Often to the chagrin of his wife Anna-Alojza, who thought he gave too much.
“Janusz! Janusz! Help. I’m trapped inside my home and I have to pee.” Her calls woke Janusz and he promised Anna-Alojza he would help Basia and be back in bed soon.
The cold winter had frozen Basia’s door closed and she could not pry it open on her own. They worked together, with her pulling from the inside and him slamming his great body against it from the outside. In one final powerful thrust he burst in and fell down on top of Basia.
They both laughed at the absurdity of it. “Janusz, get off me, your beard is tickling my face. Oh no—” Basia in her delight, had peed herself. That is when her long lost husband Lada returned home!
Highlights
Adrian played Lada, who had returned with coin, treasures, scars, and the story of a doctor…who was dead now. He mentioned the doctor often. Really often.
Mari played Janusz his half brother who despised Lada for taking money from the corrupt pelican judge. Before this was mentioned, I didn’t know who that was (though we had heard about him when we considered the other tales so I recognized the name). Lada called him a bastard, Janusz called Lada heartless. When they came to blows, Lada’s necklace, given to him by the doctor, was lost in the snow.
Randy played Anna-Alojza, who I almost confronted because she was so obviously condescending Rasia and complained so much about how much I had cost them (it was a delight to describe their house clean and in good order and mine with dirty plates and bowls in the crib that Janusz had built for my baby). I didn’t end up confronting her however, because when I asked if she had ever felt enchanted by the forest, she confided that she had…we had both met our lovers deep in the woods!
In the end, Lada gave the healing herbs to save my son (even though it wasn’t his own) and he died instead. Maybe in hopes of seeing the doctor once more.
A few quotes (some anachronistic):
- After I called the game Bear Naked Babies, Adrien kept chiming in “It’s been…” to the tune of One Week, which was hilaroius.
- “The best time to plant a placenta tree is twenty years ago. The second best time…”
- “My child will not survive the night, and now my husband is dying. Am I cursed to be alone?”
- “To Bastards and Thieves. We still love them.”
Thoughts on the game
I loved this game so much. I think Zhenya’s Wonder Tales is a direct evolution of Fiaco, that takes a different path than Desperation. All three games have strong set ups that create characters with powerful drives. Fiasco mostly stops at that point. There’s good and bad outcomes players can give each other, a tilt, and an aftermath, but for any given scene, it relies on the players to draw from the established facts or create new ones of their own. Desperation, offers continued guidance along a fixed but non-linear path. We’re not sure what order the events will happen in, or who they will happen to, but the story beats are determined by the playset. I think Zhenya offers the same strong setup and gives in scene support by way of the move, which help you draw towards the expected story beats (like quarreling with Lada or turning to Janusz for help) but still putting it in the players hands to decide the content of each scene and which moves they would reach for. I think this is PEAK design. I’m so damn impressed.
The map is so great. It immediately gives you a sense of place and encourages you to explore. It feels like Fall of Magic meets Microscope. PEAK DESIGN!
Great write-up – that was a super fun session!