Advert: We received a loaned copy of the game from Roc Nest Games via the UK Board Game Review Circle. This is a prototype so components and gameplay are subject to change. All opinions are ours and our reviews are always honest.

Today, dear readers, I want to invite you into the beautiful, mythic world of Smallfolk. Are you ready to see how your story unfolds?

👥 1 to 4 players
⌛  30 to 60 minutes
🧠 10 years+

Gameplay overview:

In Smallfolk, you’ll travel the lands with legendary heroes, collecting folklore and weaving them into your own story. On your journey you’ll visit wondrous locations, meet smallfolk, befriend creatures and collect relics, building them into a beautiful synergistic tableau. As you progress you’ll collect victory tokens from the central lake – once the lake runs dry, it’s time to count up your victory points from tokens and your story to see who wins.

On your turn you can do one of the following actions:

• DISCOVER: play a story card from your hand into your personal tableau. Each card has a cost that you can pay with resource tokens or other cards in your hand. Cards have either instant (one use), exhaust or gather abilities.

• JOURNEY: (a) exhaust a card in your story for its ability or claim a card from the tapestry (a central market of cards), and (b) move your adventurer pawn one space along the map, claiming the reward of that space. You can do these steps in any order. And if you land on a campfire space, any exhausted cards in your story get refreshed, plus cards with gather abilities are activated, giving you vital resources.

• QUEST: use the special ability of a hero in your party – these are usually one time abilities! You start your Smallfolk journey with 1 hero in your party, but more join you when you land on their spaces on the map.

At the end of your turn, you check for happiness. Some story cards have a happiness requirement, and if you make your companion happy you get a lovely reward. Happiness requirements require certain traits to be on the cards in your story, such as specific element traits (air, fire, earth, water) or type traits (smallfolk, creature, relic, wonder). Rewards often involve getting more resources, victory points, story cards, or reusing other abilities.

After the last token is taken from the lake, the current round finishes and then it’s the end of the game! Each victory token is worth 1 point each, and cards are worth 1 to 3 points.

Solo mode

The solo mode for Smallfolk is a simple one. Set-up and gameplay is similar, except you only used a random portion of the deck. An unused adventure pawn is placed on a card in tapestry – each turn this ‘Wanderer’ travels to the next card in the tapestry and discards it.

The game ends when you can no longer replenish the tapestry row of cards (i.e. the deck is empty). Add up the victory points from your tokens and cards, and compare it against the scoring criteria to see how well you did!

Our thoughts:

Smallfolk sends you on a storytelling journey of heroes, folklore and myth. Each card you add to your story, each step you take around the map, builds up the narrative of your personal travels in the charming world the designers have created. And the gameplay is straightforward and smooth, making it easy for anyone to pick this game up.

Each card you add to your story, each step you take around the map, builds up the narrative of your personal travels in the charming world the designers have created.

There’s limited player interaction – everyone is more focussed on their own tableau than worrying about what other people are doing – with the exception that somebody might grab a card you want from the tapestry. But you do want to keep an eye on the victory tokens, because you don’t want someone to end the game before you’re satisfied with your story. We personally don’t mind a ‘multiplayer solitaire’ game – but we did think there might be scope to add cards in the future that interact with other people’s stories more, to keep things interesting (e.g., swapping cards between player stories).

The decision space and choices you make feel surprisingly tight – you have to work with what cards come out and optimise your strategy accordingly – but it doesn’t feel frustrating and limiting. Rather, the game builds up at a relaxing and cozy pace. At the start, your options are more limited by the resources you need and cards you have. But as the game progresses you develop satisfying card synergies/engines and resources accumulate; your world suddenly expands and turns get more combo-tastic as you reach the climax of the game, akin to the exciting third act of a book. And in every game we’ve played, every story has felt unique based on the cards we play and synergies we create.

The 3 different actions to choose from are easy to follow and make thematic sense. And the order you do actions are very important, so you have to plan slightly ahead. Time your travels right, and you can create useful combinations – like exhausting a character to make use of its ability before moving onto a camp space and refreshing your exhausted cards. But sometimes you’re forced to travel even though it’s not convenient, because even though you’re not ready to move on, you need to claim new cards or use an exhaust ability. And you have to do both. This makes for some tricky choices, deciding whether it’s worth the sacrifice to move early.

Meeting heroes along your journey is a wonderful addition which we loved, and again made thematic sense. I loved the tarot-sized Hero cards, and some of the hero abilities are really cool (and all of them are useful, but some abilities feel ‘better’ than others). Again, deciding when to use the hero abilities is part of your personal story – do you use them early to try and get a head, or hold out for an optimum moment?

We love that all the characters, locations, and relics all originate from different folklore around the world. And we can’t review this game without acknowledging the art – it’s absolutely fantastical and brings the world of Smallfolk alive. We’d just love some accompanying world-building lore to go alongside them, which we’re told will be coming in the final version.

As this was a prototype, some of the final artwork, components and rules may differ in the final product. For example, in the final version each player will have a personal bag to put victory tokens in – which we like because it makes it harder to tell how well each player is doing. But most notably (for us!) is that the victory point tokens won’t be gems in the final version – a decision based on player feedback. Which is fair enough, but we’re a little bit gutted – who doesn’t like shiny clickclack components?

What we like:

• Succeeds in thematically implementing a storytelling journey of folklore and myth with smooth, straightforward gameplay.

• Decision space is narrower at the beginning (you have to work with what you can get) but expands as you build your card combos and generate more resources – which aligns with a story building towards the final act.

• Even with the tight decision space – and you do have to think about what you’re doing – the gameplay is still relaxing and cozy.

• The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and draws  you into this magical world – the photos speak for themselves. And we love that the characters, locations, relics, etc all come from different folklore and myths.

• Optimising what actions you take when to make the most of travelling is a fun dynamic – sometimes you can time it perfectly to combine movements with other abilities, but sometimes you’re forced to travel before you’re ready!

• Meeting Heroes and using their special abilities are cool and add to the theme (although some of the powers feel ‘better’ than others).

Considerations:

• There’s little to no player interaction (we don’t think this is a problem, and works within the game).

• We were told the gems aren’t going to be in the final version due to player feedback! Who are these people that don’t like shiny gems?! (Sorry Mo, we will not let this go!)

Final verdict:

Smallfolk is a truly beautiful game that reminds players it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Smallfolk is a truly beautiful game that reminds players it’s about the journey, not the destination. The artwork is a feast for the eyes and the gameplay implements the theme in a simple but effective way. It’s been an absolute pleasure to play, and we look forward to seeing the final version.

Smallfolk is coming to Kickstarter later this year (around September) – you can register to be notified of the launch here.