Marketed as an Fantasy RPG aimed at the Kids, Harvesters does an adequate job of providing a decent beginner vehicle for Dad / Mom / Other Important Person to bring their brood into greater geekdom via the SIEGE Engine* rule set by Troll Lord Games.  The book clocks in at 66 pages and is wonderfully illustrated by Jim Holloway and the author of the game (I think; there are two John Seibels listed in the credits), John P. Seibel

  *For further information regarding the Troll Lords' game line, please refer to their website at  http://www.trolllord.com/

The rules (TLG's POV on 3rd Ed. D&D, you see) are functional and comforting in their familiarity, so no big shock here to most of us in the gaming world.  With the typical Crown Royal dice bag load out and some paper and pencils, the average table-top warrior is good to hook with this game in no time flat as the subsequent culling of feats, skills and other such dreck lighten the load considerably when it comes to character creation, spell slinging, and combat.

But this time around, gentle readers, instead of Dwarves, Elves et al; we get Badgers, Mice and other cuddly woodland creatures to base our character off of [five species total; all mammal].  Also, each species gets a bonus or two to reflect real-life capabilities.  

Classes are, again, familiar (but minus the Monk, Illusionist, Bard and Assassin) and owing to its lineage, each class gets specific bonuses / perks to certain abilities unique to the class.

Following these two portions of the Character creation process, we are treated with very short spell lists, equipment lists, alignment choices, a GM's "How-To / Why / Examples," chapter and finally a multi-page adventure for our burgeoning basement-dwellers to embark upon with a few pages of "monster," descriptions and maps to round it all out.

All in all, there is nothing ground-breaking going on here yet it is nice to see a game whose purpose is to be enticing to the younger set.  That is why I bought this.  The ability to buff this game up with monsters, treasure, and so on from any d20 based fantasy game is another plus too and goes to give it a longer lifespan than it probably would have otherwise.


Now, here's where I get all critical and opinionated.

1. Clerics and Druids might have been better served by not being served.  While their inclusion was to, no doubt, assist in keeping Harvesters in line with its Big Brother, Castles and Crusades, I don't see kids wanting to play these two class types, much less understanding what the class is about, but maybe that is just me.

2. The spell lists give a brief, one line description of what the spell does.  Without the C&C Player's Handbook, you will not have any idea on range, duration and so on for these most of the available spells.  By cutting out the Cleric and Druid stuff, they might have been able to shoe-horn in all this missing info for the Wizard.  Maybe.  Also, there are a few bleed-over numbers that are probably referring to the C&C Player's Guide page the spell description can be found on.

3. The equipment list is probably straight from C&C as it shows a whole slew of weapons and armor you'll have to explain.  "You're right Jimmy; a bastard sword doesn't have a father."

4. Alignments are listed but not explained.  Again, you'll have to have some way to describe alignments independent of this book.  Or, you could just forego alignments.  Whatever floats your boat.

5. Scale.  I have no idea at what kind of scale these Player types are supposed to be at.  I'm assuming that they'd be the "usual," size for a walking, talking, sword-swinging rabbit but the inclusion of the "Birthright Mount," ability for the Knight Class, complete with horse stats and riding skill stuff, is a bit glaring.  Also, the ranges for the missile weapons seem to be still set for humanoid type users.

6. Lastly, my .pdf copy isn't bookmarked.  Not bookmarking sellable .pdfs which are of recent creation / origin is a crime against nature and a sin against God.

Bottom line: I think this game is a good start, but needs revision to either specifically tie it in to the Castle & Crusades game proper (i.e. "Must have C&C Player's Guide to Play" blurb on back cover or something) or paring down or prioritizing the materials in the book to make it a solid, stand-alone and more "kid friendly," product.

p.s. In a vaguely related note, RIP Brian Jacques - no snark intended, just respect.

p.p.s. Cut-n-pasting from Word to the board seemingly wracks the hell out of formatting with this thing.

I do not want, in any way, to suggest that mini-reviews aren't welcome on theRPGsite.  They really are. However, the right place to put a mini-review is in the review forum.  I hope this trend of mini-reviews, and discussion about them, continues, but the reviews should be posted in the Review subforum.

As such, I'm moving this.

RPGPundit

It would be cool if they did a revised edition, which addressed the various holdovers you listed in your review. Though I think keeping clerics and druids is a good thing. I like the idea of someone playing a mouse Friar Tuck.