*As a note, the intro for this was written by Steph from TTRPGkids, and the below description was written by the game’s creator

Welcome to Feathertail Falls, a fairytale forest petrified in time. Since you were a mouse pup, you’ve heard bedtime stories about this place, and about its mice who dream to fly. Now you discover that the place is real. But what about the stories? Are they real? And what happened to this place since those tales of old?

Feathertail Falls is a sword-and-whiskers TTRPG adventure collection that builds on the free Mausritter rules. The zine’s adventurous yet melancholy tone is inspired by Over the Garden Wall, Hilda and Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty, as well as the art of Júlia Sardà. If you haven’t played Mausritter before, don’t worry! Mausritter is free and incredibly lightweight. You can pick it up with ease, explain it in minutes and generate characters on the fly. It’s the perfect system for Feathertail Falls. 

The adventure collection is filled with danger, excitement and wonder, alongside themes of grief as you explore a forest that has been petrified in time. It’s about 40 pages packed with dangerous adventure sites to delve into, a wild hex-crawl region to explore, strange treasures and conditions to twist your fate, and also new rules that make the magic of nature shine through. Several tiers are available to suit anyone’s preference; a PDF, a zine, a collection of pamphlets or even your very own custom mouse portrait.

Nature is Magic

Feathertail Falls zooms in on some fantastic creatures. Translucent frogs, eagles that can see mouse roads light up in their eyes, and mice-like animals with gliders and feathery tails. These amazing creatures exist in real life, and provide much of the magic behind Feathertail Falls.

But let’s not forget our heroes! Being a mouse adventurer comes with great abilities. Not only are you fast and nimble, you are a natural burrower, creating an underground fort with ease to defend your treasure. Other mice can sense and follow your trails, so you are a terrific trailblazer too! These unique traits are captured in elegant rules contained within Feathertail Falls.

Even the nature in your back yard can be incorporated. Ever thought terrain building is too expensive a hobby? With sword-and-whiskers adventuring, all the terrain pieces you need for wilderness exploration are right there in your back yard on a 1:1 scale! You could even take your game outside.

Follow The Journey

Feathertail Falls isn’t just an end-product. It’s also a journey. If the Kickstarter reaches its goal, the real work begins, and we’re taking everyone along for the ride. Through monthly updates, we will share what it’s like to develop a game from something that only the creator understands, to a beautiful product that can be released into the wild for others to make their own.

One by one, the region and the adventure sites will be released as playtest materials, allowing you to provide feedback that will be incorporated into the final adventure collection, making you a part of the creative process.

ADHD friendly

Peter, the game designer of Feathertail Falls, has a diagnosis of severe ADHD. For ADHD players, the idea of being a games master can feel overwhelming. But actually, running your own game can be incredibly freeing and make full use of your strengths. As a games master, your ability to jump from situation to situation is a superpower. 

Peter designs adventures for him to actually use at the table. As such, they are to-the-point, evocative, and flexible enough to move with the torrents of a wandering mind. This means that at any point of the adventure, you always have the content you need on the page in front of you, and all the content is connected loosely enough that the house still stands when the moment moves you to improvise one part to be completely different. Just remember to make note of what you changed. Write it in the zine itself! It’s yours now!

On top of this, the region and adventure sites all have a player-facing map, so that you can drop the region or adventure site on the table as soon as players enter it, giving everyone situational awareness over the location from the start.

Family Friendly

With the simplicity of Mausritter, the power of nature, and the ADHD friendliness, we aim for this adventure collection to be a great family friendly game ages 5 and up, with an older member playing the GM. I personally plan to play it with my 5yo daughter. Tip: for younger players, when a mouse dies, this might be replaced with the mouse simply leaving the adventuring life behind for now. 

Feathertail Falls is live now on Kickstarter. Back it while the crowdfunding lasts to help make it happen. 

Make sure to check out the kickstarter to support this game’s creators, and… If you liked this post, make sure to subscribe to the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter to stay up to date on the latest reviews, tips and tricks, game and podcast list updates, and more! Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with your kids and sharing this awesome hobby with the next generation!