Product– Pumpkin Spice Quickstart

System- Pumpkin Spice

Producer– Acheron Games

Price– free here https://www.acheron.it/en/pumpkin-spice-a-magically-cozy-rpg-info/ 

TL; DR– Want to run a coffee shop in a wholesome Shadowrun world? 100%

Basics– It will be ok.  Pumpkin Spice isn’t the normal RPG I play.  The world is not on fire.  The galaxy is at peace, and the only thing that really needs doing is prepping tomorrow’s donuts.  Maybe a coffee machine is on the fritz, but you can fix that.  Pumpkin Spice is about working at a magic coffee shop that preserves the magic font at its center.  It’s not high stakes action.  It’s not about stress.  It’s Animal Crossing meets Shadowrun.  There is magic.  There is a mystery, and there is a light noon rush.  Let’s break it down.

Base mechanics-  This is a d6 system, but not how you think.  Each face of the d6 is a different type of magic ranging from authority to imagination.  When an action requires it, you roll dice equal to the type of magic you want, and hope to get that result.  If you get one of those you hope for, like needing authority, a 1 on a d6, to deal with an angry customer, you hope to get at least one 1.  You get it, you get what you want.  You don’t, it might work out, but it’s less favorable.

Magic types and abilities- when you make a check, you have a trait you are tied to.  If you roll the trait you are tied to, you can spend one magic to change it to any result.  You can also work in reverse.  Change any face into one you are tied to.  But, there is only so much magic in the shop.  The shop has 10 magic.  When it gets to zero, it might dry up!  As your goal is to preserve the magic of the shop, that’s bad!

Ok, let’s discuss it.

Mechanics or Crunch–  This is not crunch heavy. It’s very much a simple RPG dealing with small problems.  The mechanic of just rolling a few dice and seeing what happens is an interesting one.  Not bad, but not the monster of crunch that I’ve seen.  And that’s ok.  It fits with the laid back nature of the game.  This isn’t fighting devils in the off hours of Charmed.  This is Animal Crossing, and that’s fun for a laid back day.  5/5

Theme or Fluff– Again, it’s a simple day.  This isn’t life ending.  The worst thing happening is maybe the souffle doesn’t rise.  Maybe it’s still edible, but just not as pretty.  That’s the scale here.  If you need to relax and not save the world today, and just craft some puff pastry and give them out to friends, then this is the game to play.  5/5

Execution– This is a quickstart, so I can’t comment on the whole book.  But, what’s here is well done.  It’s laid back.  There are simple descriptions, simple symbols, and a day of just relaxing in a book.  The book reads easily and is pretty to look at.  It’s intriguing for a quickstart, so im looking forward to the full book. 5/5

Summary– This isn’t my typical choice for an RPG, but that doesn’t mean I won’t play or join the crowdfunding.  It’s VERY different from my usual games of sadness and monsters.  But, that’s not bad.  This seems cozy, and that’s the goal.  You and your friends run a coffee shop where you save magic in a fantasy world with all the fantasy tropes.  It really is Animal Crossing mixed with Shadowrun.  100%