I love chaos. Specifically I love the chaos factor of any tabletop game. This is the game's ability to pull sharply at the rudder in unexpected and sometimes catastrophic ways. It is always just as entertaining to me when things go magnificently wrong, as when they are serendipitously fortuitous. My favourite games are always those that leave players constantly on edge no matter how carefully they have planned their moves and the game I am reviewing today is a master at this.
Wiz-Nerds by Michael "Wheels" Whelan from Just for Fun is a TTRPG in which players take on the roles of bright-eyed first-year students at Ibus Engleberry's School for Aspiring Wizards (IeSAW). However, before they can even get started learning simple spells, something at the whim of the GM will have gone terribly wrong and our unlucky characters must use their introductory spell books to save the day. The catch? They don't know what any of the spells actually do!
All players are equipped with three columns of bizarre words. Each word represents either an Aspect, Form, or Target relating to the spell, meaning that combinations of words work together to make surprising results. Players will need to ascertain what each word actually means through good old fashioned trial and error. Whenever the players want to do an action that can be considered challenging or dangerous they have the choice to roll for it or cast a spell, but from our experience the dice will be left almost untouched as it is far more exciting to shout out three magic words and see what happens!
Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to carefully find a quiet corner and experiment with the words methodically until you have a good grasp of the spells needed to save the day, but really who has the time for that when some bad guys are after the mystical MacGuffin!? No, the only way forward is to run in blind and figure things out as they go.
This is a beautifully simple and silly game that requires little preparation from the GM and players, in fact it is advisable not to keep too firm a grasp on any of the story as it will undoubtedly be wrenched from your hands the first time a player accidentally turns a vital NPC inside out with poorly timed spell experimentation.
The format of this game works well in person or online and can be stretched or shrunk to fit almost any time requirement. Available on itch.io on a "name your price" basis, I cannot recommend this game enough and Whelan could easily be asking for a fixed price.
If you are looking for something with a healthy dose of chaos and silliness for your next one-shot RPG session, you could do a lot worse than getting over to itch.io and grabbing a PDF of Wiz-Nerds.
