At first, I thought that Michtim: Fluffy Adventures was a simple cutesy game, aimed at children, but on reading it, I realised that it has unexpected depths and complexities.
In the game, the players play a Bande of Michtim, intelligent hamster-like creatures (although not rodents, which is explained in an overview of their biology).
There is a firm emphasis on the culture of the Michtim, who seem to live in a very idealised, egalitarian society, and rely on the Veil to keep humans from noticing them.
The game feels a bit like a European Saturday Morning cartoon, complete with an emphasis on conservation. The characters have ratings from 1 to 4 in the various emotions: Joy, Love, Grief, Fear and Anger.
A Michtim normally belongs to one of the three hauses, each one of which places emphasis on a different Michtim virtue (although all are virtues are respected by all hauses)
In addition to that, every Michtim has at least one calling, which can be considered a bit similar to a character class, except that a Michtim can have up to three active at the same time, and can easily switch between them.
When determining the result of an action, the Michtim rolls a number of dice equal to the relevant emotion, and adds the numbers together. If she scores above 7, she gets one success. If she wants more successes, she needs to remove dice from her pool, and gets an additional success for each die she does not roll.
For each die that rolls a 6, the Michtim gets a mood token of the emotion she rolled. The token can either give a +1 to the relevant roll, or can be traded in to provide an extra die on the roll. Each emotion also has opposing ones, so a mood in a particular emotion will act as a penalty on the opposing ones. Also, a Michtim can have a maximum of three mood tokens at a time. The only way to get rid of a mood is by trading it in for a die.
I really like the mood system. It provides good roleplaying opportunities, as the Michtim find themselves in situations where they have to act according to mood, in order to get rid of the mood tokens, either because the penalty is too steep, or simply to start acquiring new ones.
The Michtim can also gain Karma, by following the Michtim virtues. If they sin against the virtues, they will find themselves unable to gain Karma, as well as the punishment from the Michtim society at large.
The Michtim society is very detailed, and the characters are made to feel to be a real part of it. Technology is not detailed at all, and in the beginning I had the impression of a pseudo-medevial level of tech, until I got to the descriptions of the cyberised Michtim. Although not detailed, the Michtim seem to have advanced technology, although with more emphasis on individual workmanship, rather than mass production.
The sample adventure at the end of the book is a bit of a letdown. It is a very good example of the genre that the game is trying to evoke, but feels very linear.
Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by Michtim: Fluffy Adventures, and the game has a very simple and straightforward system, while providing enough depth and complexity for a very interesting game.
Michtim is available from DrivethruRPG.
