Little Feet: The Legend of Gimcrack Jack is an all-ages adventure designed for the Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition ruleset. Written by Gary Reynolds with art by Joanna Bromley and David Hoffrichter, the book was published by 2 Kings Games (2KG). This project came into the world via Kickstarter (here), it’s available via DriveThruRPG (here).
Disclaimer: I am reviewing Little Feet: The Legend of Gimcrack Jack as a reward for a charitable pledge made by Randy Price of 2 Kings Games’ to help out a member of the gaming community. The PDF of this product was provided for the purposes of this review. Over and above that, please beware, this review will contain some amount of spoilers.
Clocking in at 36 pages including the covers, Little Feet: The Legend of Gimcrack Jack is a surprisingly thoughtful adventure for an all-ages product. This 1st level adventure really does a solid job of giving the world depth with interesting NPCs, an easy to use set of instructions on how to run this adventure and get the most out of it, and, in its motivations, The Legend of Gimcrack Jack demonstrates a degree of emotion that most 5e products don’t attempt to reach for, let alone achieve. Most kid-friendly adventures are collections of two things: linear path railroad journeys so straight you believe they take place on a ring world or murderhobo romps with the mayhem and butchering covered up in fun fur. The first is no fun because your players’ decisions do not impact the story while the other is wrong because it implies that, as long as the creature is cartoony, killing it and all of its cohorts is the right option to give to your all-ages audience. What I loved about Little Feet: The Legend of Gimcrack Jack is the fact that the adventure avoids both of those traps. It wasn’t a railroad and it wasn’t a lark of a killing spree. Instead, this is a thoughtful product that has some weight to it.
When the GM reads the “Who is Gimcrack Jack?” section, the plot comes into focus. I’m not going to spoil that, but the mystery identity of Gimcrack and why they’re doing what they’re doing offers more motivation for their crimes than many products that I’ve read or played.
That said, it’s not going to be so heavy that it misses out on giving the table a fun adventure. When I read the setup, it had all of the larger-than-life fantasy elements you’d expect in an all-ages story: A bumbling thief, a gnome puppeteer that’s making the thief famous, a town that is scared that the thief will start stealing items of value, and a citizenry that needs you to solve their dilemma. After a series of thefts, the puppeteer dubbed the bumbling thief “Gimcrack Jack” and made the thief famous, yet, in the process, also painted a bullseye on himself should Gimcrack take umbrage. The town wants the thefts stopped and the puppeteer safeguarded and you, which brings in the PCs as the individuals hired by Little Feet Inc. You are tasked with finding the solution to this situation and bringing Gimcrack Jack to justice. With that setup there’s enough kids’ TV shows trappings that their pitch should feel comfortable to you and your table.
As you likely assumed since this adventure originated with thefts from merchants, you’ll go to as many merchants as you choose. Each one gets a few pages of details with adventures and the answers to just shy of ten questions each. These questions are the ones the party are most likely to ask and the answers are in-voice to make sharing easier while providing each NPC some personality. On top of the Q&A, the characters get a chance to investigate the area or, in some cases, have a simple encounter. Working through the merchants offers a chance to get a feel for the town, get a feel for the issue at hand, and to get the clues the PCs need to advance their investigation.
Depending on which merchant’s lead they follow, the PCs will advance deeper into the narrative. Beyond this point, sharing details bypasses the logical conclusions any PC is likely to have reached in the course of considering this mission. In other words, this is where the spoilers really are spoilers. As such, I’ll simply state that there are several options that offer adventure and some combat.
It’s important to know that this is both a 1st level adventure and all-ages friendly, so my praise of its characters and motivations should not construed as a difficult to navigate adventure. Instead, it’s well-considered for its audience with a book done in an easy to understand layout. As a GM, it’s not going to be hard to find the pieces of the puzzle that you need to share. It’s also not so dramatic that it will be hard to run. The narrative and mechanical balance this product shows is impressive.
The artwork is interesting to me as it is closer in composition and style to the kids’ story artwork of my youth. It’s a nice callback to those carefree days. This is not to suggest that the stylized and cartoonish art that is more common today is any less thrilling, but the artwork by Joanna Bromley and David Hoffrichter really set the mood as an all-ages product with a somewhat timeless feel. Adding to the art is a generous amount of cartography by Alyssa Faden, Anna B. Meyer, and Misjay Maps. These maps give a nice sense of location to these encounters. In general, I appreciate the look of the product.
At EN World, I used to write reviews of all-ages RPGs, so getting to read one again was a joy. This all-ages one-shot adventure is named for the the adventure itself, The Legend of Gimcrack Jack, as well as the larger series it’s the first book of, Little Feet. I’m glad that there will be more of these from 2 Kings Games, they really are a cut above many all-ages fare available today. While this adventure is probably not for your youngest players, it still targets a youth market interested in some roleplaying that requires piecing together the clues and delving into the role of a detective. Is Little Feet: The Legend of Gimcrack Jack what your gaming table wants? If you are looking for a solid 1st level adventure with good motivations, NPCs with stories, detective work, encounters that contribute to the narrative, and some light moral choices, your table will love The Legend of Gimcrack Jack!
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