From Secret Table comes Against The Grey, a system agnostic adventure about anthropomorphic animals taking up arms to defend their forest against the greed of the Grey. I picked up the full bundle from Ratti Incantati [here] which includes the referee, player, and playable characters pamphlets.
I don’t have many games presented in pamphlet form! In fact, there’s only two that come to mind so Against the Grey’s form immediately had my attention. That and the beautiful map of the forest kept me coming back to look at it again and again. This adventure has been in and out of my cart several times for the last few months!
I’ll start there: why was I so indecisive? Usually when I’m shopping I browse indiscriminately and anything that catches my initial interest is added to my cart. Once I’m done perusing, I head on over to start looking at my little collection more critically and start narrowing it down. As much as I want to bring everything with me, always, I’ve gotta stagger things just a little bit! This one didn’t make the cut a few times because, for reasons I will never understand, I have trouble with system agnostic adventures!
It’s weird that I do! I very rarely run things as written and by and large never run adventures in the system they were initially designed for – mainly because I tend to run homebrew systems. So you would think that system agnostic adventures would be a no brainer for me! It’s one less step towards me running it! But, for whatever reason, my brain gets all gunked up and goes “but how do you do this, how do you run this?” and that’s… the point. You can run it with whatever system you like, and that freedom is wonderful.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much information is packed into these pamphlets. There’s a rich lore within the game and while there are plenty of details for tables to fill in over the course of their session, the framework you’re provided with is more than I was expecting – especially considering that two full panels are taken up by that gorgeous map. It really is quite charming!
I particularly enjoyed the interconnected backgrounds of the six playable characters. I always find it easier to jump into games when characters know each other, and more information about the game world is revealed through their stories. The Referee pamphlet is packed with information about NPCs while also giving you the game’s starting situation, information about the three factions at play, and how the plot escalates. The Player pamphlet, meanwhile, is focused on the map and further information about each location you can visit – it even tells you which NPCs are in a given area. I cannot stress enough how impressed I am with how much info is packed into these text panels.
By aesthetic, I had thought this might be a fun one to play with younger family members but the themes and content warnings (violent uprising, body horror, tragic family issues, mentions of alcoholism and sickness) made my opinion shift towards an older audience. I was reminded of The Night of the Rabbit, Fern Gully, and Robin Hood while reading over this adventure!
You can pick up Against the Grey (digital) for $5.00 USD on Itch [here]. For that price, it’s worth it for the beautiful map alone. You could genuinely just use the Player Pamphlet’s map to build your own adventures around, or use the information in the Referee Pamphlet as a jumping off point! I picked up my copy from Ratti Incanti [here] for 21$ CAD, as I wanted physical copies and so got all three pamphlets together with some cute stickers. I recommend this option to anyone ordering from Canada!
I hope you enjouy your time with Against the Grey. Stay cozy!
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