At GenCon in 1998, James Wallis released an RPG, or perhaps a storytelling game, called The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen. He graciously gifted me a copy, and I read it in about 20 minutes, as it was very short, and I spent the next three days bullyragging everyone I saw into buying it, as it was very good. Although it got me quite a nice dinner (the first of many, as it happened) from James Wallis at the time, it has caused me no end of inconvenience at later GenCons, because the number of games I can read in 20 minutes is pretty minimal, and the number of such games I subsequently demand that everybody buy on pain of being ejected from the company of civilized people everywhere even moreso. Despite this, thanks to the home-run I hit back in 1998, people at GenCon still insist on asking me what the must-read game of the show is.
Well, next year, at least, I can and shall say it is the new, expanded edition of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen (128-page, black-and-white, digest-sized softcover, $19.95; PDF $10.95), from James’ Magnum Opus Press, published by Mongoose’s Flaming Cobra imprint. For those who don’t know the Baron’s game from its previous incarnation, it is a game of competitive storytelling. In response to a request (“Tell us, my dear Baron, how you came to right the Leaning Tower of Pisa”), you tell an extraordinary tale of your exploits; other players pay to interrupt, or you pay to continue uninterrupted. Lies are settled by duelling. The winner (the teller, by acclamation, of the best story) pays for the next round of drinks, and play continues until closing time. The new edition contains, in addition, two variants: “Es-Sindibad’s Game,” which alters the interruption and story-requesting methods with an intriguing waft of Arabian Nights style (story requests are now collaborative, and the once-verboten “But were you not killed?” is, in this version, the only allowable interruption) and “My Uncle the Baron,” a version of the game for the younger set.
Like the original, it is illustrated by Gustave Dore, who obviously has a bright future (or past) ahead of him as an illustrator. Also like the original, it is magnificently funny, brilliantly clever, and a mandatory purchase on pain of ejection from the company of civilized people everywhere.
