Michtim: Fluffy Adventures

Hello! Me and two friends are gonna be playing this, but we want to do it GMless, how would we go about it, or where could we see the rules of how to do so?

There are some v cool feels in this game. 

Novel, thoughtful, charming

Exciteed to play this with my friends, love it so far

Can you play this solo? (On your own, without a GM?)

This game is the perfect thing to play while having to rest a lot from my health challenges. I want to let you guys know this game gives hope to a fellow disabled game designer ♥️

Someone just gifted this to me (I had it on my wishlist). It looks really adorable and I'm excited to dive in!

I love this game! I also really appreciate the creator for their creativity and kindness. You should check out this game!

I just wanna say thank you so much really for the community copies because otherwise my broke ass third-world country resident wouldn't have been able to play this amazing game.

there's so much world-building, much more than I expected to get from 118 pages alone, and the setting made me very nostalgic about times when I used to watch Hamtaro and Oruchuban Ebich (Ebichu Minds The House).

the art and illustrations have a unique and beautiful flare to them.

again thank you for providing community copies and thank you for this amazing ttrpg!

Michtim is an all-ages, modern-day fantasy rpg about hamsters. It's 118 pages, and played with d6s, poker chips, and glass beads.

It's also got a surprising volume of world-building. Everything from gender to political factions to owl-domestication is spelled out in at least a little bit of text, and the setting feels as fully developed as any good children's book series.

Layout-wise, there's a few places where the book feels sparse (especially in the basic rules chapter,) but everywhere else there's tons of graphics and illustrations and the book feels packed with character and charm.

Mechanically, Michtim is an interesting creature, and if you're a designer and the setting didn't grab you, I think it's worth looking at for the mechanics alone. Essentially, your emotions are your stats. Each emotion governs particular skills, and the more naturally you resonate with that emotion, the better you are with its associated skills. Furthermore, rolling an emotion comes with a chance to temporarily boost it. So the more you engage with an emotion, the more intense it gets---at least until you take a break and cool off.

Not all emotions cover an equal number of skills, but all skills are useful. Furthermore, character creation allows you to start with only 1 point in two of your emotions if you wish---a state where you *can't* succeed rolls with those emotions unless you get a boost---so gameplay has the potential to feel pretty asymmetrical.

Combat is crunchy and tactical, and it contains movement rules, status effects, equipment benefits, and other elements that tend to fit in adventure games, but it also has a surprisingly robust meta to it. Mitchims with high Joy are good at scooting around the battlefield. Mitchims with high Love are healers. Mitchims with high Grief are tanks. Mitchims with high Fear are dodgy. Mitchims with high Anger can hit and deal damage. And every Mitchim is going to be at least decent in two of those emotions, so it's perfectly viable to have a build that flies across the battlefield, gets in your enemies' faces, and then starts crying---bogging them down and making them super uncomfortable.

On top of that, there are character classes (called Callings) that are super flexible. And I really want to emphasize that. You can equip multiple at the same time, and you can spend resources to swap them out on the fly. Each Calling is a little one-note in what it does mechanically, but because you can equip three, you effectively play with a hybrid class that manipulates the core mechanics in three out of twelve different ways.

In general, I would strongly recommend trying Michtim if you like Mouse Guard, Succulent Sorcerers, 4th ed, Mausritter, basically any children's fantasy lit, or if you're looking for a game that you can run for a young audience.

Michtim is easy to learn, and its mechanics felt both familiar and different to me. It carves out its own distinct niche without sacrificing the fun of its gameplay, and it's got a great aesthetic and a fun, well-fleshed-out setting. Overall, I think unless your criteria for a game is "has to be grimdark", you'll get something out of Michtim, and it's worth grabbing a copy.

Minor Issues:

-Page 12, Fur Coat, "during the sleep" during their sleep

-Page 24, Getting into the Mood, "Into The" missing caps

-Page 51, first para, "pull of" pull off

-Page 76, I'm not totally sure I understand how armor works. Does technical armor apply against technology?

-Page 83, there's no Joy ultimate?

-Page 111, The Veil, "stops to honor" stops honoring

If you grew up watching The Borrowers, The Smurfs, or Fraggle rock you get the basic premise of games like Michtim. You play as tiny hamster-like humanoids trying to survive out of site of the human race. The game uses a clever and easy to understand dice pool mechanic that lets you take risks on several levels to secure success. It also uses the current and usual mood of your PC in place of more traditional attributes and it feeds right into said clever dice mechanic, meaning you can lean into what your feeling about a given scene and the game really encourages that. The game also features a series of virtues you characters can try to live up to, which reminds me of the better Ultima games. Its something really different that is worth trying even if it isn't your bag. 

Absolutely love the design, the layout, the art- really, I love most things about it. Smooth in play and delightful in concept. Highly recommend!

this sounds absolutely lovely, if anyone has played this game would it be possible to play with someone without having to see them in-person? thank you for the help

This is deceptive in all the best ways. It's not the first time I get to read a book trying to emulate small cuddly animals going on adventures, but this one does it so well, it took me by surprise. I'm loving the emotions system, the Haus, the Callings, all of this is well done, simple enough to understand but rich enough to leave loads to explore during the game.

But what really clicked for me is the attention to small details like presenting a society where gender roles aren't important and telling us about family taking many different forms. Even in the fact that players can give each other experience, I get the strong feeling that Michtim is queer in all the ways that I want a game to be queer, I get the feeling this game has a message, and it's not just about hamsters vying for a better future.I get the feeling this is also about the stories that structure tells, and I'm so, so happy about the story this deliberate structure is telling me.

This is a remarkable achievement. The cards are a very cool element of visual aid, and the book is a pleasure to read.

This is game whose design, layout and artwork are all the labour of love of Georg Mir (@GeorgMir), they still make clear Mitchim “would not have been possible without the help of countless passionate people”. These include Alexander Oslaj’s input on the Setting Idea, various Playtesters and those who offered Words of Wisdom and the M(o)use, Cornelius Funkenflug (what a sensational name!?), Mir’s djungarian dwarf hamster who’s “charming (even if ferocious) personality” was an inspiration “during the project”. “He’s a fluffy gangster (being locked up behind bars), and utterly adorable at everything he does.” Finally, Mir thanks You, “for putting your trust in [them] and [their] little world. Hope you enjoy making it your new home.”

Contents

This rulebook employs a beautifully brilliant, simple and aesthetic style utilising the colours of the rainbow and individual symbols to breakdown the various elements of the book to make navigation so much easier while flipping through searching for rules mid-game. For example, the introduction and lexicon are denoted by a quill and ink and the colour red, while Michtims have a Michtim face with the colour orange.

Full review on DriveThruRPG:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/105250/Michtim-Fluffy-Adventures

Conclusion 

This is nearly 120 pages of adorable awesomeness! A beautifully simple and elegant rules system with varying level of complexity for different groups with awesome ideas, mechanics and background lore. 
 
The art style and artwork throughout are so wonderfully adorable and truly encapsulate the vibes of Michtims and the game.

Just a note on the art of the various Michtim classes on the Haus page – It’s freaking adorable! The chef is SO happy!

This is clearly a labour of love with joy and fun at its heart. I cannot recommend it more strongly for anyone and everyone who wants a fun, fast roleplaying game.