Trials of the Magi: Kickstarter in Progress

Patrick Lapienis (@MTTJ_Patrick ) of My Tabletop Journey has just launched a kickstarter for Trials of the Magi - a game he wrote as part of NaGaDeMon last year - and it looks pretty cool.

From what I see it's a Harry Potter-esq story-game aimed at introducing beginners or newcomers to the hobby. Rather than paraphrase, I'll let him explain it to you:

Trials of the Magi is a quick and easy role-playing game centered around a Harry Potter inspired world, where arcane scouts track down and test those with the potential for magic. These gathered candidates are required to overcome a crucible of mental simulations in order to prove that they have what it takes to become a fledgling magus.
These tests compose the core fiction of Trials of the Magi, following the players as they guide mental projections of themselves through the strange and treacherous landscapes of the trials.  The psychological and imagined nature of these landscapes allows the Game Master to create interesting and creative locations that can bend the laws of reality.

Where Trials of the Magi tries to shake the RPG formula is that in the game's fiction the "real" players are the ones actually being tested by the arcane scout. As such the mental projections that navigate the trials are literal representations of the players. Meaning they look, act and talk just as the players would. Not surprisingly, it is really easy to role-play yourself, making Trials of the Magi a great game for first time players of the hobby. It allows them to get familiar with navigating a shared fiction before trying their hand at more role-play intensive storytelling. This idea of the player being the character is expanded upon in the game’s mechanics, where a character’s strengths and abilities come from a player's real life experiences. These memories are written on custom dry erase cards [or blank Index cards] and a hand of these cards act as a player’s character sheet. No complex calculations or overabundance of stats. Just simple tactile mechanics that allow players to get into the game easily and quickly.

Very cool. If that's a thing that would interest you, go give it a look. I know I will.