I originally found the Zorcerer of Zo when I was looking for role playing games suitable for kids. I think somebody referred me to it because it was a fairy tale setting. And while you could certainly use the game for kids, there's a lot of sophistication there, too, that makes it suitable for adults.

You get three things in the book. You get a description of the specific setting, you get a description of the rules used, and you get a description of how the setting was created.

The setting is inspired by both Oz and Narnia. Anthropomorphic animals are just as common as people, and all the standard fairy tale cliches are present (although they might not be exactly as you would expect. For example, one of the NPCs in the land is the Blue Hood, an outlaw archer who derives equally from Robin Hood and Little Red Riding Hood. The main recurring villain, the Deathless Wolf, clearly derives from the three little pigs' nemesis.

The rules system is a light version of PDQ (Prose Descriptive Qualities).

Each character has a number of Qualities, which are phrases that describe something important about the character. You might have something like "Never gives up", or "Good with swords", etc. Anything that the player and the GM can agree on can be a Quality.

Each Quality is rated on a scale of Poor, Average, Good, Expert, and Master. Each rating affects the amount of bonus (or penalty) to rolls for resolving conflicts on the Quality. So a Master at "Good with swords" is going to get a better bonus than someone who is just Average. The basic roll is 2D6 plus your Quality modifier.

PDQ has the same disadvantage that Risus has for people who are used to more structured sets of character stats. Qualities are a bit free form, so you have to really figure out who your character is before you can create the stats. In something like Dungeons & Dragons, you can roll up a character and see who you get. With PDQ, you need to know who you're going for in order to properly describe them.

This is a tough transition for some players, so make sure you know your players before giving it a try.

The most valuable portion of the book for me was the author's description of how the setting evolved from a first concept through the first parts of the campaign. We get to hear the author's thought process, and we get to hear feedback from the players, too. There are plenty of actual examples of play, too, that show how the first group of players made their way into the campaign.

Any GM who has, up until now, used established settings but wants to break away from that should get the Zorcerer of Zo just for the insight into how a unique setting can evolve from relatively rudimentary beginnings.

The Zorceror of Zo is available at DriveThruRPG.com for instant download.