Each holiday season, I review different modules, games or supplements as a thank you to the wider tabletop roleplaying game community. All of the work I review during Critique Navidad is either given to me by fans of the work or the authors themselves. This holiday season, I hope I can bring attention to a broader range of tabletop roleplaying game work than I usually would be able to, and find things that are new and exciting!

The Lady, the Tiger and the Accused is a 80 card game for 3 players based on For the Queen, by the Horned Sphinx. It’s inspired by the short story, “The Lady Or The Tiger?” By Frank Stockton. I’m reviewing the art-free ashcan edition; all money earnt is to go towards a series of art pieces and a physical deck. While it’s troublesome to print your own cards from a digital file, the game also comes with files to play on playingcard.io.

It’s hard to describe this game without replicating most of the rules text: Suffice to say, this is a conversation between three distinct characters, being overseen by an omnipotent princess who will decide their fates. You create your characters together, talk basics, and then you pose questions to your fellow players, until you are forced to answer your final question, and the everyone fates are revealed.

There are some flaws here: The concept is hard to wrap your head around. The Princess’ decision has to be abstracted, by the nature of the design. The phrasing, particularly of the final card, is a little confusing, at the moment when it should be clearest. I think the worldbuilding should contain a little more guidance than it did. And of course, it’s entirely art free, and I’d like to see art — it might reduce the need for that extra guidance, if well curated.

On the other hand I think The Lady, the Tiger and the Accused is probably the best twist on For the Queen’s format I’ve seen. Having 3 concrete characters, with concrete relationships to each other, and concrete threats and histories, maximises the impact of the format in a way I haven’t seen before. It takes the tension of a short form committee larp and democratises it by providing more prompts and support for players unfamiliar, but it comes preloaded with far more drama that For the Queen ever did for me.

If you’re a fan of small group games, short games, or For the Queen style games, you should check The Lady, the Tiger and Accused out. I’d love to see this actually get the art and physical print it deserves, plus so minor layout or rephrasing in some places. In my opinion, The Lady, the Tiger and Accused deserves to be on my shelf more the For the Queen does.

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