As someone who had in fact never played a tabletop roleplaying game before, Be Like A Crow was my introduction into that hobby and what a way to start. If you have seen any of my previous articles/reviews, it will be no surprise at all that when I saw something corvid-related, I was drawn to it like a magpie to a bottle cap.
I have previous experience of writing fiction, so a solo rpg didn’t really feel like too much of a leap and it was going to give me the chance to join the world of my feathered friends. That and knowing it previously won the UK Games Expo Award for Best Role-Playing Game in 2023 told me I was probably on to a winner.
But which corvid…
First things first, you need to choose which type of corvid you would like to play as. Each species has their own page listing their typical features and their special abilities within the game, as well as tips of character creation. Options including a carrion crow, magpie, rook, raven and a jackdaw, though some scenarios presented later will lean you more to one or the other so it’s worth looking at both when making your final decisions.
You are given a character sheet at the back of the book, and more can be printed for free from the online pdf, with which you can create your corvid of choice. In my playthrough, I opted to be a classic carrion crow called Peccassio, who’s key features are being ‘small and beaky’.
So many places to crow
Now for the settings. I chose to be an Urban Crow, which uses a contemporary city setting and feels to me like the most ‘authentic’ experience for a first play.
Other options include a cyber-crow (electronically advanced, connected to the feather-net and able to enhance skills with cyber implants), a gothic crow (think horror settings and the occult), a fantasy crow (game of thrones, but make it corvid compliant), a steampunk crow (the humans share your sky in airships, and you can harness the power of steam) or ravens of the tower (set in 1800s London, surrounding the tower of London).
These options mean that even within the base game, there is plenty of variety available and ample replayability choices.
Best beak forwards
Now you know your setting and your character, you are given more information about what will happen at each life cycle stage. You begin as a fledgling who, predictably, is still learning life outside the nest and is more likely to fail skill checks. However, once two objectives have been completed, you become a juvenile which typically gives you a new skill mastery or new knowledge as you become more accustomed to your world.
After a further 4 objectives have been completed, you become an adult and naturally far more capable but with bigger challenges awaiting you. 6 objectives later, you’re an Ol’ Crow just living out life.
Objectives are randomly selected by drawing cards from a standard deck of cards, and additional objectives can occur along the way - some you may choose just not to complete as they don’t fit your story choice. The random draw and simplicity of this makes the game very safe for new players as it doesn’t feel intimidating, however something I was not much of a fan of was the ‘create your own’ option that appears to come up quite often - whilst I can see why the creator may have done this, it does begin to feel like a drag if you draw it repeatedly. I personally would have preferred all options to be suggestions from the person making it, particularly as this is the only interaction you get with another entity throughout gameplay.
Characters and objects you interact with within the world are selected in a similar way and, again, do in my opinion suffer from this ‘choose your own’ option coming up far too frequently. Likewise, I would say there are not enough options overall - rather than options by suits, they are based on whether the card is red or black and then it’s number, meaning only 26 possibilities with 2 being ‘you choose’, where there could have been 52 unique options which would make it less likely the game feels samey.
Another minor criticism is that the maps are not physically present within the base book and need to be printed separately. This can be done via free pdfs on the maker’s website, however it does feel like an oversight that they are not present for immediate play or for those who may not be able to access a printer themselves.
An attempted murder
Whilst marketed as a solo adventure, I feel that this game could easily be made multiplayer either by both players having their own characters, or as I trialed through having one player as a game master. For me personally, this additional interaction elevated the game to a more creative roleplaying experience over a writing exercise, but then other players may feel the solo is superior.
Regardless, both methods of play have their charm even if one is not standard as per the
game book.
Final thoughts
Overall, Be Like A Crow is a lovely casual game that is perfect for bird lovers wanting to pass an afternoon in the mind of their favourite corvid. I do feel, however, that the tweaks I mentioned above would have elevated it to an even greater game with more replayability. With that in mind, my understanding is that this was the makers’ first ever game and therefore some of the things mentioned will likely have been modified in later games.
