If you’re a tabletop gamer with much of a collection, you know how easily small boxed games & card games can be overlooked & forgotten on the shelves. I even have a couple of fancy wooden cases—the kind with glass photo frames on the top & sides—to store the best, & still end up forgetting the excellent little games inside. Big boxed games just draw so much attention.
An Aside:
It’s a problem that faces publishers, too, & particularly small-press POD publishers. Especially at brick-and-mortar stores.
When I first started designing card games a bit over a dozen years ago, I went to some retailers I’ve been friends with, to ask about stocking the things on their shelves. (Two reasons: to increase my own exposure, but also because brick-and-mortar felt left out of Kickstarters, which sold directly to consumers.)
They were happy to take them to small cons, but (1) in-store couldn’t afford to rob any display case space from trading card games like Magic: The Gathering & Pokemon, with their sales of individual cards, & (2) couldn’t risk putting card games on the shelves elsewhere, because of “shrinkage” (i.e. shoplifting).
They said, “Publish each of your card games in a big box that’ll take up room on the shelf. Stick in a score pad, counters, or whatever to justify all the empty space, & bump up the price. Then I can sell them. Or just don’t design card games.”
So for me, POD online it is.
But back to the topic of card decks getting lost on your own game shelves. The problem is even worse for single-sheet things like Postcard Dungeons—and that’s a cryin’ shame.
Postcard Dungeons started out as just that, a solo strategy dice game representing a dungeon on an oversized postcard. The game design is genius, & the presentation excellent. Since that first dungeon, the line has expanded into multiplayer & sci-fi, & has added some variant designs from world domination ala Risk to a coin-based Postcard Cthulhu.
But I forget the whole group of them sitting there on my shelf, sandwiched between some small-box games, even though they’re stored in a clear cellophane bag.
I’m not sure how to rectify that. With the card games I could maybe get a shadowbox as a wall-mounted mini game shelf. Maybe keep a tiny ring-binder for flat games like this one. Because they deserve to be revisited from time to time.
It is a habit at Chez Smith that whenever Jennifer and Kate go shopping, they bring me back something red.
Anything red. A hardbound copy of The Magicians (an amazing trilogy, sort of The Chronicles of Narnia meets The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever), a footlong metal WWI biplane to hang from my ceiling, a series of Spiderman lunchboxes … and recently a pair of little stackable plastic containers.
Which I had no idea what to do with — until I started play-testing the Bookmark Dragon Dice RPG, and needed some way to store characters.
These little things suit that purpose perfectly! The square bookmark character sheets are legible through the lid; the dice themselves are visible through the back; and the cases stack nicely on the plastic deck boxes containing various GameMaster’s Apprentice decks on my game shelves.
For a couple of decades now, I’ve been telling SFR, Inc. that a Dragon Dice role-playing game was in the offing. I dipped my toe in the water back in 2014, with a setting chapter in the D6xD6 RPG launch, but I was hoping to expand that further. But too many other projects have gotten in the way, from the bucket-list publication of the D13 RPG, to the accidental creation of the Bookmark HP RPG, which has been outselling its siblings and spontaneously spawning new settings.
BNHP is my first polyhedral RPG design. Dragon Dice was my first polyhedral tabletop game design. The thought occurred that marrying Dragon Dice polyhedrals with BNHP rules could be an exciting project! For the past couple of months now, I’ve been writing drafts, ruminating, getting feedback from a few individual play-testers, and revising. It’s starting to feel cohesive.
Late last night I took an opportunity to solo role-play-test the rules, using the GameMaster’s Apprentice oracle deck with the HandiQuest one-handed story system.
My character concept was “Shirrah,” a young Lava Elf raised by Amazons, and who now set out on the life of a duelist. For the d10 I chose a Centaur, d8 a highland Knoll, d6 a Lava Elf Fusilier, and d4 the only Item I owned, yellow Speed Slippers. The Knoll I chose because Lava Elves in the Dragon Dice battlefield game are native to mountains, and the Knoll has more ranged weapon faces than melee, which seemed in keeping with my character’s nature. In BNHP fashion, I assigned Brawn d4, Grace d8, Will d6, and Wits d10.
Keep in mind that the only thing that matters in terms of rules mechanics is number of sides and the ID symbol. All the rest of that is purely narrative, as much as a “magic missile” spell in D&D is mechanically just 3 rolls of d4+1 damage.
Onward to the adventure…
GMA and HandiQuest gave a final destination of “Tournament,” so I figured Shirrah was on his way there to make his name as a fencer and pistolier.
The first part of his journey was to a travelers’ inn, and along the way he encountered a wounded traveler and took him along. (In card deck terms, he succeeded at the inn location’s Difficulty rating and had an encounter instead of a combat scene.)
The next day, he traveled to a shipyard, which suggested to me that the tournament was overseas. Someone started following him, ranting that this “wicked lava elf” had come to do evil. Shirrah managed to ditch him in the crowds (i.e. succeeded at his travel roll), but came face to face with a blacksmith wielding an iron bar (i.e. a combat instead of encounter). Shirrah took a blow to the head in the first turn, exhausting his d10 Wits, then switched to his d8 Grace and put paid to the blacksmith over the next two turns. In my mind, he failed to draw on his centaur training (the d10), and fell back on the fencing he’d practiced while alone on that knoll.
The next day, aboard ship, a dense fog settled in. Shirrah had hoped to rest his d10, but the cards said combat, which I took to mean battling a storm that required all hands on deck. A roll of Maximum Success improved his d8 to a major terrain, so I swapped out the minor terrain Knoll die for a major terrain Standing Stones!
After the storm cleared, the ship docked at a land renowned for its vineyards. Shirrah set out for a peaceful stroll, again hoping the restfulness would heal his head, but the cards dealt him a confrontation with “students.” I reasoned that they were fencing students, saw his rapier, and challenged him. Again, he won out after a few turns, but not before wounding his Grace, now reduced to the minor terrain again.
The cards dealt next a volcano. And I reasoned that this would be a site of veneration for a lava elf, perhaps a place of rejuvenation through fire magic. No such luck. I failed the roll, he was burned—the Difficulty was low, so I had rolled that d4 Brawn and exhausted it—but he managed to avoid damage in the resulting stampede of forest creatures fleeing the eruption (the interpretation I put to a combat encounter, based on a few suggested details from a GMA card).
The GMA now dealt “Inn.” Returning to town, he took a room again hoping to rest. The next card was an encounter instead of combat—so far, so good—but a “NO!” result on the card forbade it. I was handed an “ominous warning,” which I took to mean a note slipped under his door, letting him know that a mob was on its way to lynch this unwanted lava elf. Out the window we went.
To get out of town, he would need to slip unnoticed past city guard (GMA “Guard Station”) which he did through grim determination (Will), and finally had an encounter, an “Oasis,” where he managed to recover his d10 Wits.
The next location on his journey was a “Ship,” He bargained his way aboard with a Max Success roll of Wits, swapping that centaur d10 for a d12 dragon! I chose a fire drake die. But once out on the open sea, the ship’s captain tried to chain him to an oar (a “Captive” card)! Three rounds of combat later, with both sides rolling Fails, the captain was defeated, with Shirrah still barely on his feet with two Attributes and his good name exhausted. All that remained to him was his Will and Grace.
A now more experienced Shirrah
Shirrah jumped ship near a cave, hoping to avoid pursuit, with a Maximum Success, raising that d6 from the small Fusilier die to the medium Dead Shot die! Further, he was able to rest near a subterranean waterfall, which given his people’s nature of Fire and Earth, I translated as hot springs, and restored his Wits d10.
Next up, “Asylum,” which suggested to me an underground city of Lava Elves, but the card’s Difficulty was 8! Shirrah failed, was wounded back to the Fusilier die, and failed as well to hide out at court. “No rest for the wicked,” apparently in this case meaning his race’s evil reputation dogging him.
His penultimate location read “Farm,” where he was again refused succor, i.e. failed the travel roll and wounded his d12 Wits back to d10. But the resulting encounter took him to a mausoleum and blissful rest, perhaps drawing upon the death magic side of his Lava Elf nature. I chose to recover that Wits d12.
And at last his journey’s goal, the arena! Shirrah was still pretty banged up: Brawn exhausted, Grace small d8, Will small d6, Wits d12, good name exhausted.
I won’t go through the resulting combat turn-by-turn, but here are the salient details. (a) The GMA dealt me an “unknown creature,” so I figured Shirrah had no insights into its weakness, and I assigned it a defense of 5 to start, and a d10 combat ability; (b) I rolled poorly a few times before scoring a success, at which point I dropped its defense to 4—purely a role-play judgment call; (c ) Shirrah’s defense was the 4 that BNHP suggests for humans; and (d) In the end he failed to best it, while the creature was a full 3 fails away from defeat itself.
Concluding thoughts:
The game plays significantly differently from its parent, the Bookmark HP RPG. The main difference being that once you’ve assigned dice to a character’s Attribute, they stay that way, changing only in size, which means the same odds but added resiliency.
Dragon Dice icons add a lot of role-playing flavor even though they have no mechanical difference. Same with the die types: Choice of Item, Unit, Terrain, and Monster suggest much of a character’s backstory and personality.
The foe ranking system needs some adjustment. Right now it’s a bit too difficult. I have two different approaches to try out before locking that down.
The d6 and d10 each add a different mechanical touch to the game, with the d6 affecting defense Difficulty, and the d10’s ability to raise to d12.
I’m adding something special for the d4 and d8, so there’s a significant reason for using them all from time to time.
And I think it’s evident that I had a blast playing this character. GMA always does a great job as an oracle, and HandiQuest adds a great system for stringing locations and events into a unified story. And most importantly in this case, I think the Dragon Dice themselves prove to suit Bookmark HP role-play very nicely.
I look forward to playing Shirrah again, once he’s out of the arena’s infirmary!
Based on decades of professional game demo experience, and grad school teacher training, I would say that the best way to kill role-play enthusiasm for new players at a convention event is (a) pre-gen characters and; (b) rules info dump up front. Saddle players with those at the same time they’re supposed to be engaging with the unfolding story, and you’ve made role-play a chore.
Look, I get it. In most game systems pre-gen characters are a necessity, because there are so few hours in a convention demo slot. Which is why as a player myself, I quit going to those sorts of slots.
Conversely, the best way to engage players in a new RPG is:
Let them create their own characters;
Role-play until the first needed dice roll;
Explain how dice work for actions;
Role-play with that knowledge until combat breaks out;
Explain how actions work in combat;
Role-play to the adventure’s conclusion;
Give players a memento of the session—the character they just created, to dream about playing its future adventures.
This is why D6xD6 and Bookmark HP RPG bookmark and biz card character sheets exist. First, to emphasize just how quickly and concisely you can design a character, and second, to fit the unique character you designed in your wallet or a book. I’ve seen countless 8½ x 11 inch character sheets in convention trash cans because they start to bulk out folders, or spill from the backs of books. (Even the D13 RPG is designed for generating characters quickly at the table.)
Running convention events, I’ve seen this approach succeed repeatedly, virtually inevitably. Some free advice from an old hand who just likes to see people succeed and have fun.
If you’re a tabletop gamer with much of a collection, you know how easily small boxed games & card games can be overlooked & forgotten on the shelves. I even have a couple of fancy wooden cases—the kind with glass photo frames on the top & sides—to store the best, & still end up forgetting the excellent little games inside. Big boxed games just draw so much attention.
Based on decades of professional game demo experience, and grad school teacher training, I would say that the best way to kill role-play enthusiasm for new players at a convention event is (a) pre-gen characters and; (b) rules info dump up front. Saddle players with those at the same time they’re supposed to be engaging with the unfolding story, and you’ve made role-play a chore.