Hi all, hope this is the right place to put a question like this.
I am looking for a potential roleplaying game to play with my kid (9 years), but there is absolutely no interest for anything fantasy or sci-fi. Just a love of anything animals and recently we discovered Everdell as a cool boardgame for our family. Root is another boardgame that in style would fit our interests.
Does anyone know of any roleplaying game featuring animals having jobs, building communities? Fighting monsters or evil dudes is not completely off the table I think, I am sure I could tone that down myself if necessary. Bonus plus if it features art like the two games I mentioned.
Thanks!
There is The Land of Eem, which is really good, won a couple ennies. They are currently kick starting another setting box set and an even more kid friendly rule set if you end up interested, but the current box set is awesome too. Also free preview PDF.
Thanks, not so much the theme I was looking for, but rather kid-friendly. I’ll have a look.
Oh man, now I feel so stupid. I did look for Everdell and rpg search terms online and didn’t find anything. Root I only thought of while writing this post.
Thanks! I’ll take a look at that.
In addition to what others have mentioned, Mausritter might fit the bill!
Interesting, thanks! And hilariously close in name to the other game mentioned, Mouseguard.
I imagine that’s intentional. :P “Mausritter” means “Mouse Knight.” IIRC, it was also inspired by Mouse Guard and Redwall, but is mechanically closer to old-school renaissance games.
There is a Root RPG based on the PbtA system. It’s a fiction first system which means it’s quite flexible and you can run all kind of adventures in it not only combat ones. The book also uses the same art style as the boardgame for the illustrations.
Another option is Mouseguard. It’s based of a series of comic books aimed at kids and it has mice trying to survive and fight against predators (snakes, owls that sort of stuff). It uses as simpler Burning Wheel system and it also encourages storytelling with each character having beliefs and goals that influence their actions. The art is also the same as the comics so it’s pretty cool if your kid likes mice with swords and axes.
Great suggestions, thanks!
Wanderhome might be good fit as it targets a non-violent style.
Thank you!
The classic Mouseguard springs to mind. Literally just mice having jobs protecting and building their home. I’ve not gotten to play it but I really want to.
You’ll probably see Wanderhome suggested which sells itself as a Redwall-esque game. I hated the system myself but others love it.
I’d maybe look at Mice and Mystics for ideas but it’s more fantasy and classic dungeon crawl so not really what you want
Awesome, thanks also for linking them.
Humblewood is a dnd 5e setting based on talking animals. It would be classic DND so dungeoning delving and monster fighting are sort of baked in
Oh nice, I’ll check it out, thanks!
There’s The Defender’s Almanac, which is a RPG designed to go along with a board game. The setting (forest animals in guerilla warfare against a mech invasion, with magic) and the board game are cool. The RPG has lots of good narrative content, but the mechanics are not great (I wrote a review with more details at that link). Could probably just use the setting with the Root RPG rules though.
Huh, interesting, thanks for sharing.
