Big Barbarian Badasses The Board Game

As you may or may not know I am working on a board game called “Big Badass Barbarians: The BoardGame“. The concept of which is that you are trying to be the biggest, most badass barbarian whoever bashed his way to glory.

Gameplay

The game is very simple whilst at the same time having enough rules to keep it engaging.
Players (Barbarians) choose a model or draw a picture to represent them. Barbarians start off with 10 gold, a Weapon (Sword, Axe or Club). They then have Five points to allocate between Strength, Toughness and Badassness.

Strength is what you add to your attacks
Toughness is what you detract from incoming attacks
Badassness is your level, I’ll explain this later on

Players then roll to see what order they progress through the Dungeon but roll separately once combat happens. This is so there is no inherent advantage to the first player.
(Marching Order (Order of movement through the dungeon) stays the same until a player returns to town, they are then put last on the marching order)

The game has two main areas; The Town and the Dungeon.
The Town has various crucial services that the Barbarians can employ, the most important being the blacksmith, who forges all the weapons. But there are other services available;

Temple – Dead players can be resurrected here, though likely with their equipment stolen by their “friends”. Lose half your Badass level and any withdrawn gold (Split this up to the remaining players.)
Blacksmith – Bring materials (Found after defeating a monster) and pay 10 Gold per material to upgrade weaponry.
PR Agent – Can be used to quickly seem more Badass, for every 10 Gold gain 1 Badass point. Fly posting campaign, short play in your honour or even a sponsorship on a new weapon!
Bank – A place to store items just in case you feel you may die and want to have something to use when you come back.

The Dungeon is what I’m most proud of though. Using the stack of rooms (Shuffled at the start of the game) the Player entering the room draws a tile and joins two entrances together however they wish, then draws a card from the Encounter pile.

If the card is a Monster (Kobolds, Dragons, Angry Flail Wielding Nun, Vending Machine Golem) the card will say where on the grid it spawns (With an arrow indicating where the Player entered). Players then roll for combat order and rush to defeat the nasty monsters.
Once a monster is defeated the surviving players gain the XP and a share of the gold. The player who landed the killing blow gets the materials which can be weapons, armour, magical items, bear traps or scraps to be added to a weapon.

Another possibility is that the Player draws a Magic card in which something beneficial or tragic happens.

Lastly, a Player could draw a Treasure Card. These rare cards offer up a bounty of gold or the player accidentally performs a deed that bestows a boon upon them. (Finding an ancient relic, accidentally saving a god or being doused with a bucket of Toughness potion.)

Goal 

The ultimate goal of the game is to be the most badass barbarian. To prove this, the Players must defeat the beast that lies at the bottom of the dungeon.

When the Players enter the final room (The large tile placed once the other tiles run out) the Most Badass Player draws from the Boss Deck.
An Elder Dragon, A Cosmic Horror, A Dark God, A Leviathan…
The winner of the game is whoever survives the fight with the Most Badass Points. But if you’re alive at the end of the game, you still make it onto the podium and can call the dead Players babies for dying.

Where Do I Get Such A Wonderful Thing?

Currently? Nowhere, but follow this blog and when I release the game, you’ll be able to find out exactly where to get it.

Why Do I Want This?

You want this because you watched Conan (Or read the books, weirdo) and thought “Damn, I wish I could do that!” With Big Badass Barbarians, you can do that and much, much more. Badassery does not comply to normal laws and if you want to use a drake tied to a club as a weapon, I think that’s awesome and promise you’ll be able to do that.

Those Who Play – Fantasy Supplement

I’ve been spending some time planning out the Fantasy setting for Those Who Play and I am confident enough with the current playable races that I am willing to share them. As mentioned in my previous update, I mentioned that I am loathe to completely abandon the elf and dwarf archetypes. So, what I have done is redesign them to a point where I feel they are unique enough to be fresh whilst also being familiar enough to not feel alien.

So far I have created two “elf” races, a “dwarf” race and a “halfling” race. Each with their own unique powers and traits that should make them feel unique and, most importantly, balanced.

Aeador

The Aeador (A-a door) are the most graceful race of the land, standing at almost seven feet but incredibly slender. They are very similar to mankind except for an unnatural slimness that makes them appear almost emaciated but their appearance is due to smaller and more efficient organs. Most other races fear them for they are long lived, some old enough to remember the beginning of some races.

Commonly they have hair in shades of white or silver, cutting this hair is only done when one wishes to forget a tragic experience. Strangely, this seems to work. Their hair does not grow fast (10 centimetres per year) so unless an Aeador lives a long and happy life, their hair rarely becomes a problem. Ponytails, pleats and knots are common amongst the Aeador, turbans and head wraps are commonly worn to keep longer hair practical.

Aeador share little in common with the other races and are encouraged to keep it this way, their closest kin Sylfa act as mediators between the Aeador and the other races.

The greatest power of the Aeador is their ability to see beyond mortal perception. Depending on their lineage (See Aeador: Beginnings) they can see the realms of magic or the dead. Although this ability cause’s great strain on most as the power has waned through the generations, leaving most Aeador unable to perform this feat more than once per day and even then only for a few minutes at most.

Sylfa

Close cousins to the Aeador, the Sylfa (Seal-fa) are denizens of the forests instead of cities. They craft homes amongst the branches, not out of them.

Standing at only five feet, the Sylfa are much shorter than their cousins but have speed and strength to rival the Aeador. In order to stay hidden amongst the trees, the Sylfa match their forest in garb and appearance as such dyed hair is common amongst the Sylfa.

Whilst being relatives of the Aeador, the Sylfa are much closer to humans in appearance except that they are leaner and smaller and have longer hands and feet. The most startling difference are their elongated canines which resemble those of an ape and have enough power to tear a human’s throat out.

The Sylfa live in small groups, no more than twenty to a clan and tend to be very territorial though nomadic clans do exist.

With their natural ability to blend into the forest and incredibly light step, the Sylfa are exceptional at going undetected.

Durann

With bones infused with precious ores and crystal growths protruding from their arms. The Durann (Du-ran) are a hardy race with many natural traits that make them masters at war, craft and mining. Standing at barely four foot the Durann are stout creatures akin to dwarves in all manners except for their more earthy roots.

The colour of a Durann’s crystals shows their heritage, though as the colours have mixed throughout the generations, only the pure-blooded can properly trace their heritage back to the first families. The intensity of a Durann’s crystals also display their emotions with a dull crystal marking a Durann as depressed and a glowing crystal showing happiness or another powerful emotion. Because of this, Durann miners are often chosen for their cheery disposition which helps to illuminate the vast tunnels of their homeland.

Durann are social creatures and as such like to look impressive, often this takes the form of jewellery, tattoos or impressive hair and facial hair. To most these appear to be simple tribal designs but there is a deeper meaning to every design, usually denoting skills, family trees, positions, titles and feats they have performed.

Durann are exceptionally tough and are able to illuminate up to ten feet around themselves if they focus on their crystals.

Piak

The Piak (Pea-ak) are a peculiar race in that they are so unlike their neighbours. Standing at a meagre two foot and being clad in a bark like substance, these spritely farmers often go unnoticed or even forgotten. The Piak wear a full body suit of bark made from the trees of the forests in order to hide what they look like, this has gone on for so long even the Piak don’t know why they do it.

Underneath the bark the Piak are a pale blue and have the physique of a toddler but with enough strength to keep their symbiotic partners under control. Piak appear to have amphibious heritage as they have webbing between their three fingers and toes and rudimentary gills on their neck.

The Piak are farmers, but they are also nomadic loners, to get the best of both worlds the Piak have formed a symbiotic relationship with the Kip.

The Kip are a species of giant tortoise that has a dip in the top of its shell that the Piak fill with soil and use as farmland. In repayment the Kip are fed some of the produce and any copper that the Piak makes from trade.

Kip can range from anywhere between four foot to six foot long with the dip in their shell taking up almost half their length and width. To utilise the space, Piak plant small, quick growing vegetables or will grow one fruit bush.

Piak have a knack for agriculture, an unnatural knack it would seem as the Piak are able to sing to the flora and make it grow in 1/10th the time. They also have a gift for languages as Piak are able to attune their vocal chords to mimic any spoken language as long as the target holds the same note for a few seconds. They may only hold one language at a time.

Back to the point

These are only the first four with many more to come. Tell me what you think in the comments, put forth your own ideas if you want. If I like it, I’ll put it in and credit you.

Thanks for reading and if you like what you just read, follow for more.

Those who play

After attending Games West (A talk held at my university where some industry professionals talked to us about different aspects of the industry) I have decided to make my own pen and paper RPG.

The idea for the system and the core of the game is to explain or remove the tropes that seperate game from story in typical pen and paper (pnp) games.

Those who play seeks to remove this by involving the players as forces in the game, characters seek these forces out in order to gain power, earn fame or get revenge.

I will post the first draft here when it is completed and if it gets decent reception then I will work on getting proper art for the book and see about making physical copies!