Don't Roll a One

Tonight’s dice club with the kids was the first time in a long while I felt energized afterward. I think we found “our game” – inspired by Untitled Goose Game, completely normal animals come together for relatively nonthreatening heists.

Tonight’s heist was “have a picnic in the park like humans do”. It ended with a truly beautiful scene of teamwork as the animals drove a Nissan Sentra through a busy intersection and into a Dollar Tree in order to steal clearance Halloween costumes (the final part of a human picnic is of course to dress in people clothes). Everyone thinking very hard and then describing how their animals wore their disguises was a good, good time. Goat and Raccoon had stolen cowboy hats. Owl hid inside a ghost costume. Seal I believe had wriggled into pants? Octopus had figured out a child’s police officer costume, and Goose flapped around trying to wear a sweatshirt.

This was the perfect intersection of low-stakes, wholesome animal shenanigans and my comfortable GMing instincts for criminal activity.

The Greatest Heist Team Ever Assembled

We used a very, very slimmed-down PbtA 2d6 system where every animal shared stats for Sneak and Move and then had a special skill unique to that animal. This upheld the grand tradition of every member of a heist team having their specific role. Raccoon had the Hands skill, and could pick pockets or hold things and so on. Octopus could Ink, Goat could Headbutt (thus becoming the muscle), and so on.