Description

Taming the Slugiraffe is a solo roleplaying game where players take on the role of an insignificant background fantasy creature as it journeys into THE PIT to find the fabled SLUGIRAFFE. Can you survive the PIT and gather what you need to TAME THE SLUGIRAFFE?

What's it like?

It's a bit like Dark Souls if you were playing as a Pikachu trying to catch a Snorlax. The monsters are nasty, the world is dark, but you're just hoping to find a big slug-giraffe thing to make the life of your people much easier.

What's the set up?

You play as a GIBLET, a small background fantasy creature – the kind of thing that gets kicked off a cliff (without being hurt) for comic relief in films and TV. You and your people like a happy life, but there is a story a mystical creature that once would ferry and care for your tribes. You wish to return your people to this bountiful golden age – but to do this you must find, and tame, a SLUGIRAFFE. The only place they exist is within THE PIT. You, brave GIBLET, must descend to find the creature, and return a hero.

The System

The game uses a random exploration system and simple dice combat and event resolution using 2D6 (originally based on the excellent TUNNEL GOONS system by Nate Treme). Depending on the monsters you defeat or friends you make along the way you'll roll a different sized dice on the D20 loot table. Naturally, the most beneficial items are those in the top range of dice rolls.

Players draw their progress through the pit. Each location has it's own interaction or event which might be useful for gaining the resources to find and tame the SLUGIRAFFE. They will need to work with the pit dwellers to improve their chances of survival by trading items, performing rituals, and eventually finding a way to track the mythical creature.

Exploration

Exploration is a case of creating paths and exploring new biomes and settlements using the provided map. Players roll for exploring biomes, and if they're lucky they'll find a settlement. Once a connection has been made between two locations the path can be travelled freely. If you want to find somewhere new however, you'll have roll for exploration again, and deal with whatever encounters lurk there.

Combat

Combat is deadly and ruthless – and your choices about what you carry with you will make all the difference to your survival. Simply beat the number requested on 2D6, plus any useful items, and victory is yours. Failure means losing an item, or an item slot. If you run out of item slots, you've been squished. On the plus side, if you fail your quest, they'll just send another one of you. You are, after all, only a GIBLET.

Taming

One you have gathered your gear and found the location of the SLUGIRAFFE, it's simply a case of chasing it down and taming it. Your weapons are no good here, as the ancient beast is indestructable. The game is a balance between arming yourself for your survival, and being equipped to capture that ancient creature towards the end of the adventure.

The Zine

We'll be printing a 16 page zine with all the rules needed to play the game solo. The zine will be in colour throughout. You'll have to bring your own dice, writing implement and sense of foolish adventure.

The zine will also come with character sheets and token sheets printed within for easy photocopying, Digital versions of these will be available to all backers.

—description from the designer