There have been a number of such games in the last decade like Pugmire, Mouseguard and Root. Just wondering if anyone here has played them, and curious as to what the experience was like. I'm pretty big on role-playing my character appropriately, and because I'm quite a big, gruff guy, I can't imagine playing as a cutesy creature. What has your experience been like?
The only one was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Well worth it. And don't go for cutesy, as desired. Imagine Rocket Raccoon with a scaling mutation, as big as you like. Or go for the woodland theme like Root, but be an oversized vulture (etc). There are ways to get comfortable in light of player interests.
A lot's in the roleplaying too. There was nothing cutesy about Bigwig (https://watershipdown.fandom.com/wiki/Bigwig), despite being a rabbit.
Quote from: soundchaser on June 10, 2022, 06:29:21 AM
The only one was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
That was one of the first non-D&D RPGs I played back in the early 90s. Still have a copy of it (with the original mental illness chart) on my shelf.
Quote from: mudbanks on June 10, 2022, 05:41:10 AM
There have been a number of such games in the last decade like Pugmire...
I've never actually played/ran Pugmire, but I got in on the Kickstarter to get one of my passed doggo's names in the credits. Brandi was the goodest girl. :)
Mouseguard is cute right up until the moment a big snake eats you or one of your companions, while the rest flee in terror. Assuming something else doesn't happen to you first. The game was too dark for some of my usual players. :D
My friends once tried playing a session of Iron Claw (basically anthropomorphic D&D). Only thing I remember is that I leaned hard into it with dog paladin named "Dominic St. Bernard."
Funny, while I like the genre (especially smart comics like Dalgoda or Albedo Anthropomorphics) and I own several anthro games, I have never run one. There are only two anthro characters that I can recall in over 40 years of gaming; one was a ursine armsman from Space Opera and just recently a 'Strange' from the beta for Once More into the Void (think Grunt from Mass Effect 2, but this character is more like a panther from The Island of Dr. Moreau.)
Back in the day, TMNT... and its cousins, like the Road Hogs thing in After the Bomb, as I recall. Back then, it was about killing things and taking their stuff... and less about mutant identity and gender transformation and whatever.
Mouseguard is solidly about mice, not as mice-standing-in-as-some-minority-group. It's based on comics/graphic novels, and the conflicts don't really focus on "furry" modern things. It's not really a cute setting even though you can find the graphic novels in the children's section of the library. Mice get eaten by snakes. The mice fight against predatory weasels who invade their territories. Mice die of starvation if they don't get supplies. It can be a dark setting, with ample room for sacrifice and heroism.
Quote from: mudbanks on June 10, 2022, 05:41:10 AM
There have been a number of such games in the last decade like Pugmire, Mouseguard and Root. Just wondering if anyone here has played them, and curious as to what the experience was like. I'm pretty big on role-playing my character appropriately, and because I'm quite a big, gruff guy, I can't imagine playing as a cutesy creature. What has your experience been like?
Depends on the setting totally.
Gritty hard to near-hard fiction settings like Albedo, Justifiers, Mouse Guard and Furry Outlaws/Pirates are going to have a very different tone and playstyle than Iron Claw, After the Bomb or TMNT for example which lean lean often heavily into the fantasy side and can swing between hard and soft quite a bit. And all those are going to play radically different from lighter games like Big Ears-Small Mouse, Crushed, Toon and other games where the threat level tends to be low or in some cases nil.
At the end of the day though anthros has little to no impact on this. It is the tone of the setting that will. Albedo is a 95% hard fiction setting with a very lethal combat system set in effectively WWII in space fought with mostly modern NATO level tech on the ground. Compare that to say Furry Outlaws/Pirates which is a historically accurate setting with a little magic and supernatural mixed in. And at the far end of the spectrum you have things like Crushed which is both lethal and played for laughs, or BESMouse which covers settings like The Rescuers or NIMH and other animal themed cartoons that can be rough, but lean more to less lethal. Depending on what you want to emulate with the system.
Then there are the non-anthro animal themed RPGs like Bunnies & Burrows, Tales from the Wood, and s few others where you play more-or-less straight up animals that can talk. Fairly often these are fairly rough settings as well and tend to lean often to the harder end of hard fiction.
Let's just go ahead and address the "elephant" (hah) in the room: RQ ducks. This reinforces that it is more about setting and how the group approaches it than the type of character. You can play RQ ducks for laughs. Or you can play them straight, and then they really aren't funny. If anything, they are more tragic. I think the thing I like about them the most is that they are tragic-comic.
In my own game, alongside the (more or less) standard humans, elves, dwarves, I've got hobbit-sized cat people, human-sized wolf-people, and a race of inherent shapechangers (based more on certain Slavic myths than the typical fantasy shapechangers). The cat and wolf people do have a humorous slant in that they are notably like the animals. But there's a serious side to that, too. For one thing, I've slanted the game a little more than the D&D standard to what being hobbit-sized means in reality, which can put a cat character in a bind pretty darn quick. They need some of those cat-like traits just to have a shot at survival. So yeah, a little bit of Puss and Boots for laughs, but with side of Puss and Boots bleeding out on the highway. But then, my elves can't use much iron equipment, either.
Meanwhile, there are social constraints and reputation for these characters partially based on race. That's again how you play it, same as it would be with humans from various groups. If you gloss over all that, then the game could be a bit lighter.
I'm a bit fascinated by the weird fairy-tale world of Disney's Pinocchio (never read the original book), complete with anthropomorphic animals, fairies etc. Honest John Foulfellow is the best villain ever 😄 Not sure how I would run this though.
I played TMNT a few times many years ago, but it was never my thing.
Frankly, playing an animal or anthropomorphic animal holds no appeal for me. I like playing humans. Heck, I don't even go in for playing elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. Human is where it's at, for me. Just a personal taste thing.
Quote from: Trond on June 11, 2022, 12:33:31 AM
I'm a bit fascinated by the weird fairy-tale world of Disney's Pinocchio (never read the original book), complete with anthropomorphic animals, fairies etc. Honest John Foulfellow is the best villain ever 😄 Not sure how I would run this though.
Those pop up fairly often in faerie tales all over. Some going back quite a ways. And covering a fair range from the benign to the malicious and everything in between. Quite a few border the line between anthro and plain talking animal. Half the time its treated as nothing special. Like its an everyday thing.
Iron Kingdoms Unleashed gave us the awesome Farrow (hog-people) and Gatormen (take a guess). Neither were 'cutesy critters' in the least, but this is game with "eat what you kill" as a tagline, so I wouldn't expect fluffy bunnies.
I was dissatisfied with the anthro games available so I made my own. Anthropomorphic USR https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/187271/Anthropomorphic-USR?term=anthropomorphic+usr
I ran my game tied into a greater superhero world yet to be played. My experience was one of the stranger in a strange land kind of game. How to make allies and maintain character agency became the PCs predominate occupation. I recommend never shy away from highlighting the impact such weird creatures would have to the cultural conscious of the globe. Personal problems with a powerful world looking into their business.
Only ran 3 sessions so not much more was discovered, for me. Except it felt a lot like a straight up super hero game, which was cool!
Would you consider Vargr, Aslan, Droyne, Hiver or K'Kree from Traveller as Anthropomorphic?
Would you play them completely differently than in a fantasy setting?
Having read loads of anthro animal books (Redwall, Duncton Wood (moles), Watership Down (rabbits), The Silver Tide (squirrels) and many others), I'm a fan of the genre. Of course, I've played lots and even wrote several (Tales From The Wood, It's a Dog's Life and Return of the Woodland Warriors).
Quote from: the crypt keeper on June 11, 2022, 10:00:45 AM
I was dissatisfied with the anthro games available so I made my own. Anthropomorphic USR https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/187271/Anthropomorphic-USR?term=anthropomorphic+usr
Interesting, will have to add that to my wishlist for the next time I have some mad money from DTRPG.
Quote from: Chris24601 on June 10, 2022, 09:43:01 AM
My friends once tried playing a session of Iron Claw (basically anthropomorphic D&D). Only thing I remember is that I leaned hard into it with dog paladin named "Dominic St. Bernard."
We used Iron Claw to do a Final Fantasy-esque game.
In our case, the anthropomorphic stuff faded into the background pretty quickly as the game went on. The system worked okay, but was kind of overcomplicated for what it did.
Would the Wolfen from Palladium Fantasy count?
Quote from: Greentongue on June 11, 2022, 11:53:41 AM
Would you consider Vargr, Aslan, Droyne, Hiver or K'Kree from Traveller as Anthropomorphic?
Would you play them completely differently than in a fantasy setting?
The term Anthropomorphic is just a catchall term. Transformers are anthropomorphic vehicles. Technically the CGI movies Cars are as well. Just in a wildly different way. The term itself has little meaning in the larger useage.
Alot of RPGs and nearly every religion and folk tale set have at least one type of beast folk for whatever reason.
D&D orcs were originally boar headed beast folk. Gnolls are hyena people. Think it was either Hobgoblins or Bugbears that were baboon people. Kobolds were dogmen and so on.
RuneQuest had the Broo and other beast folk.
Traveller has the Aslan and Vargar as you mention.
Palladium Fantasy has the Wolfen.
Warhammer has Skaven, Beastmen, Slaan, and more.
DragonRoar had berserker hedgehogs.
Each approaches it very differently and not all allow them as PCs. And this isnt even including any one-off critters produced by magic, accident or curses.
Quote from: Lurkndog on June 11, 2022, 08:30:14 PM
We used Iron Claw to do a Final Fantasy-esque game.
In our case, the anthropomorphic stuff faded into the background pretty quickly as the game went on. The system worked okay, but was kind of overcomplicated for what it did.
Exactly. Iron Claw works well for certain styles of gameplay. But the rules are indeed more convoluted than they need be. Once you get the system down its not too bad. But the system and the publisher has some inherent problems that prevent me from ever suggesting the game now.
If I were going to do FF I'd use either BESM or Oriental Adventures. D&D was the original inspiration. But it is barely discernable after the first few games.
Thanks for the replies! It certainly seems like there are a lot of anthropomorphic games out there that go beyond furry LARPing. I even forgot about RQ's Durulz lol. Good discussion.
Gamma World and its Predecessor Metamorphosis Alpha are two more examples. Depending on the edition its featuered its fair share of beast folk.
Also have a glance at Mice & Mystics, a co-op board game where the PCs are a group of humans transformed into mice and having to adapt to essentially a Beatrix Potter style world of talking animals.
Quote from: mudbanks on June 10, 2022, 05:41:10 AM
There have been a number of such games in the last decade like Pugmire, Mouseguard and Root. Just wondering if anyone here has played them, and curious as to what the experience was like. I'm pretty big on role-playing my character appropriately, and because I'm quite a big, gruff guy, I can't imagine playing as a cutesy creature. What has your experience been like?
I think your age is showing. Mouseguard came out in 2009 - well over a decade ago. :P
I've never actually played any - but I did read through Mouseguard. Mostly because I was curious about Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard is largely a streamlined version. Though even streamlined, it's hardly light. Had some interesting ideas - but not my jam. (Though it did send me down the rabbit-hole of the Mouseguard comics for a bit - which aren't bad. Or mouse hole?)
Speaking of...
For those curious to try Albedo, I strongly warn against the Platinum edition. Not only is it missing some bits of info, like ohhhh... the freaking alphabet! It also makes up some background that contradicts the comics. And "borrows" most of the art from the original, and adds in a few new pieces not by Steve. And the rules are just as, if not possibly more of a mess than Iron Claw.
If you are going to get the RPG. Get the original. The rules are a bit of a jumble. But once you get the combat system down it is pretty solid and can be easily adapted to running modern combat or even WWII era settings.
The comics are also pretty good and the early ones were anthologies including now famous comics like Usagi Yojimbo. Very much a grab bag of stories and styles.
Quote from: Omega on June 12, 2022, 06:41:50 AM
Quote from: Greentongue on June 11, 2022, 11:53:41 AM
Would you consider Vargr, Aslan, Droyne, Hiver or K'Kree from Traveller as Anthropomorphic?
Would you play them completely differently than in a fantasy setting?
The term Anthropomorphic is just a catchall term. Transformers are anthropomorphic vehicles. Technically the CGI movies Cars are as well. Just in a wildly different way. The term itself has little meaning in the larger useage.
Alot of RPGs and nearly every religion and folk tale set have at least one type of beast folk for whatever reason.
D&D orcs were originally boar headed beast folk. Gnolls are hyena people. Think it was either Hobgoblins or Bugbears that were baboon people. Kobolds were dogmen and so on.
RuneQuest had the Broo and other beast folk.
Traveller has the Aslan and Vargar as you mention.
Palladium Fantasy has the Wolfen.
Warhammer has Skaven, Beastmen, Slaan, and more.
DragonRoar had berserker hedgehogs.
Each approaches it very differently and not all allow them as PCs. And this isnt even including any one-off critters produced by magic, accident or curses.
I've been working on a few ideas for beastmen. One that I've had is that they're not a species but a culture and religion. They're humans who worship the Beast Lords, fable-esque deities of the animals, and develop animal features as a result of venerating a specific totem. Each clan or tribe venerates a different totem, like Bear, Wolf, Lion, Eagle, or Tiger.
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on June 14, 2022, 09:56:10 AM
I've been working on a few ideas for beastmen. One that I've had is that they're not a species but a culture and religion. They're humans who worship the Beast Lords, fable-esque deities of the animals, and develop animal features as a result of venerating a specific totem. Each clan or tribe venerates a different totem, like Bear, Wolf, Lion, Eagle, or Tiger.
So - sort of a non-evil Chaos Warriors who get animalistic features rather than weird mutations?
A big question - would the animalistic features always be an advantage? (A pet peeve of mine in fiction is how animal features are virtually always advantageous relative to human ones. Humans got became dominant for a reason!)
Quote from: Charon's Little Helper on June 14, 2022, 07:26:01 AM
I think your age is showing. Mouseguard came out in 2009 - well over a decade ago. :P
Haha! Time flies. Everything always feels like last decade, if not yesteryear.
Quote from: Charon's Little Helper on June 14, 2022, 11:58:11 AM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on June 14, 2022, 09:56:10 AM
I've been working on a few ideas for beastmen. One that I've had is that they're not a species but a culture and religion. They're humans who worship the Beast Lords, fable-esque deities of the animals, and develop animal features as a result of venerating a specific totem. Each clan or tribe venerates a different totem, like Bear, Wolf, Lion, Eagle, or Tiger.
So - sort of a non-evil Chaos Warriors who get animalistic features rather than weird mutations?
Yes. They're essentially using the primal power source from 4e (i.e. includes druids and berserkers).
Quote from: Charon's Little Helper on June 14, 2022, 11:58:11 AMA big question - would the animalistic features always be an advantage? (A pet peeve of mine in fiction is how animal features are virtually always advantageous relative to human ones. Humans got became dominant for a reason!)
Not necessarily. It depends on the features. But obviously these are overshadowed by their human intelligence.
Albedo and my own book way back took the approach that the form tended to give no big advantages. And what little one got needed training to use else it was either not very effective, or actually a hindrance.
Just because you have horns in no way means you know how to use them, or use them effectively. Much like everyone can throw a punch or kick. But few can do that effectively without some training. Same with enhanced senses.
It was so on my book partially because I was tired of people wanting X beast folk as some sort of numerical advantage rather than because it was interesting. And because it fit the setting.
I just got one titled Mutants in the Now. Not the best title since a few people will assume is a Blades in the Dark hack but it's not.
MitN is actually a modern retropunk version of TMNT & Other Strangeness. I'd call it an OSR game of TMNT myself. It is a simplified take if the Palladium System and it makes a lot more sense yet it is very much an updated, more versatile TMNT rpg.