Cardboard Castles / intro

B&B is being playtested as a rules system by Charley (Age 6) and some of his friends

(both for pen&paper rpg with imagination based storytelling,
and tabletop rpg with fantasy miniatures)

CARDBOARD CASTLES

When you have kids and are on a shoestring budget, the amazing and expensive resin dungeon sections available from companies on the internet are to be gladly admired but sadly not collected. 

Fortunately "keeping the kids entertained" and "encouraging the kids to be creative" are entirely compatible with "getting the kids into dice based roleplaying games".

We have cardboard. After a lifelong dedicated to much exploration with various sticky-tapes (paint does not stick to plastic tape, masking tape dries out and falls apart after six months to a year, fabric-based gaffa tape does the job perfectly) investing a couple of quid in this versatile construction  material essential. 

You will also need scissors, glue (a lifetime dedicated to exploration has resulted in the revelation that a brand called Hard As Nails is the only one worth using, certainly stay far away from superglue which sticks your fingers together and nothing else) and an ability to measure "roughly an inch" using your own judgement.  You will also need black and white poster paint, a mixing pot, and a paintbrush. Make sure the kids get changed out of their school clothes first. 

Did I mention already? You will also need a lot of corrugated cardboard, preferably not too beaten up looking.

Basically for this project we are building dungeon sections: tunnels and rooms. The blueprint is a tray with gaps in it for doors. On the floor we put random paving slabs, just enough to give the impression of a grid for moving miniatures about, without it looking too spocky. 

stick the walls onto the base before you stick the corners

a typical dungeon corridor with multiple exits (one of the first with too many floor slabs)

 A picture is worth a page of words.

STORYTELLING NARRATION

It is imperative that the Adult / Gamesmaster /DungeonKeeper becomes excellent at adding the atmosphere and guiding the imagination of the kids. This is in part slowing them down when they get too excited and in part focusing their minds on the many wonders which make the whole thing more interesting than merely rolling dice and moving plastic figures around cheaply painted cardboard. 

To this end each delve into the dungeon is a specific adventure with a specific task and purpose. Every dungeon is different, not only the lay-out has changed because its sections are modular but also the Quest itself is significantly different. It does get more complicated as the ongoing series of adventures continues, so we keep everything simple especially at the start when we are introducing new players to what it is we are doing here. 

Description is everything. The dark, dank lair of the goblins, putrid with poo smells and rotting food, rats scurrying around the shadows at the edges of your torch light. Yes that's rule one, you can only see the room or tunnel you are currently in because the light source (lantern, torch, glow spell, glowing crystal shard) which your characters are carrying only illuminates that area (basic: 3 squares of good light, 2 squares of half light, 1 square of shadows but this does depend on the type of light source). The point being that you have to describe everything with at least one adjective, and more as often as you can get away with it. Because a musty old chest is not exciting after discovering a musty old book earlier in the dungeon. But a dry musty old book is quite significantly different from a dusty musty old chest. An index of stock phrases is necessary.

NPCs (monsters) are individuals. They have names and stories. While slaying a hoard of them doesn't give you time to get to know each and every one on a personal basis, they are still going to be shnarling and cussing in goblinspeak while their dirty daggers are making clanging sounds as they bash them against the metal buckles on their scraps of leather armor.

When you encounter a lone guard, he might be sleeping, snoring, make the sound effects. He will jump in surprise, "whu? wha? wah!" the Goblin shouts as he see's you charging toward him with your weapons raised. "Alarm! Sound the alarm! Invaders!"

QUESTS

As with all the brilliant predecessors to the budget version of tabletop dungeon roleplaying, Cardboard Castles comes complete with a quest book listing the simple basics for each adventure. The backstory is the characters work for the King and are sent to retrieve items and people from various underground locations. The Kings Sword (Quest One) is magickal and necessary for Slaying Demons (Quest Two) however it is lost deep within the Goblin Lair (well okay, four or five rooms in). Because the heroes were doing so well in retrieving the sword they decided to kill every goblin in the dungeon (except for the one who escaped, which later becomes a major plot hook for the whole campaign because he gradually gathers reinforcements).

FEATURES

Stairs, Teleporters, Pillars, Chests, Weapon Racks, Secret Rooms, Pit Traps, Arrow Traps, although the last few give rise to the additional rule that Every time a character enters a new room, a table is rolled on for Traps, Treasure and Monsters. Yes, this game becomes very much about rolling on charts to randomly generate dungeon features. Lots of these charts exist. In time I will probably publish them here or on a related blog or perhaps include them as a commercial Brains&Brawn expansion module. Experienced roleplayers will make their own, there's nothing especially out-of-the-box in the types of encounters to be found in basic 'introducing kids to the rpg hobby' lists anyway.

DEVELOPMENT

Everything showed here so far is WIP (Work In Progress). The paint jobs are crude. Cartoon area's of brickwork have not yet been drawn in with pen or pencil. No spray-on matt resin has been applied to make the models more durable (and lets face it they are disposable and receive a battering from the kids), no wall-top-reinforcement has been added for extra durability (not entirely sure yet the best way to do that which is cost effective and doesn't waste so much time, if this is even necessary). Some prototype door-sections have been made to join two modular rooms together with a clip-on cardboard but they are fiddly to make (involving plastic alligator clips) and dozens are needed - except they are not really needed at all anyway to be able to play and enjoy the game. 

the Pit (for jumping / falling / climbing out of / filling with goblin corpses)

the BIG room (more regular chess type floor slabs made of thinner card)

see how it works better with less floor slabs, but you still see the grid
(patchwork section on top wall, a secret passage?)

more to follow...

Charley the dungeon designer busy at work