The Bot with the Yellow Bandana

RPG system: Bots & Pieces
Participants: 1 GM, 4 players

By

AireCon 8 (2023), Harrogate Convention Centre, Harrogate, United Kingdom

Jim Heru

Description

Welcome to New Promise – a small town on the outskirts of civilisation to the far West of Tartarus in the hills of The Lost Savanna. It's unusual to see parts of the moon without thick piles of trash ground down into the moon's surface, but for you pilgrims, this was 50 years of hard work and dedication.

What brought you here was through similar hard work. Fifty years before current events, you were aboard the SS Promise. This travelling entertainment ship travelled the local galactic area from colony to colony, providing historical entertainment for adults and children set in the Old West. You and your friends were the only survivors from the wreckage that crashed into Tartarus' surface. From then forward, you have made a stake in this soil and claimed the area in the name of freedom and honour.

After waking from the ship crash, you pulled up your parts and saw this blessing in disguise; a fresh start and a land to call your own. It's been 50 years, but you are finally starting to feel a sense of belonging again.

New Promise is what you'd expect from an old western town. Rolling hills set the landscape as a small trash ball rolls through the single stripped entrance. A large sign hangs down from the corner of two buildings, part of the star ship's name 'Promise' with big red painted letters in-front spelling 'new'. The town is very active; western-styled androids mingle in the streets, talking amongst small groups. Life in this humdrum existence doesn't have the excitement that travelling from colony to colony and putting on shows every night does. Most of your time is spent farming, building, or repairing. Not the most exciting of lives. However, things might change sooner than you think...'

The BWYB is an excellent one-shot for starting players. It incorporates many of the wacky world-building elements, a chance to utilise all the mechanics that make Bots & Pieces unique and, for you, a chance to test out Challenges, Accessory Challenges, and Boss Encounters.

Bots ‘n Pieces is a narrative role-playing game (RPG) about playing a team of light-hearted, ragtag, clapped-out robots on a contrastingly dangerous and deadly junk-strewn planet, the frontier world of Tartarus. The game uses Action Pools (dice pools) for players to defeat Challenges. Players build Action Pools by spending from a limited set of themed Programs to create a narrative description of their actions. Each Program is represented by a dice type: d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12. Players can also build Action Pools together by Combining the robotic bodies of two or more Bots, creating a new Character for a brief time.

Tags: Beginner friendly | Old West | Wild West | Action Packed | Strong Narrative | Silly Characters | Creative Gameplay

Played at