Lacking Natural Simplicity

Introduction

Fudge Bunnies & Burrows is the first RPG that I played with any of the kids, and was probably the first RPG that I played with most of them. It's ideal for introducing kids to RPGs: bunnies are familiar enough for them to grasp the idea quickly, but different enough so that it's neat.

[This is an after-the-fact post. Again, I could have sworn I'd written something about this before.]

I found my notes on this, which reminded me of some of the things that happened.

I ran the first example adventure from GURPS Bunnies & Burrows, “The Herbmaster's Plea”, p. 94. I used Steffan O'Sullivan's Fudge Bunnies characters, and let the players pick the ones they liked best. Several of the players had probably played this scenario before, but it was enough years ago that they'd forgotten it, and I changed things around a bit. I still had the map I drew of the barn from the farm from “The Herbmaster's Plea” for a B&B game on 2003/01/18 with B.B. & T.A. [1], so I could reuse that.

Attending

• M.B. & C.P.B, jointly playing Chamomile, a bunny with healing powers

• L.B., playing Raspbery, a storytelling, risk-taking bunny

• T.A., playing Stripe, a capable young King's Scout bunny

• D.B., playing Oakroot, a solid and reliable, very strong but somewhat dim member of the Owsla.

Actual Play

They went through the forest on the way to the farm, and were attacked by mongooses. In evading the mongooses they ran off separately and all of them but Stripe got lost. Oakroot and Raspberry eventually got back together and were bickering so much (in character) that I figured their bunnies must be brother and sister. Oakroot and Raspberry made so much noise that the didn't notice the bear, and almost ran into him. Oakroot was so confused that he ran into a tree! Raspberry had dashed ahead and hidden behind another tree, and when she say the bear approaching Oakroot she used her skill Throw your Voice to distract the bear long enough for her and Oakroot to escape. Stripe had tracked them down and had been watching them from a safe distance, and soon joined up with them. They found the others at the edge of the forest, and headed off for the farm. They went into the hedge, but just managed to stop before one of them got caught in one of the traps in the hedge. They sneaked along the hedge, and then stuck across the new-mown hay field to the pig pen, where they spent some time talking with the pigs, who were very bored. They decided to let the pigs loose as a distraction, but they needed a lever to open the gate to the pigpen. They went through the pigpen, through the chicken house (asking the rooster first), and into the tractor shed, where they found a screwdriver. They eventually got the gate open, with the cooperation of the pigs, and in the confusion while the dog was distracted they dashed across into the barn.

In the barn they eventually found the herbmaster in one of a set of rabbit hutches in the hayloft of the barn, and they managed to figure out how to open the hutches and set all the bunnies inside free. Oakroot and Stripe accidentally scared the hutch rabbits, and one set didn't want to escape to the warren and were making lots of noise to alert the cat that something was wrong. Raspberry used her Storytelling skill and Enthrallingly Charismatic supernormal power to calm them down by telling them a story about .. FIXME: spelling? Elharairah and convince them to come along quietly.

They eluded the rats and all made it back safe to the warren, which welcomed the new rabbits joyfully.