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Game of the Week: Kobolds Ate My Baby

posted by Chris Fairfield at 3:32 pm.

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You’ll have to forgive the lack of updates this week, the arrival of spring has knocked my sinuses on their collective asses.

I do have some energy, though, to highlight this weeks Game of the Week. The honor this week goes to the venerable roleplaying game, the king of dice, the sultan of stats. I, of course, am referring to Kobolds Ate My Babies, the original Beer and Pretzel game.

In KAMB, you play the role of a Kobold. You’re job is to roam into the countryside and bring back fresh human babies for King Torg’s (All Hail King Torg!) feast. Failure means certain death, though in this game, death is fairly certain regardless. The game itself is fairly easy. You have four stats: Brawn, Ego, Extraneous, and Reflexes (B.E.E.R., get it?). Creating your character is done mostly at random; which is fine, as your characters die often enough that you don’t want to invest too much time into building them. One person is selected to play the mayor (KAMB’s version of a DM). Unlike most roleplaying games, there is a clear winner to KAMB. Nine times out of ten, it’s the Mayor. (Yes, the DM can, and usually does, win)

The fun of the game comes from getting together with some friends, and just being silly for silliness sake. There are a wide assortment of house rules, and just about anything you do gives you the chance to die on one of the many “horrible death charts”. Unlike in other systems, your character’s death isn’t the end of the campaign or even the session. You stand on your chair, give a brief soliloquy of your characters accomplishments and hop right back in. Sessions are usually accompanied by raucous laughter and amusing anecdotes. You know, the sounds of fun. You remember playing RPG’s to have fun, right?

Kobolds Ate My Babies is currently available in a hardcover edition for the cheap price of $15. There is also an older paperback version available secondhand, for around $5. At prices like this, you have no excuse to not get your Kobold on.

Chris Fairfield: is an avid gamer and web surfer who happens to be hellbent on World Domination. But who isn't these days?