Bunnies & Burrows

[arcane_asp]

Okay, I know there was a thread a few years ago discussing this topic too.

I'm going to suggest playing "Bunnies & Burrows" to my gaming group for a few sessions of play, just to have something profoundly different to experience. I know some of them will be curious enough to play it

Has anyone ever played or GM'd a game of this before? Either the original or the newer GURPS variant.

Any suggestions for running this, or any ideas for simple starting scenarios? Any constructive input anyone wants to throw in is valued

[Knaight]

I've never played it, however I can confirm that Fudge was explicitly made to handle this as one of the generic options, and has a surprisingly high number of example characters that would fit right in Watership Down. I've used that, and that has worked just fine.

As for advice, the biggest thing you can do to help immersion is remember the senses. Rabbits have excellent hearing, an excellent sense of smell, and a dramatically different sense of vision than people. The range of vision is extremely good, almost all of it is from either one eye or the other, and the depth perception is a joke. They're far sighted. Plus, they are very close to the ground, and have a blind spot right in front of them.

So, when describing things, focus on smells and sounds. Describe nearby whisker sensations. Provide vision with a focus of angle and not distance. Being consistent about that tends to work extremely well for immersion, and it's a good habit to get into anyways for other games where senses are altered.

[JustIgnoreMe]

Re-read Watership Down and the companion book, Tales from Watership Down. Watch the movie if you can bear to do so (Bright Eyes always makes me cry).

Fudge (and Fate) are a good call if you don't want to run the original (very old) system, or the GURPS version. There's a Fudge adventure called, IIRC, "Another Fine Mess" that deals with animals (you all play wizards' familiars).

There's supposed to be an Apocalypse Engine game called... perhaps The Warren? I forget. Anyway, that must be out soon.

Sadly, I think the place that was the original inspiration for Watership Down has now been developed and built on.

[arcane_asp]

Wow, this game went better than I expected!

I went with the original Bunnies & Burrows (got hold of a PDF) and laid out a very basic "you've all been forced to migrate to a new area, now establish your burrow" style of plot. Thanks for the advice, JustIgnoreMeand Knaight.

I did re-read Watership Down (couldn't find a copy of 'Tales From' in time). I had forgotten why that book had such a classic status.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed

Even the groups resident power gamer got into this - I have NEVER heard him state that his character hides rather than confronts a hostile foe, and he even built a fighter style rabbit to play. After they got used to gathering food and drawing away threats, there was an emphasis on acquiring things, so we went through the process of gathering herbs, materials for building bags (although I we all veto'd a suggestion that rabbits could construct armour plating.

We played for about 7 hours, not including breaks. They want another session for a few weeks time, where they are looking to expand the burrow and get some more Does involved (all male gamer group, no surprise that happened).

I was even thinking - amongst other things - that they encounter a small colony of wild hamsters, escaped from human captivity and living wild.

[JustIgnoreMe]

I'm glad it went well for you, and that my half-baked advice kind of helped.

A colony of escaped pets could be very interesting, I suppose the kind of pet would depend on where your game is set (a bit cold for hamsters round my way). They'd have a very different culture to animals that were born wild.

Exploration and meeting others, whether rabbits, hares, rats, mice, cats, dogs, owls, pigeons... That, to me, is the essence of the stories B&B should be telling.

Other "talking animal" books like Farthing Wood and anything Richard Adams wrote can also be a good source, as could Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad.

Keep us informed about your game, it sounds lots of fun.

[arcane_asp]

I'll do a write up of the first session and put it up on here. Bear in mind it is 7 hours play taking place over 2 game days so it might be a lengthy account. I know the players will want to read up on it too so I can circulate a copy to them as a reminder of the details next session.

[Digitalelf]

Thank you for reminding this old grognard of this almost equally as old, but wonderful game. I picked up a copy on PDF over at RPGNow for $5.00...

[arcane_asp]

Session 1: New Fields

The party are six young buck rabbits, who have travelled together away from their overcrowded burrow out in the grassy rolling hills of home. Sticking together, after a journey of several miles, they arrive at an unknown valley that they intend to settle in, running west to east.

Spoiler: The Rabbits

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The Characters

Flint - a large brown rabbit, heavy set and often aggressive (v. high STR)
Profession: Fighter

Lucky - a slender white and brown rabbit, cheeky and curious
Profession: Maverick

Buttons - (player insisted on this name!) a grey and brown rabbit with very long ears, cautious and dutiful
Profession: Scout

Springer - a dark grey rabbit with striking pale eyes, always knows best
Profession: Storyteller

Shard - a dark grey rabbit with almost black eyes, fearful but wise
Profession: Storyteller

Wing - a ginger rabbit, lean and agile, intelligent and inquisitive
Profession: Runner

Spoiler: Part 1 - Arrival

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It was hot mid-morning, and the rabbits all cropped at the grass whilst working out what to do. Not knowing the lay of the land, and finding themselves in the narrow pastures at one end of the valley, Buttons, Wing and Lucky went out exploring in opposite directions, whilst the three remaining rabbits went on to investigate the meadow area more thoroughly.
Buttons went southwards the valley wall, where sparse woodlands offered a little shade. As Buttons picked his way through the woods, he could practically feel a pair of beady eyes watching him. His excellent sense of smell picked up the traces of a snake in the area – not wanting to tangle with such a creature, he opted to move on southwards, deeper into the trees.

(He wasn’t to know it, but the random table had thrown up a neutral Green Snake which wouldn’t have disturbed him anyways)

Wing travelled down the length of the valley to the east. The open pasture seemed to carry on for some distance before the lush grass petered out and the ground became bare. Wing was moving pretty fast, and nearly ran into a squirrel that was busy digging in the dirt, burying a cache of nuts . The squirrel was surprised and nearly bolted, but when he saw it was a rabbit that disturbed him, he sat up and addressed Wing in his own native Lapine language! After some hesitation, Wing learned that the squirrel had learned the rabbit language from a group of other rabbits that used to be around a few seasons ago. The squirrel (who called himself Scrabbler) didn’t know what happened to them, but let Wing know they used to hang out further eastwards down the valley, past the stream, near a large bank of sycamore trees. The two also discussed the possibility of Scrabbler teaching Wing some of the Common Rodent language that is used by squirrels, rats and mice. Wing thanked him and had decided to return to his fellows to share the news.

Lucky had gone north from the starting meadow, toward the edge of the valley where sparse trees bordered on the lush grass. His first encounter was plump pigeon who eyed him haughtily from a branch overhead. Not being able to communicate with it, Lucky began poking around in the forest for anything of interest. He soon picked up a strand of fibrous creeper vines that had wound around a fallen tree trunk. To his further delight, he managed to locate a pool of clear ground in a forest glade with a cluster of sharp smelling weeds. Nibbling them experimentally, he began to feel a bit unwell, and decided to leave them alone. Feeling ill, Lucky stumbled on eastwards.

(He had found some Scritchweed, which is highly poisonous. He failed the roll to identify them but I ruled that he was being somewhat cautious with his nibble and the effect was reduced and delayed. Otherwise, he would have taken 4d6 damage straight away, which would almost certainly kill him outright)

Back in the meadow, Flint, Springer and Shard had all busied themselves in tracking down a stand of tasty yellow flowers that they recognised as Dandelions. Springer also came across a strange sprout of weeds that none of them had come across before. After some thinking, Shard identified it as Dodgeweed, a useful herb, and began trying to prepare a wodge of it for consumption. Flint decided to hop around the edge of the starting area, looking for trouble.

(Okay, so you may have guessed the Flint’s player was the least in the mind-set of a rabbit and was pining for his D&D arsenal of blades and spells. I wasn’t going to disappoint him though!)

Flint heard a creature approaching through the grass and sprung out at the intruder – he found himself confronting the returning Wing who brought news of the surrounding area. Regrouping with Springer and Shard, the rabbits decided they had best see if they could reach the other home of the previous rabbits in the area. Digging burrows could be time consuming and as the afternoon was rapidly drawing on toward evening, they didn’t feel they had time to begin construction today. Anxiously they waited for Lucky and Buttons to return so they could begin travelling.

Buttons had come up to the edge of the forest, through some dense trees. On the far side, to the south, were the sheer rocky walls of the forest. Buttons found the lush foliage to be good cover and carefully sneaked further toward the rocks ahead. Despite the sound of fluttering wings above, Buttons couldn’t’ detect a creature in the immediate vicinity. His keen nose again picked up a scent. A large messy deposit on the ground alerted Buttons to the presence of a large creature of some kind – possibly in the rocky areas up ahead. Buttons bolted back through the woods towards his fellows. Running flat out he made good time, arriving back with them as the night drew in.
Lucky was not doing well – he had begun making his way eastward through the woods, but had taken some serious damage from the weeds he had sampled and was in bad shape. Lucky trod cautiously, and eventually decided to bear northward a little, taking him out of the woods. He heard the trickle of water coming from over the rolling meadows, and made his way towards a distant stream, taking some time to nibble at the grass and clover as he went. The stream was clean and fresh, and as he drank, Lucky began to feel somewhat revived. But as the light drew out of the sky and evening came one, he realised he was too far from his fellows and began to feel vulnerable. Getting his bearings, Lucky headed back westward through the meadows down the centre of the valley.

(Unknown to him, he was followed as he returned. He was being hunted by a predator in the forest – I had rolled a 9 on the table so a well-known woodland predator had spotted him as dusk fell)

Buttons and Wing were exhausted from their exertions of the day, and began chowing down on dandelions. Shard, Springer and Flint were a little more active, and dug a small scrape straight down into the meadows soft soil. It took some effort and grass clearing first – all five of the rabbits were exhausted by the time they finished. The moon was rising over the meadow, and the rabbits crammed into their tiny scrape to shelter for the night.

(I was genuinely surprised no-one thought to post watch, this groups usually does that automatically in other RPGS. Luckily they were awoken before the trouble started.)

They were awoken by the return of Lucky, who managed to find them in pretty much the middle of the night, scaring them heavily (much to Luckys amusement). Lucky tried to cram himself into their scrape but there was barely room, cue much jostling for position in the damp earth. He had just gotten himself comfortable when Buttons and Shard suddenly went rigid – they heard the sound of paws padding across the meadow toward their shelter! All the rabbits panicked, trying to work out whether to hide, fight or flee. Eventually, Flint and Buttons scrabbled together a plug of earth and rammed it across the entry to their scrape. They rabbits were crammed in nose-to-tail and couldn’t really move, as the sound of the paws grew close to them. There was moments terrified silence before the earth plug began to disintegrate in front of their eyes, ripped away by large clawed paws. The striped muzzle and glaring eyes of a badger peered down at them from the entrance of the scrape, a low snarl emanating from its mouth…

(Luckys player immediately described how his bunny urinated in fear)

[arcane_asp]

Here's the rest of the first session (luckily I'm not working TOO hard at my job today so I have been able to finish writing up)

Spoiler: Day 1, Part 2 - Residents of the Valley

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The menacing badger, having peeled open their shallow scrape easily, growled and made to lunge at the terrified rabbits within. Lucky and Buttons immediately went into shock, paralyzed by fear, but stalwart Flint and nimble Wing leapt to the attack with a display of bravado.

(First combat required was tricky to work out; We thought we were getting somewhere then we realised no-one had declared what attack style they were using! I had the badger pre-scripted to just bite and rip where possible, and target the most vulnerable where possible)

Though the bigger of the two, Flint’s gnashing front teeth missed the badgers muzzle, and he was unable to land a satisfying hit. Somehow, Wing was able to land a few cuffs with his forepaws, making the badger realise it was going to have to fight for its dinner. The badger was ready though, and its jaws closed on Wing, piercing the rabbits paws.

(Fortunate for Wing – the bite did 3d6 damage and I rolled three 1’s, so he survived for now!)

Shard and Springer attempted to use their (admittedly fledgling) powers of persuasion to convince the badger that the shallow scrape was crammed with aggressive male rabbits and it was in severe danger. But the badger saw through the flimsy attempt.
Flint redoubled his efforts, this time landing a hit and nipping angrily at the badgers muzzle. This caused the badger to open its mouth release Wing. Wing bolted past the badger, streaking away from the scrape and out into the dark meadow, desperate to get away and heavily injured. The badger sensed that one injured rabbit alone would be an easier target that a scrape full of rabbits, and pursued.
By this stage, Lucky & Buttons had recovered, and along with their fellows, tried to work out whether to abandon their scrape for the hostile night or try and make it more secure.

(I think all the players felt a bit vulnerable as they had done hardly any damage to the badger and Wing has disappeared into the night, badly injured. I left the players discussing it and took Wings player aside whilst we worked out the details of the chase)

Wing bolted away over the meadow – he was much faster than the badger, but was similarly exhausted from lack of sleep and a serious injury. The badger kept pace with him, growling fiercely, sensing a quick kill opportunity and a substantial meal of rabbit. Deciding against trying to outrun the beast (which was following his scent anyway) Wing headed south, to the area that Buttons had told him contained traces of a snake. Wing picked up lingering traces of the snake, leading the pursuing badger toward it as best he could.

(I gave him a bonus to detecting it as he already knew what to look for)

Running through a bush and practically over the green snake, nimble Wing awoke the reptile by bouncing off its head and springing away through the foliage. The snake was sluggish and slow to awake from its nightly torpor. It awoke gradually, by which time Wing was long gone. The pursuing badger, however, blundered right over it. The snake engaged the badger, thinking it was under attack. But at night, the snakes speed was greatly reduced, and the badger was able to avoid its clumsy strike, and grabbed the reptile behind the head, shaking and ripping it until it died. Distracted by this new food source, the badger was occupied. This allowed the cautious Wing, hiding nearby, to slink off and return to the temporary scrape where his fellows were wondering what happened to him.

(According to some of the rules I had the option of rolling fresh encounters for him on his return journey, but he’d suffered enough for one night so I gave him a pass)

The terrified rabbits settled on digging their scrape deeper and pushing multiple layers of earth plugs over the entrance to secure it for the night.

(Luckily, Buttons player had the forethought to state that he left room for air holes, otherwise the rabbits might not have woken up)

Spoiler: Day 2

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Day 2: As dawn broke, the dishevelled and poorly rested rabbits emerged from the burrow and tended to the injured Wing as best they could. There was short discussion, during which Flint and Buttons were all for digging a large series of burrows in this very field. Although dandelions were plentiful, last night’s badger attack had made the others wary of the area. Springer and Shard voted they should move on. Lucky and Wing weren’t sure – but Springer exerted a little authority, and with Shards slightly eccentric persuasion attempt, they used their powers of persuasion to get Lucky and Wing on their side.

With a clear majority vote, the party of rabbits began journeying once again, heading eastwards down the valley, past the spot where Wing had encountered Scrabbler the day before. The carried on eastwards, and came through the meadow to the stream Lucky had found. It wasn’t deep, and wasn’t fast flowing. The rabbits easily passed the attempt to swim over it. Curious Lucky got across first, and began sniffing around on the far bank. Apart from a stand of dandelions in the grasslands on the far side (that was lunch sorted out) he also came across a tiny bush covered in reddish berries. Learning nothing from the previous days Scritchweed, Lucky gulped down the berries – and immediately felt better. He called over the much wiser Shard, who identified them as Redberries, capable of curing and restoring injuries. Each bunny took a portion of berries with them, except for Shard, who was already carrying the Dodgeweed herbs from the previous night. Wing took the opportunity to gulp down some of the redberries too, restoring his injured paw.

Exploring further, through a copse of trees on this side of the stream, Lucky and Buttons spotted a pair of shrews chewing at the roots of a young tree. The two tiny shrew didn’t spot the rabbits until they were almost on top of them. Terrified, the shrews made to bolt, but Buttons pinned one of them, holding him down whilst Lucky tried to communicate. It took some time, and the terrified shrew made several escape attempts. Over the course of several hours, Lucky and Buttons picked up the rudiments of the Shrews language. It managed to admit its name was Gnaw, and it lived near the stream banks. Lucky’s more friendly approach helped, and Gnaw began to give them a rough idea of the area.

The valley ran west to east, lined by dense forest and shallow rocky slopes. The stream bisected the valley, and on this side there was more forest, meadow and some low hills. That was as far as Gnaw had ever travelled, though he was able to confirm that both badgers, snakes and several hedgehogs made their home in this area. Buttons ran out of patience first and released Gnaw (who immediately bolted). The two rabbits were then approached by Wing, running back toward them from the east. Whilst they had conducted their ‘shrew interrogation’, the others had found a few other interesting encounters:

Shard and Flint had located some fibrous creepers, which they had begun fashion into neck pouches. It was difficult work, and had taken several hours, but the two rabbits had made a crude weave with the creepers and had begun filling them with redberries, nearly stripping the bush bare.

(There was a discussion with Flint’s player during that part of the game about whether wooden panels could be chewed into shape to provide a type of rabbit plate mail. I rather felt that it wasn’t in the spirit of the game so far but I don’t like to ban anything outright if I don’t have to. Luckily the other players all voted that the idea wasn’t going to occur to a rabbit even if Flint hadn’t made intelligence his dump stat)

Springer and Wing, however, had pressed on through the copse of trees – the meadows beyond were seemingly dotted with small patches of trees before rising into a hilly area. And more interestingly – the wind carried the scent of does (female rabbits) toward them from the hills. If they pushed on, Springer thought they could reach the hill by dusk. Wing was more cautious, and thought perhaps they should go part way and try to make a shelter before it got dark this time. Springer flexed his professions persuasion ability again, and talked Wing into gathering the others to push onwards.

So onwards they went – through the centre of the valley, over the grasslands, opting to skirt around the clusters of trees. They made good progress, but found little rich food other than the ever present lush grass. Wing and Buttons had taken point, but managed to miss a lingering scent that was soon picked up by Flint. The hungry Flint caught a delicious whiff of something sweet, and wandered a little way from the column of travelling rabbits to investigate. He came upon a lump of a sweet fruit hidden in a cluster of broad leafed bushes.

(Flints player now decided that his rabbit loved sweet stuff, which was the mitigating factor in why his character failed this intelligence check by quite a large amount)

Flint chomped into the juicy fruit (an apple) and immediately felt a snare tighten around his hind leg! Crying out in pain, snare wire bit into him tightly, and he couldn’t get away. Handily for him, his cries of pain summoned Shard, who was at the back of the travelling column. Shard managed to sniff him out, serenely forgiving him for his greed, and coordinating the two rabbits efforts to get a paw into the snare loop and open it enough for Flint to escape. By the time they re-joined the others, it was already beginning to get dark, and they were still some distance from the hills they were aiming for. None of them trusted a hasty temporary scrape for shelter, and they voted to push on toward the hill.

Going forward more cautiously in the dark, they gradually inched closer to hill. To the rabbits delight, the scent of other rabbits was detected. Dried rabbit dung, as well as the alluring scent of does, were detected periodically as they approached. They had got close enough to one of the shallow hills to detect a small opening part way up it – Springer confidently declared it the opening to a warren. When Buttons heard something swoop overhead in the dark, the rabbits decided to outright run toward the warren entrance. They were close – maybe 30 feet away – when there was another swish of air, and a cry of terror from Shard. The wise rabbit had been snatched away in the night by a flying creature, which gave a triumphant shriek as it carried him away. The remaining rabbits dived into the warren entrance, cowering in fear but relieved to be undercover.

(The players will never know, but I had rolled an Owl on the predator table, which scored a direct surprise attack on Shard. Shard’s player had mentioned he would be interested in trying to play a different type of profession, so I went with it and agreed with him he could roll up a new rabbit at the start of the next session)

The rabbits advanced down the tunnel – it was definitely dug out by other bunnies, no question, but didn’t go far into the hill. There was one central chamber with two smaller chambers radiating from it. The place had a faded smell to it, of rabbits long gone. Satisfied that it was at least safe for now, the party rested for the night.


(They also had a chance to ‘level up’ – according to the original pdf I was working from, they weren’t guaranteed improvements but they had a good chance to get some. We went through the process before ending the session for the night.

Everyone enjoyed this, much to our combined surprise, and we were already planning another session to follow on in a few weeks’ time.

Thanks Bunnies & Burrows! (and thanks GitP for the advice)

[Beleriphon]

Dude you need to introduce a wild chinchilla colony, escaped from human captivity. Why? Because chins are super awesome! And if you can manage a half-way decent Spanish-like accent it make it more fun since chinchillas are native to Peru.

[Balain]

I would love to do this myself. I thought about it a couple years back but, never did get a game going. Maybe when our current D&Done is done.

[arcane_asp]

Dude you need to introduce a wild chinchilla colony, escaped from human captivity. Why? Because chins are super awesome! And if you can manage a half-way decent Spanish-like accent it make it more fun since chinchillas are native to Peru.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner - loved this idea, I've just finished planning out the next session for sunday afternoon! All being well, there are definitely going some rogue pets involved, I like the idea of the chinchilla having a spannish accent. However, I do want to avoid getting a bit too "DreamWorks" with the characters. I think the rp has more impact with at least a basis in the natural world.

Did it ever bug anyone how predators & prey animals often end up best buddies in animated adventure films? Okay, they're probably aimed at young kids, but still...

I would love to do this myself. I thought about it a couple years back but, never did get a game going. Maybe when our current D&Done is done.

I do recommend it, its been nice to have something vividly different from standard rpg settings. I will say though - the original Bunnies & Burrows PDF I am working from is... a little dated in its layouts and not as streamlined as some more modern systems. The levelling up system is not intuitive, the players have a percentile chance to level up their base attributes based on what their bunnies have been doing so if they're unlucky they will be no better off for their adventures so far.
Shards player still hasn't told me what his new rabbit will be, so I'm trying to account for all eventualities.

I don't anticipate this running beyond another session, but we'll see how it goes

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by arcane_asp
Did it ever bug anyone how predators & prey animals often end up best buddies in animated adventure films?

Not really, no more than the talking does.

Also, there are a lot of unusual interactions out there in the real world. Young otter and beaver kits will sometimes play happily together in streams or ponds, even though the adults of each species are enemies. A great many completely unexpected things happen in the living world every day.

[arcane_asp]

Okay, the weekends session is where this got a bit more strategic! I'm writing this up during my quiet times at work.

I would like to add that as we recapped and sorted out the level-up style increases, Buttons player screamed out ‘We’re all Bunny-buffing!’ before proceeding to spill his drink over himself with misplaced excitement. We all creased up laughing, which set the tone for the first hour of the second session.

Level ups included:
• Buttons – increased his levels in SMELL and INT
• Lucky – increased his level in SPD
• Springer – increased his level in CHA and INT
• Wing – was unlucky, got no increases
• Flint – increased his level in STR, INT and SMELL



Here's the first part of the second session:

Spoiler: Day 3: The two warrens

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Day 3: The session began with the rabbits all sleeping in their new burrow. Dawn broke and as they awoke, the five remaining rabbits mourned the loss of the wise storyteller, Shard. Speculating that some kind owl got him, they cautiously made their way outside. The hill they were on faced south east, and was well lit. From the high ground, they could see the entire valley to the east and west. Eastwards they saw more low hills, and beyond them the end of the valley. It seemed like there was some kind of flat, still river in that direction, beside which sat a cluster of strange cubical rocks.

The rabbits spent the first hour of the day foraging – though there was plenty of grass and clover on the hills, there seemed to be precious little else in the way of herbs. It was Buttons – who was investigating the hill itself – who sniffed out a faint scent. There were other rabbits here some time ago, including some Doe’s. From what Buttons could detect, they had been living in the warren our rabbits had been sheltering in, as well as another warren on the far side of the hill, until a few months ago. Detecting more rabbits nearby, Buttons recruited Flint and Lucky to accompany him investigating the next nearest hill for more clues. Flint took his newly made pouch and healing berries with him.

Whilst they were gone, Wing and Springer investigated the other abandoned burrow on their hill. The burrow was well made and seemed quite old. It had a long central tunnel with several branches leading to smaller chambers, infused with the lingering scent of rabbits that had lived here. In one of these smaller chambers, Springer sniffed out a mound of earth – under it, he was shocked to find the buried corpse of a baby rabbit. What had happened here…?

Meanwhile, the rest of the group – Buttons, Flint and Lucky – had approached one of the other low hills nearby. The scent of other rabbits was much stronger here, and Lucky easily spotted several burrow entrances on the hill. They advanced cautiously, but were quickly accosted by a group of other rabbits that emerged from the nearest burrow entrance!

They all failed rolls to spot the lookouts from the new warren, who darted away to other entrances and warned their brethren. To their credit, the players did their best to act surprised.

Five rabbits emerged from the burrow, rushing straight at the newcomers! It was Lucky who attempted to parley – Flint & Buttons were about to declare a charge in return! Lucky was able to at least engage them in conversation. The leader of the group of strangers identified himself as Rumble – he was large grey rabbit with an enormous belly that often gurgled whilst he talked. From a little conversation with Rumbler, Lucky was able to glean some information about this area.
Rumbler was the leader of a warren of about thirteen rabbits, six bucks and seven doe’s. There used to be more, at least another ten rabbits, who inhabited the abandoned warren on the other hill (where the players had set up their current home). But then one day a terrible curse was put upon that warren, and the rabbits of that place were all struck down dead! Buttons thought to ask about the curse, but all Rumbler would tell them was that nearly all the rabbits there died – the one survivor of that warren was an old buck rabbit known as Scraps, who currently resided here. At this stage, Flint asked if he could meet some of the doe’s to introduce himself, but this made Rumbler and his posse of bucks bristle with anger! He told them that the doe’s were already spoken for, and “you newcomers” had best move on. If they tried to enter their warren, he would personally kill them all. They also warned them that the other burrow was cursed, and no rabbit could survive there now. Flint nearly started a fight with all 5 rabbits at once, but his friends pulled him away, and they returned to their base in the cursed warren.

Reconvening, the party tried to work out what to do. Obviously a pre-dug warren was a useful thing for them, but stories of it being cursed were worrying. When Springer and Wing revealed they had found a buried baby bunny in the warren, the others were much less in favour of staying there. However – at this stage, Lucky heard a sound from the entrance to their warren. Lucky and the fleet-footed Wing ran to the entrance, in time to see two rabbits peering in. Both of them bolted, but Wing managed to bring down one of them (a slim black one), pinning it and dragging it back into the burrow with Lucky’s assistance. The rabbit they captured was thrown before the others – Springer and Flint played a kind of “good bunny / bad bunny” interrogation game. The captured rabbit was very young, and referred to himself as “Star”. Star admitted that he and a companion were sent to spy on the group of newcomers by Rumbler’s warren, and told to report back.

Realising that the companion had escaped, Flint suggested (and I quote!)
“Lets chew his ears off and chase him back to the others. That will send them a message.”
Thankfully this course of action was voted down.

Springer managed to charm Star into defecting from Rumblers warren – which Star was only too happy to do. It turned out that Star was the only son of a prominent member of Rumblers warren, the elderly buck known as Patches. Patches was regarded with suspicion at being the only survivor of the curses warren, and Star wasn’t well respected. Perhaps with this newcomer group of rabbits, Start could finally make his fortune? Star also revealed that – like his father Patches – he occasionally received prophetic dreams and visions, something the group decided could be very useful!

The player who was Shard last session took over by playing Star, as planned. Star was of the rabbit profession “Seer” and also had knowledge of Rumblers warren. I gave the players a map of the layout of Rumblers warren to represent Star telling them the details. They established that Patches hadn’t really recounted any information about the cursed warren other than “Its cursed and they all died”, and Star hadn’t been privy to any further information or favourable treatment.

Realising that Rumbler would no doubt know they were residing nearby now one of his scouts had clocked them, the party decided to vacate the burrow for the moment. They were split on how to proceed, and eventually decided to form two groups. Wing, Lucky and Star wanted to investigate the curse of the burrow and work out what happened. Flint, Buttons and Springer wanted to try and destabilise Rumblers burrow, drive off any rabbit who won’t join, and steal all the Doe’s for themselves. Springer, also striving for a moral reason to do this, also mentioned that this would give them access to Patches, who would be able to tell them more about the cursed warren.

Lucky, Wing and Star departed during the middle of the day, searching for clues in the surrounding area – Lucky skirted north of Rumblers warren and then continued eastwards down the valleys length. He found little of interest, but did come across a deep pit – deliberately dug, and with a collapsed covering of leaves and sticks. From the pit he detected the scent of decay – peering in (and narrowly avoiding falling in!) Lucky spotted a dead fox. It looked to be a young male, barely more than a cub to Lucky’s eyes. The creature had fallen into the pit and been unable to escape, starving to death some days ago. Lucky went further east, through a series of small lush meadows, eventually coming to a large wooden fence that blocked off the meadow from a field of overturned earth beyond.

Star and Wing scouted out the area to the south. The area was lightly forested, and at midday was strangely quiet. They spotted a few large brown squirrels foraging in the leaf litter, one of whom greeted Wing – it was his friend Scrabbler, from a few days ago. Scrabbler told Wing that he and his squirrel buddies had just moved back into this area as it had started to ‘smell right’ again. Star and Wing managed to work out – from a brief exchange with Scrabbler – that ‘bad animals – fast hunters!’ used to patrol this bit of the woods, but had been gone for a few days and they felt it was safe here again. Despite this, Star did pick up a strange sharp scent, and beckoned Wing to follow him. The two of them began tracing a path southwards, coming up to the steep walls of the valley where steep cliffs bordered on the green and shady woods. The trail let the two to a large hole scraped out of an earthen bank – as they approached it, the smell of death and danger wafted out towards them! Star was wary of even approaching, but Wing darted his head inside – it was a short burrow into the earth, with a strong stink of predator about it. Wing was about to bolt away and take Star with him – when he spotted the burrows sole inhabitant. A lone fox, barely more than a cub, was curled up in the hole, somehow still sound asleep! The poor creature look half starved, and not really that threatening. Wing backed up and he and Star headed back to base to report what they had found.

Meanwhile – the other rabbits, Buttons, Flint and Springer, had been sneaking about the hills around Rumblers warren. They had found numerous spots of clover for food, and even managed to hide from a circling hawk overhead. After several hours, they managed to deduce that Rumbler posted two rabbit buck sentries on the top of his hill at all times, and though the rabbits came out sporadically to graze on the hillsides, they didn’t venture far or for long. It seemed to be well defended place, with three different entrances, all of them watched.

The players were scratching their heads – they wanted to either take over this warren, or steal as many female rabbits as possible. Of these three, it seemed only Springer who was at all interested in the curse on the other warren.

Looking at the layout of Rumblers warren, they came onto the idea that a short flurry of digging might breach the warrens south wall and get them inside, but they didn’t have a plan beyond that. Night was already drawing in by the time they returned to their allegedly cursed home burrow, where they found the others waiting for them (except for Lucky, who was still out exploring).

[Kid Jake]

How I assume the daring raid on the warren will go.

[arcane_asp]

Aaaand here's the second part of that session:

Spoiler: Day 4: Farms and Fungus

Show

Lucky was still exploring, and failed to notice night falling. Despite coming to the large wooden fence, he pressed on through it, and found himself in a field of overturned soil. The going was tough, and as the light faded from the sky, it began to rain. Lucky did his best to navigate but ended up getting hopelessly lost.

I determined that he got turned about in the dark and rain, and managed to blunder several hexes further east down the length of the valley, instead of south to the valley wall where he intended to go. Yes, the original B&B suggests using hexes for the map so I went with it

As the rain eased off and eventually stopped, Lucky found himself before a large, flat, featureless wall. It was made of a cold, hard material – cold and hard like stone, but also thin (it sounded hollow when he gave it a bop with his paws). As it was taller he had a hope of climbing, he was about to try heading around it. Then he heard a low snarl – he could barely make out a shape ahead in the darkness, low on the ground and advancing on him. An unmistakable smell of predator wafted over him and he bolted in the opposite direction. He heard the sounds of pursuit behind him and went flat out trying to get away. He rounded the corner of the metal wall and found himself running over hard packed dirt, between other large walls, some wood, some metal. He couldn’t make out too much in the gloom, and was getting overwhelmed with the sound of pursuit and a hundred other new smells in this strange place. A large paw caught him from behind and sent him spinning off to one side, but he recovered and shot through a hole in the nearest wall. He found himself in a pitch black interior space that smelled strongly of seeds, plant mulch and the sharp stink of another predator! Finding his way in the dark, he forced his way between two large soft items and stayed quiet and still until he eventually fell asleep from his wounds and exhaustion.

Back the Cursed Warren that morning – the others were worried that Lucky hadn’t returned, and they knew Rumblers warren was still keeping an eye on them. How long would their presence here be tolerated? Wing and Buttons went out to look for Lucky as soon as dawn broke, trying to sniff out his trail together and work out where he had gone. The two of them headed eastwards, leaving Flint, Star and Springer at the home burrow.

Star employed his ‘Seer’ ability that night, and I gave him the following dream sequence: He dreamed that strange yellow paws were clawing up from the earth of their burrow, dragging him down, into a deep cavern filled with the skulls of hundreds of rabbits. The skulls of the rabbits were all yellow too.

Since they were left behind, Flint and Star began expanding the burrow slightly. They planned to dig right through the hill and connect both ends of the cursed warren together to make one big warren, ready for their new doe’s.

Multiple diggings took place, with Flint’s high STR score this became more rapid. They planned on a small chamber each, and a cluster of chambers for the doe’s, plus some extra room for their possible babies and a room for herbs & equipment they made.

Springer was put on food duty, and began scavenging the grass of the hills for clover, dandelions and other edibles. His search was interrupted by two big bucks from the Rumblers warren on the next hill over. They both cornered him, telling him that he and his buddies weren’t welcome here, and had best leave today if they didn’t want to be driven off by force.

Springer wasn’t going to be intimidate like this though – he began to recount a tale to the two rabbits, about "how the doe’s of a distant warren gave birth to six rabbits who were all crazy and dangerous, in love with death itself. These six rabbits were cast out for their crazy ways, and roamed the world, looking for a new place to call home – they were none other than Springer and his friends, and they did not tolerate idle threats from foolish rabbits who had not yet heard of them".
One of the intimidators became terrified by this and bolted back to Rumblers warren in fear. The other was made of sterner stuff, and told Springer that he needed to be taught a lesson! The two rabbits began to scrap, paws pummelling each other. It started out as a scuffle, but when Springer landed a few hard blows, his opponent got serious and began to claw and scratch. The two of them took some serious damage from each other, but eventually the noise drew the attention of Flint who was inside the burrow. Flint came rocketing out into the open air, and charge across the grass, landing a head-butt on target and dashing him aside. Flint broke out his stash of healing berries, and they began to heal up the cuts and bruises on the injured Springer.

I ruled that the rabbit Flint finished off was critically injured and dying due to the amount of damage he took. All the rabbits in the game have such small amounts of hit points, conflicts can be like games of rocket-tag.

Flint and Springer retreated to the burrow to find a wide-eyed Star staring in horror at some of the heaps of excavated soil – the heaps were speckled with tiny mushrooms, each a vivid yellow in colour! Springer managed to snap Star out of it, and the three rabbits made to try and identify the yellow fungus. Springer almost instantly spotted it as being toxic, and Flint immediately buried the yellow mushrooms as deep as possible. The three of them began to realise why this burrows previous inhabitants had all died. If the yellow mushrooms had got a foothold there, it could easily have got spores into the air, taking the weak and young rabbits first. The all took a risk every time they went in this burrow!

I left them working out what to do and cut back to the others for the rest of the session.

Buttons and Wing had made good time cross-country – they had dodged a murder of crows sitting along the wooden fence, literally outrunning them as the crows swooped and dive bombed them. The crows were jeering at them and taunting the rabbits. Luckily neither Buttons nor Wing spoke Crow, so were able to shrug off the insults and press onwards on Lucky’s trail. They picked their way through the churned up mud of the field – but stopped dead when they saw the cluster of enormous structures ahead. The area reeked of a multitude of scents. They picked out a few they recognised, as well as a lot they didn’t.

This was tricky – the players all recognised the basic ‘rabbits eye view’ description of a farmyard, but had to act in the ways a rabbit would, cautious and hesitant to even go near. I got them making some scent rolls, Buttons had the best smell attribute but Wing actually rolled the best. They picked up the smells of human, grain, cow manure, petrol, disinfectant and cat. That was the tip of the iceberg concerning the contents of the farm, but they weren’t close enough to get more!

Buttons and Wing went into sneak mode, cautiously approaching the largest structure, some kind of metal-walled mountain to their eyes.

It was a barn.

The trail of Lucky led around it and into the yard behind it. The sneaked onwards, spotting a cluster of more buildings and eventually coming to a part of the yard with a wooden mound in its centre.

A shed.

The mound had crack and holes into it, and it was into this that Lucky’s trail went. Buttons took a bit more time to sniff about, and spotted a large ginger tom cat sitting on the mounds roof. The cat hadn’t spotted them, but appeared to be waiting, watching a hole on the mounds perimeter carefully. Buttons and Wing came to the conclusion that Lucky must be in there, and the cat was waiting for him to emerge. Inside the structure, Lucky was indeed awake and blissfully unaware the cat that had chased him in here last night was still on stake out - but he had found something more interesting.

The interior space was large to Luckys POV, and stacked with big bags of grain which he had been nestling in the previous night. At the far end of the room was a large metal cage, inside of which rested a large fox! The fox was the predator Lucky had smelled in here previously, and was patiently watching Lucky with gleaming eyes. Lucky began by trying to communicate with the fox – but of course, the two spoke languages very different to each other. Lucky spotted that the fox was looking thin and wasted – it had obviously been in the cage for some time. Deciding on a different approach, Lucky chewed open a corner of the grain sack and snacked on a few before kicking a small pile of the grain over towards the fox’s cage. The creature ravenously gulped down the grain, desperate for any food. After a moment it sat up, and began watching Lucky in a very different manner. It was a tentative game, and Lucky had to come a bit nearer to the fox’s cage then he was comfortable with but eventually the fox seemed to pick up a little of Lucky’s Lapine language, and some communication began.

The fox was a vixen who called herself Redwings – a name given to her by her mother, due to the distinctive red fur that sprouted from the side of her head, reminiscent of wings. Redwings wanted Lucky to come closer to the cage, so she could hear him better, but Lucky knew better than to fall for that. Eventually, Redwings asked Lucky for some water instead – she was dying of thirst, and wouldn’t be any use to her cubs if she didn’t get a drink. Lucky scouted about the room, climbing onto some grain sacks and eventually onto a shelf above Redwings cage. He knocked over an old watering can, which trickled some brackish water down into the cage, which Redwings quickly slurped up (she remarked that it tasted absolutely disgusting, but was better than nothing). Lucky followed up by asking Redwings about her cubs – Redwings told him that she had to get back to them, and that the pair of them (a male and a female) were just getting old enough to be taught how to hunt and scavenge like her. Lucky has spotted one dead fox cub in the pit the previous day, but wisely decided to keep that to himself. He still didn’t dare let Redwings out as she would bite him in half, but told her he would help if he could, and began sniffing around the way out of the room.

Outside, Wing and Buttons spotted him emerging, and they saw the cat shuffling ready to pounce down on him.

Wings player: “I sprint flat out toward the cat to draw its attention”
Me: Okay, you are running at it. You’re very fast, and it doesn’t notice you until you’re a few feet away.
Wings player: “Can I run up its head and jump off its back?”
Me: Errr… maybe? Do you want to roll for that?
Wings player: *rolls max score on a DEX check*
Me: That was incredibly jammy. You do not deserve that roll.

The surprised cat was about to pounce on the hapless Lucky as he emerged, but suddenly looked over to see a stringy ginger rabbit hurtling toward it. The cat made to bat the rabbit out the air with a clawed paw, but Wing leapt, landing its back legs on the cats head and springing off and away. The cat was infuriated, meowing loudly and whirling after Wing in a desperate chase. The cat was fast, but Wing was faster, leading the beast back out through the yard, past the huge metal barn and finally reaching the open ground of the field. Now on a straight, Wing accelerated away, forcing the cat to abandon the chase, frustrated. In the meantime, Buttons ran in to fetch the baffled Lucky who had just witnessed Wing’s feat of feet. They were sneaking back out the way that had come in, when they encountered the cat returning to the yard. They made a good sneak attempt but had been caught in the open with nowhere to hide! Both Buttons and Lucky were engaged by the furious cat – after being outrun by Wing, it was ready for some bunny-tearing!

We left it there at the weekend, obviously the whole party wants to see how the fight ends, but it doesn't really look good for Lucky & Buttons. We are going to do another session in a few weeks to finish off this foray into Bunnies & Burrows

[Shir]

It might be worth mentioning that this is an upcoming rpg

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...s/the-warren-0

[Jay R]

Did it ever bug anyone how predators & prey animals often end up best buddies in animated adventure films?

It bothers me when it is simply accepted. The Fox and the Hound is a movie about that paradox, in which they have to deal with the issues. That didn't bother me at all.

[JustIgnoreMe]

It might be worth mentioning that this is an upcoming rpg

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...s/the-warren-0

I backed that. Bet I'll never play it though :( My groups are not open to the idea. Can't get them to consider Valley of Eternity either.