Beak, Feather, & Bone
$15.00
Beak, Feather, & Bone is a collaborative worldbuilding tool as well as a competitive map-labeling RPG. Starting with an unlabeled city map, players are assigned community roles before taking turns claiming and describing locations. Players draw from a standard 52-card deck to determine a building's purpose and then describe its beak (reputation), feather (appearance), and bone (interior). As buildings are claimed, a narrative for the town and its inhabitants emerges, including major NPCs and shifting power-dynamics.
Inspired by map-making games like Avery Alder's The Quiet Year and archetype-focused RPG systems like Meguey & Vincent Baker's Powered by the Apocalypse, Beak, Feather, & Bone is a zine-length game including rules of play, 11 community roles illustrated by Austin Breed, a map by Jonathan Yee, and optional lore & GM tips for running games in a city populated entirely by ravenfolk (or kenku, tengu, etc.).
While default play is lightly competitive, rules variants for solo, cooperative, and character-focused play are included as well. Similarly, while the illustrations and GM notes provided will help inspire a ravenfolk city, the beak/feather/bone labeling system can be used with any map, game genre, or populace.
To play Beak, Feather, & Bone, you’ll need:- A stack of note cards
- Writing utensils
- Coloring utensils
- an unlabeled map (provided)
- a standard deck of playing cards
- a 10-sided die (extremely optional)
Beak, Feather, & Bone orders include a monochromatic, 30-page, 5.5x8.5", saddle-stitched booklet as well as 3x unbound, high-quality 5.5x8.5" prints of Jonathan Yee's map to use in play. A PDF-only copy of the game can be bought at a discount on itch.io.
For a complimentary PDF, forward proof of physical purchase.