Pocket TTRPG Roundup, Part One
Let’s get small
In this series, I’m going to indulge a peculiar fixation of mine: pocket TTRPGs, a.k.a. physical RPGs which fit entirely within a pants pocket. These are essentially the RPG equivalent of Micro Machines, Polly Pocket/Mighty Max, Gameboy Micro, Tech Deck, Z scale trains, bonsai, and anything else made unfeasibly tiny.
Here are the ground rules:
- Games have to be more than an interesting dice mechanic and a sentence or two suggesting a setting. This eliminates nearly all business-card RPGs and things like 36-word game jams.
- The games have to fit in my pocket. Specifically, the entire game should fit within the front right pocket of my “good pair” of jeans, without folding/crushing the game or straining the fabric. This pocket is approximately 7” wide and 7” deep when empty. Being able to sit down while the game is in there is preferred, but optional.
These arbitrary constraints disqualify most one-pagers, digests, and trifolds. They also eliminate most pocket versions of bigger RPGs, since they’re often dependent on having a full-sized book for reference. - Games must be small by design, and not be just a larger RPG shrunk to fit. They also need to be legible at printed size. Otherwise I’d just be reviewing Pathfinder on microfiche.
- It’s gotta be a real physical game. Phone games are cheating.
I’ll rate these games on gameplay, pocket fit, legibility, and completeness. (“Completeness” is a nebulous metric, but generally includes stuff like monster listings, character creation rules, spell lists, adventures, a campaign setting … pretty much any QoL improvement beyond the bare mechanics. The more the better.)
Dinky Dungeons
Publisher: Doc’s Games/Uncle Morty Productions
Year: 1985
Dimensions: 3½” x 5” x about ⅜”
Players: 2-5
Dinky Dungeons is what got me into tiny RPGs to begin with. I bought my copy, unknown and unreviewed, at a skeevy little table at a sci-fi convention in 1985, and discovered a goofy parody OSR-like that’s still surprisingly playable. (Though can you really call it “OSR” if it came out when “OS” was, you know, S? Let me know in the comments below. And don’t forget to like, subscribe, and smash that notification bell!)
So what did you get for your hard-earned one American dollar back in 1985?
- A 32-page saddle-stitched rulepamphlet that looks like a Xerox copy from the era when Xerox was the only company that made copiers
- Two blank character sheets, double-sided
- A wee little Gamemaster Screen, printed on a 3×5 card folded in half
- A sample adventure: Goblin Cave, complete with cardstock hex map
- A relatively large “errata” sheet which is mostly just a continuation of the main rules
- Two 5mm d6’s (I acquired the third one from a different game; I don’t remember which two are original)
- The Doc’s Games/Uncle Morty catalog, featuring several adventures and comics available for between 50 cents and a dollar, plus SASE
Gameplay: Characters have two stats, PHY(sical) and MEN(tal); players roll 2d6 and apply one die to each. There are three classes, Warrior, Wizard, and Bard, and four races, Human, Elf, Dwarf, and Fuzzy Winker, a cowardly 1’ tall rodent that takes -1 to all stats and can’t wear armor or carry weapons. This is for all those players who want to be annoyingly useless, a much neglected demographic.
For most activity checks, each character has Muscle (equal to their PHY) and Idea (equaling MEN) Points, which is the number of times per day they can attempt a significant action. Each time they try something strenuous, they roll 2d6. On a 7 exactly, they succeed and don’t spend a point. On doubles, they succeed but also spend a point. On any other result, they fail and spend a point. This gives only a 1 out of 3 probability of succeeding at any action, 83% of that time losing one daily try in the process. The only bonus you get for having high stats is being able to try more often.
Saving throws work similarly, shrugging off effects on 7’s and taking half effect on doubles.
Combat, on the other hand, compares the attacker’s and defender’s relevant stats on a combat table. The attacker rolls under the table score on 2d6 to hit, doing damage equal to the difference between the roll and the target, plus a bonus die. Damage is taken directly off the target’s PHY or MEN stats, and you have to roll to heal each day.
By these rules, even strong or smart characters will be mostly ineffective at anything besides combat. With the cartoony parody vibe of the rules, it’s somewhat forgivable, but can still be frustrating unless the players let go and get silly with their failures.
The remaining rules are actually quite extensive, with equipment and spell lists and a bestiary and XP/leveling up rules and all that. You can check them out at the charmingly Web 1.0 page http://dinkydungeons.com/origrules.asp. Despite its size, the system is only “rules-light” in comparison to the popular games of the day.
Pocket fit: A+. Immaculate. It’s like I’m carrying nothing at all!
Legibility: Middling. The text is a small, clean, readable OCR-style font (or maybe IBM Selectric, considering the era). Everything is stark black-and-white. Sadly, perhaps to cram everything in, paragraphs are at an all-time premium. Illustrations are also cramped, but at least not so small as to be smudgy. This won’t win any awards for layout, that’s for sure. That nets it a C- grade and a mandatory grammar refresher.
Completeness: It has full rules, character sheets, a sample adventure, and a usable GM screen. I mean, jeez Louise.
I must dock it a little bit, though, since the players also need pencils. (I know that may seem petty, but wait ‘til the next review.) So I’ll downgrade my original A+++ rating to a simple A. Tough but fair.
Final thoughts: Dinky Dungeons has created a very high bar for me in the pocket RPG space. As far as I‘ve found, there’s never been another TTRPG so cheap, complete, and petite. About the only thing I truly dislike is that its ziploc bag is almost too small, and you kinda have to bend everything to take stuff out. Back when I first got the game, that was no big deal. Now that it’s a precious 40-year-old gaming artifact, it’s a bit white-knuckle.
I want to send a message back to my 1985 self to send Uncle Morty $10 for the supplements. Even with its heavy rules jank, this thing is absolutely the best gaming buck I’ve ever laid out.
Extra note: Just for grins, I tried to find a copy of DD for sale on Google Marketplace. All I could find is a single character sheet, used, which somebody is trying to sell on eBay for thirty fucking dollars. Holy cripes. I’ll just, uh, take my copy and put it in this safe deposit box. Nothing to see here.
Tinny Dungeons
Publisher: Archmage Arispen
Year: 2022
Dimensions: 4” x 2½” x ⅞”
Players: 2-8
Archmage Arispen is a Polish game designer who’s pushing pretty deep into the tiny RPG market right now. Besides Tinny Dungeons, they have such games as Tinny Apocalypse (same format, but in a Fallout-esque world) and a couple of business-card RPGs. They also have an expansion pack for Tinny Dungeons called Journey Through Sands & Frost, which looks to expand this game’s world.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s talk basic components. All the cards are mini-playing-card-sized.
- Six illustrated, pre-generated character cards, with stats and abilities on the front and game rules on the back
- One blank character card, with the same game rules on the back
- One GM Guide card
- One card showing a map of the Dawnmoon Woods region, with places of interest on the back
- One card with a map of the town of High Farm, with people/places of interest on the back
- One card with a map of the city of Waycross, with people/places of interest on the back
- Three adventure cards, each with a dungeon map on the front and descriptions of rooms, monsters, traps, etc. on the back
- Two 12mm d6’s
- A pencil! Ha! Take that, Dinky Dungeons!
Everything comes in an Altoids-sized tin with a removable lid, which you can use as a clattery dice tray.
Gameplay: The six pregen characters all have three stats, STR, DEX, and MIND, with two stats set to 1 and one stat of 2. The PCs also have an AC score between 3 and 5 (higher is better), either 3 or 4 HP, a weapon or two, and a special skill, like the elf wizard’s Fireball or the halfling thief’s Sneak Attack.
To attack an enemy, the attacker rolls a number of dice equal to the relevant stat of the weapon they’re using (STR for melee weapons, DEX for ranged attacks, and MIND for spells). If the die, or either of the dice for stats of 2, are equal to or greater than the AC of the target, you do 1 point of damage. The target straight up dies when HP reaches 0.
When a character faces a challenge tough enough to require a roll, the GM sets a difficulty from 4 to 6 and the player rolls (stat) number of dice to meet or beat it.
Though there’s a blank character card, there aren’t any enumerated character generation rules. It should be fairly simple to use the other characters as a template to make something up, but that requires thought. Like, gross.
No leveling up rules are provided either. Normally I’d say that tracks for a package this simple, but the remainder of the game feels semi-campaign-oriented. The adventure cards are mostly standard dungeon crawls, but the setting cards have more setpieces, adventure hooks, and local personalities to interact with. These cards elevate what would normally be a handful of quickie one-shots into something that a bright young GM could use to craft a continuing story.
The adventure cards have nice (but tiny) color maps printed on one side, and descriptions on the other. This makes it awkward to show players the map and read the back at the same time. Maybe just give the players graph paper and make ‘em map it out old school. If it was good enough for their grandfathers, it’s good enough for them.
As mentioned, there’s an expansion pack (which I haven’t picked up) that promises to add new adventures, territories, and cities. Plenty of room in the box for more cards.
Pocket fit: If you can carry breath mints, you can dodge a ball carry Tinny Dungeons, no problemo. Might be awkward if you wanted to put your phone in the same pocket, though. Solid B.
Legibility: Ssssort of. There’s a lot of text on these cards, printed in seven- or eight-point serif font. If you can squint hard enough to read that, it’s decent. If not, you may need to go get a stronger prescription before you pick this up. C for eagle-eyes, D otherwise.
Completeness: It’s got all the pieces, simple but adequate rules, several mini-adventures, and even something like a campaign structure. No chargen and no way to level up knocks it down a couple pegs though. B minus.
Final thoughts: Tinny Dungeons is a cute diversion, best for pickup games. It’s several steps up from business-card RPGs but I wouldn’t call it “full-featured.” It works okay as a game and it has the potential to have legs if you put the work into it.
It’s also €30 (almost $35) for the physical version. It’s very much not worth that price. The digital print-your-own version is still $10, and even that feels high. Based on that alone, I can’t recommend this game unless your house is littered with Altoids tins and you’re desperate to put something in them.
Pocket Odyssey (Standard Edition)
Publisher: KaijuKraft
Year: 2014
Dimensions: 5½” x 3½” x 1”
Players: 2-4
I’ve already reviewed this game’s big brother, so I’ll make this quick. The Standard Edition gives up a few things (Flow of Battle, hidden powers, item tokens, monster/power/map variety, and two players) to deliver a limited edition of the same gameplay. More importantly, it lives up to its name and fits in a damn pocket. Finally.
Pocket fit: Tight. Not stretched beyond imagining, but you certainly know it’s there. I wouldn’t recommend walking around with it in your day-to-day life. C-.
Legibility: No issues. The cards are bright and low contrast, and the font is a bold sans-serif at around 14 point. Easy A.
Completeness: The Standard Edition still does the low-prep, three-act thing. A game session is essentially a full campaign, with two level-ups, in the space of an hour and a half. It’s not what you’d call a full, tell-your-own-story type of system. But for what it does, it has everything you need. Slightly reluctant A there.
Note that the Standard Edition only accommodates 3 PC’s; if you have more friends, or just want more maps’n’stuff, the Collector’s Edition is still the way to go.
Final thoughts: Oddly, I may prefer the Standard Edition for its brevity. The bits added to the Collector’s Edition are mostly gravy, and the game stands on its own without them. Otherwise, I feel about the same about both versions: a fun way to roleplay away an hour or two, but don’t hope for more.
The Standard Edition is available from the distributer, Outland Entertainment, for $25. I’d say it’s barely worth that. You can also find it cheaper if you look; at $20 or less, it’s much more interesting.
Next time: More little things, hitting each other