Scrolling through Kickstarter has become a bit of pastime for me now. Finding the oddities that people believe others may adore is a fine way to spend an afternoon, which is made even better when a project is actually genius. Genius is certainly the only word I feel is fitting for Dungeons and Doggies (with £181,312 worth of pledges towards just a £15,000 goal at the time of writing), or as the creator Russ Charles corrected me, “To give it the impressive full title Animal Adventures: Tales of Dungeons and Doggies.”
“The Kickstarter is all about introducing intelligent dogs into classic D&D settings and campaigns. This means normal, four-legged dogs but blessed with intelligence enough to become bards, wizards and the like!” At this point in our interview, Russ had me sold. Lute strumming pooches get me every time.
What makes Dungeons and Doggies stand out from many other tabletop roleplaying projects on Kickstarter is that the set is designed to be played both separately from and alongside current Dungeons and Dragons rules. Russ explained that you would be “able to fight alongside the traditional dwarves, elves, and other races of D&D. It’s a setting-agnostic set of creation rules for dogs as characters, an adventure, stunning art and of course, a range of doggy miniatures designed and produced in preassembled plastic ready for painting or playing!” Well, take my money.
If anyone has ever said searching for dog cosplay online was a waste of time, Russ would disagree, “Our wonderful concept artist and illustrator, April, first sent me a picture of a Golden Retriever dressed as a wizard when we were discussing swapping some minis sculpting for artwork. Before long our mutual love of dogs and the input from equally dog crazy Mat, the ‘painting’ half of Painting and Polygons, led to this notion that we could add dogs to D&D as fully fledged characters.” Thank the deities for meme searches.
Russ and his crew quickly established that this idea could be much more than just a beautiful set of minis though, “Kate came on board writing fiction, both stories and game world details such as how canine deities might work and we were off! It kind of got a little bit bigger than we had imagined it ever could!”
The actual dog miniatures which come as part of the Kickstarter project are truly outstanding designs and sculpts. I wanted to know what the process was in creating these creatures, “I am very lucky to have April who is a superb concept artist. She solved a lot of issues before I started the sculpts, thinking mainly about how creatures lacking hands can operate in a world designed for humanoids.”
The solution? “Special weapon pommels, cord operated bows, all these things were introduced to make the characters plausible within the world rules we set up.”
Russ added that the only real issue in the design process was the embarrassment of riches they found when exploring canine kind, “I would say the biggest challenge was not technical but aesthetic. There are just so many breeds of dog in the world that narrowing ourselves to the twelve iconic classes was a huge task – we could do another ten of these projects and hardly begin to cover every deserving doggie!”
I asked Russ if, as the designer, he had a personal favourite from the models; “Montague the bard cos he is my own dog, Monty! And just like the D&D version, my Monty is only concerned with making people happy and belly rubs! But honestly I love all of them, the designs were so strong that they each feel like they are bursting with untold stories, so just perfect for roleplaying!” Immortalising your pet as a Dungeons and Dragons miniature? True love.
Of course, the current Dungeons and Dragons ruleset isn’t designed to feature the intelligent dogs of Dungeons and Doggies. In order for these minis to be used, Russ and the team had to create original rules for the different species of dog, “I have some experience in rules work and I am lucky to have friends and colleagues who do this for a living! That said, it has been a challenge to boil the diversity of dogs into an essential format that works with D&D without being unusual in terms of the racial template.” Whippets did not make the list sadly, crushing my dreams of some sort of ethereal speedster character. Bad Russ.
If this all sounds a bit serious for Dungeons and Dragons and a set of surprisingly talented tailed-friends, then don’t panic! Many of “the magic items are just fun with names like Leash of Binding and the Eye of Wagamoto!”
For those that aren’t quite ready to introduce canine adventurers into their game world, the Dungeons and Doggies Kickstarter includes an “adventure that should run in one or two sessions. It is perfect as a self-contained palette cleanser mid-campaign or could be used to jump into a new canine story arc.”
If you, and your other good boys or girls, want to know what to expect, Russ offered this tease, “The adventure assumes an all dog party, which isn’t the assumption overall, and tells a tale of dark magic and doggy heroics. The theme of companionship, loyalty and protection are strong in the whole set and the adventure reflects this.”
If the idea of Dungeon and Doggies has piqued your interest, don’t sit and stay; check out the Kickstarter page right here.
If you want to join the conversation on social media you can use the hashtag #dungeonsanddoggies on Twitter, or visit the Painting Polygons Facebook page for even more. In fact, Russ encourages you to “take part in some doggy cosplay or any of the other things we have happening!” Woof.
GameOrNought 
Well that was an instant impulse-purchase.
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I know right!? Which doggie was it that got you? The St Bernard’s?
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I got Tonka the mastiff bard!
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Well, that’s a great choice. Stealth Chihuahua hooked me.
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Okay honestly this game looks super cute! I love that rpgs are getting a bit silly with themselves now, I think it helps break the barrier for some people who thing RPGs have to be absolutely serious. Then again, kind of interested in a serious game of it haha.
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I think the ability to add these to actual D and D, as well as there own adventures, gives you the option to be a little silly as well as serious. Some of the pre-built characters have surprisingly serious backstories.
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