Warrenguard set to soar on BackerKit

Enough about all of the games where you slay a dragon. It’s time for a game where you ride one.

Today, Natalie Pudim (Luck of the Harbor) launched the BackerKit for Warrenguard, a dragonriding game about found family.

“While conducting research on systems, I landed on the game Ace Adventure and the Flying Royal Flush by my friend Brian Liberge, which utilizes FATE Accelerated,” Pudim says, “[I] realized that the FATE system laid cleanly on top of one of my favorite systems, Belonging outside Belonging.”

Warrenguard’s system is a fresh mix of the two. “Both have an economy where you spend tokens to gain an advantage, and gain tokens to take on penalties,” she says. 

“I could use Belonging outside Belonging for the social aspects of play, but take the creative problem solving and action from FATE Accelerated!” She remembers her discovery, “Two systems, each constituting one mode of play that were separated, but informed each other!”

Choose a weak move that fails forward to gain a token in one scene, spend that token to invoke an aspect for your dragon's killer move in the next. This leads to thrilling in-game play as cozy scenes can be interrupted by the pealing of the warning bells and a call-to-action. 

Warrenguard takes place in a post-war world that is ravaged by Threats that are a mix of a monster and a natural disaster. Living Lightning, Moving Mountains, and Sky Jellyfish are just some of the dangers in this world that the Warrenguard strive to protect.

Protection comes in the form of the Warrenguard. A team of five fearless dragonriders, trained at the Caldera, are picked by their dragon to bond for life. With their dragon and fellow riders, they are the only guardians for the Hold from the Threats outside.

There are five choices for characters and players will be randomly assigned to one of 12 dragons. Pudim captures the found family relationships of her early 20s on a mechanical level within the characters; making the game run at its best with five players for best the balance of character archetypes. 

Game Master prep is sure to be a breeze with Warrenguards playable chapters. Some you are even locked behind levelling up certain character archetypes!

Pudim is working with editor Lara Paige Turner (Glaive Guisarme Games) and art director and layout designer Abbey Kelly (game designer of Heads & Tales). 

Early on, Kelly consulted award winning illustrator Nala J. Wu to ensure the art direction got off on the right foot. So far, artists for the project include: Natalie Chenard, Shan Bennion, Katilynne Kawaguchi, and Toni AKA AnonymousGob. More have been contacted in the case of a successful launch. 

Stretch goals upon launch include adding another rider archetype by Sebastian Yue, new world lore by DeAngelo Murillo and Drakoniques, new playable chapters by Mazey Veselak, and even an in universe solo RPG written by Superdillin.

The approximately 100-page TTRPG will be available in PDF and full-color paperback. The featured BackerKit bundle is set to include a PDF of the game, the full-color paperback, and four dice and 24 tokens made by Dice Dungeons.

It’s your turn to take the reins of your own dragon. Bonus: back in the first 48 hours for an exclusive gold foil dragon sticker!