For The Birds • 2017 rpg

Dave Lapru • twitter.com/plantbird

This is a game for two or more players, and infinite birds.

Feed birds, who will become characters in your stories. Required for the game are:


Friend(s): a person or people who you can tell stories with.

Feed: at least a couple handfuls of seeds, peanuts, mealworms- no bread! It’s bulky and low in nutrients.

Flock: a duck pond, a city square frequented by pigeons, anywhere where you will be approached by birds.

Get comfortable by the flock, and divide the feed between you and your friend(s). To start play, one of you will toss a handful of feed to the flock. Watch what each bird does, then choose your Main Character and explain their actions;

“That crow ate so quickly because she’s starving after a fight!”

Another player then escalates the story, pointing out another bird;

“With her arch-nemesis: The Starling!”

You get a point for each new bird you introduce as a character! Go as fantastical as you want, a sentence or two at a time- quickly, because the story ends when your Main Character flies away! Whoever has the most points throws more feed and starts fresh. Play ends when all feed has been thrown.

Author Comments

my first game! inspired by the form of RP i have been doing since long before i got into the hobby- telling ridiculous improvised stories with my friends that escalate until we have injokes going back years about stuff like superheroic birds

speaking of, thank you first to my friend and fellow bird corv for their one piece of crit: “you made a game i can’t play with you”, you’re right, i goofed it, i play every game online with friends overseas and i wrote a game you have to play in person i GOOFED IT

thanks also to taylor of riverhouse games for the love and encouragement, and for being one of the people who helped me realise rpgs don’t all have to be dungeon crawls and what have you, they can be silly and abstract and personal and, sometimes, about birds

and thank you to brandon and james of stop hack & roll for making me realise i could just? write a game? like, i’m allowed to do that?? wild lol

and finally thank you to all my friends and loved ones and shoes and fellow students of the Nedo Institute, you inspire me every day and you all are why i love ttrpgs (and ttrpg adjacent nonsense like For The Birds)

P.S. forreal please do not feed bread to birds, here is some info from the RSPB on responsible bird feeding give it a wee skim before playing https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/read-and-learn/helping-birds/feeding/

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