Something is Wrong with the Chickens
A game of chickens, eldritch horror, and revenge
It’s been a while!
Summer has been a busy and exciting time for us, but we are back with a brand-new season of My First Dungeon. This time we’re playing Something is Wrong with the Chickens, a one-page RPG of poultry, eldritch horrors, and revenge.
- Brian Flaherty
This Week in the Fractured Realms…
Something is Wrong with the Chickens - a new one page RPG by Elliot Davis
Five Minute Session Zero - How to run a session zero for a one page RPG
Magic Eggs - A bonus roll table for Something is Wrong with the Chickens
How to Make an Eldritch World (without really trying…) - Playing eldritch horror games when you know nothing about eldritch horror
Elliot’s Recommendations - Three indie RPGs for your next game night
What’s Wrong with the Chickens??
Something is Wrong with the Chickens is the latest game from game designer Elliot Davis. In it you play as chickens, ducks, and nuggets who gain and lose eldritch powers as they try to get their revenge on the sinister Bryson Foods, Inc. It’s a one-page RPG that traces its origins to Honey Heist, but uses an original 3d6 system that dictates success, failures, and the gain and loss of eldritch powers. Gain enough powers and you transcend reality and divorce yourself from the mortal struggles between chicken and man. Lose your powers and risk becoming irresistibly delicious.
It’s a great no-prep game with nods to Cthulhu, anti-capitalism, and chicken related mayhem.
It’s available on itch.io for only $2. Buy it here!
My First Dungeon: Something is Wrong with the Chickens
Part 1: Learn the ins and outs of the game from Elliot and discover what led to its creation.
Part 2: Listen to an immersive, sound-designed game featuring Shenuque Tissera, Jenny Gustafson, Kihresha Redmond, Abby Hepworth, and Elliot Davis.
Part 3 : Elliot and I talk about what went right in our session and how to improve games as both a designer and a game master.
5-minute Session Zero
by Elliot Davis
As a game master, it can feel intimidating to guide players through an experience that everyone finds enjoyable and fun. One of the biggest tools in your arsenal to accomplish this is a session zero. Taking an hour or two to establish characters, safety tools, player preferences and expectations, can be the difference between a good campaign and one you’ll never forget. But how do you apply these same principles to a one-shot RPG session?
Enter the 5-minute Session Zero.
Once you’ve introduced the rules of your chosen game, your safety tools, and gotten through the basics of character creation, take the time to have an out-of-play discussion on the game ahead. Some possible thought starters:
How do your characters know each other?
This is the single most valuable question on this list. Whether it’s friends, coworkers, brothers, or estranged lovers, relationships increase the roleplay potential of a session exponentially.
Does your character have a secret?
Metagaming be damned! A secret can be roleplayed no matter how many folks at the table know it; and when that character reveals it, it’s all the more impactful with everyone having been along for the ride.
What will success look like for the group?
You may have an answer to this question as GM but let the players run wild. Is there a way to combine their ideas and yours? OR flip their idea on its head for a twist?
Crucially, as you let players discuss the answers to these questions, resist the urge to drive the conversation. Listen and take notes on the things that get a group response. Peppering these elements back in throughout play will be worth the patience.
What are your favorite Session Zero questions? How would you change them for a one-shot?
For more on this idea, listen to episode 3 of our My First Dungeon series on Something Is Wrong With the Chickens.
Additional Roll Table - Magic Eggs
One of the eldritch powers available to the vengeful poultry in Something is Wrong with the Chickens is “Magic Eggs”. Like most things in one-page RPGs, this power is left up to interpretation. If you’re laying magic eggs then you should let your imagination run wild! But if you find yourself struggling for a good egg effect, roll on the table below for a fun and random effect.
Inside is a miniature version of the character. It screams for 15 seconds, then explodes.
Another egg is inside…then another…then another…then another…are they getting bigger?
A foil-wrapped chocolate egg. Eating this egg reveals a terrifying cosmic truth.
An egg in the shape of another character and it’s moving…
Three yolks!
The egg is a gravity well. Who knows what will happen when it cracks.
How to Make an Eldritch World (without really trying…)
A crash course in faking your way through eldritch horror
I know nothing about Cthulhu or the Lovecraft mythos, but that doesn’t mean I can’t run games set in an eldritch world. While the Cthulhu mythos is steeped in deep–often problematic–lore, it’s core principals are easy to understand and incorporate into your game:
This is a universe of dimensions, dreams, and voids.
It is an uncaring, indifferent cosmos.
To glimpse these truths leads to madness.
Basically, the world is stranger than you can fathom. Even without knowing what Cthulhu looks like you can tell from Elliot’s roll tables that tentacles, scales, and mind-bending geometries likely play a role. The very concept of non-Euclidean geometry relies of the idea–in part–that parallel lines, rather than extending side-by-side into infinity could curve towards or away from each other in ways our brains simply can’t comprehend. It’s just wrong.
Absolute truth falls to relative truth and without truth there is only madness.
In a world where a square might not have four right angles, anything is possible. Encourage your players to lean into the weird, even the unfathomable. Remember you’re all chickens with tentacles. This space thrives on the weirdest and wildest moves.
Break dimensions. Create unknowable voids. Bend the truths of the world until all that remains is madness. Trust me, it’ll be a hoot.
3 Indie TTRPGs for Your Next Game Night*
By Elliot Davis
NOVA by Spencer Campbell
Everyone knows the feeling of preparing a badass move only to have the cruel fates of a dice roll shut it down. In NOVA? That doesn’t happen. NOVA is mech-piloting badassery unrestricted by traditional dice mechanics.
Scurry from Stoat Stout Press
Have you ever wanted to play as a small woodland creature, venturing through the post-humanity Scottish highlands? On its face, you may already be sold on Scurry but where this game shines is in its shrinking “Scurry Die” mechanic. By the time you’re rolling that d4, you’ll feel the scurry screeching towards an exciting finish.
Stealing the Throne by Nick Bate
A wild journey to steal a massive mech, Stealing The Throne promises a story worthy of a big-screen action heist. With rotating roles and a card based narrative system, it delivers fully on that promise.
*Many many games belong on this list but I wanted to keep it to those I have first-hand experience playing.
