RPG Spotlight: Trash Pandas
“We’re all raccoons on a heist! Picture Ocean’s 11 or Leverage but, you know, raccoons. We’ll do great!”
Originally written for the 200 Word RPG Challenge and landing a 2017 finalist spot, Trash Pandas is a short, simple, and very silly RPG system. If you want to play, you will need 21d6, and a box. You likely have both around your house right now, perhaps even the one is in the other. But if not, just look in the crown royal bag. No the other one. The blue one. Where you keep all your Warhammer dice. Trash Pandas is a game with no stats, and no GM. Trash Pandas is a raccoon heist game.
And while “raccoon heist game” might be enough to convince most of us, here’s a look at the game. Let’s start with character creation, which is handled a little differently in Trash Pandas. There are 4 raccoon archetypes to choose from, each with its own special ability unique to them. For example, Mittens is the crafty raccoon and their rolls succeed on a 3 or higher while Ringo is the clever one who gets to shake the box again after seeing the results. Every ability can add a small boost to any given character’s turn, but none of them are overpowered.
The rules are simple. The game has five phases, and starts with you putting 20 D6 in a box. Each phase, players take turns shaking the box, picking a number from 1 to 6, looking inside of the box, and pulling out all of the dice that match their pick. Picked dice are part of “the score” and is a delectable treat for that raccoon.
If none match, the player describes what sort of zany misadventure their raccoon took to failure. Perhaps they were caught in a trashcan when it tipped over. Or maybe it stumbled and started rolling and went viral.
When the box is more full, the trash pandas are more likely to succeed, but as the phase goes on, the misadventures will become more and more frequent and the scenario the group is coming up with together will become more and more silly. Once the score for that phase is all distributed, everyone rolls their dice and from there successful details are described as the dice are put back in the box or silly complications arise and the dice are discarded from the game so that the next phase may begin.
The original 200 word version of the game had two scenarios for games, but there is now an updated and expanded version available on DriveThru RPG with even more scenarios such as a dress up tea party and stealing from Elon Musk in space. It all only loosely makes sense, but it’s the sort of zany cartoonish misadventure that will definitely bring a smile to your face.
Happy Adventuring!
