Bedtime Bestiary
A downloadable game
This is a game about a child's toys overcoming the terrible creatures of that child’s imagination. The protagonists of the story are a collection of children's toys who face danger together. The story should fit the imagination of a young child. The violence should not be graphic. All but the final encounter should be easy.
This game provides some alternate rules for character creation and story development, but otherwise uses the rule systems present in the 5th edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. A sample adventure and 4 new creatures are included.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Comments
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This is a 5e one-shot adventure/mini-setting written by a father and 6-year-old son team, and I would strongly recommend it on that setup alone.
You play as creatures called Lovies. These are imagined beings that belong to (and defend) a particular child. There's a bit of neat meta here, where they don't have a religion from the 5e books---their religion is the child---and it's little details like this, both sweet and unexpectedly powerful, that I think are the strongest argument for grabbing a copy of the book.
Other noteworthy features include a built-in hideout (the Couch Dungeon,) a Ryutama-style GMPC who can swoop in if things get truly dire, my favorite giant crab in gaming, a wartorn playscape where dinosaurs are your friends and the undead are not, and a bestiary including a laser chainsaw tyrannosaurus.
Although it's designed for 5e, BB also seems quite playable with other, lighter systems such as Threadbare, so if 5e is a disqualifier for you, it may still be worth giving it a look.
Overall, if you like 5e or want a flavorful setting about children's toys fighting nightmares, or if you want an rpg you can run for a young audience that likes crunch, there's a lot of content in here.
If you're not looking for a game that's themed around children and toys, or if you're not interested in 5e and don't have anything you'd prefer to run this with, this may not be your thing.
Minor Issues:
-Page 5, the "This game provides some alternate rules" paragraph is repeated from page 2
-There's no table of contents. It's a 28 page document, so a toc may not be super necessary, but there are two pages explaining where everything in the book is, so a toc could replace that with something in a format much easier to skim.
-Page 7, "Your child" this is a heading, and 'child' feels a little weird uncapitalized
Thank you for this commentary, it was very helpful. I am hoping to get some time to make a few updates later this summer. If I get that time, I will certainly incorporate the changes that you recommend.
Thanks again for this feedback. I have made several updates to this in part based on your helpful response here. I have also added a few things that I'd been putting off for about six months. Having so many people download it was the motivation I needed to finish those things off.
Whoah, glad I could help! It's a really cool adventure.
D&D 5e reworked for the adventures of toys battling the monsters of a child's imagination. It's a strong concept, and it's clear that a lot of fun was had in the making (particularly with the cute hand-drawn illustrations), but overall it feels like a more rules-light system would have been more suitable and accessible. As it is, this game unfortunately doesn't manage to take advantage of the mechanical depth of 5e, nor simplify it to a child-friendly variant. Not one of the stronger 5e products out there. 2/5 stars - serviceable.
Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you like the concept. I also get that a lot of people aren't into 5e for a variety of completely valid reasons. I'm not going to argue with any of those reasons, but if that is your only complaint about the game I would ask you to reconsider the rating. This game is pretty clearly marked (well, as much as is possible based on legal concerns) as using that particular system, and I can't imagine anyone buying it (outside of an amazing bundle for an awesome cause, which thanks for supporting that by the way) who was not comfortable with using that system. So the net effect of your rating is that people who are looking for games designed to work with the 5e system are going to find something else instead. If you think this game is in the bottom 40% of 5e products, then please say so in your review. Otherwise, it would be most helpful to compare it to other games in that marketplace.
I've updated my review - I hope you feel that the new version addresses your points. For the record, since you specifically asked me to say this, I do think this game is in the bottom 40% of 5e products, but it seemed harsh to write that exact phrase on a review for something that was partially contributed to by a six-year-old and which is clearly a labour of love.
yeah, it does feel a bit harsh, actually. If you honestly think it is that bad I'd be happy to give you your money back. But because you purchased it along with over 1000 other games as part of a bundle, I just hope that one of those games was worth your $5. I don't really understand why someone would put up poor reviews for games they obtained as part of a charity bundle. Did you do this for each of the 1000 games in there? I honestly don't understand how this is helping any part of the hobby, tbh.
I am working through reviewing all of the TTRPGs from the bundle, yes. As for the other games, I will be reviewing the ones in genres that I am interested in. The hope is that reviews help people to whittle down the items they might wish to play from the bundle, as 1000+ items is a lot to choose from and many people have limited time to spend trying them out.
I could see the value in perhaps highlighting some games that are particularly good at being inclusive and addressing identity issues that you care about. In fact, I would find value in a comment that said the game could be better at issues related to identity.
But I don't see the point in commenting on something that isn't really your thing, especially because your edited comment gives a completely different read on things than your original comment. I think in the future if you want to say something about someone's game that feels "harsh," maybe the best thing is to listen to your instincts and just not bother with reviewing it at all. I think your followers will get the message.
My gaming company is currently on hiatus, so it's not a big deal to me. But a lot of game designers put a lot of themselves into what they do and could take this kind of message very personally. Please be considerate of that as you continue with your reviews.
Is the file marked "final" the full release? The one with no suffix is marked as preorder for some reason.
Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, the older version should have been deleted. There might be a few minor updates to this in the next few months, but it is mostly complete. Thanks for asking!
The status is still marked as in development too, just so you know. I'll check it out
yeah, I have a few things I'd like to change. It is fully playable as is, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so don't want to call it done for sure quite yet.
Hey, thought I'd let you know that I have completed the things that I had intended to with this game.