Add More Dragons into Your Dungeons with Animon Story

What is Dungeons & Dragons without… well, dungeons? And dragons? While we just got done going through a dungeon crawl with Mork Borg over on Nerdarchy Live, we didn’t see a lot of dragons in the mix. Recently on the Nerdarchy the YouTube channel, Nerdarchists Dave and Ted talked about ideas for dragons in your RPG. There are some wildly good ideas in the discussion. Between the spider and clockwork dragons and the idea for keeping dragons as pets, my brain (of course) darted straight to Animon Story.

Fantasy Animon

One of the first ideas that hit me was the idea of familiars and chosen ones. Suppose we did away with the futurist and science fantasy elements of Animon Story. Strip away the modern and lean hard into the medieval fantasy and we end up in a setting ripe for D&D with elves, dwarves and the like. Perhaps our chosen heroes instead tame dragons — or any other monsters for that matter!

Our first session might see the main heroes gaining their familiars through a ritual, a test or simply by fate. Perhaps our heroes meet the villain who’ll act as the primary antagonist but they’re initially helpless to intervene in their affairs. By reskinning many of the tech elements of Animon Story such as the Ani-Tool with a coat of fantasy-colored paint we end up with an orb, a tome or a talisman to perform all of the same functions but with a magical flair. Suddenly, Animon Story can be played in your existing campaign setting for D&D! The few tweaks and new system add depth to your world and show how versatile this world and its stories truly can be.

As for kid characters, first know the characters don’t have to be kids. While the flavor for Animon Story involves kids due to the nature of the genre it’s easy to reflavor kids as teens or even adults fitting similar archetypes. When it comes to reskinning the kid character types there isn’t much work that needs to be done. If you struggle with identifying how your character’s personality and skills might manifest in a fantasy setting, try thinking about each kid character type as a fantasy class. I would wager many of the kid character types translate pretty well to fantasy classes.

Here’s what we’ve got in the base Animon Story game along with D&D analogs.

• Bookworm = Warlock
• Computer Wizard = Wizard – Just flavor all of the tech stuff as magic instead and adjust the talents as shown below:
  • Hacking = Necromancy magic specialty
  • Programming = Transmutation magic specialty
  • Mechanics = Artifice/Evocation magic specialty
  • Meticulous = Abjuration magic specialty
  • Well-Mannered = Divination/Enchantment magic specialty
• Delinquent = Rogue
• Free Spirit = Sorcerer
• Gamer = Paladin
• Gentle Heart = Cleric
• Jock = Barbarian/Fighter
• Little Kid = Monk
• Loner = Druid/Ranger
• Rising Star = Bard

Get Weird

When it comes to developing your character’s Animon Stages for this D&D style fantasy game don’t be afraid to get weird with it. Clockwork dragons and spider breath weapons are only the beginning! One of my favorite aspects of Animon Story is how versatile the rules allow you to be with your Animon partner’s appearance and abilities. It’s simple and elegant yet crunchy enough to sate many mechanics nerds.

The ability scores allow for a different type of story to be told yet these scores easily translate to allow for homebrewed splices between fifth edition D&D or similar systems and the story revolving around your characters and their companions.

The sky is the limit with this system and I would love to see what type of wacky dragons Nerdarchists Dave & Ted would concoct in this system!

What do you think?

Have you played Animon Story? Do you like monster taming games in general? If you liked this post please drop it a like and a share. Tell us what you thought on Facebook or Twitter.

For more Animon Story content, you can head over to my own YouTube channel where I’m featuring Animon Story content all April long! Until next time, keep evolving!

*Featured image — Looking for inspiration on running a fantasy RPG in a world where dragons and people co-exist and work together? How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World makes a terrific place to start!

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