You are the teenage summer staff of Dizzy Meg’s Magical Animal Petty Zoo. A little place of just ten acres, the zoo is here to educate and inform its visitors about the wonders of magical animals. You’re here as cheap labour and for the work experience you keep getting told that sixteen to eighteen year olds should be getting. The zoo’s owner, Dizzy Meg, is off on their summer holiday and the sub-manager who’s meant to be in charge has left you with the keys and gone for the day with their mates to the beach.
Players: Create Characters
- Choose a style for your character: Animal Lover, Byronic, Clueless, Troublemaker, Passionate, Loner, or Bully.
- Choose the role that your character does most often at the zoo: Merchandise Stand, Ticket Booth, Shoveller, Security, First Aid, Runner, Clown, Stable Hand.
- Choose a number, from 2 to 5. A high number means you’re better at Keeper (animal care, planning, customer relations). A low number means you’re better at Teenager (angst, feelings, hormones)
- Give your character a cool sounding fantasy hero name.
- Your character has: a staff uniform, a name tag, and an item matching your role (a cuddly toy, some petty cash, a shovel, a megaphone, a first aid kit, a large bag, an animal costume, some rope.).
- Choose a goal for the character or create your own: Impress Dizzy Meg, Finish work early, Play with the animals, Do as little as possible, Make outs, Discover something new about an animal, Obsequious customer service.
Player Goal: Have fun at the expense of these characters and tell an interesting story of a day in their lives.
Players: Create the Zoo
As a group, pick two strengths for Dizzy Meg’s Magical Animal Petty Zoo: Really cute animals, Good reputation, Public address system, Nice gardens, A Cafe, A very intelligent sheepdog.
Also, pick one problem: There’s too much manure, A newly arrived rescued dangerous animal, Bad weather, Supplies are short stocked, There’s a tone deaf siren in the lake.
Next, draw up a map of the zoo. Mark where the entrance is and the key landmarks. Each player should add two magical animals to the map.
Rolling the Dice
When you do something risky, roll 1d6 to find out how it goes. Roll +1d6 if you’re an expert and +1d6 if you’re prepared. The GM tells you how many dice to roll based on your character and the situation. Roll your dice and compare each die result to your number.
If you’re using Keeper (animal care, professionalism) you want to roll under your number.
If you’re using Teenager (angst, hormones) you want to roll over your number.
- 0 – If none of your dice succeed, it goes wrong. The GM says how things get worse somehow.
- 1 – If one die succeeds, you barely manage it. The GM inflicts a complication, harm, or cost.
- 2 – If two dice succeed, you do it well. Good job!
- 3 – If three dice succeed, you get a critical success! The GM tells you some extra effect you get.
If you roll your number exactly, you are a Teenager Keeper! You get special insight into what’s going on. Ask the GM a question and they’ll answer you honestly. Some good questions are: What are they really feeling? What animal is causing this? How could I get them to ________? What’s the best way to _______? What’s really going on here? A roll of Teenager Keeper counts as a success.
Helping: If you want to help someone else who’s rolling, say how you try to help and make a roll. If you succeed, give them +1d6.
GM: Create Zoo Mis-adventures.
Roll or choose from the table below. Use this as many times as needed to create multiple overlapping problems over the course of the day.
| An | |
| Immortal Tortoise | Shape shifting creature |
| Animal liberation front activist | Party of adventurers |
| Mysterious VIP guest | That slime |
| Has | |
| Broken a fence | Become stuck |
| Harmed an animal | Disappeared |
| Refused to leave | Travelled through time |
| Causing | |
| An animal to escape | Creeping panic |
| A chain reaction | Noxious clouds |
| Dozens of crying children | More Slimes |
| But | |
| There’s an inspector in the zoo | There’s a huge coach party coming |
| A magical creature is violently ill | Dark elves that don’t speak the language |
| An angry wizard has cursed the flowers | A creature has developed a new magical powers |
GM: Run the game.
Play to find out how the teenage keepers keep the zoo running despite the craziness going on around them. Introduce trouble either with subtle hints there’s something amiss or by throwing it directly into the teenage keepers’ unprepared laps. Before a danger does something, show signs of what’s about to happen and then ask the character what they want to do. “Yolanda the Telekinetic Rabbit is eyeing up the hat of the zoo inspector. What do you do? All the guests are talking about how lovely the cafe food is today, despite there being no supplies. What do you do?”
Call for a roll when the situation is uncertain. Don’t pre-plan outcomes – let the narrative go where it wants to. Use failures to push the action forward. The situation always changes after a roll, for good or ill. Ask questions and build on the answer. “Have you any experience with dark elves? Where does Dizzy Meg keep the moonshine? Who do you know where the invisible porcupine is?”
Credits: Built off of Lasers and Feelings by John Harper [http://onesevendesign.com/lasers_and_feelings_rpg.pdf]. CC-BY-4.0.
Image Credits: Fantasy Animals by Lord Carmi [1] [2] [3] CC-BY-NC-ND-3.0, Kizzy by Andrew Moore CC-BY-SA-2.0