Wyrmlings is a 2023 role-playing game developed by Lone Colossus Games. In Dragonsdale, players take control of a group (referred to as a brigade) of baby dragons called Wyrmlings to go on all kinds of adventures ranging by Slice of Life to high adventure.
At its core, Wyrmlings is designed to be a playable Saturday-Morning Cartoon about adorable baby dragons, with game mechanics intended to emulate conventions of the genre. While simple, the system puts a major focus on creativity and teamwork rather than pure stats and conventional skills.
The game was funded on Kickstarter and the digital version is presently available on Long Colossus Games' website
with a physical version coming.
- Bad Future: The "What If" adventure in the gamebook sees the Wyrmlings sent to an alternate future where the Evil Wizards have taken over Dragonsdale, enslaved the dragons, and use Wyrmlings as living batteries. It's actually a training simulation created by Dame Pyrite to train knights but was dubbed too intense and locked away until the Wyrmlings accidentally activated it.
- Big Bad: The evil wizard Azardicus serves as the main villain of the playtest, trying to use a captured Wyrmling's magic to turn his castle into a gigantic stone dragon. In the game adventures proper, he shares the role with his fellow wizard Malady.
- Character Focus: The gamebook suggests asking players to give problems their Wyrmlings are dealing with and basing an episode around it as a focus episode.
- Cliffhanger: A game mechanic: if the Wyrmlings lose the conflict of the episode, it ends on a cliffhanger so they can try to save the day next time.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: In addition to the dragons, Dragonsdale is full of all kinds of mythical creatures such as goblins, nagas, kitsunes, and a great many others.
- Final Boss: The Oakdrake, a gigantic plant monster created by Azardicus and Malady serves as the final threat of the year included in the book.
- Great Offscreen War: The Order of Dragon Knights fought a conflict against the Evil Wizards years ago, managing to win and drive them off. Unfortunately, some of the Wizards are still around, such as Azardicus and Malady.
- One Stat to Rule Them All: Played With: players can theoretically use any stat to approach a problem, so long as they can think of a way to justify their Wyrmling using it in that instance. So what one stat outshines all other depends entirely on that specific character's build and preference.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons in Wyrmlings are powerful creatures with a great deal of magical power. While young ones are quadripedal, adults can stand on two legs or four depending on their personal preference. They do have the conventional fire, lightning, and ice, but also have more unusual types such as Sand and Forest.
- Plot Armor: Directly referenced as an explicit game mechanic: the Wyrmlings can't die and are only 'knocked out', ending the current episode on a Cliffhanger. The game is balanced around the idea the heroes will eventually win, it's only a matter of time and effort.
- The Power of Friendship: The core game mechanic: the majority of challenges are very difficult for the Wyrmlings to succeed with solo, and thus players are heavily encouraged to use the help mechanic to aid another player. If the main player fails, but the helping player succeeds, the difficulty of the original challenge is lowered by one and can potentially succeed now. The brigade also possesses 'Friendship Points' that can be used in various ways to aid the group, and can be refilled by helping other party members.
- Saturday-Morning Cartoon: The game is designed as a playable Saturday Morning Cartoon, with all the trappings and mechanics to go with it. My Little Pony is listed as an explicit inspiration.
- The Six Stats: There are six main stats: Toughness, Willpower, Creativity, Scholastics, Speed, and Friendship. The unusual thing is that the game is intentionally nebulous about what these stats actually do as part of the mechanics: while each has a specific function, rather than having individual skills relating to the stats, they can be used for any skill test, so long as the player can creatively justify using that skill in that situation. Friendship is unique in that it's used as part of the game's help mechanic, but still runs on the idea the player must justify how they're helping.
