When I heard about Pocket Quest from some friends at the start of February, my immediate reaction was, “Crap, I don’t have time for that.”
Cut to later that night, where my wife says to me: “What about snakes?”
This is sort of a nonsense phrase we say to each other when it has nothing to do with what we’re talking about. Forgetting something at the grocery store, too much paperwork at the day job (we’re teachers), lamenting more government budget cuts – “but what about snakes???” This time, though, I sat bolt upright and frowned. What about snakes?
Within an hour, I had the beginnings of B.O.A., a rules-light TTRPG about a covert agency of – you guessed it – snakes. You play as an Operative with the Bureau of Agents, or B.O.A., a super-secret organization that answers calls from humans in need, for everything from a lost engagement ring to top-secret nuclear codes. Think Mission Impossible or Cats and Dogs meets Honey Heist and Raccoon Sky Pirates. Everything the Operatives can do is inspired by real-world snake stuff – whether it’s moves like “Flatten” or “Grip,” or gadgets like the “Isopods in a Box.” Pick a type of Operative, a gadget, plus a codename and morph, and you’re ready for your mission.
More than anything, I wanted B.O.A. to be light and fun. Not only in the way it’s written, but in the mechanics themselves. One of the questions I kept circling was “what happens if the Operatives fail their mission?” In most heist stories, that means capture or death or destitution, and that didn’t feel right for B.O.A. At first, the Operatives had Health to track, but that didn’t feel right either. Snakes getting hurt? Not for me, especially as a snake-parent. Some brainstorming got me to the realization that failing the mission is consequence enough, which meant figuring out a mechanic for the Gamemaster to say, “Sorry, mission over.” This landed me on Spy Points: a pool of points the entire party starts with, which can be lost if an Operative fails a roll by a certain threshold (and gained by doing cool snake stuff). Once the party is out of points, they escape back to their hideout, the Den. No goal accomplished, but also no injuries and no one left behind.
That isn’t to say B.O.A. can’t be tense. Trying to sneak under a couch while a chocolate lab noses around a living room can be nerve-wracking when you’re a three-foot-long noodle.
If you don’t know much about snakes – even if you don’t like snakes – then B.O.A. is still for you. As I say in the game, they’re largely misunderstood creatures, which I’ve learned more myself since my wife convinced me to adopt ours (Bob is an amelanistic corn snake and the most adorable thing ever). My goal is a game that’s easy to get into and a little silly, and I hope you check it out.
You’ll be able to find B.O.A. here on April 1st, as part of Pocket Quest launch day: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/474450/BOA
And if you’re at Gen Con this year, come see me and a bunch of other excellent authors at the Gen Con Writers Symposium! https://genconwriters.org/
