BEAK, FEATHER, & BONE

Beak, Feather, & Bone is a collaborative worldbuilding tool as well as a competitive map-labeling RPG. Starting with an unlabeled city map, players are assigned community roles before taking turns claiming and describing locations. Players draw from a standard 52-card deck to determine a building's purpose and then describe its beak (reputation), feather (appearance), and bone (interior). As buildings are claimed, a narrative for the town and its inhabitants emerges, including major NPCs and shifting power-dynamics.

Inspired by map-making games like Avery Alder's The Quiet Year and archetype-focused RPG systems like Meguey & Vincent Baker's Powered by the Apocalypse, Beak, Feather, & Bone is a zine-length game including rules of play, 11 community roles illustrated by Austin Breed, a map by Jonathan Yee, and optional lore & GM tips for running games in a city populated entirely by ravenfolk (or kenku, tengu, etc.).

While default play is lightly competitive, rules variants for solo, cooperative, and character-focused play are included as well. Similarly, while the illustrations and GM notes provided will help inspire a ravenfolk city, the beak/feather/bone labeling system can be used with any map, game genre, or populace.

CLAW ATLAS

NOTE: This supplement requires the full Beak, Feather, & Bone rules to play

Claw Atlas highlights the amazing cartography of Jonathan Yee with 10 new city maps to play and replay Beak, Feather, & Bone in new and interesting ways. It also adds 2 additional community roles illustrated by Austin Breed—Hunters & Mapmakers—to BFB's core 10, allowing you to randomize factions with a d12 rather than a d10. Lastly, Claw Atlas includes 2 new, Hunter- & Mapmaker-inspired optional rules by me, Beak, Feather, & Bone's designer Tyler Crumrine, that add monsters to your cities and let you create maps during play.

Crowdfunded in June, 2022, Claw Atlas is currently available in digital-only format with physical copies releasing this October.

TAIL, SCALE, & BONE

NOTE: This supplement requires the full Beak, Feather, & Bone rules to play

One of the fun things about BFB, though, is that you’re by no means tied to using the core game’s factions. In fact, inserting new communities or even just pulling inspiration from different illustrations can help you interpret Jonathan Yee’s map in whole new ways. 

That’s where Elizabeth Orji-Smith comes in! By shifting the game’s communities from ravenfolk to merfolk in Tail, Scale, & Bone, players are reminded there’s no reason the city’s map can’t be on the bottom of the ocean. In fact, it could just as easily be on the moon!

What’s more, Elizabeth has created 10 entirely new communities for players to represent in the game, helping you push BFB’s replayability even further. Feel free to mix and match as well—imagining how ravenfolk Couriers might behave or adding merfolk Miners to your underwater game. 

This purchase includes a digital copy of the game booklet optimized for both screen and home-printing, and all proceeds from this supplement are donated to the Bukit Bail Fund of Pittsburgh.

BFB SRD

This Systems Reference Document (SRD) is aimed at artists, designers, writers, and publishers who’d like to build on and/or adapt the rules and ideas found in Beak, Feather, & Bone.

The BFB SRD includes the core mechanics for playing a game of Beak, Feather, & Bone, which are available for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY) License. What is doesn’t include are any of the specific play examples, worldbuilding, or artwork from the full Beak, Feather, & Bone publication. You must create your own original material when using the Beak, Feather, & Bone system as a base.

Once you’ve created your own game, supplement, sub-system, or minigame based on the material within the BFB SRD, though, you are free to create, distribute, and sell that derivative work to your heart’s content.

BEAK, FEATHER, & BONE JAM 2021

To celebrate Beak, Feather, & Bone's one-year anniversary, we held a game jam for artists, designers, writers, and publishers who’d like to build on and/or adapt the rules and ideas found in Beak, Feather, & Bone for their own projects!

Over 15 participants created hacks of & supplements for Beak, Feather, & Bone over the course of 30 days. If you’re looking for new and interesting ways to play BFB, check them out!