Kids on Bikes system and the Lake Garuda setting...

 Garuda Lakes is an ongoing role playing campaign using the ‘Kids on Bikes’ RPG system (Jonathan Gilmour & Doug Levandowski – Hunters Entertainment). It seems that role play games have flourished during the lockdowns of the last year and are riding even higher on the popularity gained from interest in Critical Role and Stranger Things. Most RPG systems rely on a mix of narrative and either mini or token play conducted on a tabletop or virtual tabletop. While most systems can be played purely on paper most are not geared to a purely narrative approach. Most players expect the Games Master to provide the narrative and they fit in with it, adding bits at a prompt – M. Mercer’s iconic, “How do you want to do this?”  But outside of this the player addition to the overall story arc and narrative are limited to player interactions. 

I love story telling and always wanted my games to be more of a collaborative story than a game as such. When Burn Bryte came out I thought I had found the holy grail, players chose what skill to use depending in how they can narrate their action. However, in the end my normal players found it hard, they wanted the spoon feeding, “Roll perception…” etc. The narrative became an add on and often a way to twist the rules… Sigh.

Then I came across a mention of a YouTube show called ‘Kollok 1991’ from the aptly named ‘Hyper Studios’ streaming studio. It used ‘Kids on Bikes’ which I had seen pop up briefly as a system to use for ‘Stranger Things’ vibe games. After a couple of episodes I was hooked and soon invested in the rules. 

KoB is pure collaborative story telling, in its ‘rules as written’ form nothing is scripted and the story unfolds, the players having to add to the narrative as much as the GM. While in reality this probably doesn’t happen that often there is certainly heaps more collaboration in the story than most, if not all, other systems. They are what is colloquially called ‘rules lite’ – there are no hit points, no movement allowance, no lists of actions etc and the rules fit in a 70 page A5 book which to be honest is mainly examples of play and the few charts the GM needs to suggest the success of the actions that are rolled for. Character ‘classes’ are replaced by ‘tropes’ and mainly these differ only in which die are assigned to the 6 skills the character has and suggested strengths and weaknesses of the character. Within the ‘trope’ the player chooses there is flexibility to choose traits that they think their character would have etc. Most characters are ‘kids’, normally teenagers – there is a heavy ‘Stranger Things’ or ‘Goonies’ influence going on. 

Within the story if the narrative requires a skill roll then the player is given a target number ranging from 1-20 (unlike 5e based games the target number for a character to do what you would expect that character to be able to do is between 3 and 6). The further you get from that target number shows how well, or not, you did the action and how to narrate what happened. It’s a dynamic system with exploding die (rolling a d4 you can score highly if you roll a 4 and it explodes so you roll again, another 4 and you go again – I think the best d4 total we have had in a game is 19) and the ability to choose what ability die to use so long as you can narrate it in a reasonable manner. For instance, escaping from a pursuit could see a player using ‘Flight’ to run away, another player using ‘Brains’ to grab and hat and scarf from a stall and disguise themselves while another player uses ‘Charm’ to get someone to let them into their house and hide in there. 

If you love story weaving and character interaction (there are no maps to move on, squares to count etc so most play is role play chat between characters and NPCs) then you will love Kids on Bikes. If you need a GM to spoon feed you what skills to roll and love just joining into the narrative they are weaving then avoid KoB like the plague. For me it is the best escapism out there, but I realise that is probably just me!

Garuda Lakes – the setting

Allow me, if you will, to take you to a town, a town full of somewhat sleepy streets, of foggy autumn mornings, of summer blue skies reflecting in the lake, of nosey neighbours and of course, apple pie. 

Garuda Lakes nestled at the foot of the Appalachian mountain range and besides the fresh, soft waters of Lake Garuda. There has been an Anglo-European settlement there since 1640 when it was known as Sagnasaw Grove, named after the indigenous populations name for the forest it shoulders, the indigenous population who were pushed out from the lakeside, the indigenous population who were nearly wiped out by the introduction of pox and the flu, the indigenous population who have had no recompense nor apology except for being given land for a reservation in the 50’s. But I digress, Sagnasaw Grove was renamed Garuda in 1661 by the Trappist monks who had a monastery on the shores and credited the rich, fertile soil to Lady Garuda (The Lady of the Golden Light). 

The town soldiered on over the centuries, being on the natural course way along the base of the mountains it was little more than a way station until in the 50’s when it got popular with out of towners as a summer retreat, the waters were ideal to boat on, the mountains to ramble on and gradually the town began to rely on the summer influx until now, in the mid 80’s, the population grows fourfold in the months of August and September with late July seeing an influx of senior high school students camping and celebrating their graduation from the school life to adult hood, well college life anyway.

Over the last ten years Garuda Lakes has spawned a somewhat surprising lucrative recreational fishing industry run by the Lambstad brothers who organise and sell licences to fish in the lake and take out tours to the best spots. A number of record breaking fish have been caught in the lake which has appeared in a number of fishing magazines over the years. 

The towns other growth comes from the money of Francis J. Tiller – daughter of Miriam B. Sagnasaw, descendent of the original settlers/invaders and now owner of Tiller Tech and landlady of most of the properties in the ‘Royal Meadows’ the new modern development on the edge of town. 

Not quite a gated community but the ‘Meadows’ does boast its own private school, ‘The Golden Light Academy’ which is home to the ‘Battling Bees’ sports teams which have been the scourge of the Garuda High sports teams for the past 4 seasons. Tiller Tech have a research and development unit at the edge of the meadows which is at the fore front of what they call ‘Future Communication’ but of which little is known about. Tiller Tech have 

invested in the town, the neurological/pharma division of Tiller Tech have opened a public hospital in town and Miriam put up the money for the modern Shopping Mall which while derided by many of the ‘old town’ folk doesn’t stop them showing up for the multi-plex cinema or the food mall and tech shop. The local teenagers from the ‘old town’ congregate there, mainly around the two game arcades and ‘Blockbuster’ video shop. The teenagers from the Meadows stick mainly to themselves within the Meadows or in small groups in the Mall on occasion. 

So, Garuda Lakes a community split into two, opposite ends of the spectrum really. Resentment is there, but not enough to really make a difference and come summertime the Meadows community doesn’t really seem to matter. Garuda Lakes – is there anywhere else you would rather be?