One HONK: Bird Time's The Charm - A Goose-Based TTRPG

One HONK is a tabletop role-playing game series, where you play as a gaggle of meddlesome Geese with one goal: cause as much mayhem as possible! 

The game is based on the bespoke H.O.N.K. RPG system, perfectly designed to support fun, lightweight role-playing for friends and families.

Bird Time’s The Charm is the third entry in the One HONK series. It builds on and expands the game rules, but it is a standalone entry in itself and works as a great entrypoint to the series! 

Here’s a sneak peek of what you'll get:

• The H.O.N.K. Ruleset: The rules-lite H.O.N.K. system returns with a raft of new exciting perks and hidden abilities. We're also expanding the options for Gaggle advancement, giving you even more ways to bring fresh Khaos to the table every time!
• Adventure One - The Pecking Order: A new park ranger has banned feeding the geese, rationed bread, and outlawed honking after dark. This can only mean one thing: revolution, by any means necessary... and, perhaps, some means that are not completely necessary! [More information below!]
• Adventure Two - There and Quack Again: The flock has left for the annual migration without you! Can your Gaggle find them - or, perhaps, might you accidentally become the founders of a whole new goose civilisation? Who's to say... [More information below!]
• The Goose-Master's Toolkit: A variety of assorted tools and guidance to make building your own goosey adventures simple and fun! 
• A variety of wonderful artwork, including full page illustrations, created by our fantastic artists CJ Wacker (@mr.malum) and Tristan Kenneth Arlos (@token_knight)!

H.O.N.K. is a rules-lite system that will be very comfortable for those familiar with D&D 5e, or 2d6 systems such as Monster of the Week, or other rules-lite games like Honey Heist and Goat Crashers. 

The game uses four attributes to determine the strength of a Goose:

• Heroic geese are foolhardy and protective. This attribute is used when a Goose is exerting their physical strength or using their stamina.
• Observant geese are smart and perceptive, and can easily spot things, figure out puzzles, or learn new tricks.
• Nimble geese are agile and stealthy. Nimbleness is used when a Goose needs to move with speed or act especially carefully.
• Khaotic geese are free-spirited and unpredictable. Use Khaos to do something out of the ordinary, to the benefit (or annoyance) of your gaggle-mates!

A goose's vital statistics will be used to navigate social encounters, solve puzzles, win brawls and battles of wits... and to outsmart those ruddy ducks who have been eyeing up your spot near the park benches at lunch time :)

Along with tools to help you create your own homebrew campaigns, Bird Time's The Charm includes two complete, fully-illustrated adventures with everything you need to get up and running with your players.

Adventure One: The Pecking Order

Overnight, the park has been plastered with No Feeding the Geese! signs. A newly-appointed park ranger has introduced a host of new rules for the "betterment" of the local wildlife. Bread is rationed. Late-night honking has been curtailed. Small children with ice-cream, likely to fall hilariously on the floor, have been warned away from the pond. This cannot be allowed to continue! It's time for the Gaggle to overthrow the Ranger's tyrannical regime and restore the natural order.

The Pecking Order works with any sized Gaggle, but we usually recommend around 3-6 players. The adventure's runtime is also flexible, with enough content to run for one to three sessions depending on length.

Adventure Two: There And Quack Again

The annual migration has left, and our intrepid gaggle have been left behind! There's only one thing to do: try and follow the "breadcrumb" trail that leads out into the countryside. Along the way they'll make friends, visit roadside service stations, win prizes, and quite possibly found a whole new society...!

There and Quack Again runs across a number of different "scenario" set pieces with goals to accomplish and challenges to overcome. Each of these can potentially be a session on its own, so this adventure could run from 2-4 sessions, again with a player count of up to 6 (and possibly longer for more players!)

Frequently Honked Questions

What will One HONK Bird Time's The Charm look like?

We use a classic RPG-style format for our books, both in digital and physical versions. All our pages are carefully laid out by hand, and well designed to present the rules and content in a readable way.

Here are some sample pages from One HONK Bird Time's The Charm. (Please be aware that these are work-in-progress playtest content, and will undergo many changes, including proofreading!)

How many people can play?

Our pre-written adventures are designed for a gaggle of 3-6 geese, but the flexible H.O.N.K. system can easily accommodate smaller or larger player counts with only minor adjustments. The book includes guidance on scaling adventures and encounters to suit your game nights! Naturally, with more players, we recommend focusing more on the social relationships and giving everyone a chance to cause some Khaos :)

Do I need to have the first two books?

Not at all! One HONK: Bird Time's The Charm is a complete, standalone game. It includes the core rules, along with perks, hidden abilities, adventures, and plenty more goose-related Khaos.

However, if you want to experience the complete saga - including kicking off the HONK-pocalypse, breaking out of jail, and taking down capitalism - grab the Complete Collection, which brings together all three books in a single hardback book!

If you prefer the wiro bound format, you can grab a copy of One HONK Before Midnight and One HONK Two Furious (the first and second books in the series) as add-ons to any tier with physical rewards.

Physical Edition

Everyone who backs at the Physical Edition tier will get a wiro-bound, lay-flat book containing the full ruleset for the H.O.N.K. system, the two complete Bird Time's The Charm adventures, and additional Goose Master's tools!

DELUXE Physical Edition

If you pitch in for the Deluxe Physical Edition, you will also receive:

• A high-quality art print of the front cover artwork and chapter splash pages;
• An awesome Die-Cut Sticker Sheet of our "Goose Infamy" Icons (featuring six different stickers!);
• Custom Character Cards for each of our pre-made geese, plus an additional blank custom character card;
• A physical Danger Level Tracker! Keep track of how infamous your gaggle gets...

The HONK-tacular Edition

As well as everything in the Deluxe Physical Edition, The HONK-tacular Edition includes an extra special Goose Heroes set: a Gaggle of resin-printed 28mm scale models, stunningly crafted by the incredibly talented (Mason J. Brown) Mr. Bugg! The Goose Heroes set is made up of:

• Joan of HONK - Our brave and noble Goose Paladin! She'll lead the charge and fight for what is right - just watch out for infamy, as she tends to get the locals a bit flustered...!
• Mother Goose - The Druidic Goose Matriarch knows everyone, and everyone knows her. The beloved Mother Goose is in tune with all walks of nature and will use it to protect the flock.
• Quackniss - The Goose Ranger could shoot an apple off a baker's head at fifty paces. If she had a bow. And arrow. And an apple. And hands. But you'd be surprised at what she can do regardless!
• Crow-nan - Crow-nan is our fearsome Bar-bird-ian. He's not yet come across a problem that he can't smash over the head with a big rock. Well, apart from that time when the problem was a big rock. But that's a whole other story.
• A BONUS Gosling named Ryan! (I'm sure you can figure out why)

For the first time ever, you can get all five One HONK adventures in a single book, which will be released in a special edition hardback format!

The Complete Collection

Inside the One HONK Before Midnight Complete Collection, you'll find the complete set of adventures from One HONK Before Midnight, One HONK Two Furious, and Bird Time's The Charm, along with a huge expanded set of 100 Perks & 100 Hidden Abilities, including 80 brand-new additions created exclusively for this special edition!

But Wait, There's More!

Finally, for those who want to experience all the BONUS Physical Goodies we've created over the years, you can get The Deluxe Collector's Edition which will include:

• TEN high-quailty art prints of all the covers and splash pages from the series;
• Twelve Character Cards for all the included pre-made characters, and blank custom cards; (AS A BONUS: If we sell 50 Deluxe Collector's Editions, we will commission a brand new card frame for all twelve player characters!)
• Two Die-Cut Stickers of our "Goose WANTED" Artwork;
• Die-Cut Stickers Sheet of our "Goose Infamy" Icons;
• A physical Goose Danger Tracker;
• Three Honk-tastic Bookmarks depicting the scenes from the Ancient Goose mural in One HONK Before Midnight;
• A full collection of TEN Goose miniatures!

The CHONKer Returns!

If all of those goodies still don't satisfy your Goosey needs, The Chonker is here for you! Impress your friends and terrify your enemies with this exclusive gargantuan version of Joan of HONK! Standing roughly 15 centimetres (~6in) tall and printed in high-quality resin, she towers above everything else on the table - or any table!

The One Honk To Rule Them All! tier comes with everything in the Deluxe Collector's Edition and your very own Goosey display piece. Please note that there is a limit on how many Chonkers will be available, so get them while they last!

Fabulous Add-Ons!

The Fearsome Goose Hydra

Back by popular demand, the Goose Hydra and its Gaggle of 5 Goose Minions can be added to any tier with Physical Rewards!

Your Own Custom Goose!

Fancy something personal? You can get your own Custom Goose artwork! We will work with you to commission your personalised Goose art made by our wonderful artist Clancy Wacker. If it fits with the style of the adventure, it might even make an appearance in the book...! Here are some examples of the custom Geese that were commissioned in previous One HONK Projects:

(N.B. We reserve the right to decline custom requests if we deem them inappropriate or for any other reason, but we will always try to find something that works for everyone)

Shipping

Shipping the rewards for the last Kickstarter was heavily impacted by global events, including last minute tariff changes, postal strikes and complete halts to international shipping to some destinations, most notably the USA. We would like to thank our previous backers once again for their patience throughout. To hopefully prevent any major delays, we have overhauled how we will ship rewards.

Instead of charging for shipping upfront, we will use our in-house pledge manager, Shipyard, to charge only when the rewards are ready to be posted. This will allow us to react to changes in tariffs, and will also give us the ability to price more accurately, especially for rewards with add-ons. This should keep shipping prices as low as possible and allow us to respond to global events more quickly.

To give you an idea of what to expect from shipping costs, the below table includes the current rates for shipping to various destinations, based on the expected size and weight of the rewards at each tier. Where Tracked postage ends up being cheaper than Standard, we will always send rewards tracked.

Additional Costs

As you will be aware, some destinations levy specific tariffs and customs charges. Books are usually exempt, but other rewards like minis may not be. Where the country requires us to apply these extra charges upfront, it will be calculated and included in the shipping fee. There may also be a very small additional charge (£2 at most) to cover the cost of packaging and handling.

Shipyard will show you a breakdown of how the total for shipping was calculated, before you go to pay.

Late and Missing Survey Rewards and Shipping Payments

The deadline to complete your survey and pay for shipping is three months after we start shipping a given tier. We'll let you know in an update when we're getting ready to ship each tier and when they start going out.

Beyond three months after the initial shipping date, we will try to fulfil any rewards for late surveys, but we can no longer guarantee to have all rewards available. There might be an additional wait while we send out late rewards in batches, or increased shipping fees if prices change.