Roll The Bones!

SKAR'KATH the benevolent is dead. Again. His head lay in a moldering heap in the corner of his once opulent temple in the center of Ossian, the city of the damned.

The prophecy was true, and now the corpses of a millennia of rot rise up to mourn the once-great king of hell. Skeletons from every age of man wander the wide halls of Skar'kath’s Temple, celebrating and mourning him. 

Skeletons do both of these things the same way - By fighting each other over petty slights and for their own amusement, staging skeleton skirmishes in the sanctuaries and scriptorums of Skar'kath’s shrine.

Roll the Bones is a stand-alone tabletop skirmish game by Kris McClanahan for 1-4 players. Build your skeleton crew from our line of Skelly Boys Stick Figures, or use your own wooden meeples. (Or any chunks of wood, bone, plastic, or detritus you have!)

It is a classic tabletop skirmish miniatures game with an added dexterity element. It's simple to learn, quick to play, and has very little setup - even if you are unfamiliar with skirmish wargames!

About the book

💀 Approximately 64 pages
💀 5.5"x8.5" size
💀 Create your own Commander and Skeleton Crew
💀 6 Scenarios ready to play
💀 Durable and Portable
💀 Designed for quick 1-shot games
💀 Contains solo, co-op, and versus rules for 1–4 players
💀 Includes print-and-play crew sheets for 50+ skeletons
💀 No knowledge of Skirmish games, RPGs, or wargames needed to play

Roll the Bones is a 28mm MEEPLES-AGNOSTIC game. We make a line of high-quality wooden meeples called Stick Figures that are designed to be used in the game that you can pick up during this project, but you can play with any wooden meeples you already have. You can also use dice, plastic toys, or any small items that aren't too delicate to flick at each other. 

Stick Figures

Building your Skeleton Crew

We have eleven separate themed Skelly Boy packs available - pick one, appoint a Commander, and you are ready to play! Or mix and match to create your own custom crew.    

You can add any of our unique skeleton Stick Figures to your pledge - perfect for Commanders.

Play the game

The playtest (bare-bones) version is available for FREE. Click the image above to download it and use your own meeples.

Pledge Levels

Add-On options

Build your own collection or pick up extras with the Add-On menu! You can customize and select your ideal collection of Skelly Boys.

• $10 - Skelly Boys Stick Figure packs. Each pack includes 4-5 themed figures. Appoint a commander, and you are ready to roll.
• $2 - Add-On Skeleton Stick Figures. These are unique or stand-alone figures from previous projects. They make great commanders or can be used as alternate corpses.
• $7 - Roll the Bones PDF. Building your own reward? Add the PDF for seven bucks.
• $15 - Roll the Bones Essentials Printed Zine. A black-and-white saddle-stitched print of the game book essentials. It does not include the factions, just the basic rules for play. (All factions will be available to download online after the project)
• $10 - Dice Set. Includes 24 classic six-sided dice - 8 red, 8 black, and 8 white. Everything you need for a 2-player game if you don't have an extra copy of Yahtzee lying around.
• $15 - Metal Coins. Get twelve custom metal coins - great for POI markers or general coin-related things. These are our custom Tombpunk designs: a skull on one side and crossed swords on the other.

• More Stick Figures! Our entire line of stick figures is also available, though sadly, most of them still have a little meat on their bones. But they are still great for other games and RPGs! 

No Stretch Goals

The Stick Figures are here and ready to ship, and the book is written, with scenarios and final layout in progress. However, if the project does well enough, I would love to add a few free extras!

How to play

Setup:

You can set up a game of Roll the Bones in just a few minutes.

• Assemble your crew - Choose a scenario. Then pick five corpses and a Commander to form your crew. Grab their dice and crew headstones (faction sheets).
• Place the map - The game is played on a 14"x24" surface. Conveniently, the same size as most neoprene mats for TCGs (Trading Card Games like Magic: The Gathering). It can also be played on a table or other flat surface without the mat.
• Populate the map with terrain and points of interest - Use playing cards, index cards, coins, or tokens to indicate terrain elements and POIs on the map. Low-lying terrain keeps the dexterity mechanic smooth and the game portable.
• Roll the Bones! - Roll your corpses onto the map to deploy them on your side of the battlefield. Corpses that land on their edge get an extra action on their first turn.
• Deploy your commander - Place your commander anywhere on your side of the map.

Now you're ready to play Roll the Bones.

How to Play:

Initiative

• Initiative is determined by rolling a die for each of your figures, then assigning them to your crew - activation proceeds in numerical order, with ties determined by who has the most units on the map.

Activation

Each model is activated once per round. On their activation, they can do any two of the following actions: 

• Move - Move, toss, flick, drop, or slide across the map. Each corpse has a specific method of movement.
• Melee Attack - Get within 1" of your foe and attack up close and personal!
• Ranged Attack - Physically flick your attack die across the map at your target!
• Get Up - Recover from being downed during the fight.
• Scenario Action - Drag, activate, steal, or destroy a scenario-specific item or location. This may involve rolling a test against one of your useless stats, like "wits" - who needs that??

Movement

Most movement on the map involves some level of physically moving your figure with a dexterity move. There are five different types of movement, and most figures utilize one or more of them. You can make large - if a bit haphazard - moves across the map!

• MOVE: Move your figure 3" across the map to a specific location. This is the basic move action, and most figures have this option.
• TOSS: Lift your figure 12" above the map, then toss it in the direction you want to move. Skeletons are notoriously bad at controlling jetpacks and magic leaps.
• FLICK: Place your finger against your figure and flick it where it needs to go. Take out a few of those enemies along the way.
• DROP: Lift your figure 12" off the map, position them where desired, then drop them. Flying is easy, landing is hard.
• SLIDE: Push your figure where it needs to go. If your finger slips off or the figure tips over, then that must have been where you intended to stop, right?

Ranged Attacks

Ranged attacks are a dexterity move in the game. You place a d6 next to your figure and flick it towards your target. If it hits, you hit your target! Or whatever other unfortunate figure you happen to bounce into. The die you used can then be applied to the damage roll. 

Dice Rolls

Most other actions involve rolling dice. You roll a dice pool with a target of 9+ to succeed. Your crew has stats; they add or subtract dice to the same simple roll. 

Measurements

All measuring is done in inches, and most are simple enough to be guesstimated without using a tape measure.

Scenarios

The book includes rules for simple skirmish battles and includes 6 loosely linked scenarios with rules for solo/co-op/versus play. Steal corpses, conquer bases, fight off invaders, and make devious discoveries in the halls of Skar'Kath's temple.

Print on demand

What is At-Cost Print On Demand? 

Print On Demand through DriveThru is a great way to get a copy of the book on your own terms, directly from DriveThru. 

Backers will receive the digital book and an at-cost code to print their books on DriveThruRPG. They can order the books they desire and get them shipped directly to them from DriveThru. Please keep in mind: backers will still need to pay for shipping costs and the at-cost price of the book. Roll The Bones POD will be a full-color version of the game, with faction sheets for all 60 Skeletons within.

We've hosted our products on DriveThruRPG for years now, and have only ever received excellent service and support. We're confident they can help us deliver a great book to all our POD backers.

Shipping

All shipping fees will be charged separately, AFTER the campaign in the pledge manager here on Kickstarter. Final shipping prices will be locked in after the project is finished, but the estimates below should be pretty close.

Estimated shipping & handling costs (Book/All-In)

• $7/12 USA
• $15/39 Canada, EU
• $20/49 Rest of World

No AI

Absolutely no generative AI was used in the design or production of this project. Every piece of art was drawn by hand. (Excludes AI inherent in programs like spell-check and whatnot.)