Argyle & Crew – the sock puppet revolution

Nov 262012

Two bits of Argyle & Crew news this morning! First, I was able to run a quick A&C scenario at my youngest daughter’s birthday party. It was a blast! I ran a slightly modified version of the scavenger hunt I do at conventions, but scaled down for a mostly 7-year-old crowd. Soppets were created, kids ran streaming around my house collecting pink sticky notes, and eventually found out that the pinata for the party had been hidden. They then found enough clues to determine it was in the closet, and after rescuing it, beat it to death to collect its innards for later consumption. It was awesome.

There’s nothing quite like watching 9 kids become totally enraptured in a task. After the first hunt for sticky notes, everyone got it, even the younger crowd (two 5-6 year old boys). By the second round, the cats had sought shelter and the kids were fully engaged. Plus it killed 45 minutes between making Soppets and finding clues. For those who haven’t experienced a small mob of kids, 45 minutes is a long time to keep 9 kids fully engaged. My plan is working! I’ve still yet to meet a child who doesn’t like sock puppets.

She was stoked.To give you a small background on her playing habits. She loves her dolls, babies, littlest pet shop figures, and these animal toys called Calico Corner. She also loves computer games (mainly online games found on Disney Jr) and can play on Minecraft for hours. She has also watched me play some table top games such as Mechwarrior and D&D on a few occasions. However, I was not expecting anything that occurred today.She found a single sock, and we started with that. I had opted to draw my poppet (the name given to sock puppets in Argyle and Crew) because of physical limitations of my hands. After adding eyes and a mouth and hair to her poppet, her hand had gotten really read, so she asked if she could draw her poppet too (later she told my wife she wanted to draw one so I didn’t feel left out for not being able to have an actual sock puppet – mind blown).If you’re unfamiliar with Argyle and Crew, the basis is simple: poppets use “Extras” (items that give the poppet abilities) to go on adventures. She decided her poppet, Jinxie, would have magic boots that let her walk on lava, and a magical shield that would keep her from getting hurt (it would deflect one hit but she had to activate it as a turn). My poppet, Little Block, would have a magical hat he could pull food from and heal others and himself with, and a pair of magic boots that allowed him to take two turns per round.I set the stage: we were in a small town surrounded by trees of all colors that bloomed a berry. She named the berry the Ficklefuss Berry, and the town named after the berry: Ficklefuss. Our first adventure had us helping a Ficklefuss Juice maker, Mrs. Squirrel, to find her box of missing ficklefuss berries.She did two things that really took me by surprise. The first was while we were investigating goblins in the forest, my plan (in my head) was to have us find a goblin camp, but instead, we found what she wanted us to find: a goblin spawner. I literally had to stop and smiled, for a full five minutes. She gave the spawner five hit points and off we went. The second thing, was we found a two zombies scratching at a door in a cave. We were trying to sneak by when she goes “Daddy, lil rock has xray vision, look and see whats behind the door” so I did and it was barrels of cheeseburgers. Without missing a beat “They’re just hungry, they’re not going to hurt us! Give them some food!” Such a proud moment! She wanted to sneak by them, and then when she found out they were hungry, she wanted to help them. I was beeming.We played two sessions today for a total of three hours, and all I did was say a few words and my daughter ran with the story. The only reason we stopped was because she was going to my in-laws for the night.

This game gave me one of the greatest bonding moment in years with my daughter. We play games all the time, but never before had she been so involved in leading the flow of the game, and we still both had a blast. She’s excited to come home so we can pick up where we left off: bringing a magical emerald to King Graham.

If you want to get your kids into role playing without bogging them down with a ton of rules and just let the narration run things, this is a low cost and great way for parents to get into RPGs with their kids of any age.

I wish I had some sort of marketing department or a better grasp on getting the word out. I think A&C is not only fun, but it could be an important tool for a variety of uses – parenting, counseling, therapy and education. Plus it finally gave me a chance to put my MEd to good use! As always, if you are a teacher or educator, or work in the fields of child psychology or counseling, let me know and I’m happy to give you a free PDF of Argyle & Crew. You can also grab the PDF and softcover from DriveThruRPG or get the softcover directly from Amazon.com (prime eligible!)

About Argyle & Crew

It’s a collaborative storytelling adventure for kids. It’s a great pick up game for adults. It’s the sock puppet RPG!

The land of Skcos is inhabited by all manner of things, but primarily its inhabitants belong to a race of ever-changing, always interesting creatures called Soppets. Soppets are a magical breed of intelligent, funny, thrill-seeking socks.

Yes, you read that correctly, Socks.

Argyle & Crew is a free-wheeling system powered by imagination. Rather than a character sheet like a traditional RPG, your character and its attributes are all based on a sock puppet, or in Skcos lingo, a Soppet. Each Soppet has several unique qualities which allow it to do extraordinary things!

Argyle & Crew is great game for children as young as 4 years old. Short scenarios and active participation keep things lively! Useful as a learning tool not just for gaming, but for life lessons, Argyle & Crew can easily be used in a classroom setting. Professionals working on counseling children can find this game equally useful for indirectly or directly exploring past experiences and future anxieties. Use the additional rules for older children or adults and expand the game from a fun, play-driven activity to a fully-developed RPG, using a simple and fun set of mechanics.

Artwork by the amazing Khairul Hisham.

Argyle & Crew now available at Archive.org – get it for free

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Jun 252012

In the spirit of…well, of giving stuff away to people who could use it and enjoy it, Argyle & Crew – Adventures in the Land of Skcos is now available at Archive.org.

Since this is a CC BY-NC-SA title already available on Bittorrent I figured “what the hell”. That’s actually what I literally thought, in my head. So there it is! Feel free to pass this around, go grab a copy, etc.

If you’d like the tablet optimized and printer friendly versions, you can get them through DTRPG or bittorrent! If you like what you read, and get something out of the game, you can always buy a copy later.

Argyle & Crew’s Little Book of Big Ideas is almost here!

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Apr 122012

Expect this early next week!

11 Scenarios for Argyle & Crew! This will be available as a PDF for $1.99 with a softcover option in the next few weeks. 25% of all proceeds raised by the sale of this book will go to The Wayne Foundation.

Look for this on Monday!

Help me write the next Argyle & Crew expansion, and help the Wayne Foundation at the same time.

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Feb 062012

I’ve been struggling with whether I should open this up to other RPG folks, and have after a bit of mental wrestling with myself (don’t worry, I won) decided it may be cool to do so.

Background I wrote and published a game called Arygle & Crew last September. It’s a simple, fun game in which you have sock puppets rather than character sheets. It’s designed for people ages 4+ and is also finally taking advantage of that expensive MEd I acquired a few years back. It can be used for fun, to help teach kids lessons, as a quick pickup game, to draw kids into the hobby and by educators and mental health professionals to, well educate and counsel people.

The idea: I’m looking to put together a decent sized ‘book’ of A&C scenarios, not all of which are written by me. Each scenario can be anywhere from 2-6 pages long. I’m hoping for 15-20 scenarios. I’ll provide 6 or 7.

Would any of you be interested in participating? If so, you’d be listed as a contributing author in the book. I may charge a small amount for it. I may also look into getting hard copies available through Amazon.com.

If I do charge for the book, as I did with the A&C book, I’ll donate at least 25% of any profits made from it to The Wayne Foundation. The rest will go to keeping my site up and running, and making more books.

So, what do you all think? Even if you’re not interested in writing for it. If you are interested, I’m happy to provide a free PDF copy to you, and a template for the scenario. You can contact me here.

You can find a number of free scenarios here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/index.php?cPath=5556_7823

Differences – a Soppet’s Guide To Anti-Bullying released and Argyle & Crew makes a best seller list!

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games No Responses »

Nov 172011

To cap of my formal involvement with Teach Your Kids to Game week, I’ve released a new scenario for Argyle & Crew.

Differences – A Soppet’s Guide to Anti-Bullying is available right now, for free, at DriveThruRPG. The scenario goes into what bullying is, who bullies, who gets bullied and what we can all do to stop it. It’s ideal for kids ages four to eight.

Bully Bear

I also just realized that Argyle & Crew has become a Copper Best Seller at DriveThruRPG! Thanks to everyone who’s purchased it, helped spread the word, or volunteered artwork and editing skills! I’m still looking for ways to get this out to more teachers, educators and councilors for free. If you know someone who could use this professionally, please have them get in touch with me and I’ll get a free (and freely distributable) PDF copy of the book to them.

The Scared Soppet – an Argyle & Crew scenario released for Teach Your Kids to Game Week

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Nov 142011

It’s Teach Your Kids to Game Week!

They’re going mad nuts with this over at DriveThruRPG, and featuring a whole bunch of RPG titles aimed specifically at you and your kids. I’m proud to say that my game Argyle & Crew (DriveThruRPG and Amazon.com) is featured!

To celebrate, I’ve just released a new scenario for Argyle & Crew – The Scared Soppet. This scenario is for kids 4+ and is designed to help children role play through their fears to better articulate what it is they are afraid of, and to help them overcome this fear.

With a group of kids, it’s a great way to see that everyone is afraid of something. With the use of their Soppets, they can talk about and act out these fears behind the safety of a sock puppet, each taking turns helping each other out.

Argyle & Crew – Adventures in the Land of Skcos has arrived! Get your copy now!

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Sep 012011

Argyle & Crew have arrived! You can get your copy right now for $2.99 at DriveThruRGP! What is Argyle & Crew?

It’s my first stand-alone RPG. It’s a collaborative storytelling adventure for kids. It’s a great pick up game for adults.

The land of Skcos is inhabited by all manner of things, but primarily its inhabitants belong to a race of ever changing, always interesting creatures called Soppets. Soppets are a magical breed of intelligent, funny, thrill seeking socks.

Yes, you read that correctly, Socks.

Argyle & Crew is a free wheeling system powered by imagination. Rather than a character sheet like a traditional RPG, your character and it’s attributes are all based on a sock puppet, or in Skcos lingo, a Soppet. Each Soppet has several unique qualities which allow it to do extraordinary things!

Argyle & Crew is great game for children as young as 4 years old. Short scenarios and active participation keep things lively! Useful as a learning tool not just for gaming, but for life lessons, Argyle & Crew can easily be used in a classroom setting. Professionals working on counseling children can find this game equally useful for indirectly or directly exploring past experiences and future anxieties. Use the additional rules for older children or adults and expand the game from a fun, play driven activity to a fully developed RPG, using the One-Shot RPG system.

25% of all proceeds from the sale of Argyle & Crew will go directly to The Wayne Foundation.

The Wayne Foundation

I’ve written about the Wayne Foundation here before. This 503(c) organization is just getting off the ground and it will be doing important work! Founded by Jamie Walton, with help from Kevin Smith, the Wayne Foundation’s vision is for a world without child slavery. Their mission is to provide young women who have fallen victim to commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking with a means of leaving the sex industry for good.

The Wayne Foundation is committed to fighting human trafficking, child prostitution, & child sex exploitation one victim at a time by providing individuals with a safe home environment that will empower them with the tools they will need to stop the cycle of abuse. It is our intent to end commercial sex exploitation within the United States through direct victim assistance, public outreach, and by directly working with those who shape the policies and statutes which impact victims and their abusers.

“We believe that all victims can be rehabilitated through a program that provides education assistance, mental and physical health services, housing, and a support staff who are dedicated to assisting these girls reach their full potential. It is our objective to aid these young women until they are capable of reentering society on their own as happy and healthy adults.”

Also available: The Soppets Save Halloween – a free Argyle & Crew scenario for kids ages 4+

Feel free to pick up Knock Your Socks Off – the free Argyle & Crew Mix Tape featuring 10 Creative Commons licensed artists.

Argyle & Crew release date: Thursday, September 1st!

Argyle & Crew, Role Playing Games 1 Response »

Aug 292011

I am very pleased to announce that Argyle & Crew will be available to purchase on Thursday, September 1st! That’s 3 days from now!

Find out more about Argyle & Crew – the sock puppet RPG. A collaborative storytelling game with rpg-lite rules great for kids ages 1 – 104.

The PDF will be available at DriveThruRPG and will sell for $2.99. As soon as I release the PDF version, the printed product will begin it’s review phase and should be available several weeks later. The Print version of the book will be a full color softcover, available for $9.00. Both will be available for $10.00 and will feature instant access to the PDF.

As you may know, I had a Kickstarter project up and running to raise money for professional illustrations and layout/design. Unfortunately this did not happen. Fortunately I’ve been spending my time finishing up the product ad learning a ton about layout and design. Also fortuitous was the donation of three pieces of original artwork created by Khairul Hisham.

An 8 page preview PDF is currently available at DriveThruRPG for free if you’d like a look at this project. This preview PDF has not been fully formatted or proofed. Also available: Knock your Socks Off, a Creative Commons licensed mix-tape for RPG lovers everywhere. I consider this something like a soundtrack for Argyle & Crew.

Be sure to check back here on September 1st as I’ll be giving a few copies of the PDF away. If you’re a blogger, podcaster or reviewer, let me know and I’ll get a review copy off to you!

Older Entries