The popularity of cozy games has exploded over the past few years. These games explore slice of life stories rather than epic tales of star empires or dragon war. If you’ve played Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley or still love The Sims you’re familiar with this style of game. It’s unsurprising that these games have made their way to the tabletop. Wanderhome, from designer Jay Dragon, provides an excellent example of how this style can be adapted to tabletop RPGs by focusing on the journey and the characters taking it rather than dangerous encounters and tactical grid maps. Dragon returns now, along with writers M Veselak, Mercedes Acosta, Lillie J Harris, with Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast. This book goes beyond role playing games into legacy board games, binging TV shows and…scrapbooking? Is this a game that deserves an extended stay? Let’s play to find out.
Players take on the roles of the residents of the titular B&B. That includes both staff members and guests. There’s no character creation guidelines but the rules encourage players to play multiple roles within the storyline and not lay claim to a specific character. Characters are comprised of Bingos and Whoopsies which are positive and negative traits that define who they are. They also have an advancement track much like the clocks in games like Blades In The Dark. These tracks diverge into different storylines for each character with the staff members getting ones that have multiple breakpoints.
Players complete these journeys by going through chapters. These are scenes in the operation of the B&B using some combination of Bingos and Whoopsies to advance the storyline. Sometimes you want to engage in Bingos. Other times, the game wants your Whoopsies to cause chaos that the other players have to clean up. Generally, the mechanics involve gaining coins which allow players to move the story along with any leftover coins developing their character’s personal journey. Different scenes use different variations on these mechanics. Sometimes you want to collect coins, other times you want to get rid of them. Each story also has a small twist to these ideas giving the game a little bit of a minigame collection feel.
That’s why a game with such simple aspirations has almost a 500 page word count. Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast is a campaign book as well with dozens of episodes to play. While it may lull you in with adorable artwork and a light premise, this books is on par with things like Masks of Nyarlathotep or The Great Pendragon Campaign with how much story is packed inside. Playing through stories unlocks additional game elements like new stories and new guests who come to stay. Each story is meant to be played in about an hour or so, which gives most typical gaming sessions three episodes or so per evening. The short length of each adventure can make an evening feel like burning through episodes of a favorite show on Netflix. But it can also be something inserted into a board game night or even something played by folks who wouldn’t have time for a more traditional campaign.
The game also advances through the concept of shelves. Rather than just ticking off boxes or totalling up experience points, the game gives out Mementos to put on Shelves (the physical book includes stickers for this). These can unlock additional campaign pieces but they also develop the characters that claim these shelves. Giving the robot maid the right mementos unlocks discussion about what clothes they might pick to wear as they become more human. It’s an interesting visual aspect to developing characters that encourages each book to become its own artifact through play. At the end of the campaign, players can flip through the book and trigger real life memories as they look at the shelves that they’ve put together.
Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast shows that a cozy campaign isn’t a boring one. Players will get attached to not just their characters but all the other adorable weirdos that come to visit. It’s a great choice for tables who want something beyond the usual dragon slaying or for people who are intimidated by filling out character sheets but want to try roleplaying games. If chilling with your friends and fishing on an enchanted lake sounds as much fun as attacking an evil empire’s flagship for a few hours, consider making a reservation at Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast.
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