Titmouse Animation Studios may be best known for producing hit Critical Role animated series like The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein, but after a wildly successful fundraising campaign on backerkit late last year, the studio’s first-ever board game will be released on Nov. 28.
Drunkards, Druggies, & Delinquents is billed as a “mind-altering fantasy role-drinking game” for players of all experience and sobriety levels. Imagine a streamlined version of Dungeons & Dragons where instead of HP, you sacrifice “sips” or “puffs” every time you take damage. (Though the game makers have said players are welcome to use anything from pushups to hot wings or candy instead — anything that causes you to take some kind of mostly innocent physical “damage.”)
The funniest thing about this rowdy new game, however, is that it all started out as a joke.
“Every year we do a weird client gift, a unique item that we send to all our clients,” Titmouse founder and CEO Chris Prynoski told Polygon during a video call. “A few years ago, I wanted to do a game master screen.”
Oakland-based artist SKINNER, who specializes in “psychedelic nightmare paintings,” developed the colorful art for the screen. But Prynoski said they needed the inside of the screen to say something. So he tapped Titmouse Creative Director Alexei Bochenek to throw together text intended to read “very verbose and technical” as if Gary Gygax had written a drinking game in the style of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D).
“I never really expected anyone to play it,” Prynoski admitted. “I just thought it would be a fun gag gift. But a bunch of people played it and said we should do this.”
Prynoski said it was Luke Gygax, Gary Gygax’s son, who ultimately convinced the Titmouse team to crowdfund a more fleshed- out version of the game.
After launching on Backerkit last November, Drunkards, Druggies, & Delinquents was fully funded in just two hours, eventually smashing through stretch goals to raise a total of $103,291. (Unfortunately, that left it $17,000 shy of unlocking the Winomancer class.) The game has 12 classes themed after beer, booze, or weed — like the Beerbarian, Whiskey Wizard, Druid of the Flower. In addition to traditional abilities, most of them have familiar mechanics you see in drinking games. The Pontificator must constantly perform a monologue narrative every game moment in great detail, and if they let up, they must drink.
There are pre-rolled character cards players can use outlining how every character has base stats, two attacks (a mix of melee and magic), a Special Skill, and a Unique Trait. But you can also mix and match with these features to build a totally custom character. Consumable items and equipment further modify various playstyles, like the Bongwater Staff that causes any enemies it splashes to take double damage for one round.
“This is not designed for the heavy narrative,” Prynoski said. “This combat system is basically a meat grinder, so it’s designed for character roleplay and combat.”
The whole game system is built around using a single d12 included with every copy of the game (which can also be used on a series of tables to set the narrative scene). In a given round, the current Drunken Master rolls that d12. Depending on the role, they select one monster card from a small pool (19 monsters in total) to put on the playing field. Could it be the mischievous Spliff Queen that reflects magical attacks? Or perhaps the monstrous Meat Man that makes all enemies roll an extra d12 for attacks?
Each monster attacks as directed by the current game master, followed by each player.
“The biggest difference between this game and traditional TTRPGs is that there is no one game master,” Prynoski said, explaining that like a traditional board game, the role rotates around the table with each game master running the monsters for that round. To Prynoski, this is one of the game’s features that make it accessible to TTRPG newcomers.
Attack rolls are measured against a player or monster’s armor: If the Hangover Mummy makes an attack and gets an 11 with the 2d12+4 roll, it won’t deal any damage against a Beerbarian’s 12 armor. But if it makes that same attack against a Whiskey Wizard with 6 armor, the player will have to take five sips.
In practice, all of the above means that tons of monsters quickly swarm the party, forcing them to take a lot of sips and use their items to stay alive, or at least as sober as possible.
“You might think that creating a game all about drinking and smoking is just an excuse to party at work and call it ‘playtesting,’” the game’s Backerkit page reads. “Well, you’re wrong! It’s actually just an excuse to commission a bunch of really cool drawings of insane shit.”
True to that promise, in addition to SKINNER, Drunkards, Druggies, & Delinquents also features art from Pendleton Ward, Todd James, Erol Otus, Heather Mahler, Jenny Goldberg, Matt Furie, Dave Johnson, and more.
With its rotating game master, neon-soaked art, and unapologetically chaotic ruleset, Drunkards, Druggies, & Delinquents feels less like a traditional tabletop game and more like a distillation of Titmouse’s whole creative identity: loud, weird, collaborative, and proudly unruly. What began as a one-off holiday gag is now a full-boxed experience, ready to be unleashed on living rooms, bars, and unsuspecting friend groups everywhere.
Prynoski confirmed that for tabletop enthusiasts like myself, it’s the perfect way to trick your drinking buddies into finally playing D&D. So to my buddy John who refuses to play D&D but loves a good drinking game, get ready.
