Unnamed

Once again, it’s Friday night and Occuleth has, once again, managed to find a way to get schedules to work and convince the dragons of the Ironworks that the best way to spend the evening is by playing a campaign of Burrows & Beastclans. A number of the Ironworks’ employees, however, don’t seem to be interested or have no clue how to play - but that didn’t stop Occuleth last time and he’s not going to let it now either.

Burrows & Beastclans is a revival of my old heavily modifier Pinkerlocke challenge and is meant to waste a little bit of my time and, hopefully, provide some entertainment for others along the way. The basic rules are simple - throw some dragons into the coliseum and hope RNG is kind enough to keep them alive - but it’s made all the more complicated by my decision to have it all be one giant role-playing game.

Will the party ever reach their lofty goal of successfully ending the campaign? Or is a TPK just one poor roll away? Find out soon in a forum post near you!

Rules Inspirations:
Original Rules: Pinkerton’s Plundered Nuzlocke v3.0
Modifications Inspired by: Treasured Knowledge, by Chloecat194; The Lover’s Curse, by Ranmaru; Beneath, by Thesfireflies; Bride of Elysium, by Epioth; Sornieth’s Bachelor by Jespernoir.
Additional Homebrew Rules by the Ironworks’ Crew

Core Rules
A death in the coliseum sees the character removed from the party. So long as there is at least one member of the party remaining, there is a chance to later revive that character so long as the player hasn’t rolled up a new character.

All loot from the coliseum is important! Items are either added to the party’s inventory or the sell value of the item is added to the party’s treasure. Treasure can be used to purchase additional equipment for the party; when purchasing new items, we use the purchased item’s sell value because otherwise these poor sods will never be able to afford anything.

Items from defeated dragons are either added to the party’s inventory or sold for more treasure; a good party lets nothing go to waste after all.

Dragons can only equip apparel that has either a) dropped from the coliseum, b) been purchased using treasure earned by ‘selling’ items from the coliseum, or c) received as a Pinkerton drop. Dragons can only have a familiar if they’ve gained on through the story or are a member of a class who would receive one.

Most crucially, all activity corresponds with the loot obtained daily from Pinkerton’s Plundered Pile.

Optional Sentimentality Rule:
Once a dragon reaches level 20, it “retires.” I may elect to move it to my main lair - who knows! We’ll see what happens in the unlikely chance someone reaches this level.

Extra Sourcebook Rules:
Somehow, Occuleth has managed to convince three more members of the Ironworks to play B&B Revised to with him. Moss and Viola return with all new characters for the new edition and find themselves accompanied by Ironworks newcomer, Pepper.

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Food
”There’s a monster incoming! Roll for initiative!”
The party delves into the burrow; it’s do or die time! Iron Dragon Mode: Each coliseum team is selected by RNG if there are more than 3 to choose from. The Coliseum level is the same as the highest level dragon (unless average party level is less than half the highest level; then use the average). Whichever venue they start in, they stay in for that day regardless of levels gained. Ending battle streak, fleeing battle, and using potions is fine - refreshing the coliseum is not.

Materials/Trinkets
”Weary, you’ve return to the village…”
It’s downtime after a hard trip in the burrow! Write some character development, an interesting scenario, or get some art for the campaign ~ art will most likely either be colouring in pre-made free dragon bases (because I have exactly zero art skills) or art bought off of some of the talented artists already on site (with credit, of course!). Dragons may also spend earned treasure to purchase items at this time.

Familiars
”I swear, it’s more fun than it sounds!” or ”Just roll up a new character!”
Occuleth ropes someone new into playing (or convinces someone who’s lost a character but hasn’t yet rerolled or resurrected it to make a new character). Buy a (fodder-priced adult) dragon from the auction house of a specific breed. Use a random generator (between 1 and X) to determine which breed you will get! Optionally, if the character calls for it, attach the familiar to the new dragon.

A Note from the Ironworks: Even though Abberations were released at the time this game began, Occuleth wasn’t sure of the balance of a dragon with two heads and decided to not allow them for the time being. In other words, I have elected to not include them in the breed list until they have some more customizations that can be applied to them (in the form of accents).

Apparel
”Let’s go see the priest!”
If the party has 5000 treasure - or an item with a sufficiently large diamond (my call) - they may have a priest resurrect a character who’s been knocked out. If the party doesn’t have enough treasure (or a diamond) or there’s been no characters knocked out (or all the players of all knocked out dragons have rerolled), treat this as a familiar roll. Either way, add the item to the party’s inventory.

Battle Stones
”Uhhh… Occuleth… why are you rolling? Occuleth? … please stop smiling.”
It’s time for a death streak - and likely a dragon lost. It’s time to pick a team for the coliseum under normal rules and then play until you’ve completed ten consecutive rounds or until a dragon faints (and is therefore defeated). Potions are all right, retreat is not.

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At Campaign’s End
Occuleth doesn’t plan ahead very well. He’s got some rough idea where to go but even the best plans fall apart once the players touch them. Hopefully they don’t drive him too crazy in the process - as the story continues, we may eventually reach points where the story needs to come to an end… for a time.

Note: I generally won’t be immediately exalting dragons that’re defeated unless it seems impossible for the players to amass enough treasure any time soon - they’ll just decide it’s better to reroll instead of waiting.
I might donate a dragon to your Nuzlocke/Pinkerlocke/Lair/Whatever if you call dibs.

I am subscribed; no need to ping.