Wet Ink Games' Heckin' Good Doggos tabletop RPG is designed to stretch the imagination when it comes to acting out what our furry pals get up to when no one else is around. Nearly every pet owner imagines that their beloved fur babies get up to all kinds of funny business in their absence. Maybe they have neighborhood friends over to party while their owners are at work, or perhaps they slip out through the doggie door in the middle of the night to hunt ghosts threatening to spook their best human friends. Regardless of the fantasy, Heckin' Good Doggos is now here to bring it to life.
Drawing inspiration from the mountain of doggo memes, which have given dogs their own unique voice over the years, Heckin' Good Doggos has the potential to be a hilarious adventure. The best part? It's family-friendly, so everyone can gather around the table for some good-natured RPG adventuring.
Man's best friend has been a media focus for centuries, but only in the last few years have the internet memes begun playing on the wacky and larger-than-life personalities of dogs. Over time, dogs began displaying their own hilarious language known as Doggolingo, that's become recognizable to nearly everyone with an internet connection. Doggolingo has taken on a life all its own, and through that life, dog lovers worldwide gain insight into the minds of canines everywhere.
The established language alone ensures that sitting down to role-play as a group of dogs will have everyone around the table laughing before the game even gets off the ground. When launching into the game, players first choose the breed of doggo they'd like to play, and then they develop details about their best friend (or owner), who will be a source of love and frustration as the doggos try to get out there and start adventuring.
While experiencing life through a dog's eyes, everything has potential for fun role-playing. Whether they're dealing with the mailman, finding their missing best friend or simply defending the backyard from those pesky squirrels looming in the trees overhead, excitement awaits. Players are encouraged to find ways around their owners' efforts to keep them safe and inside so they can head out into the world and face adventures with the potential to be as serious or silly as they wish.
Wet Ink Games employs a +1 dice system, which they also used in games like Never Going Home and Tenebria. Each major activity requires a set number of successful dice roles to determine whether or not the doggo succeeds in their actions. Each doggo has specific attributes at which they excel, so they may have extra dice to roll to perform their actions successfully. For example, one dog may be good at sniffvestigating, while another might excel at sneaky business.
The game also uses cards to solve conflicts, such as a claw and teeth encounter with an enemy animal or trying to draw a frightened child out of hiding. At the start of the conflict, the Game Master lets the players know which cards they need to use as they attempt to navigate through the conflict successfully. Players can combine cards or use as many cards as necessary to succeed in these encounters, but sometimes success isn't possible and could lead to doggos being injured as a consequence.
The mindset of a dog is sometimes unimaginable to humans, which is one of the reasons this game has promise. Encountering scenarios that might seem simple to a human from a dog's perspective opens the imagination, allowing the players to dive deep and uncover reasons the vacuum monster or mailbox demon might seem so horrifying to a dog. Wet Ink Games launched the Kickstarter for Heckin' Good Doggos on January 25th, 2022, and backers had fully funded the project and started unlocking extra fetch goals within six days. Wet Ink Games has several successful RPGs under their belt, which suggests Heckin' Good Doggos will soon be joining that fold.