Bones (card game)

**Bones** was a the name of a strange card game played by many characters in the Greetings Adventurers world of Drunkeros, and the surrounding planes. Its predominant form of gameplay was battling monsters that were skeletonized versions of normal monsters. These monsters were, in fact, real monsters that were captured by the user inside of magical devices called **Bone Cards**. After being captured, the monsters would be under the control of the user, or "Bone Trainer". These trainers would then battle in competitions for prizes, or victory, or whatever.

There was an official championship for the game, which spanned across four different planes: The Elemental Planes of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Each plane featured a Bone Master, and potential Champions would have to battle all four of those Masters (after winning a Gold Bone Coin in some tournament). After defeating a Champion, the trainer would be rewarded with a Badge specific to that Plane. Defeating the four Champions, and acquiring all four badges, would grant access to the Elite Forge, a special room full of treasures and artifacts and riches.

## **Recent Events**

A young Skud Derringer was introduced to the game at the Monastery of Uthgar, by Chopper. They bought some cards from Connell, and one day returned to the Monastery to find almost everyone dead at the hands of The Skull Bandits, who nearly killed Skud and Chopper and friends. They were saved by Master Alder, who gave Skud an Gold Bone Coin, which, he later learned, would allow him to challenge the four Masters.

Later, Skud and a new group of friends, The Tower of Grey found themselves on a mission to collect the six pieces of a powerful artifact that could kill gods. One of these pieces was found to be in the Elite Forge, meaning that the team had to play the game and beat the four masters. They were given six blank Bone Cards by Dodge Grabbit, a young trainer, and went to work collecting powerful monsters that they could capture in the cards and use in their battle against the Masters.

They agreed to use Skud's three friends as Battlers: Rowan Grey, Toby Treacletart, and Lahni Caplain. Skud was able to "capture and release" Bone Card Battlers at will, though the process of entering and exiting the card was a painful and horrific one. When they were released into battle, they were bone versions of themselves, though they kept their hair and fingernails. Nightmare Fuel. This left three creatures needed, and so The Tower of Grey went on a mission to find some powerful and evil creatures to capture.

They grabbed a Beholder named Rick, then tried to get a evil Cloud Giant, but Skud ended up trading it to Braenth of Barovia for an Astral Dreadnought. Sick! Finally, the Tower headed to Mastwick and faced off against the Ancient Red Dragon Pyre. They defeated him in battle, and captured him in a Card.

With a full deck, the Tower began their Championship circuit. Their first stop was the Elemental Plane of Water, where they would face off against Jilling the Bonehammer, and her manager The Maroness. This battle was known as "Bonesplash 42" (each battle was given its own cute little nickname). It was later revealed that the Maroness was, in fact, Skud's mother! What's more, Skud's father was none other than the god Uthgar, living in the Plane of Water as a human named "Brody Broheim"! Despite these complications, Skud was victorious in defeating Jilling the Bonehammer, and acquired his first Badge!

Before beginning the next battle, the party went on a brief excursion in The Elemental Plane of Earth to help out Doug Rubble in defeating an Elder Brain. Upon doing so, Skud decided to snatch it up in a Bone Card, but elected not to use it in any subsequent battles, due to it's type. *(I think it didn't have any moves that matched up to it's type, so it wasn't as efficient to use. I don't remember, I need to go back and check on this. Episode 382 - F Word Gary.)*

That done, the party turned to focus on the upcoming battle Earthstomp 42. The Champion here was alternately referred to as The Man of Sorrow, or The Sorrowful Man, but ultimately would come to be known by his true name: Lonny Caplain. That's right, the Champion of this Plane was revealed to also be a long lost family member of one of the Tower of Grey, this time, Lahni Caplain. After getting himself into a scrape in The Night Zone, Lonny was rescued by Lahni and co., and as a reward, gave them the Earth Badge they needed. Actually, he gave Skud a bunch of them for some reason. They took Lonny with them when they moved on to...

The Elemental Plane of Air, where they once again encountered their old friend Dodge Grabbit. He had grown in skill and notoriety since the party had last met him, and was set to battle against Fuckin Gary, Champion of this Plane. However, an attempted kidnapping rendered him unable to play, and so Skud agreed to take his place. The battle, Boneblast 42, took place, and it was glorious. Skud was, of course, successful, and so was awarded with the Air Badge.

Finally, it was on to the Elemental Plane of Fire, to defeat Champion Lucious Incendous. They were transported to his castle immediately, and met him and his party of Bone Card Battlers. You know this song by now, they fought, and Skud won. But, in the midst of the battle, Incendous attacked Skud! He threw two or three javelins at him, so Skud cast *Maze* to get rid of him. He returned when the battle was over, and nearly continued to attack Skud, but was distracted by the attacking Tiamat! He calmed down and gave them the final badge, the Fire Badge! He actually gave them each one. With this, they were able to enter the Elite Forge and finally collect the piece of the Orb that they were looking for, along with some other goodies. They then ran away.

## **Notable Players (and their cards)**

* Skud Derringer
	+ *Rowan Grey*
	+ *Toby Treacletart*
	+ *Lahni Caplain*
	+ *Rick the Beholder*
	+ *Pyre*
	+ *Astral Dreadnought*
	+ *Elder Brain (never used)*
* Master Alder
	+ *Iron Skeleton*
* Chopper
* Dodge Grabbit
	+ *Dracolich*
	+ *Hydra*
	+ *Greater Skeleton*
* The Four Masters
	+ Fuckin Gary, Master of the Air Plane
		- *Skull Lord*
		- *Marilith*
		- *Lich*
		- *Drow*
		- *Bone Bird*
		- *Vampire*
	+ The Man of Sorrow, Master of the Earth Plane
	+ Jilling the Bonehammer, Master of the Water Plane
		- *Giant Shark*
		- *Huge Crab*
		- *T-Rex*
		- *Roc*
		- *Dragon Turtle*
		- *Kraken*
	+ Lucious Incendous, Master of the Fire Plane
		- *Pandora Thorne*
		- *Sharpe Lestat*
		- *Ysla Caine*
		- *Duclaw Honeypaw*
		- *Wordsworth Zics*
		- *Killian Dred*

## **The Cards**

**Bone Cards** allowed the wielder to capture and contain creatures, who were then rendered on the face of card as a skeletonized version of themselves. The wielder could then control the monster, using them in a battle against other Bone trainers.

The method of capture worked almost exactly like a [REDACTED]: the card would be struck against the desired creature. It would then wiggle three times, and then, on a successful capture, it would light up, revealing the victory. The creature contained within could be released as they normally were before being captured, not skeletonized in any way. These creatures would not retain any memories of their time in the card, and existence seemed to halt for them when they were trapped.

Each card had a symbol of the monster type on it, and the monster contained within would receive a bonus if their type matched the card type.

Cards could be deployed at range, as demonstrated when Rowan Grey shot an arrow at Dr. Varmus Gremp, who was then captured successfullysource.

They could also be used by familiars, as demonstrated when Akkio used one to capture Rick the Beholder for Skud Derringersource.

## **Rules**

Each Player has 6 Cards, but only 3 can be in use at a time. On your turn, you have two (2) actions: Send out a Bone Monster, Bring Back a Bone Monster, or Pump Up a Bone Monster. The Monsters themselves had 1/2 of the total hit points that they normally have, pre-boneification. So, if, for example, Rowan has 100 hp normally, her boneself would have 50hp. Monks that are boneified can still use Ki points. A Monster is "Defeated" when their hit points drop below 0. The Monster does not die, but returns to their card, where they will not be able to participate in the rest of the fight. Any Monsters that aren't on the field gain 10 hp every turn, or can remove 1 status effect.

Each monster has different strengths and weaknesses. Some Stats are good against other, but weak against still others. The Stats are indicated through a small icon in the upper corner. Interestingly, the Stats of Bonecards directly correlate to those of Dungeons and Dragons. Doing the damage type that you are strong in results in double damage, so if you use a Bone Dragon (which is a slashing type), and use a slashing attack, you are granted STAB, which does double damage. What's more, doing a type damage against a type weak to that damage type is also doubled. This doubling stacks, so if you are a type, and use that type move, and against a creature weak to that type, then you do 4x damage!

### **Kids Version**

There was an alternate version of the game, played using standard, non-magical cards. This version was played much the same way as the adult version, but without capturing creatures or having them battle. Each card had a drawn image of the bone monster on it, and they would play cards against other cards, and somehow someone won. It's unclear, all we know is that there was no actual fighting in this version. It was a favorite of Skud Derringer's.

Not much is known about how this game is played. There were many different styles of cards, each one with a different bone on it, in the shape of a little monster. They could be arranged in "sets", styled after structures of the human body, such as the Skull Set, for example. The were released in packs of 15, which cost 1 silver each. The packs were randomized, and one would have to buy many packs to complete a set.

## **Trivia**

* Very heavily modeled after [REDACTED], with the monsters fighting being the anime, while the card game being the card game. You understand
* Also inspired by Drinks and Daggers, the official card game of Greetings Adventurers. Bridget Connell, who did the art for the game also was a character named Connell in the show, who makes Bone cards, the kids version. You also understand