It’s amazing how quickly an idea can come together when you’ve got a creative group on social media. This is the product of a quick brainstorming session on Twitter.
Muppet Babies was one of my favorite shows growing up, partly because it combined the Muppets with some of my favorite franchises. So here’s a quick hack of Lasers and Feelings for playing your very own game of Muppets goofing around in one of your favorite franchises.
The Premise
You and some friends will get together to play a quick game (likely 30 minutes – 2 hours) of Muppet babies going on an adventure. One of you will be the GM, running the game, and the rest will take on the role of Muppet babies. You’ll pick a universe or schtick to play in (Star Wars, a musical, a video game, etc) and do your best to make it through the plot of whatever story you’ve jumped into.
Players: Creating Characters
- Choose your form: frog, pig, bear, dog, vaguely humanoid thing, recognizably human person
- Choose a special ability: breaking the fourth wall, martial arts, terrible jokes, playing the piano, drumming, daredevil stunts, science
- Choose your number: pick a number from 2 to 5. A lower number means you’re better at MUPPET (doing patently ridiculous things, action-oriented tasks, knowing things you probably shouldn’t). A high number means you’re better at BABY (doing cute things, being uncoordinated, learning new things).
- Pick a name
You Have:
- A diaper! You are a Muppet baby after all.
- A costume appropriate to whatever story you end up in.
- One plot-expedient item you declare when you decide to use it.
Rolling the Dice:
When you do something risky, roll 1d6 to find out how it goes. Add +1d if you’re working together with the other players, and +1d if it’s something related to your special ability. Roll your dice and compare each die result to your number.
If you’re using MUPPET you want to roll above your number.
If you’re using BABY you want to roll under your number.
- If NONE of your dice succeed, it goes wrong. The GM says how things get worse somehow.
- If ONE of your dice succeeds, you barely manage it. The GM inflicts a complication, harm, or cost.
- If TWO of your dice succeed, you do it well. Hooray!
- If THREE of your dice succeed, you get a critical success. The GM tells you some cool extra effect along with your success.
If you roll your number exactly on a die, you do something in true MUPPET BABY fashion. For each die you rolled your number on, you get one additional plot-expedient item you can use during the game.
The GM: Choose an Adventure
Pick a setting that the group is familiar with. Ideally everyone at the table will be familiar with the plot and tropes of the setting so you can all lean into them. Choose one of the options below or make up your own!
- Star Wars – You’ve got the plans to a secret space station, and you need to get them into the right hands!
- Indiana Jones – The Nazis are trying to get an artifact, but you and your friends can get there first!
- Star Trek – Uh oh, a mysterious alien is doing something strange on the planet below. Can you figure out what’s going on?
- Musical Theatre – Rogers and Hammerstein never made a musical with Muppets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make your own!
- Muppet Treasure Island – who says it’s just for adult Muppets?
- Super Mario Brothers – A big scary spiky turtle guy kidnapped somebody and now you have to go rescue them!
And that’s it. Set up the familiar story and drop in the Muppet Babies to see how far off the rails everything goes. Then describe how the world reacts as the players barrel their way through the story, probably messing everything up in hilarious fashion.