Kids on Bikes

Kids on Bikes is a tabletop role-playing game system, and a series of games that use that system. It has won multiple ENNIE Awards.

Kids on Bikes

Designers	Jonathan Gilmour and Doug Levandowski
Publishers	Hunters Entertainment Renegade Studios
Genres	tabletop role-playing game, adventure

Publication history

The first game in the series, Kids on Bikes, was inspired by 1980s coming-of-age movies like The Goonies. In 2022, the second edition of Kids on Bikes raised $182,049 on Kickstarter from 2,793 backers.^[1]

There are three other games in the series: the space-themed Teens in Space, a game about a school for wizards and witches called Kids on Brooms,^[2][3][4] and a forthcoming superhero game called Kids in Capes.^[5] On February 10, 2023, the designers held a charity sale of Kids on Brooms with all profits donated to transgender rights organization Sylvia Rivera Law Project. This was part of a larger boycott movement against Hogwarts Legacy due to the anti-transgender activities of author J. K. Rowling.^[6]

Reception

Kids on Bikes won the 2019 Gold ENNIE Awards for Best Family Game / Product, and Kids on Bikes: Strange Adventures! Volume Two won the same award in 2020.^[7][8] Cass Marshall for Polygon recommended it for fans of Stranger Things.^[9]

Rachel Johnson of CBR recommended Kids on Brooms for fans of the Harry Potter series, lauding it for its accessibility to tabletop players old and new.^[10] Dicebreaker also had praise for the game's flexible spellcasting system.^[11] Polygon called it one of the best tabletop role-playing games of 2022, calling out its character creation process for creating interesting relationships and rumors.^[12]

Gameplay

Kids on Bikes character creation involves assigning standard roleplaying dice to each of six stats. Unlike traditional DnD, where players roll a 20-sided die and then add a modifier based on their character's skill in a given category, the number of sides of each die correlates to the character's skill in each statistic. When a player rolls the maximum value on one of their die, they are allowed to roll again, and add the result of the next roll.^[13] Players and gamemaster construct the setting together.^[2]

The game features a mechanic to allow for a "powered" character like those from E.T. and Stranger Things. While Powered characters are similar to non-player characters, players are able to exhibit some narrative control over the actions these characters take.^[2]

In popular culture

The Kids on Bikes system has been featured on multiple seasons of the actual play series Dimension 20, including Misfits and Magic using Kids on Brooms,^[14] Mentopolis using "a 'noir-ified' version of Kids on Bikes",^[15] and Never Stop Blowing Up using a system "heavily inspired by" Kids on Bikes.^[16]

Dropout, publisher of Dimension 20, later released a four-page version of the Never Stop Blowing Up rules system.^[17] Christian Hoffer of EN World notes the system is intended to create "action movie-style" stories with "outlandish" action.^[17]