The Impact of the 'Bunnies & Burrows' RPG

Classic ‘Bunnies & Burrows’ game

I’m reflecting on how much I admire Dr. Dennis Sustare and his Bunnies & Burrows game from the 70’s.

Yeah, we play Rabbits in this game! 🙂

Bunnies & Burrows (or ‘B&B’ as we called it, in homage to ‘D&D’) was originally published in 1976, only two years after the first role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons was published. B&B was very innovative for its time.

Dr. Sustare GM’ing B&B

Some firsts in the game:

• First RPG in history to have a skill system (Classic Traveller, debuting the next year in 1977, would also have a skill system).
• First role-playing game to have detailed martial arts rules.
• First RPG in history to allow you to play non-humanoids.
• First RPG to appeal as widely to women as to men.

I loved the spirit and innovation of B&B! So happy to have played in Dr. Dennis Sustare’s B&B game at NTRPGCon back in 2013! Read more about this game’s history — a lot of tabletop and video RPGs owe more than they know to this lesser known game.

My friend Marshall brought us bunny ears to wear. Ha!