Boardgame Bulletin 25-4 / TTRPG Roll 25-18 ~ From Ancient prophecy to modern game – To Honor Grandfather (Beach & Bloome, Cheese Weasel Logistics, 2023)

Set in the legendary science fiction universe of the Traveller roleplaying game, To Honor Grandfather lets players take on the role of young aliens (Droyne) competing to gain the favor of their leader (Grandfather).
Using the custom dice, players will travel between a variety of unique planetary systems and engage with a huge selection of events, each with the potential to draw Grandfather’s approving eye. Those with the most “honor” after all planets have been explored will be dubbed the victor!

To Honor Grandfather, publisher’s blurb

The Traveller roleplaying game (RPG) universe goes back to 1977 with the publication of the iconic Little Black Books for what is today called Classic Traveller. In addition to the roleplaying game, the Traveller RPG Universe also includes boardgames—mostly wargames—such as Imperium: Empires in Conflict – Worlds in Balance (Marc W. Miller, Game Designers’ Workshop (GDW), 1977). Interestingly, when searching BoardGameGeek using the filter “Setting: Traveller Universe” there are 51 results returned. After eliminating expansions, there are actually 19 wargames (one being a repackaging of six others) and three boardgames. The latest boardgame, To Honor Grandfather, by first-time designers Nichole Beach and Allison Bloome and published by Cheese Weasel Logistics, recently landed on my gaming table. [Do not let the 2023 copyright fool you; the game was designed and funded in 2023 but did not deliver until June 2025.]

RPG on the outside…

Thematically, To Honor Grandfather is set in the Traveller RPG Universe. As the Kickstarter campaign tells:

The campaign material for To Honor Grandfather continues,

Set in the legendary science fiction universe of the Traveller roleplaying game, each player takes on the role of young aliens collectively known as Droyne.  The ultimate goal of each Droyne is to be regarded with honor in the eyes of Grandfather — a near mythological figure within their culture.

To Honor Grandfather, Kickstarter Campaign

The rulebook for To Honor Grandfather acknowledges the thematic lineage of the game:

While intentionally designed to be beginner friendly, To Honor Grandfather acknowledges the storied history of Traveller. Inspiration was taken from the original “Little Black Books” and surrounding material of Classic Traveller. Where it made sense we have deferred to the more recent lore of Traveller⁵, and have even snuck in a few fun references to Traveller: The New Era. Futhermore, we’ve included a five card mini-expansion themed after the “Ancients Trilogy” from Mongoose Traveller!

To Honor Grandfather, Rulebook, p. 18

…boardgame inside the box

To Honor Grandfather is not, however, an RPG or even an Adventure Wargame (a wargame with RPG elements). Mechanically speaking, To Honor Grandfather is an Exploration and Dice Manipulation game.

The goal of To Honor Grandfather is to take your “Tyafelm”—literally your pool of caste dice—and explore planets while gaining (or losing) Honor and Croyn (coins) along the way. [In a clever bit of theming components each side of the dice in To Honor Grandfather is a caste of Droyne; conveniently there are six castes for each side of a six-sided die.] On those planets the players will face Encounters that will require rolling their Tyafelm (i.e. pool of dice) to match faces and complete the challenge. Once all the Encounters on a planet are complete the planet is removed from play and another one placed on the table. The game ends when the last planet (total number based on player count) is explored with the winner being the player with the most Honor.

Honorable play

As an exploration and dice manipulation game, To Honor Grandfather certainly achieves its goal of being “beginner friendly.” The rules are relatively straight-forward and easy to learn. The rulebook is written with the rules for the first expansion included so learning the base game and that expansion is seamless.

Ancient prophecy – Modern game

While To Honor Grandfather is heavily themed around Traveller, the reality of gameplay is that the game could just as easily be played with a simple set of d6. If you look at the photos above you might see that each face of the die has a certain number of pips around the caste symbol in the middle; six die faces for sides with 1-6 pips. If I have a complaint it is perhaps the fact that the rulebook and player aids talk in terms of even, odd, or sequential die faces yet nowhere does it state that each caste is associated with a particular number. Most players likely will figure it out themselves, like I did, pretty quickly but it is a potential learning obstacle for some.

There is absolutely no requirement to be a fan of—or have an understanding of the lore within—the Traveller RPG Universe to play To Honor Grandfather. That is not a criticism for the game accomplishes what it sets out to be: a lightly-themed,beginner-friendly dice manipulation game that is highly suitable for families or a group of friends looking to fill an hour of gaming time at the table.

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Feature image courtesy RMN

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