Every fantasy setting needs a legendary weapon, something that proves the wielder’s skill and strikes fear into the hearts of their foes. However, coming up with a memorable item on the fly is something a lot of GMs struggle with, especially if they need to come up with several in quick succession. Thankfully, those looking for a game to inspire their armament creation don’t need to worry, as Draw Your Weapons turns the act of creating legendary gear into a fun TTRPG party game.
Created by Taiga Interactive, Draw Your Weapons is a rules-lite party game for three to six players. The game drops players into The Last Ziggurat, a massive fighting arena that sits between realities. A place where warriors from around the multiverse gather in the hopes of climbing to the top floor and claiming the title of greatest warrior.
However, the players are not one of these warriors. The players are caddies, lowly workers tasked with equipping newcomers with the best weapons possible.
How To Draw Your Weapon
A game of Draw Your Weapons takes place across five rounds. At the start of the game, the included flashcards are shuffled and placed in the middle of the table. At the beginning of each round, every player draws the top card from this deck and checks what is written on it.
Each of the included cards is structured like a classic mad-lib, with a small bit of text with gaps where players have to insert specific types of words (e.g., adjectives, verbs, foods, jobs) to create a full description.
After everyone has drawn a card, players get time to fill in their cards. Once this is done, the player should draw an image of their weapon on a notecard and sign their creation’s name beneath it.
Once every player has completed their card and drawing, the next stage begins. The players take turns introducing their weapons to the other players and attempt to sell them on their creations.
When every player has had the opportunity to present their weapon, a voting phase begins. During this phase, the player may place a warrior token on the weapon they like the most (except for their own).
The player may also pay Souls to add warrior tokens to both their weapon and any other weapon currently in play. When a warrior token is added, the player must give all players who already have a token on that weapon one soul per warrior token on the card.
After this, it’s time to see if a newcomer to The Last Ziggurat wants to wield the weapon and learn how well they do with it. A die is rolled for each card currently on the table; if the roll is equal to or less than the number of warrior tokens on it, then a warrior decides to take it into battle. Every player who had a warrior token on the weapon gets some souls as a reward, and the card is removed from the table.
Any unpicked weapons get an enhancement token. This token allows the player who created it to add one new thing to the drawing and the description. After this, any card on the table with no tokens on it is placed in the discard pile, and the next round starts. After five rounds, the player with the most souls is the winner.
A Few Enhancements Keep The Party Flowing
Draw Your Weapons is a fun TTRPG party game that takes the Jackbox improv game formula and improves it in several ways. Most notably, I love that the weapon information is generated via Mad Lib-style cards. A problem with Jackbox-style games is that the open-ended nature of some of them can cause players to quickly fall into a never-ending loop of in-jokes and innuendo. While this can be amusing at first, it can become dull and undermine the game’s theme and structure. By building the weapons around the Mad Libs, Draw Your Weapons encourages players to stay on topic, something that helps the game remain immersive and thematic throughout.
This structure helps make the game feel less intimidating, which is fantastic for quieter players or those new to improv. This means the game cleverly avoids the common improv game trap: the game grinding to a halt due to a player having a moment of creative block. However, despite this structure, the openness of the card prompts, combined with the drawing element, means that the game retains the massive replay value that makes the Jackbox series so enduring.
I’m also a massive fan of the voting system. By separating the player votes (the warrior tokens) from the game’s scoring system (soul tokens), and by having more votes increase a player’s chance of victory rather than outright guarantee it, Draw Your Weapons disincentivizes tactical voting or meta-gameplay, meaning that the game retains a fun and silly feel throughout.
This is further enhanced by the fact that unselected weapons remain on the table after the round is over. Keeping cards on the table means that it is totally possible for a player who is lagging behind to mount an epic comeback late into the game (by having several weapons get chosen in one round). Plus, the enhancement token system means that the weapons that remain on the table quickly become some of the wildest and most memorable creations in any given game, meaning that having your weapon remain unpicked feels like a reward rather than a setback.
Draw Your Weapons is a fantastic TTRPG that’s perfect for parties. The game takes the standard improv format that most gamers are accustomed to and adds several fantastic tweaks to it. These tweaks dramatically enhance the gameplay experience by gently encouraging players to stay on topic and approach the game as collaborative fun, rather than a TTRPG where winning and losing are the main aim. Thus, Draw Your Weapons is a TTRPG that should be added to every table’s rules-lite or party game rotation, as it’s sure to be a hit, no matter your group composition.
