# Happy Birthday, Robot! tags: #game/rpg/happy-birthday-robot ![[Happy Birthday, Robot! (cover).jpg]] *Happy Birthday, Robot!* is a collaborative storytelling game for three to five players, published in 2010 by Daniel Solis and Evil Hat Productions. Ostensibly aimed at families and classrooms, the game tricks children into practicing grammar and sharing by masking the educational bits behind a highly structured, semi-competitive Mad Libs session. You all work together to build a story about a robot's birthday, sentence by agonizing sentence, until someone hoards enough coins to trigger the endgame. The core resolution mechanics revolve around custom six-sided "Robot Dice" that feature blank faces, "AND" arrows, and "BUT" arrows. Play proceeds clockwise around the table. The active player—the "Storyteller"—rolls up to three dice at a time. The Storyteller keeps any blanks, passes the "AND" dice to the neighbor on their right, and passes the "BUT" dice to the neighbor on their left. The Storyteller can press their luck and keep rolling more dice, but must immediately stop if either neighbor accumulates four or more dice. Once the rolling stops, sentence construction begins. Every game starts with the titular sentence: "Happy Birthday, Robot!". For the active turn, the Storyteller writes a number of words up to the number of blank dice they kept, getting the word "Robot" for free. The neighbor to the right tacks on additional words equal to their "AND" dice, getting the word "and" for free. Finally, the neighbor on the left completes the thought using their "BUT" dice, getting the word "but" for free. The Storyteller collects a coin for every blank die they successfully converted into a word. Players can hand their coins to the Storyteller at any time to permanently grant them extra words on future turns. Once a single player accumulates ten coins, the game hurtles toward its Epilogue, where players cash out their remaining coins to write the final, mercifully conclusive sentences. Despite the game hitting the market over a decade ago, you will not find a sprawling second edition or a gritty, modern reboot. The original 2010 release remains the definitive and only edition of *Happy Birthday, Robot!*. If you lose the custom dice, the rules graciously allow you to vandalize standard six-sided dice with stickers to keep the game functional. > [!info] Commentary > My loquacious but sometimes ignorant assistant neglected to point out that you can use Fudge dice (with two blank sides, two plus sides, and two minus sides) as your HBR dice. Since I have a ton of those, I've never had trouble running this game ever. ## References - [Wikipedia entry summarizing the game's history and reception - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday,_Robot! "null") - [Detailed review of the mechanics and classroom utility - Critical Hits](https://critical-hits.com/blog/2010/08/17/review-happy-birthday-robot/ "null") - [Comprehensive breakdown and review of the printed book - RPGnet](https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/15/15050.phtml "null") - [Official publisher storefront listing for digital copies - Evil Hat Productions](https://evilhat.com/product-category/rpgs/other/ "null")