Freelance Traveller

To Honor Grandfather

reviewed by Jeff Zeitlin

This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue.

To Honor Grandfather. Nicole Beach and Allison Bloom.
Cheese Weasel Logistics, LLC https://www.facebook.com/p/Cheese-Weasel-Logistics-100068291690436/ and https://cheeseweasel.net (works in Microsoft Edge only)
Boxed Game for 2 to 4 players (up to 6 with Vilis Expansion)
Price undetermined at time of review.

To Honor Grandfather is a Traveller-themed board game wherein the players are droyne (really, Ancients) competing to earn “honor points”. In the process, there can be “encounters” that can result in the additional gain or loss of honor, or the gaining of special ‘abilities’ (which allow the player to ‘break’ a rule in a particular way) and other bonuses.

Players who are good at visual pattern matching will have a natural advantage at this game; what moves a player can make is determined by the patterns of numbers rolled on the 4, 5, or 6 dice, not the specific numbers rolled (much like the bottom half of the scoresheet in Yahtzee). One die is sufficient to allow a player to move to a system or within a system; this can trigger Encounters, whose rewards may be some number of honor points or an Ability to take an action outside the normal rules, or to alter a die roll. Encounters also require you to roll dice and match patterns, but the pattern for an Encounter is specific (e.g., you must match three dice showing 2-2-4, rather than simply matching three even dice).

The amount of honor potentially available to simpler patterns and lower-level Encounters is lower than for the more complex patterns and higher-level Encounters, but in many cases the player will be able to make multiple moves with the simpler patterns. Note carefully that there are some patterns that allow the player to ‘steal’ honor points from other players. While it is potentially possible to accumulate enough honor points to win without actually completing an Encounter, the higher-level Encounters – and some of the abilities realized from them – offer routes to faster accumulation of honor points.

Play can move quickly; at a playtest at TravellerCON/USA a few years agoSee my After-Action report for TravellerCON/USA 2022, Session 4, it was possible to complete two six-player games (using the basic four-player rules) in the four-hour slot, including time for post-mortem commenting. The rules state that play time should be about an hour. The basic rules are simple enough that a precocious five-or six-year-old could probably be taught the rules and play credibly after only a few games with coaching by an adult or older friend/sibling; nevertheless, that same adult, playing with other adults, would not find the game boring.

I received my copy as the fulfillment of the game’s Kickstarter; there was a long delay between funding and production, for several reasons, so the game hasn’t come fully to market yet. Production values seem solid; cardboard parts aren’t flimsy, and cards are decently stiff and slick-coated poker-sized. The game comes with six custom dice, but the customization is graphic rather than numeric; ordinary six-sided dice can be used if players have a ‘thing’ about not sharing dice. The included dice are slightly smaller and lighter than standard, but don’t give the impression of ‘cheap’ manufacture. The rulebook is of similar good quality production. There are some nice touches, such as player tokens having an abstract droyne drawn on them, and tracking your current honor score with two little wooden cubes in matching color.

(If you have the Droyne Coynes (also from Cheese Weasel Logistics) that I reviewed and wrote an ‘interpretation guide’ for in the September/October 2024 issue of Freelance Traveller, the symbols on the included dice match the ‘new pattern’ Caste Coynes.)

I find two flaws with the game. The first, minor at best, is too close adherence to the ‘traditional’ Traveller colors of red and black on the Encounter cards; certain words written in red for emphasis get lost on the black background in any but the brightest ambient lighting – it’d be hard to read those emphasized words in a game being played at home in the den or living room. The second is less minor, but certainly not a major problem: Some of the rules are less than fully clear, and a rules FAQ for interpretation would be a useful resource (that unfortunately doesn’t exist yet).

A read-through of the entire rulebook is strongly recommended before play; there are enough exceptional situations that can arise that familiarity will speed the game. It should be noted that the rulebook that came with the basic set also includes the rules modifications that apply to the Vilis Expansion (which I also received as part of the Kickstarter fulfillment). This expansion adds the ability to play with 5 or 6 players, as well as modifying the rules somewhat.

I really hope that this game goes into full commercial production soon; it’s one that plays well and doesn’t actually require you to be a Traveller fan to be able to ‘get into’ it. Even if it were also released as a ‘print-and-play’ game, without the custom dice or tokens, or as a computer-moderated game, I could see it developing some popularity. When it becomes available for general purchase, this gets a definite buy recommendation.