Coming Soon: ACTION INTERNATIONAL!
A Peek at the Forthcoming TTRPG
In just about 24 hours, a game I started working on about six years ago is at last coming to Kickstarter. ACTION INTERNATIONAL! can fairly be called a passion project for me and my co-author, Alex Drusts; long, long ago, a couple of young gamers picked up a game called Ninjas & Superspies and played the hell out of it, despite the rickety system underpinning it.
Those boys were, of course, us, and (after a few abortive attempts to reconnect with the flawed game of our youth) we decided to write something that captured the essence and energy of those sun-dappled afternoons testing out who would win in a matchup between a ninja and a Shaolin monk.
The game that eventually resulted is a tribute both to the tabletop RPG adventures of our youth as well as the action and martial arts cinema that inspired it all.
Starting with Alan Bahr’s [Redacted] Hack, itself a hack of The Black Hack, we started tinkering and modding until, frankly, we had a beast all its own. Our top design agenda was in facilitating genre tropes (gratuitous explosions, fast-yet-memorable fights, a strange emphasis on hand-to-hand combat unless the heroes show up with guns, etc.) while delivering the experience of Ninjas & Superspies and other martial arts-heavy RPGs of yore that we thought we remembered but were never able to recapture.
The system uses the “Target 20” mechanic: roll 1D20, add modifiers, and if you meet or exceed a total value of 20, you succeed! All rolls are based off one of five attributes: Power, Grace, Tough, Cool, or Heat. Since these tend to average around 10-12 and can go as high as 18, this is not generally a problem—especially if you’re acting within your character’s Role, which you can either pick from a list in the game or make up yourself.
The hitch is that all damage is taken off your attributes; the more of a beating you take, the harder it becomes to continue dishing out damage. You do get assets (called Grit Dice) which you can spend to “Bounce Back,” and your connections to friends and family can help you recover lost points faster. And, if all else fails, you can tear off your shirt or jacket in the midst of combat and restore all your damage! However, doing so puts you past a point of no return, placing your Hero in mortal jeopardy. Truly an action of last resort, but sometimes you gotta put it all on the line.
There’s a bunch of other fun and flavorsome mechanics, and I may write more about that once the Kickstarter is under way. But for right now, I also want to highlight the amazing art by Rick Hershey (as featured above) as well as the care and attention we made sure to put into the game to help folks not quite as well-versed in the genre as us. This includes a full random adventure generator that allows you to roll up a Big Boss, Henchmen, Minions, and their dastardly plans in mere minutes, as well as a chapter-length essay by the legendary James Lowder which provides a compactly comprehensive tour of the cinematic genre.
We’re so excited to be bringing this game out into the world! If you want a taste of character creation and how the system works, check out the first part of the Esoteric Order of Roleplayers’ actual-play, featuring yours truly as the Gamemaster.
If you’re interested in the game by now, be sure to back the Kickstarter early so you can get in on some early bird discounts!