Featured Project: Action Figure Rescue Squad!
*As a note, the intro for this was written by Steph from TTRPGkids, and the below description was written by Joel Salda, creator of Action Figure Rescue Squad
In Action Figure Rescue Squad, you and up to six players take the roles of living toys!
The game takes place between playtimes with your kid. Your toys will spend their time searching for lost and broken toys to make sure your kid doesn’t miss them. To do this, your band of toys will need to search for clues, navigate the house, and bring the toy home to the room safe and sound.
Many obstacles stand in your way in a world built for people much bigger than you, but the toys are equipped with qualities and special features that make you ready for the task. Can your team recover the lost toy and save the day before your kid notices?
From the mind of Joel Salda over at The Big Tabletop, Action Figure Rescue Squad is a rules light game that is great for kids and adults alike.
Kids will love the ease of play. The mechanics are simple to understand and only require a d12. When a toy encounters an obstacle, they will describe how they plan to use their qualities (each toy has a set 4) and special features (each toy has 3 that they make up themselves).
Players are looking to roll over one of their toy’s qualities when they come up against an obstacle. If a toy can apply one of their three special features to the situation, they roll 2d12 and take the higher number and spend that special features charge. A toy gets a charge for a special feature back anytime they roll a 12! The action resolution for the dice is simple.
Rolling over the quality is a success and the toy does what it intended to do. Rolling equal to the quality is a success with an unforeseen consequence. The toy does what it intended but something else happens that complicates the situation.
Rolling under the quality is a failure with consequence. The toy does not succeed and suffers a consequence. Thankfully, they are toys and most scuffs and scrapes can be repaired.
The dice system is designed to allow players to describe what they are doing and how their abilities might play into the situation. This ease of play allows kids of a younger age to learn how to roleplay through situations and apply the strengths of their toy in uncertain situations. And the system allows kids to build any toy they want which allows them freedom of creation.
After all, what kid wouldn’t want to be their favorite toy?
Adults will enjoy the nostalgic art and layout designed to mimic the toys of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. The game is heavily inspired by media like Action League Now, Small Soldiers, The Lego Movie, and Toy Story. The rules are embedded onto packaging, into instruction booklets, and magazine ads alongside made up toy companies, barcodes, and price tags.
Inside this zine, you’ll find a plethora of content from cover to cover to allow many sessions of content for all ages:
- Lots of art, layout, and 80s, 90s, and early 2000s nostalgia
- A guide to make your own toy to play with
- Rules to play the game with either milk caps or dice
- A table of consequences for when you roll poorly
- Bond builders to establish your links to other toys
- Missing toy ad libs generators
- Random events for 14 rooms in the house
- Reasons why the missing toy needs your help
- Tons of fun for hours to come
Action Figure Rescue Squad is live on Kickstarter until Sept 4 at midnight and you can back it here. The rest of The Big Tabletop’s games can be found on Itch (most of which are pay-what-you-want) here. The designer, Joel Salda, can be found over on Twitter @Saldamandar
Go check out Action Figure Rescue Squad, and if you liked this post and want to keep up to date on other features projects, make sure to subscribe to the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter! Stay up to date on the latest reviews, tips and tricks, game and podcast list updates, and more! Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with your kids and sharing this awesome hobby with the next generation!