Action-Heroes: Adventure Role-Playing

Please Note: Citing current economic factors in tabletop gaming right now, the rights to my Action-Heroes RPG have been returned to me from Outland Entertainment. The PDF being currently offered is the same as the one originally offered by Outland Entertainment on the DriveThruRPG site. I am waiting for the production files from them so I can update the game to my personal branding. Once that is done, the PDF will be updated. I am in the process of having the game returned to me by Outland Entertainment, and I am uploading this while I await the production files so that I can also move on with planned supplements. Once I have the production files, and am able to update the PDF, I will change out this PDF for a new one.

Action-Heroes is a collaborative tabletop role-playing game where you play super-heroes, action heroes and other larger than life characters who have powers and abilities beyond mortal ken, that allow them to make their world into a getter place. With the world how it is today, we need people who are bettering the world, and if you can't do that in reality, you can do that in a game.

"Speaking as a near-total gaming illiterate, it laid things out in both a clear and captivating way. Many passages serve as a superlative tutorial on story creation and considerations in any media, and many others could be a fine working blueprint for an actual society, let alone a created locale or small cohort of gamers."

— Adam McGovern, comics writer Nightworld; Co-Creator, Aquaria, Cosmic Gospel, and Idoru Jones.

Action-Heroes is a cinematic toolkit role-playing game that gives gaming groups the tools to play larger than life characters doing explosive actions that root them as the center of their world.

The game encourages heroic action that can inspire the players to become their own larger than life heroes. Action-Heroes encourages collaborative play in a group that give players the tools to play characters that are larger than life doing explosive action that roots them as the center of their world. Game masters have the tools to bring their favorite worlds to life, and set loose the players’ characters in them to find wide-screen, cinematic adventures. Playable by groups of three to six people, Action-Heroes needs a game master and players to launch you into world of adventure role-playing.

• Action-Heroes is classless. It uses a point buy system that lets you customize the character that you want, and the power levels for characters are ranked according to “Action Levels” with a number of points to build from per level, and they also limit how many points can be spent on a character's Skills, Attributes and Abilities during character creation.  Action Levels are used during character creation to put characters in a group on more or less of an even ground for play. 
• Action-Heroes is streamlined and cinematic. The system is on the lighter side mechanically, designed to be easy to figure out and easy to play. Resolution in the game uses a 3d6 roll to determine whether a character is successful at something, and then the game uses only six-sided dice throughout play. The systems in the game are designed to make cross-genre play easier on the group. The heaviest part of this game is character creation, mostly because of the amount of options that are available for play, but once play starts play becomes a lot less crunchy.
• Action-Heroes is a game about heroes. It’s right there in the game’s title. Now more than ever, we need heroes in the world of today, and that's a big part of why I created this game. This game is about playing larger than life characters who want to uplift and make their world a better place. Game play is centered on the player characters being the stars of the story. There are sample characters that demonstrate the kinds of characters that you can make with this game.  The creation of Action-Heroes was inspired by decades of reading comics, action/adventure television series,  and tons of action movies to create a game that emulated much of this.
• Action-Heroes helps the GM. Notes provide advice for the game master for not just how to encourage cinematic play, but how to foster a collaborative play environment in the group, advice on building scenarios and encounters, along with a section of the book on using the rules of the game to build your own world (with examples!). Role-playing games are not a competition, and Action-Heroes encourages collaboration within the gaming group to not only tell stories, but to create worlds while everyone plays the game.
• Action-Heroes is inspired by games the designer has played and run for decades. as a gamer. The game features simple, robust mechanics that can be used for a variety of genres and game world, combined with contemporary approaches like player empowerment and safety tools. When Action-Heroes first came out, after a successful Kickstarter campaign, a longtime friend said that the game was like a "peak into the designer's mind"  and "explained much about how and why they ran games." You can play Action-Heroes in person or online with the same ease of play.
• Action-Heroes utilizes the Open Gaming License. The mechanics are built with a number of open content gaming sources, creating a robust gaming system. Everything you need to play in the game. As you can see from the sample pages, Action-Heroes is not inspired by D&D, or any sort of retroclone. It homages games like GURPS and Champions, which the designer played for years, but the game is very much its own thing. Years of playtesting at conventions (in the before pandemic days) and private groups helped this game evolve from bits and pieces of open content game systems, and pages of notes on how to make the pieces make sense, into a coherent game system that allows for robust playability.

 “[A]n incredibly thoughtful, sleek system.”

— Joshua Dysart, writer Goodnight Paradise, Unknown Soldier, BPRD: 1946/1947, Harbinger and Imperium.

Action-Heroes features simple game play using six-sided dice for everything. The success or failure of actions undertaken by characters during a game are determined by a roll of 3d6 (plus modifiers from things like character Attributes, Skills or Abilities) against a target number determined by the game master. The mechanic simulates the "reality" of action-oriented movies, fiction, and comic books rather than that of the "real world," so there is an emphasis on characters that are competent and being "ready for action." The book offers guidance for players and game masters alike on how to play “larger than life” characters and create big, cinematic stories. Action Points let players create advantages for their characters within the story of the game. Special advantages called Abilities allow players to simulate the unique training, awesome talents—and, yes, even super-human powers that frequently appear in action stories. From pulp adventure to super-powered action, your Action-Heroes characters will be ready to face a dangerous world.

Action-Heroes encourages collaborative play that gives players the tools to play larger than life characters with explosive action that roots them as the center of their world. Game masters have the tools to bring their favorite worlds to life, and set loose the players’ characters in them to create widescreen, cinematic adventures.

Action-Heroes is a hybrid of old school and more contemporary design ideas and aesthetics. While the game master can create independently a world the players explore, the game provides tools that allow the gaming group as a whole to develop the basics of the world together. To support the growing need for safety at the gaming table, Action-Heroes gives groups both guidance and tools to help make all of the people in the group feel safer and more comfortable during play.

This is a Queer role-playing game that features LGBTQ+ characters. If that isn't for you, then this game won't be for you, either. Two of the game's iconic characters are queer, one is a trans woman who received her powers, and transitioned, from a super soldier serum. Another iconic character is an AFAB nonbinary person who has trained themself to take back their neighborhood and make it a better place. The "Action-Heroes," within the game's setting, are lead by a popular, and well-known lesbian super-hero couple.

Future games and supplements will expand the rules and setting of this core book, as they are "powered by action."