Action Figure Rescue Squad

This game is currently on Kickstarter for Zine Quest 4! Go check it out now to get your discounted digital or physical copy!

In Action Figure Rescue Squad, you and up to six players take the roles of living toys! The kid who owns you doesn't know of your sentience but loves you all the same. Playtime with your kid is the best part of your existence because you get to do your favorite thing in the world - bring your kid happiness. But sometimes your kid gets sad and upset when they can't find their toys or they break. That's where your team comes in to try and save the day. 

You are part of a group of toys that rescues the ones that get lost or need repair. To do this, your group will need to search for clues, navigate the house, and bring the toy home to the room safe. 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?

This zine has been designed to replicate vintage and iconic toy packaging and booklets. 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. The mismatched pages, fonts, and layouts come together to create something that is truly evocative of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s toys of my childhood. I hope you enjoy it!

The production history of this game is a story onto itself. Designed on a bit of a Twitter dare, this game originally used POGs from the nineties instead of dice. I actually launched a version of this campaign at the beginning of August 2022 with a version of the game that used milk caps - the unbranded name for POGs. After the first week, it was apparent that the funding goal would not be met due to two factors. 

First, the pledge price was high compared to many of the other Zine Quests this year. This was mostly due to cost of the POG and slammer production. Secondly, being unable to call the milk caps POGs as they are trademarked was causing confusion about what the game was about.

Because of these factors, I decided to relaunch the Zine with a revamped d12 dice system and scrap the POGs. This will allow me to lower the cost overall, offer the Zine at reduced pledge prices, and still get you all a great product. Now let me tell you about the new and improved system.

All toys have the same 4 Qualities - Tough, Quick, Intelligent, & Interactive. These Qualities are rated best to worst - 5, 6, 7, & 8. When a toy comes up against a challenge, the toy describes how they will use a Quality to overcome the problem and rolls a d12. If they can apply it and want to, they can use one of their three Special Features - unique to each toy and chosen by the player - to roll another d12. Special Features only have a single use and the only way to get another use is to roll a 12. Toys always take the higher of two rolls.

If the roll is higher than the Quality's number, the toy succeeds in their action.

If the roll is the Quality's number exactly, the toy succeeds but gets an unforeseen complication.

If the roll is under the Quality, the toy fails and suffers a consequence.

This simple system allows for quick action resolution and fun play for gamers of all ages. And as a zine designed around kid's toys, I wanted it to be great and easy for younger children to play. After all, I have a five year old nephew I am very excited to get into the hobby one day.

Inside this Zine, you'll find a plethora of content from cover to cover:

• A crazy amount 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

Joel Salda is the head of The Big Tabletop. His love of tabletop role playing games springs from 26 years of running games as a forever game master. His work can be found on his website TheBigTabletop.com and in Free RPG Day Anthology LEVEL 1 2021 by 9th Level Games (ENNIE Gold Winner). This campaign will be his second Kickstarter after the success of his Zine Quest 3 project, Yee-Paw: High Raccoon.

He is a firm believer of being able to do all parts of the process - concept generation, game design, writing, art production, layout, playtesting marketing, and fulfillment. Thankfully, his work experiences have equipped him with the skills to succeed in any situation. He is interested in making games that uphold the ideals of The Big Tabletop and helping others do the same. One day, he wants to make The Big Tabletop an entire team of creators and branch into more live streaming for chances to play more games with more players.

When he is not making games, he enjoys playing board games with his partner, biking, and spending time with his two guinea pigs.

Follow him on Twitter @Saldamandar or visit his Itch.io page The Big Tabletop where most of his games are downloadable on pay-what-you-want model. He's responsible for such titles as Lewd Grannies, Bark Against Evil, UNOwned, Chrono Illogical, and more.

This game is currently on Kickstarter for Zine Quest 4! Go check it out now to get your discounted digital or physical copy!