These Role Playing Games Bring Saturday Morning To Your Table

What's better than playing with all your toys at the same time?

There was a time, not too long ago, where kids would spend their Saturday mornings planted in front of the living room TV with a bowl of cereal and heir favorite toys scattered around them on the floor. Those toys were likely the starts of one of the cartoons that aired during the timeslot, blending action, adventure and advertisement together in a potent half hour mix. Shows like the martial arts superheroes Power Rangers, giant robot Transformers or miltary heroes GI JOE left a huge impression on generations of kids.

Now, many of those kids are grown up and still chasing that sugar rush of those animated stories. Renegade Game Studios put out a series of tabletop role playing games using the Essence20 system to fans tell stories in these wild worlds. Plus, they’ve just released a book that brings them all together.

Essence 20 powers several RPGs from Renegade Game Studios. Fans of Dungeons & Dragons will find it to be very familiar with classes, levels and a d20 roll at the center of the action. But it’s also been streamlined to get out of the way and let players focus on telling a story rather than worrying about character builds.

Players construct characters from Origins, Roles and Influences. Skilled are measured in die types; the better your character is at something the bigger the dice they add to their d20 role. Story points let playes take control for a moment to give their characters a spotlight.

If you say “now I know” to a certain generation of nerd, chances are they will reply with “and knowin is half the battle”. GI JOE pits a multinational collection of soldiers and spies against a ruthless terrorist organization called Cobra. The stories told here fit the pulp adenture mode with cool codenames, slick gadets and world-hopping chases.

This line is the first out of the gate with its bad guy book. Cobra Codex details the personalities, technology and schemes from around the globe. It even offers the opportunity for players to put on the mask and take a turn as the villain.

While Transformers has become a multi-billion dollar film franchise, most fans remember it for its beginnings as a cartoon. The Autobots and Decepticons fled their planet after a costly war and continued to fight their battles here on Earth. But, to hide their prescence, they concealed themselves as cars, vehicles and other technical gadgets.

The role playing game focuses on characters from this first generation with Optimus Prime leading the Autobots and Megatron leading the Decepticons. Many of these characters are offered as free examples on the website. Players build chracters that have cool features both in their robot mode and their alternative mode.

Power Rangers adapted the Japanese sentai genre to American audiences. It’s a heady mix of martial arts action, battles between giant robots and gargantuan monsters and world saving drama. That combination’s worked for 30 years, with Hasbro acquiring the franchise for $522 million in 2018.

Much like its superhero cousins, the show has gone through multiple team rosters, reboots and costumes. While the core book details the first cast and the classic Angel Grove era, later books dig into other series in the franchise. Players build their Ranger and also the Zord they use to protect the world.

Every kid has taken time to play with all their toys at once. Duke might team up with Optimus Prime to fight against Rita Repulsa. The leatest release in the Essence20 line embraces this spirit.

Field Guide to Action and Adventure offers rules on how to bring these lines together into one epic story. It provides mechanical options but also discusses the themes of each franchise to help Game Masters create tales that feel right. Plus it’s full of great art that mixes together iconic characters in unexpected ways.

These books are available online, directly from the publisher and at friendly local gaming stores.