RPG BREAKING: Avatar The Last Airbender And Legend Of Korra RPG Announced
Long ago the four RPGs existed in harmony, but everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. It’s about flipping time.
Cabbage carts across the land are in danger folks, because the official Avatar: the Last Airbender and Legened of Korra RPG is coming folks. And it looks like it’s going to be real good. Announced earlier today: Magpie Games (makers of Bluebeard’s Bride, the Root RPG, and Masks, to name a few) have teamed up with ViacomCBS to make your early ‘aughts hopes and dreams come true. Here’s what we know so far!
Magpie Games has secured a multi-year licensing agreement with ViacomCBS Consumer Products to produce a tabletop roleplaying game set in the world of Nickelodeon’s animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
This roleplaying game is a unique opportunity for fans of the show to return to a beloved setting—this time as the heroes of the story! Rising to meet their destiny, players will make characters using playbooks—templates that help players build and play compelling protagonists in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Together they might protect local merchants from the Triple Threat Triad in Republic City, travel through a spirit portal to rescue a child taken into the Spirit World, negotiate peace between feuding communities within the Earth Kingdom, or pursue mysteries (and villains) that arise throughout their adventures!
This is awesome news. Magpie’s post on Twitter confirms what the suggestion of “playbooks” hints at–the game is going to be developed using the Powered by the Apocalypse framework, which is at the heart of games like Masks and Ironsworn and Legacy: Free from the Yoke and is the secret engine underneath Blades in the Dark. And that’s great. It’s hard to think of another RPG system out there right now that would handle the flexibility of something like Bending, which can be used to do everything from launching a fireball when you punch, to shielding your body in metal and making you unstoppable…
For full effect listen to this while rewatching that Toph sequence
…while at the same time making it easy to support playing a non-bender character. Though, let’s be honest, how many people are going to play an Avatar game and NOT play a Bender? There’s only like three of us out there. Even so, the flexibility and narrative-driving mechanics make for a fantastic system for this world.
Other things worth noting, Magpie wants to be true to the authentic, diverse spirit of both shows and has assembled their own Team Avatar comprising many talented Asian designers, like James Mendez Hodes, who has worked on a variety of games from Exalted and 7th Sea to Bubblegumshoe and Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and that’s just one of the designers called out in the announcement. Here’s a look at the full team:
We’re also excited to be working with a group of amazing contributing designers, including @LulaVampiro, @cysdavis, @SharangBiswas, @danielhkwan, @leefrancisIV, and @senfoonglim! Alongside our regular design team, they’re helping us bring the world to life at your table! https://t.co/1dlvAZEJHT
— Magpie Games (@MagpieOfficial) February 3, 2021
And this is a big part of what ViacomCBS is hoping to see delivered in the final product. As ViacomCBS puts it:
“We believe Magpie Games is the ideal partner to develop a roleplaying game based on Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Their commitment to supporting diverse content from diverse creators along with their exceptional game product made them the right choice to bring the world of Avatar to tabletop roleplaying games.”
The game’s core book will release in February 2022, with two more supplements coming shortly after (August 2022 and February 2023) focusing on Republic City and the Spirit World, respectively.
I’m excited. You should be excited. This is the Avatar game you’ve been waiting for since 2005.
Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
