While work and playtesting (and the brain slog of layouts, art, and writing) for the next playtest of Hexingtide (my TTRPG of Minimalist Monstrous Roleplaying), continues, I was recently struck by a very dumb idea.

The first session in July for my twice-a-month home group falls on, you guessed it, Independence Day (for us ‘Muricans).

Well, I can’t just let something like that go unremarked upon, right?

The last two weeks have been a fever haze of working out ideas for a super fast, super lightweight TTRPG of silly Eighties and Nineties action movie tropes. I’m happy to share with you all:

Bravado Bombast Brains + Bullets

Consider the following opening scroll:

“It is the late Twentieth Century.

The Cold War, drug cartels, and criminal violence have set the world on a knife’s edge.

As a member of an unconventional Interpol task force, your team is free from red tape… and out for justice.“

This is an ultralight rule set that comes in the form of two trifold brochures.* 

Not 200 pages. Not fifty pages. Not even ten pages. Super light; super fast.

(* Formatted for US standard 8.5 x 11″ paper. Apologies to those who don’t use Freedom Units):

1. Personnel Dossier (for Players): Character sheet, core rules, character creation, and a few trope-filled random tables for character creation.
2. Operation Manual (for the GM): Scene and encounter mechanics, NPC / Bad Guy guidance and stats, random mission generator tables.

The game is an original new ruleset using a fast-playing d6 dice pool mechanic similar to those seen in Freeform Universal (FU) and Blades in the Dark. Stats – for both the Good Guy player characters and the sweet rides they obviously all have – are dirt simple and 100% mapping to the A-Team:

• Bravado: Face
• Bombast: Hannibal
• Brains: Murdock
• Bullets: B.A. Barracus

(The rights to the A-Team belong to their owners; this image is used as a fan art and does not imply a license or ownership, etc.)

Healing (of physical wounds, at least) happens in the most action movie dumb trope way I can imagine: blood transfusions from another character who shares your blood type (which is randomly generated).

All in all, I think these rules hit a sweet spot for packing a lot of genre flavor punch in a very small package. I’d love to get your opinion!

Buy Bravado Bombast Brains + Bullets on Itchi.io for just $2.99! Every copy purchased above the asking price will add a free complimentary community copy for those with financial hardships.

https://willphillips.itch.io/bravado-bombast-brains-bullets

4B’s First, Upcoming Playtest

Turns out that six out of all seven of my home group don’t have plans on the actual Fourth of July, being a Thursday and all, so we’re planning on gaming the day of.

Instead of our ongoing Hexingtide campaign (13 sessions in with the latest playtest rules, and things are going pretty well, for those who are curious), we’re taking a brief holiday break for Bravado Bombast Brains + Bullets.

Should be a hoot.

The plot may involve Arnold Schwarzenegger as president, a theme park, and Macho Man Randy Savage. Maybe.