Featured Project: GunPlaya, a eco-warrior mech suit water fight blast!
*As a note, the intro for this was written by Steph from TTRPGkids, and the below description was written by Mike H, creator of GunPlaya
GunPlaya is an exciting, rules light, tabletop RPG for 2 to 6 players. It allows you to go wild with anime and mecha inspired action and to recreate your own “Saturday morning cartoon” style games to play with your friends, family and children. If you were to imagine Dangermouse style stories crossed with Transformers, but with Goldfish piloting the mecha suits and shooting water at a variety of monsters, then you’d not be far off the mark!
Sounds fun? – well, yes it is!
GunPlaya is the latest project from Red Oaks Creative and is built on their SpiralsRPG system. Spirals RPG is a rules light system that can be used to build a variety of RPGs, and is available for free from their itch.io site. Being rules light doesn’t mean it’s also fun-light or limited in scope. SpiralsRPG is built on the concept of continual improvement, where you get better at skills by doing them, and combat is something that players try to avoid by smart play! When you do get into combat, the combat round is built on a speed based “beat” system to better reflect the cut and thrust of a fight.
In GunPlaya, Mantopus, the half-man-half-octopus mecha piloting ero-rascal has diverted all the freshwater on the tropical island of Playa del Gun into his own personal reservoir. To stop him, you take on the role of the mecha suited “eco warrior” Goldfish Folk as they launch their daring attack to reclaim the fresh water and to save their habitat, but time and resources are limited. We were particularly keen to encourage the ecologically sound aspects of this game, as we believe the game should be fun but with a strong underlying message of teaching children to be water-savvy through play.
Your mecha suits fire freshwater at your foes, but you will need to restock your supplies, and Mantopus is already stockpiling most of it! This resource management activity adds an interesting aspect, particularly handy for teaching kids about forward planning! If you run out of water you are out of the fight!
Can you save the island and release the fresh water back into the rivers and canals, or will Mantopus win the day?
GunPlaya comes with 12 brand new monsters to strike fear and fun into the hearts of your players, plus stats for Mantopus, as well as a hand-drawn map and location descriptions for the adventure. It also comes with random encounter generators to ensure the game plays differently each time!
GunPlaya benefits from being built on the SpiralsRPG system and is able to pitch itself as both a family friendly RPG, but also one that has proven to be a great hit with younger kids too. Kids really enjoy taking on the eco-warrior role and trying to save the fresh water supply for the tropical island. It’s simple but engaging – who doesn’t want to drive a mecha suit!?
You can back GunPlaya on Kickstarter until August 21st here.
You can get SpiralsRPG for free (and can use it in your own games) here.
Go check out GunPlaya, and if you liked this post and want to keep up to date on other features projects, make sure to subscribe to the TTRPGkids monthly newsletter! Stay up to date on the latest reviews, tips and tricks, game and podcast list updates, and more! Thank you for playing tabletop RPGs with your kids and sharing this awesome hobby with the next generation!