Official RPG for Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra announced

A new roleplaying game set in the animated world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra is to be produced by Magpie Games. The core rulebook is set for release in February 2022, with two supplements following over the next year.

New RPG Set in World of Avatar: TLA & TLoK | Magpie Games

www.magpiegames.com

 PRESS RELEASE

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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.

“The stories of Avatar are so moving for us because they are joyous and heartbreaking,” says Mark Diaz Truman, CEO of Magpie Games. “We’re incredibly excited to bring the tales of brave benders and loyal friendships to tabletop roleplaying games; we know so many fans of both series have been waiting years for this moment! We’re also thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Asian designers like James Mendez Hodes to bring the world of Avatar Aang and Avatar Korra to life in a way that’s true to the authentic, diverse spirit of both shows.”

“We believe Magpie Games is the ideal partner to develop a roleplaying game based on Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra” says Pam Kaufman, President, Global Consumer Products, ViacomCBS. “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.”

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!

The roleplaying game’s Core Book is slated for a February 2022 release with two supplements to follow in August 2022 and February 2023 titled Republic City and The Spirit World respectively.

 

[Gradine]

What rules system is being used, didnt see it on my (admittedly quick) glance over

PbtA seems likely, but not confirmed yet

 

[Skywalker]

PbtA seems likely, but not confirmed yet

Magpie posted this on Facebook today: Our team is still developing the game, but it will feature the Powered by the Apocalypse system like Masks: A New Generation, Urban Shadows, and Epyllion. We're excited!

 

[Jaeger]

PbtA aside, I would be far more interested if I could just get a straight up Avatar: The Last Airbender RPG.

Don't need anything from The Legend of Korra.

 

[overgeeked]

Yes! That’s amazing news. With their home run of Masks, they can definitely pull off a wonderful PBTA game for Avatar. So looking forward to this.

 

[Gradine]

It's hard to overstate just how well-designed Masks is, for what it's trying to accomplish. I wouldn't call it my favorite PbtA hack (like most hacks, it has a fairly narrow frame of storytelling and genre), but I wouldn't hesitate for a minute in calling it the best PbtA hack I've encountered

 

[Ace]

I'm also curious if the people here saying "PbtA isn't for me" are saying that because they've only played Dungeon World. I know that there are people who love it, but as a showcase for what PbtA games are all about and capable of, DW makes an immensely poor example.

My experiences with PbtA was with Monster of the Week not DW if it matters.

Now our GM did a great job given how busy he was with real life at the time but the game just didn't click for me and felt far more structured than I want in a game, doubly so for Avatar.

PbtA seems really strange for Avatar which always felt freewheeling and best for a system where benders especially can improvise a lot of effects on the fly and even combat is very dynamic and action packed not "pick a move"

 

[CubicsRube]

I love pbta, but I'm not sure it is the right system for this.

Strangely enough, I feel like d&d 5e would work well for this. You could have classes to represent the bending styles (and some for mundane characters) and use a resource style spell system to determine what effects you can create and at what power level. As you go up in level you gain additional advanced abilities.

Anyway, I'm not designing the game.

 

[Aldarc]

I love pbta, but I'm not sure it is the right system for this.

Strangely enough, I feel like d&d 5e would work well for this. You could have classes to represent the bending styles (and some for mundane characters) and use a resource style spell system to determine what effects you can create and at what power level. As you go up in level you gain additional advanced abilities.

Anyway, I'm not designing the game.

I am of the starkly opposite opinion. 5e IMHO would be one of the WORST systems for AtLA. The benefit of PbtA games, which also addresses @Ace's above point, is that the various bending maneuvers could very well be represented by fiction first elements and game moves. If you are using earth-bending to stop a fire-bending blast, you are likely "Defying Danger" (to borrow a DW move) or the like and you are at greater liberty to describe the fiction of the attack than you would with 5e.

 

[CubicsRube]

I am of the starkly opposite opinion. 5e IMHO would be one of the WORST systems for AtLA. The benefit of PbtA games, which also addresses @Ace's above point, is that the various bending maneuvers could very well be represented by fiction first elements and game moves. If you are using earth-bending to stop a fire-bending blast, you are likely "Defying Danger" (to borrow a DW move) or the like and you are at greater liberty to describe the fiction of the attack than you would with 5e.

Normally I'd agree but I feel like the free-form rulings would be hard to adjudicate and feel less cool than a bunch of bending "spells" you can learn over time. But that's IMO

 

[Skywalker]

PbtA seems really strange for Avatar which always felt freewheeling and best for a system where benders especially can improvise a lot of effects on the fly and even combat is very dynamic and action packed not "pick a move"

Your impression of a single PbtA RPG may be limiting your view of what it’s capable of. Monster of the Week is part of the first generation of PbtA RPGs and is quite a bit older than Magpie’s RPGs (and even older than DW too).

For example, Masks, also by Magpie, is almost exactly as you describe here with lots of freewheeling with all superpowers and combat improvised on the fly.

PbtA has always stressed from its beginning that narrative triggers the moves not the other way round. But this has become more refined and supported as time has gone by.