Russ Morrissey, the owner of EN Publishing and EN World (where I freelance), has a new project on Kickstarter, the Awfully Cheerful Engine! (ACE!). Russ created a new gaming system and agreed to stop by and discuss the engine, the format, and more.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Congratulations on all of the successful Kickstarters you’ve created in 2020 and this year. Since you’re launching an original system, let’s talk about that. What is the new project?
RUSS MORRISSEY (RUSS): The Awfully Cheerful Engine! is a tabletop RPG of action comedy coming to Kickstarter on May 18th. It’s fast, fun, and we guarantee you’ll have a laugh while playing it! It’s also a loving parody of many pop-culture tropes, from sci-fi franchises to fantasy epics.
EGG: You’re launching this RPG with a five-book set. That number sounds daunting for a new or existing system. Why five?
RUSS: I hope it’s the opposite of daunting! The rulebook is just 30 pages, and those are comic-book sized pages at that. So it’s more like 20 full-sized pages. It takes 37.5 seconds to learn the rules (we know that because we conducted extensive studies, which mainly consisted of picking a number).
Plus we’re supporting the game out of the gate with four wacky adventures – Sprits of Manhattan, Montana Drones and the Raiders of the Cutty Sark, Strange Science, and Beam Me Up. Each of those is about 30 pages, too, designed for one-shots or short campaigns. Great for pick-up games, conventions, online games, or even just when the regular GM can’t make it!
EGG: You’ve had success with 5e products in Patreon and your own systems like WOIN and Simply 6 that you’ve used for the Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD RPG. What inspired you to create a new system?
RUSS: WOIN is a little more crunchy. I wanted to write a light game designed for people who want to pick up a game and play it without having to learn anything – you know, new-player friendly. And I wanted to write something with online gaming and streaming in mind.
EGG: The copy includes words like “homage” and “love-letter to 80s roleplaying games” to describe the game. What properties is ACE! an homage to?
RUSS: Ghostbusters, Danger Mouse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Bill & Ted, Rick & Morty, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future… so many things! It’s going to tickle a lot of peoples’ nostalgia genes! We’re talking action comedies, cartoon mayhem, kids on bikes, wacky scientists, aliens, crimefighters, starships, you name it!
EGG: You have a foreword by Sandy Petersen. Why was Sandy the right creator for the ACE! foreword?
RUSS: Sandy Petersen was one of the creators of the original Ghostbusters RPG in the 80s. That system has been a huge influence on my game design, from WOIN to Simply 6, to the Awfully Cheerful Engine! It was the first ever dice-pool system, and I love dice-pool systems. Especially ones which only use d6s so I don’t have to count too high. Plus, even more importantly, there’s that irreverent, casual, vaguely absurdist tone which makes it so easy to read. I wrote to Sandy telling him about the game I was writing, and how influential his work was on it, and he was super supportive and said yes right away. I didn’t even have to talk him into it!
EGG: You’re offering a compatibility license so fans, correct?
RUSS: I believe that a supported game is a successful game. The license allows anybody to publish ACE! compatible material for free or for sale. The license is free to use, and you get a snazzy logo you can whack on your books! While we plan to support the game with a new adventure every couple of months (I’m already planning post-apocalyptic mayhem, accidental anthropomorphic animal heroes, and a Pratchett-esque D&D parody), we really hope that other creators will make adventures of their own.
EGG: How does the ACE! system work?
RUSS: It’s very easy. You can play anything from a talking animal to a monster to a grizzled detective or an astronaut. Your character sheet is an ‘ID Card’ and it’s about the size of a credit card. It’s not a real credit card though. You can’t spend it. I know, I tried. Doesn’t work. You have four stats – Smarts, Moves, Style, and Brawn – and when you want to do something you roll a number of dice equal to your stat. Also, one of those dice is the Calamity Die and if if you fail and that rolls a 1, your so-called ‘friends’ get to decide what hilarious thing befalls you. That’s pretty much it.
EGG: Let’s switch gears from ACE! to your big 5e project, Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. For those that don’t know, what is it about?
RUSS: That’s coming later this year. It’s a standalone version of 5E designed for folks who have played the original 5E (O5E) for a while and who would enjoy a little extra depth to the ruleset in terms of character customization, a full exploration pillar and journey rules, and some more fun options in combat and elsewhere. It’s fully compatible with O5E, so you can take the latest adventure and run it with the Level Up rules.
EGG: How is Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition coming together?
RUSS: The core rulebook is about 80% written now, and the Monstrous Menagerie about a third, and the art is flooding in at a rate of knots. Both books have begun layout now. We’re on track to have these ready later this year, and we’ve been running an extensive public playtest since mid-2020 (which you can still get in on!) We’re really excited about it!
EGG: Beyond ACE! and Level Up, what else are you working on?
RUSS: My novel, The Siege of Concordant, is coming out this year. We have more Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD in the pipeline, and for WOIN we have The Possessed, which is a horror adventure/sourcebook along the lines of The Exorcist. I also have several mini-quickstarters planned for the rest of the year, although after the current one (Into the Feywild) I’m taking a month-long break to squeeze Awfully Cheerful Engine! in, before returning to them in June. We’re also working on the Adventures in ZEITGEIST setting hardcover, which has been fully written, and is now in layout. Plus, of course, we have EN5ider – our 5E ‘magazine’ – producing mini-supplements and adventures weekly.
EGG: Thanks for taking the time to discuss this project. Where can fans follow your work and this campaign?
RUSS: My main TTRPG news website/community and primary hangout is EN World. You can also find my weekly TTRPG news podcast, or track me down on the Twitter. Alternatively, there’s the company website, and you can follow on with the projects we’re talked about here at [the Awfully Cheerful Engine! website] and [the Level Up 5e website].
The Awfully Cheerful Engine: An RPG of Action Comedy! from EN Publishing
“An action comedy RPG inspired by cheerful tabletop games of the 80s! With a foreword by Sandy ‘Ghostbusters’ Petersen, and VTT support!”
DISCLAIMER: I freelance for Russ Morrissey, but not on the projects discussed here.
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