Insane, Offensive, over the top.
…. and fun.
I wish I could just do short reviews with a few words. but I can’t. I have to go into detail and with this game details can be frightening ..a funny kind of poking fun at the world and my general beliefs frightening.
Macho: Last: Action heroes is social satire with dice and violence. The player characters are near unstoppable engines of destructions based on every trope from every action movie you’ve ever seen. You can be everything from “Die Hard” to James bond. All working for a SHIELD/ GI JOE/ Fringe division organization called the SOCIETY.
And with all that diversity character creation is simple. You pick a cliché which covers every action hero type (there are over a dozen), you divide up dice into your basic 4 attributes and skills. Then you pick powers called Para-Macho abilities that basically allow you to do the crazy stunts you see in action movies, buy equipment and you’re done.
The dice system is all D6 with Attributes and skills creating a dice pool you roll to do things. The more high rolls you get the better you do. Low rolls negate high rolls and that’s the basics. Very simple and it reminds me of a less confusing Shadowrun.
Players also gain and spend Macho Points for doing outlandish things. The crazier the stunt you pull the more macho points you can get. Those points can be spent to uses your Macho Powers and to help keep the character alive. Macho points are a unique and fun part of the game as it encourages action movie crazy and from what I see , role-playing.
The game also includes some world information that seems to be written to both offend and invoke laughter. I found myself laughing out loud more than once. My favorite being the enemy group P.E.E.E which is PETA and Greenpeace combined. And if the words fail you the art won’t. Why? Because nothing is as offense or funnier than clubbing demonic seals to death or fighting a KKK hood wearing robot
Now that I got my gushing out of the way I feel I have to say a few negative things about it. The Bin Ladenesque bad guys are in bad taste more than ever now and I think should have been removed.. The rules lack detail, not enough to make it unplayable but I usually like a little more meat with my game systems. The book itself is more mini-rpg than full and thought that’s not what I like I have to praise Channel M for being able to make a fully realized RPG in under 50 pages
Paranoia, Toon and other Rpgs have proven comedy and gaming need not be separate things. To that list add MACHO: Last Action Heroes.
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