Zelda-inspired tabletop RPG Break!! is the next big crowdfunding hit

Tabletop roleplay is all about fantasy. Within the magic circle of the dinner table you can be whoever you want to be: a powerful wizard, a streetwise cyberpunk hacker or even a smarter than average bear. One of the reasons we buy TTRPG books is to validate those fantasies. It’s inspiring to have a copy of Dungeons & Dragons’ Player’s Handbook and find that fantasy version of yourself displayed on the page. But for Reynaldo Madriñan, co-creator of the Pause!! TTRPG, it was always hard to see themselves in those books.

Like many players of a certain generation, Madriñan grew up playing Japanese RPGs, such as The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy, and watching anime. Rarely, if ever, did the heroes he liked growing up appear in the pages of Western TTRPGs.

“It was almost like the old Simpsons joke — Why doesn’t mine look like this?Madriñan said in a recent interview with Polygon.

So Madriñan decided to do something about it.

Pause!! is the culmination of a decade-long effort to get what was in his head onto the page – a full-featured, pen-and-paper experience designed and written with his style of fandom in mind. The secret sauce, Madriñan said, is his close collaboration with co-creator Gray Wizard. The anonymous ‘art hobbyist and information design nerd’, as they describe themselves, has taken several rounds with Madriñan to get the look of the game just right.

Initially, Madriñan thought he’d found the right angle for the project in an early version of D&D released in Japan — a three-piece set known as the Rules Cyclopedia series first published in 1994. That original set was designed and built with Japanese aesthetics in mind, including brightly colored, cartoonish characters throughout.

“I remember seeing that and going, Oh, that’s ideal! That is what I want!Madrinan said. “It actually turned out not to be perfect because when I started it I thought: Yes, you know what? I think I want to go a little bit in that direction Secret of Mana here. Maybe a little of it Link to the past kind of thing.”

Image: gray wizard

Image: gray wizard

Image: gray wizard

Image: gray wizard

The result of that tinkering was clearly appreciated by the consumer. Madriñan’s Kickstarter campaign was fully funded shortly after launch and is progressing to $400,000 in the last few days – a hefty sum for an unproven franchise. It also doesn’t hurt that the entire gaming world is waiting with bated breath for the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdomjust the second major entry in the Zelda franchise to be released for the Nintendo Switch. Pause!! seems well suited to that particularly rabid audience.

“Regardless of exactly how it happened,” Madriñan said of the Kickstarter’s success, “I’m really humbled by it.”

The core book is mostly finished, he said, with delivery of the digital version expected in June, shortly after the end of the campaign. Later, in November, the physical product is expected to be delivered to the backers. However, this is just the beginning, as Madriñan has plans to support the system long after release.

But not at long, yes.

“I just want to go back to doing free things for the game every few weeks,” said Madriñan. “We’ve already planned it. We want to make supplements, and we’re going for smaller books and modules and things for supplements that are things that Gray and I can make and still be high quality, but also not take years and years.

You can find more at Pause!! on his Kickstarter page, where a digital copy will run you about $25 and a physical copy starts around $57. The promotion runs through May 17.