Lights, Camera, Action 12 Cinema!

Do you enjoy playing games? Are you a fan of cheesy, over-the-top action movies? If your answer is “yes” to both of those questions, then you are in luck, as Corbin’s own Michael Ross has created a role-playing game that perfectly merges those two passions into one raucous, fun-filled experience.

“I have played RPGs since about the age of ten,” Ross explained when asked about his background in gaming. “My best friends and I played all through grade school, high school, and college. It has just been a hobby that I have always loved.”

For those not familiar with the concept of role-playing games, or RPGs for short, Ross described the experience as “cooperative story-telling.”

“One player usually runs the game,” Ross said. “They set up the obstacles, decide which mysteries to solve, or determine who the bad guys are. Everyone else plays a character, like in a movie.”

Ross explained that most RPGs will utilize dice, or some other mechanism, in order to determine what happens at certain points during a campaign. His new game, Action 12 Cinema, utilizes a specific type of dice, called a d12, which he is particularly fond of.

The story of how Ross ended up creating his own RPG goes back about 15 years, when he began playing regularly with a co-worker who was also a gaming enthusiast. That friendship led to the creation of a podcast about gaming called RPG Academy. The podcast quickly found a large audience of listeners who were eager to learn about various titles discussed on the show.

At this time, Ross and his wife, Valerie, were living in Ohio. The popularity of RPG Academy continued to grow, which led to the start of an annual gaming convention in Dayton called AcadeCon.

“I am the lead organizer,” Ross said of the con, which is still being held each year in Dayton. “It has allowed me to play a lot of new games, and meet a lot of people in the industry.”

In the process of podcasting and hosting yearly gaming conventions, Ross also learned a lot about the website Kickstarter.com, which is an online crowdfunding platform that he would eventually use to make his own game a reality.

“I have interviewed dozens of people who have done Kickstarter projects, so I started thinking that maybe I could do that too,” Ross said. “We have used Kickstarter over the years to help fund the con, but this was the first time that I had used it for an actual physical product.”

It took Ross about two years to complete his project, but in the end, he was able to generate enough financial support through his Kickstarter campaign to realize his dream of publishing his very own original RPG book.

So, what exactly is Action 12 Cinema all about?

“It is what is generally called a GM-less game,” Ross said of his creation. “That means that you don’t have one player who has to have all of the responsibility of creating the entire game world. It is a little bit more accessible in that you can just jump in and play. It is also a zero-prep game, which means that it will basically set itself up. Nobody has to spend a lot of time before the game making preparations.”

In terms of theme, Ross said that Action 12 Cinema was inspired by the “so bad they’re good” low-budget action flicks that he grew up watching, and still has a deep affection for to this day.

“This is not Star Wars, and it’s not Indiana Jones,” Ross explained. “These are the ‘bad’ versions of those movies, but they are also a lot of fun.”

A few hours of fun was always the main goal behind creating Action 12 Cinema, Ross said, adding, “I have always loved writing stories, and I have always been an avid television and movie watcher, so the idea of getting to create a world that players get to experience, or just a single character that I get to see go on a journey… I just think that is a great way to spend some time.”

Ross went on to say that his project could not have been funded without the support and contributions of several people.

“I knew that I had a fun game,” said Ross. “I just needed people who could help me make it into an actual book. I was lucky to have a built-in audience with our podcast and the convention, but you really can’t be successful unless you can bring other people in who will actually be attached to the project.”

Ross stressed the important role that art plays in a project like this, commending artists Zac Pensol and Michael Spivey with providing the fun and engaging illustrations found on the interior pages of Action 12 Cinema. He also credits cover artist Brian Patterson with creating imagery that really helped to sell the book to supporters who visited the Kickstarter campaign page.

“All of them were great to work with,” Ross said of his art team. “Art is very important in this medium, so I got very lucky there.”

Pensol talked about his involvement with Action 12 Cinema, saying, “Michael reached out to me, and touched on a type of art style that I really like drawing in. I have always had a fascination with drawing images that imply there is a context that you’re not seeing. You can tell that there is more to the story, but you’re only getting a section of it.”

“He sold it as storyboards, like you’d see in a film development process,” Pensol continued. “I just thought that was cool idea, and a fun idea to get to run away with.”

Spivey commented on his experiences contributing to the project, saying, “I believe it was November 2022 when Michael reached out to me about providing some art for the Action 12 Cinema game that he had written. I had provided a piece of art as a door prize for one of his AcadeCon game conventions a couple of years prior, and had wanted to do something else with him since then. So, in my mind, my answer was ‘yes’ before even hearing the details. The details were just the icing on the cake. He wanted storyboard/sequential-style pieces touching on various tropes in action cinema. If I had a wheelhouse, those things would be right at home in it.”

In the end, Ross and company were able to hit their target date of March 2024 to begin shipping out physical copies of Action 12 Cinema. After mailing between 150-200 books to Kickstarter backers, a few hundred copies will remain to be sold online and at various conventions throughout the remainder of this year.

For more information on Action 12 Cinema, and how to obtain a copy, go online to www.indiepressrevolution.com or www.therpgacademy.com.

More on the work of artist Zac Pensol can be found on his official Instagram page.