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TOY TROOPERS

Wri�en by: Jakub Osiejewski


Thanks to the playtesters: Marcin for his Lone Brickhaus Deserter and Marcysia and her
Hardcore Mindy squad. Special thanks to Karol Woźniczak for his excellent mini-se�ing
Mini War and Marek Golonka for random ideas.
Editing: Aidan Novins
Art by: Anna Gorandso�r, Ania Jarmołowska. Some illustrations were provided by
public domain. In particular by bluebudgie, Wilfried Pohnke, 41300, Gianclaudo Spena,
Rocheli Tugera, Eduardo Davad of pixabay and other free image depositories. Other art
provided by Shu�erstock and Adobe Stock and is licenced using their respective licences:
Dan Kosmayer, Ezume Images, Peerayot, Kolesker Anastasiia, Rob Byron, blacksalmon,
simonXT2, Lifeinapixel, Sergey Ryzhov
Cover art: Max Shevchenko, courtesy of shu�erstock. Check out his portfolio at h�ps://
breakermaximus.com/
This book is dedicated to all environmental activists – heroes of the war on plastics.
©2021 GRAmel Books Piotr Koryś
This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle
Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and
trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission.
innacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for
purpose of this product.
Table of contents
Introduction 5 Flamethrowers and lasers 34
Plastic lives 5 Armor 34
Chain of command 6 Assorted gear 34
Auxiliaries 7 Vehicles 35
Toypunk technologies 7
Welcome to Toy World 8 Chapter 4: Toy Worlds 37
Content Warnings 11 Toy Zones 37
What do they do? 37
Chapter 1: Character Creation 10 What they look like? 38
Party concept 10 Can they be destroyed? 38
Choose Your Origin 11 Death and dying 38
Auxiliaries 11 The House 39
Bricko/Brickhaus peeps 12 The Boy’s room 39
Mindy doll 13 The Parents’ bedroom 40
Soldier archetypes 13 The Corridor 40
Service branches 14 The Big Room 41
Hindrances 18 The Kitchen 41
New Skills 29 The Dining Room 41
New Edges 20 The Living Room 42
The Girl’s Room 42
Chapter 2: Setting Rules 24 The Big Bathroom 42
Living Plastic 24 Storage room 43
One last drop 25 Two-car garage 43
That’s a big thing 25 The front porch 43
Imaginary explosions 26 The back porch 44
Range is range 26 The garden 44
Are Giants around? 26 Other places 45
Rip and Tear! 26 School 45
War is not hell 26 Library 46
Rules of War 27 Park 46
Promotion 27 The Shopping Mall 47
Air and Artillery support 28 Convenience Store 47
Challenges (Quick Encounters) 29
Chapter 5: Game Master's Toybox 48
Chapter 3: Gear 31 The Greens and the Greys 48
Currency 31 The main villain 48
Gear 31 Abusing Physics for Fun and Profit 49
Weapons 32 Gamemastering Toy Troopers 49
“Real-World” weapons 33 Mission generator 51
People and places 57
Tinseltown 57 Taking the supertoys down 77
London Town 58 Part Three: Kids, don't try this at home 77
Major Characters 59 Recipe for disaster, baby 78
Our family 59 Give the peace a chance! 79
Knight’s moves 80
Chapter 6: Plot point Campaign 62 Freeing Feldgrau 81
War is coming 62 Finale: Toy Orders 82
March out! 62 Alternate finales 83
Attack in the dark 63 Fate of the would-be queen 83
After the patrol 64
Investigating Outpost Two 65 Chapter 7: Enemies 84
Grand Theft Toy Car 66 Regular Soldiers 84
The Triassic Park 67 NCOs and Officers 85
Trouble in Tinseltown 69 Beasties 86
Act two: Redesigning Reality 70 Living critters 86
Customers’ revenge 70 Toy Size 87
Operation Unlimited Credit 71 Toys 94
A Day in the Park 72 Dinosaurs 96
The 3d printer arrives 73 Evil machines 99
Four Giants and No Funerals 74

4
Introduction
The plastic soldiers in the House have been and tabletop. But be prepared – the Grey Na‐
fighting on the tabletop for years… and de‐ tion has powerful, monstrous allies, mad tech‐
spite brief cease fires, there’s no end of con‐ nology, and nefarious goals.
flict in sight. Plastic toy troopers and other
“awakened toys” need to avoid the Giants and Once again armies of toy soldiers will fight for
conquer the strategically precious Toy Zones their honor, their green plastic land and for
because they grant toys their life and give their lives. The Green Nation needs you, Toy
them space to build. Large scale wars are Troopers! Face the invaders, the mercenaries,
fought just when the human beings turn their the monstrous dinosaurs, robots and perhaps
backs or leave the house. even diabolical dogs in battles inside living
rooms! But be wary – life of a cheap, mass
There are two main toy nations waging war produced molded plastic soldier isn’t as easy
from the rooms of two children – the Greens as it sounds.
and the Greys. The Grey Army were exiled to
the Sister’s Room when the kids grew up, ac‐ Plastic lives
cumulated enough toys, and there simply
wasn’t enough place for them in Boy’s Room. Most Toy Troopers didn't technically enlist.
The new Grey leader, Commander Feldgrau, You were probably “awakened”, in a plastic
wants more area for the Greys – he’s already bag or a toy box brought into a Toy Zone –
conquering new Toy Zones and consolidating but some Troopers may be born in the Zone,
his grip on the Sister’s Room. A lot of veter‐ and a handful can even be molded by the toys
ans claim that the war will soon begin anew, themselves. Many Toy Troopers don’t even
since in the living room there are already have a name when starting their boot camp –
plenty of patrols of Greys. Both armies con‐ some pick a Giant-sounding name at random,
stantly explore the house in search for the others can use just a number or code name,
new Zones and conflict now seems unavoid‐ but many adopt the unofficial nicknames as
able. Many Greys are also seemingly far too their real moniker. Either way, you’re a two
lenient with hiding from the Giants – they’re inches tall plastic trooper, and you do what
already building fortifications in the garden, troopers do best. Fight wars.
seizing supplies from the fridge and invading The main reason the toys fight is to control
the garage! the Toy Zones. A Toy Zone is kind of “home
It seems that the Green Nation once again base” for the Toy Troopers, a pocket dimen‐
must rely on its defenders. The brave, re‐ sion accessible to toys where real world laws
silient, plastic Toy Troopers. These green don’t work so strictly. When an ordinary toy
army men and women must face the greatest is brought to the Toy Zone, it becomes alive –
war machine that’s ever fought on the carpet a humanoid toy becomes more or less human,

5
can have their own life and function as a liv‐ the Real World toys are more “plastic”, but
ing being. Toy soldiers understand that still alive – you can put your weapon down or
they’re soldiers and believe they need to fight take your helmet off, you have no stand, and
their enemies. In these Zones plastic trees most of your gear works normally: in particu‐
grow, can be cut and you can use these plastic lar tanks and other vehicles.
boards to build a plastic house. The size of liv‐
ing toys adjusts to the “dominant size” of the However, Giants’ presence makes you feel
zone, and since most Zones in the rooms in‐ much more… toyetic. In the direct presence of
habited by children are controlled by troop‐ a Giant (and in some areas their presence is
ers, larger and smaller dolls are usually the constantly felt, their beds or places where
size of these army men – sometimes even they’ve worked for several hours), you are al‐
after leaving it. most completely a toy. You have a stand, your
equipment becomes a part of you, and you
Toy Zones allow plastic people to build their turn stiff. Even if a toy wanted to alert the Gi‐
own societies: they can heal, age, and grow, ants that it’s alive, it can move only outside
build towns, and try to build a life for them‐ their field of vision and it couldn’t be heard.
selves. Time flows erratically in Toy Zones,
which allows toy engineers to quickly build Chain of command
and repair machines or their scientists to re‐
search things faster. As a Toy Trooper you’re not a part of band of
adventurers, but an army. Army rank gives
No Giant can access Toy Zones. It’s com‐ you power over your inferiors, privileges, and
monly thought that they exist because the higher responsibilities. A typical grunt obeys
gateways to the Zones lead through the places their squad leader (often a corporal) who
not usually explored by Giants – to get into a obeys a sarge, who takes their orders from
Toy Zone you need to crawl under the cup‐ platoon leader, who relies on the officers…
board, behind the oven, or inside an air duct. who in turn have their own chain of com‐
It opens to a small “pocket world” adjusted to mand, up to the General and the Prime Minis‐
toys – many people assume that the toy who ter. You can’t bypass others in the chain, bar‐
finds it first can shape it somehow; for exam‐ ring special circumstances.
ple, a world discovered by toy pirate will open
to a sandy tropical beach. It’s not so easy to On the plus side, since most toys are “awak‐
create such a world, of course – not every ened” not born, most officers started out as
such obscure hideout hides a Toy Zone, some grunts – a private can become a supreme
are too small to sustain a settlement and most commander, in theory. On the other hand, in
have already been colonized. Toy Zones toys can actually start new families
– and these few toys born there have family
The Toy Zones have been occupied by various surnames… and as with military families ev‐
groups – the two dominant ones are of course erywhere, they often feel pressured to follow
the Green and Grey Nations, however there in the footsteps of their parents. When you’re
are with a handful of independent groups as “born” as a toy soldier, there’s little other em‐
well. The Grey Nation is expansive and looks ployment options for you.
for the new Toy Zones wherever it can find
them – even the smallest Toy Zone has great NCOs and Officers
strategic potential. The other independent According to an urban legend, in the Giant
groups include the Bricko people, the Mindy Army potential officers were asked “How
dolls, and other figures. would you dig a trench?”. Some students an‐
swered that they’d do it themselves, others
Outside the Toy Zones, there’s the terrifying drew plans of “optimal trench construction”.
Real World… and in this world, Toy Troopers Only a handful of candidates passed – these
are just the size of kid’s toys. A bathtub is a who had answered “I say ‘Sergeant, dig me a
massive lake, a flowerpot – an unassailable trench!’”.
fortress swarming with giant insects, and a
resting puppy – a terrifying massive beast. In

6
This shows the distinction between officers
and NCOs. Officers are supposed to plan and
carry out strategies. NCOs, sergeants are sup‐
posed to realizing these plans and organizing
labor, while privates carry it out. To become
an officer, you need to prove you have the
skill to plan and coordinate efforts.
In the Toy Army, you need to take an officer
course and a difficult examination after finish‐
ing the boot camp. You quickly rise in the
ranks and can use the extra pay. It’s easier to
become an NCO, but it also takes some self-
improvement, and sergeants are more often
promoted from within ranks.

Auxiliaries
Toy armies are not just plastic soldiers – there
must be civilians to keep the war going and to
defend, after all. And an army still needs
cleaners and cooks. Even in the Green Nation,
there are citizens who aren’t Toy Troopers.
When any humanoid toy is brought into a
Green-controlled Toy Zone, it becomes alive
(and usually it scales down to Trooper size). It
has no mystic bond with the Zone, but the toy erything is available in the Toy Zones, though
counts as a citizen now and that means they, – while the Giants make toy-sized TVs, they
too, can serve in the army. After all, the doll in seem to be severely lacking in toy television
nurse garb has now her own personality, and cameras or transmitters, for example. As a re‐
she simply might not like being a nurse. sult, most of the signal is just grey (or perhaps
A lot of the civilians provide services for the green) static. Still, many toys have a surpris‐
army, but there are also some independent ing degree of skill in engineering. The largest
settlements – though many maintain their in‐ Toy Zones even have universities to train
dependence simply by providing some crucial technicians – though they seldom have more
service or bribing one or both Nations with than a dozen students at a time.
useful loot and devices. The most notable is Many inventions used on the battlefield make
Tinseltown, providing the toys with custom- use of the Giant devices, from the non-sen‐
made entertainment. tient toys like balls, to repurposed tools or
In both Green and Grey Nation soldiers who household objects like rubber bands. Other
aren’t toy troopers are referred to as “auxil‐ toys exploit the physics of Toy Zones. For in‐
iaries”, since usually they serve as support. stance, if a toy car can transform into a real
The most common type of auxiliary is proba‐ car, it can also be taken apart in the Toy Zone
bly a Bricko (or Brickhaus) guy or gal, with and repurposed as a power generator. Open
the fashion Mindy dolls being second most flames are discouraged in Toy Zones, but
popular. since Toys act as humans in there, sometimes
they need a source of warmth and light too –
Toypunk technologies which is also why many Toy Troopers also
end up looting water from kitchen or one of
You are small, just about 2” (5 cm) tall. In the bathrooms. Wind-up technologies are also
Toy Zones you’re able to live in a world that’s quite popular, and they seem to last a lot
cut for you – you even have access to some longer in the toy zones.
technologies, like radios and cameras. Not ev‐

7
A lot of time, technology must be looted from Two, the Czech classic Good Soldier Švejk,
the Real World – even simple electronics like Heller’s Catch-22 and weird pulp war stories
watches and calculators are useful, as are in the vein of Dog Soldiers.
spare metal parts. These objects are often
found in the mysterious Garage or the Out‐ This is a comedic pulp war adventure starring
doors. Of course, the looting must be curbed toys. We’re replacing the brutality of the real
and controlled – Giants might assume that war with the absurd antics of the little toy
they’ve lost a sock or a single screwdriver people… But there’s still plenty of opportu‐
head from a set, but a missing cellphone nity for action and an occasional bout of hero‐
would make them search every corner of the ism. We’re writing this setting to be kid-
friendly, but not necessarily “just for kids”. It’s

Welcome to Toy World


House, possibly disturbing Toy Zones.
still about war, and toys will die and brutally
conquer other toys.
Here are some major themes of this setting:
Toy Troopers is a setting for Savage Worlds • Expendable? Hardly. You are an or‐
Adventure Edition drawing from fairy tales dinary grunt, quite literally a dime a
like Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Nutcracker, nov‐ dozen (okay, probably around 30 cents
els like Terry Pratchett’s Bromeliad and The per 12, but that’s including tax, and
Carpet People, movies like the Lego Movie, maybe if you bought larger quanti‐
Wreck-It Ralph, Gnomeo and Juliet, Honey, I ties…). Anyway, you start out in boot
shrunk the kids, Toy Story and Small Soldiers camp, same as everyone else – you
or the cult Polish comedy Kingsajz. Of course, need to earn your chevrons! This does
the biggest influence was the semi-forgotten not mean that you’re literally the same
series of old video games called Army Men as your fellow troopers – your person‐
and its numerous spinoffs and imitators like ality might matter quite a lot. Express‐
Toy Soldiers, as well as Micro Machines. ing yourself and establishing your
However, this is also a war-themed setting. identity could be an interesting sub‐
It’s based on adventure war stories like Cap‐ plot in Toy Troopers campaigns.
tain America (or the movie adaptations), the • Tiny wars, great deeds. So, you’re
Polish adventure series Four Tank Men and a two inches tall and climbing the
Dog, the movie How I Unleashed World War kitchen table can be an adventure by

8
itself… but that does not mean you are
not saving the world or multiple
Content Warnings
Potentially controversial topics you might
worlds as well! Just your size trans‐ consider including in your campaign are
forms a garden into a jungle, a space themes like nationalism, patriotism, war ex‐
under the bed into a secret base. You periences, matters of identity, family, capital‐
will explore fantastical landscapes and ism and consumerism, obedience, and blind
battle weird creatures. trust in authority.
• We have our job; the kids are just Before playing, discuss the level of violence
there. In general, Toy Troopers don’t you’re comfortable with: if you’re GM-ing for
care much about humans. Any layer of younger players, ask them if they’re okay
“this is all a metaphor for brother-sis‐ with toy characters being hurt or hurting liv‐
ter rivalry” is entirely up to the Game ing beings like insects, rats, or larger crea‐
Master. Unlike in many inspirations, tures.
the soldiers (the PCs) are the stars
here. You can use your own family in‐ The campaign can also involve themes of dis‐
stead of our sample one – that’s why crimination, identity and nature of war and
we don’t use names. bodily limitations.
• Violence or playtime? Toy Troop‐
ers is based on cartoons, but also
well… as any parent can attest there’s
no limit to which the toys can get
smashed to pieces. The basic (but op‐
tional) system of injuries of plastic sol‐
dier can be pretty unforgiving. Your
campaign of Toy Troopers can be
very kid-friendly… but it doesn’t have
to be!
• Fantastic war tales. Even consider‐
ing the war is fought by tiny army
troopers, it starts pretty normal… and
goes weird quickly. Giant insects?
Savage bears? Dinosaurs? Giant ro‐
bots? This war goes off the rails. It’s a
bit tongue in cheek, but you can use
any opportunity to use fantastic
scenery.
• Not so different. This isn’t a war be‐
tween Good and Evil – both the Green
and the Grey armies are made from
the same molds. Toys do bad things for
the same reason humans do – for the
lust of power, money, or other per‐
sonal gain. And soldiers – people with
power – still need their honor and
courage.

9
Character
creAtiOn
As usual, we’re starting by creating a charac‐ NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer) –
ter. We assume that the player characters are Squad Leader, typically a corporal or a
all Toy Troopers serving in the Green Army – sergeant. The players have their char‐
if you want to play with other types of toys acters as ordinary privates, and the re‐
using the rules below, go ahead, but the rules maining grunts are Extras… But all the
and adventures might not fully support this. players can create these allies them‐
We’re giving you some other character con‐ selves, giving them nicknames (and
cepts, to play out “toy wars” as you wish, possibly rolling on the Allied Person‐

Party concept
though! ality table) during the first session.
Don’t forget about them, the players
(not just the leader) command them in
combat, and these Extras can always
chime in with helpful advice or even
Before you start creating your individual Toy step in if one of the main characters
Trooper, first talk together with other players moves to the great trash bin in the sky.
and the GM about your team and adventures
you want to play out. War-themed role-play‐ • If you don’t want other soldiers taking
ing games work best if the players are mem‐ spotlight from the heroes, you have sev‐
bers of the same unit, and one of the charac‐ eral other options. They can be a crew
ters is the leader. of a vehicle – there are 3-5 soldiers per
tank, for example. Toy planes are larger
This should not mean that this particular on the inside: they can take in two pi‐
player has to boss other participants around – lots, a bomber/navigator, one or two
keep this in mind especially when playing gunners and a flight engineer (and you
with young children. Out of character, the can add some air crew, if you wish).
players can argue and plan, and the leader
makes the decision in the game world. • The player characters can all serve in a
small special team. Scouting patrols
• The most common setup is an in‐ can be smaller and it’s a good excuse to
fantry squad, commanded by an involve player soldiers in all sorts of

10
Green, not red, white and blue
The Green Army isn’t really meant to be a parody of a single specific armed force. I’m using
the NATO ranks, and since I’m writing in English, they correspond to the US Army, but it’s
not the only inspiration. For example, being raised on the old Warsaw Pact films, I imagine
tanks as shaped as T-34s. Likewise, Greys aren’t any specific “hostile force”, despite a couple
of jokes here and there.
Aim towards whatever armed force you feel most comfortable with. And remember, this
game is a gentle parody. Your own knowledge of military protocol should be used to enhance
the fun everyone’s having. Remind the players to use their own familiarity with real armies
to make the game more amusing, not lord their military knowledge over others.
It’s also worth mentioning that individual toys might be prejudiced against other toys – but
their shape and coloration usually has nothing to do with it. Green Army welcomes both
army men and army women in their ranks, as well as toys who don’t fit into this division –
and there are quite a lot of them.
strange events. Conversely, garrison human beings, this means that they’re able to
forces in Toy Troopers can be smaller have plastic children of their own. Time is
– player heroes can guard a specific weird in Toy Zones… and so a handful of
place or man a piece of artillery. Army Brats grow up and join the army, de‐
spite the Giant kids still going to the same el‐
• The player characters can also start as ementary school!
elite soldiers – the entirety of a
squad, possibly commanded by an • Army Brats have had actual childhood
officer instead of an NCO. You’ll find and start with d4 in Anthropology.
examples below. Alternatively, they
can be a “special task force” – essen‐ An even smaller amount of Toy Troopers
tially, regular grunts assembled to‐ count as Crafted (or Remade) – they’re
gether (possibly including civilians) to molded by other toys, usually in Toy Zones.
Sometimes even they’re recast troopers using

Choose Your Origin


perform a specific task.
plastic of the fallen comrades. They’re some‐
what weird, spaced out, but very loyal to their
side.

Most of the army men and women in the • Crafted Toy Troopers start with 2 ex‐
Green Army are Troopers – tiny plastic sol‐ tra Advances, but are automatically
diers, who, like SWADE humans, receive one Loyal to their unit, and must pick an‐
extra Edge. Apart from that, you need also to other Minor physical Hindrance re‐
consider how you arrived in the Toy Zone. flecting non-professional molding.

The vast majority of Toy Troopers are Enlisted Auxiliaries


– they’re “awakened” toy soldiers. Other toy
soldiers gather them when Mom and Dad buy Occasionally, toy troopers recruit auxiliaries,
them for the kids, and bring them to Toy other toys and toy-like characters. They’re
Zones, where they activate, loyal to their side. rarely regular troopers, and tend to be spe‐
cialists, but nonetheless they can fight on the
• Enlisted Toy Troopers can move out frontlines as well. The vast majority of Auxil‐
of the field of vision when Giants are iaries are Enlisted, but they also can be Army
present – other Toy Troopers are help‐ Brats or Crafted – the last ones might reflect
less 1” away from a Giant. even something humanoid and made from
scratch!
A small amount of Toy Troopers are Army
Brats. Since in Toy Zones soldiers function as

11
It simply feels unfair to set the game in a
world of living toys and force you to play only
Bricko/Brickhaus peeps
One of the more popular toys to join the
one sort of a toy. The player can create their Green Army are Brickos – little figures of as‐
own toy profile, balancing it to +2. The final sorted people performing a given job, used
Size of a toy shouldn’t be larger than +3 – with modular plastic brick sets… very similar
larger toys are “adjusted” to the Toy Trooper to their Central European competitors from
size. Even a tall and slim Mindy Doll can end Brickhaus. Despite their protests to the con‐
up being 2” tall if she is awakened inside a trary and frequent bickering, thanks to influ‐
Green-Nation-controlled Zone – and if a Gi‐ ence of Green Toy Zones adjusting them to
ant found them, they’d think “who painted similar size, both groups are virtually indis‐
this toy soldier?”. There are NPC toys that tinguishable. You can pick Small to be sized
weren’t awakened in the Trooper-controlled closer to the Bricko guy or Brawny to be a
Toy Zones – they can retain their own size, as Brickhaus figure.
seen in the bestiary on page 80.
• A builder, not a sneak: Stiff
Auxiliaries are almost always affected by the joints and bright colors make
Plastic but human setting rules (some‐ them unfit for sneaking
times they can be wooden or made around… but instead
of cloth, but the rules are roughly they know well how to
the same). They also need to be build things not only
“mostly human” – a humanoid out of bricks. Repair re‐
superhero turtle or a cyborg are places Stealth for them
okay, but robots or cartoon ani‐ as a Core skill. If you re‐
mals might awaken as non-sapi‐ ceive Repair as a Core
ent creatures. skill from another pack‐
No matter whether you’re a age, replace it with
magical fairy, a superhero or Thievery or Electronics.
a wizard – Auxiliaries • Everything clicks to‐
can’t have Arcane gether: Bricko people
Backgrounds. The Toy learn how everything
Zones transform characters matches and has its own
into people. However, with the GM place in society. This innate
approval, some toy features can be sense of engineering re‐
bought as Powers from the Super sults in them starting with
Powers Companion, provided that d6 in Smarts (and being
they make sense (Interface for an edu‐ able to raise it to d12+1).
cational doll or non-lethal Ranged
Attack using water for a mermaid that • Everything is awe‐
stores water in her body). some: The Brick guys are
generally a peaceful bunch enjoying
However, any Tricks based on your toy life. The PC has a Minor version of the
features have a +2 bonus… but this also Pacifist Edge – which also annoys his su‐
can apply to your enemies too who periors. You can exchange this for a simi‐
exploit your weakness. lar Hindrance, like Yellow or Hesitant.
Below you’ll find two most • Repairable: In the Real World it’s
common toy “types”: easier to repair you since you’re built
of smaller pieces. It’s generally easier
to find spare hands or legs. You can
make a free Repair roll to Support
anyone fixing you.

12
• Thematically appropriate: Bricko • Activist: During your Boot Camp or
guys and gals come in wide variety of in your spare time you picked up a po‐
social roles, costumes, and knowledge litical cause – even though toy politics
of their job. Their society and mindset seem strange. Perhaps you’re a hu‐
are more similar to that of the Giants, manist, believing that Giants must be
and thus they start with a free d4 in studied and toys should take care of
Anthropology (d6 for Army Brat their children, perhaps you’re a paci‐
Brickos). fist rejecting the military society. This
can draw ire of your superiors. Pick a
Mindy doll mental Hindrance reflecting your de‐
A distant third type of toy are the “Mindy” votion and roleplay it.
fashion dolls. When they’re brought into a
Toy Trooper-controlled zone, they shrink to • Altruist: This idealist believes that no
their size. Perhaps in the past, some generals toy should be left behind. Regardless
thought the fashionistas would make great of what she thinks of Giants and
nurses – or maybe they’d be as great at every‐ Greys, at least she will respect civil‐
thing as the legendary original Mindy was. ians and possibly wildlife. She believes
that the duty of the Green Army is to
Either way, Mindys (who do not all share the preserve peace and discovery. Persua‐
name, appearance, and identity) and their rare sion, perhaps even Performance and
male partners Chucks are, like all toys, indi‐ Edges like Work the Room will be use‐
viduals. Some have joined the Boot Camps ful for you.
and wanted to be sent to the frontlines to de‐
fend the Green Nation. Others might resent • Boisterous Fighter: There’s a reason
the Greens for animating them as a small, un‐ you’re in the army – you just love to
stylish figure. fight! A dose of adrenaline makes your
plastic blood warmer! War is not just
• Attractive: Mindys tend to be good bloodshed, it’s a high adventure… and
looking (as per Attractive Edge) by the you want everyone around you to
Toy Trooper standards. Some might not know it! Your Edges like Bolster and
be, due to bad molding or just wearing Killer Instinct will come in handy
plaid shirts, glasses and ponytails – they when it comes to blows.
can swap it for any Novice Edge.
• Chronicler: Green Nation has some
• Graceful: Chucks and Mindys are media – occasional newspaper or even
somewhat willowy and used to tiptoe‐ a film reel. Your duty – whether or‐
ing. They start with Agility d6 and can raise dered or self-imposed – is to make
it to d12+1 without Legendary Edges. your unit remembered, possibly even
famous. You’ll write stories, create
• Willowy: The fashion dolls tend to be photos, and record your trooper’s
on the tall and slim side – this reduces saga. You can use Performance for
their Toughness by –1, and they subtract your storytelling both on paper and in

Soldier archetypes
–1 from Vigor rolls to resist Fatigue. person.
• Coward: Everyone’s a coward in the
army. Some are just more afraid of
their NCO than of the opponents.
Now when you know what your hero is, it’s Luckily, you have some strong surviv‐
also time to think what he’s like. Here’s a list ing instincts, and when push comes to
of archetypes and personality traits based on shove… you are not there. Cowardly
war movies, books, and comics. Mix and soldiers tend to be Hard to Kill and
match ideas freely. Lucky. I mean, these cowards who do
survive.

13
• Explorer: The Real World is fascinat‐ • Leader: A good leader doesn’t have to
ing. There are so many things in the be particularly intelligent, charis‐
House or the Outside and you want to matic, or quick-witted. A good leader
witness them and understand how is simply a person that knows when to
they work. There’re societies of for‐ delegate. Still, Leadership Edges will
gotten toys, unknown species of in‐ be useful, as will be the Officer Edge.
sects, mysteries of the toolshed in the
garden… and that’s not even mention‐ • Naive Newcomer: Fresh soldier out
ing exotic places like School or the of boot camp. Naïve, wide eyed and ready
Parks! Get Survival and Woodsman – for anything… but his expectations of
and the new Navigation skill. glory rarely fit the harsh realities of the
toy wars. High Spirit is a must.
• Gearhead: Something flickers in your
mind when you see numbers and the • Role Model: You believe that you’re
mechanical elements seem to dance in here for a reason – and as a toy you’re
your hands. You’re a bona fide genius a companion to the Boy and Girl. It’s
when it comes to knowing how to use up to you to make them grow up to be
and build strange technologies. Pick decent people! You decided to “adopt”
McGyver Edge to be able to build these kids, and maybe even subtly in‐
“Toypunk” devices! fluence their lives… which is hard
with this war going on. Check out the
• Grim Fatalist: You have nowhere new Humanist Hindrance and An‐

Service branches
else to go. You’re stuck in the foxholes thropology skill.
and trapped as a tiny plastic figure in
an endless stupid war… and you voice
this openly. After all, the worst ene‐
mies aren’t on the other side of the liv‐
ing room, the enemies aren’t giant The bulk of the Green armed forces is the
beetles… the worst enemies are in the Army, that’s why they are called army men
headquarters. High Smarts and Edges and women. Toy ships are hard to find – but
like Iron Will might help you survive. there could be a toy navy out there in your
games, and there’s definitely a toy air force…
• Hotshot: You are determined to prove and maybe your games could feature even
your worth and show that you’re the some forces beyond that, like space force or
best of the best. Hopefully, you will be gendarmerie. Some campaigns might have a
transferred to an elite squad, like para‐ place for a civilian – usually a journalist, tech‐
troopers! In the meantime, just act like nician or a scientist attached to a specific unit.
you’re the biggest, meanest plastic toy
in the playground. Pick Intimidation After you’ve chosen what type of toy you are,
and Combat Edges as well as Arrogant select your service branch and a specialty
or Overconfident. within the branch. They grant you core skills
and adjust your starting gear.
• Hustler: You’re a rogue, more likely
to swindle the opponents in three- Army
card-ante than shoot at them. You’ve
distracted your enemies with magic Add Shooting and Fighting to your core skills.
tricks, cross-dressed as a Mindy doll Your Common Knowledge now includes mili‐
and always have at least one trick up tary protocol, basic technical operation of
your sleeve. Obviously, Persuasion army devices etc. – while Battle covers famil‐
and Thievery are useful, but without iarity of actual tactics but also customs and
Luck you’d be turned to plastic bits devices of other branches and specialties.
long time ago. Pick a specialty:

14
Short history of toy soldiers
Toy soldiers are presumably as old as soldiers themselves. Replicas of warriors have been
found in Ancient Egyptian tombs, and in the Iliad, warriors are mocked as ‘toy soldiers’.
Wooden figures of soldiers have been around forever, found in graves and archeological digs
world wide. They’ve long been one of the most iconic toys even before the mass production.
With the arrival of industrial production in the 18th century, children – mostly boys – could
easily buy molded lead toy soldiers, brightly painted. Some were flat, portrayed only in sil‐
houettes to make them more affordable. In the late 19th century toy soldiers became more
affordable – and eventually the cheap and lightweight hollow lead soldiers popped up.
Officers have been using such models for centuries to create all sorts of simulations of battle‐
fields. In 1913 the established SF classic H.G. Wells created one of the earliest sets of rules for
what is now called “miniature wargaming” for use with toy soldiers – indirectly inspiring
roleplaying games.
Toy soldiers became controversial in the twentieth century – they were often heavily used as
tools for propaganda in the days before WWI, and many activists have argued that they raise
children for war – leading many toy manufacturers to abandon military toy sets completely.
For example, some of the earliest sets of toy soldiers made of synthetic materials in Germany
portrayed the new weapons of the rising Third Reich. And during the WWII the production
of lead toys halted, as lead was more necessary for the war effort. By the 1950s most toy fig‐
ures were created using plastics. It was only in 1966 the UK and many other countries banned
the production of toys containing lead.
Most toy soldiers on the market curently resemble WWII forces and other 20th century con‐
flicts. Very few toy soldiers manufacturers try to portray advances in armor or weapons –
although scale models (1:12 or smaller figures) move with the times. Some portray historical
armies or groups like “cowboys and Indians”. Very rarely, though, manufacturers create army
women.
There are many varieties of toy soldiers. The model companies create the most detailed, real‐
istic sculpts… and many are pirated by the unscrupulous toy manufacturers. The cheaper the
toy, the less detailed it is.

tions are usually not permanent, toy infantry


Tank Crew needs to find useful vantage points and Toy
You are one of a crew of an armored vehicle, Zones. Can encompass Marines.
usually a tank. The tank needs a driver (who
can also operate a machine gun), a gunner, and Core Skills: None, but they receive the Sol‐
a commander, who organizes the action of the dier Edge.
troopers, points the targets, and often operates
the radio. Many tanks have also additional Gear: Assault Rifle and 2 spare magazines,
loaders who Support the main gunner. helmet, 3 grenades, canteen, knife, 1 P-ration.

Core Skills: Driving, Repair. Medic


Medics are there to patch up soldiers. They need
Gear: Tank (or other vehicle), communicator (and have) basic training in both actual medicine
(a radio or a helmet), heavy pistol. to patch soldiers in Toy Zones and in making
emergency plastic repair in the battlefield.
Infantry
Ordinary grunts. Their task is that to occupy Core Skills: Healing, Repair
area and hold it, and so they can often serve
as garrisons. Since Toy Troopers can’t usually Gear: Assault Rifle, canteen, knife, 1 P-ration,
dig their way through tabletops and fortifica‐ medical kit.

15
Gear: Toolkit, heavy pistol and a spare maga‐
Scout zine.
The task of a scout is to… scout. To look
around for any trace of the enemy and warn
your force of their presence, to get the lay of
Elite infantry
the land – and the presence of Giants and gi‐ These soldiers are often promoted after a cou‐
ant animals. Many scouts operate in small ple of missions. They could be selected on
groups or on their own. their own and developed later, or GM might
decide that they’re available only if the party
Core Skills: Driving, Navigation starts at Seasoned rank.
Gear: Basic Rifle and 2 spare magazines. hel‐
met, canteen, knife, 2 P-rations, compass. Sniper
The marksman is a person specialized in tak‐
Technician ing out important targets, like officers, spe‐
cialists… and other snipers. A sniper needs
In the real world, most of the army is there to
maintain tools for infantry. In the tabletop high Shooting, but also needs to sneak out on
world, usually there’s a cadre of toy troopers their own.
trained to operate devices. Core Skills: Repair, Intimidate
Core Skills: Repair, Science Advancements: Shooting d8, Marksman,
Gear: Toolkit, light pistol and a spare maga‐ Trademark Weapon, Spirit d8, Level-Headed.
zine, knife. Gear: Sniper rifle and 2 spare magazines, hel‐
met, 3 grenades, canteen, knife, 1 P-ration, a
Artillery sidearm (light pistol)
You can man a toy cannon, but most of the
time you work with toy-punk contraptions, Paratrooper
like repurposed giant-scale nerf guns or water Toy Troopers might have been molded for the
balloons. job (with a circle on the top of their head).
Core Skills: Driving, Repair They come prepared but it’s not hard to im‐
provise a parachute. There are three kinds of
paratroopers: Commandos (see below)

16
trained for crucial operations, operating in Core skills: Survival, Navigation
small groups, point guard who scout for regu‐
lar infantry, and airborne rangers – who use Advancement: Athletics d8, Stealth, Piloting,
dozens of soldiers to quickly deploy in the Healing d6.
area. Green Army is a small force… and a Gear: Submachine Gun, Parachute, grenade,
paratrooper can serve in either of these roles. 2 P-ration, knife.
Core Skills: Navigation, Survival.
Navy
Advancements: Athletics d8, Stealth, Thief/
Woodsman, Survival. Navy troops receive Shooting and Boating as
Core Skills. A sailor also adds Repair and Sur‐
Gear: Submachine Gun, Parachute, grenade, vival, while a naval officer receives Battle and
two P-rations, knife. Science (if he chose the Officer Edge). A petty
officer (“bosun”) might have Battle and Intim‐
Commando idation if you picked the NCO Edge.
Special forces are troops sent for crucial mis‐
sions that require speed, precision, and effi‐ Air Force
ciency. Commandos usually operate behind en‐
emy lines where they perform delicate recon‐ Air Force receives Repair and Navigation as
naissance, attack main targets, rescue hostages, Core Skills.
and destroy tactical obstacles. Aircrew receive Electronics and Piloting, pi‐
Core skills: Repair, Survival. lots have Piloting and Shooting, while wing
commanders have Piloting and Battle. Ground
Advancement: Stealth d8, Assassin, Agility, mechanics can use the Techie profile above.
Scavenger. To be a pilot, you need an Officer Edge, most
pilots should start as Seasoned.
Gear: Submachine gun and 2 spare maga‐
zines, knife, 2 P-rations, compass.
Civilian
Military Police Usually, a civilian should pick two extra skills
In theory, the military police provide law en‐ as their core ones to reflect their background.
forcement to soldiers and areas under direct For example, a scientist can pick Science and
military control. Some real-world armies used Research, a historian might pick Battle and
this formation as a feared tool of government Academics, lawyer might have Academia and
control. Usually, though, it’s just a single over‐ Law, reporter has Journalism and Academia,
worked officer investigating complaints and while a doctor has Healing and Science.
some of their men – and they’re quite often in‐
volved in real combat, especially in urban areas. You can reflect Commission for doctors,
nurses, or legal consultants (real-world
Core skills: Research, Intimidation armies have a surprising number of lawyers)

New and altered


simply by picking the Officer Edge.
Advancement: Menacing, Streetwise, Per‐

Hindrances
suasion d8, Band of Brothers
Gear: Submachine gun and 2 spare maga‐
zines, knife.

Search and rescue (CSAR) Some physical Hindrances like Short or Ugly
This elite team is usually deployed to find and might reflect bad molding (cheaply made in
return comrades lost or evading contact with China). Green Army has some standards – it
the enemy. As any Giant kid will attest, it’s doesn’t accept Young or Elderly soldiers.
hard to find lost toys. Often, they are actually However, civilians might still have them, and
air force soldiers rather than infantry.

17
some Army Brats or veterans might, for in‐
stance, hang around their family.

Amorous (Major)
Life of a plastic toy can be sad and lonely
sometimes. Your hero is thus prone to falling
in love and will do anything for the people
that match his preferences – often, it’s the op‐
posite gender, but things are not so clear-cut
with plastic toys. This is evident in your be‐
havior, but you can be courteous or shock‐
ingly open, as long as you role-play it.
Select a very wide category of people like a
gender, or maybe “all people who drive vehi‐
cles”, “any performer”, or “all redheads”. You
have a –1 to resist Tests they make against you,
and they also add their bonus for being Attrac‐
tive or Very Attractive to most of their Tests.

Big Dumb Head (Minor)


Usually this is a negative racial trait. Your
head is big, at least half of your body mass.
Your enemies have no penalties for Called
Shots to your head, but you only receive +2 about the entire species or just the family. You
damage when your head is targeted with a usually just annoy your fellow toy troopers
called shot (your head is chunky). with conjectures and stories, but sometimes
you can put an entire squad at risk when you
Disaster Magnet (Major) want to examine something. You might even
Bad things that can happen usually happen to leave to take a close glance at a Giant from a
you. You tend to have the worst luck. You are safe vantage point!
usually picked to march at the head of the col‐
umn, and you are often bypassed for promo‐ Alternatively, you might see the kids (the Boy
tions (–1 to Promotion rolls). Additionally, and Girl) in the house as “your wards” and feel
non-sapient creatures tend to attack you first. that you’re somewhat responsible for raising
them. You might, for instance, decide to re‐
Gregarious (Minor or Major) move a violent video game from the house.
You are miserable when alone. You seek con‐
stant companionship, and are somewhat de‐ Lazy (Minor)
pressed when not talking with anyone, Your solider is averse to work… even though
whether friend or stranger. After a couple of some people can work for hours just to avoid
days of loneliness, you’ll risk your life just to something that could be done in 20 minutes.
talk to anyone, even a non-sentient toy. Your superiors will find out sooner or later, so
you have –2 to all Promotion rolls.
Effectively, this is autophobia – fear of being
alone, and so you subtract –1 from your rolls Loyal (Major)
if it’s a Minor trait or –2 if it’s Major when alone, This works like in the Core Savage Worlds
as per Phobia rules in SWADE. Note that you’re rules – but furthermore, you never leave one
not alone when surrounded by enemies! of your own on the field to suffer at the hands
of the enemy. You will even jeopardize the
Humanist (Major) mission to rescue a fellow soldier.
You have a strange fascination with Giants –
decide for yourself whether you’re curious

18
Never Surrender (Major) pology is more detailed: it allows you to pre‐
dict Giant behavior, because you have learned
Death before dishonor. You never retreat, and
you never give up on the mission until it is com‐ about these creatures though regular study,
pleted, even at the risk of your own life. Your im‐ reading books and watching movies.
mediate superiors must beat you in a Persua‐ For instance, while the Green Army has its own
sion (or Intimidation) check opposed to your bureaucracy, you might use this skill to remem‐
Spirit to force you to make a tactical retreat. ber what Giants do in the office or what a ‘pho‐
tocopier’ is. A lot of “book knowledge” of the Gi‐
Outdoors hater (Minor) ants can be treated as Academics, but you still
You prefer the insides of a comfortable house need Anthropology to interpret it properly.
or apartment. When outdoors, you grumble
and are annoying – additionally you subtract Navigation
–1 to resist the effects of weather, heat, cold, Navigation is not just a method to find your
and humidity. This applies to the Real Out‐ way. Remember, you are 2” tall, and see the
doors… so you have no problems with natu‐ world from the perspective of a tiny toy sol‐
ral-looking but still toyetic Toy Zones, but dier. Navigation allows you to determine po‐
you will complain in an underground base in sition, find a course and estimate where you
the garden! are, but it’s also a “terrain visualization” skill,
determining how well you orientate yourself
Panicky (Minor) in the “Real World”. In essence, high levels of
You are jittery – this might be a general ner‐ Navigation skill let you see the world from
vous disposition or a result of some experi‐ the perspective of a Giant.
ences on the frontlines. Usually this means you
have a just generally suspicious disposition. Photography
You sacrifice an action in the first round after This is a situational skill, used to operate both
someone attacks you – but only once per toy trooper-sized cameras but also to coordinate
combat. To put it simply: when someone tries efforts and operate large cameras seized by the
to shoot you, whether they hit or miss, in Green Army. It is optional and fairly narrow in
your next turn you lose an action to calm scope, so you might treat it as a specialty of
yourself down and you take a –2 to every‐ Electronics or conflate it with a player-created
thing else (multi-action penalty). After that, skill like Journalism. Remember that taking a
you are able to collect yourself for the rest of photo of an unmoving object should never re‐
quire a roll – check only if the PC is fighting,

New Skills
the encounter.
taking part in a high speed chase and details
will be important!

Toy Troopers uses the skill list found in reg‐


Altered Skills
ular SWADE… but it adds two major ones and Athletics
an optional third one. Pick Navigation as dis‐ Athletics is also the skill used by paratroop‐
tinct from Survival to know your way around ers. Roll to see whether you land in the de‐
the house, or Anthropology to learn to under‐ sired place, manage to open your parachute
stand Giants. on time and so on.
Anthropology Boating
Anthropology is a study of human beings, or Boating allows you to use toy boats and ships
as the toys call them, Giants. It also covers the (which are very rare but exist, in particular in
familiarity of the nearest available specimens the park), as well as the improvised rafts.
– the family whose house it is, their behavior
and personalities. There are things covered by Electronics and Hacking
Common Knowledge that toys have absorbed Electronics might apply to some toy-built
by their own lives and observations. Anthro‐ contraptions, but most of the time you’ll use

19
these skills to work with Giant-made comput‐
ers. Troopers seldom realize what is the pur‐ Edges
pose of a computer and many don’t see much No PC is allowed to pick Arcane Back‐
difference between a PC and a TV – both dis‐ grounds… it’s hard to say that toys can inex‐
play things that amuse Giants. Hacking re‐ plicably move have no magic – just that
flects the general understanding of computers there’s no “wizards”. Auxiliaries that are su‐
more than actual cyber-crime… but you can perheroes or wizards are just funny-shaped
still use it to try to do some low-grade shenani‐ people.
gans like using a computer to learn what Gi‐
ants searched for the other day. Note that be‐
cause of your unusual perspective, Electronics
Combat Edges
can also help you navigate inside a large elec‐ Aim for the Big One
tronic device, like an old-fashioned PC. Requirements: Seasoned, Agility d8+,
Shooting d8+, Rock and Roll!
Languages
All toys speak the same language – the same When you roll Shooting as a part of suppres‐
as the Giants, for instance if you’ve chosen to sive fire action, choose an enemy under the
set your game in the USA, it’ll probably be template. The result of that Shooting roll also
English. However, knowing other languages counts as a normal ranged attack against that
might be useful: English (if it’s not your na‐ creature. If you hit the enemy, you inflict nor‐
tive one), German, Japanese and Chinese mal damage, and he does not count into the
might all be useful when reading instruction enemies you can actually hit with RoF – and
manuals, for example. If your toy soldier in fact might be hit by suppressive fire again.
knows a foreign language, she should have a
good story on how she learned it – did you Cavalry
loot books from Giants’ library? Watched Requirements: Novice, Athletics d6+
four seasons of Karakuri No Tatakai when the
Boy’s friends came to visit? The current generation of Toy Troopers
doesn’t have much of riding experience, but
Occult you’re a throwback. You receive a +1 bonus to
Riding, as well as all animal-related Survival
In our core campaign this might have very
few uses, but in your game strange things and Science rolls. If you received Driving as a
could happen on Halloween. Many toys be‐ Core skill, you can swap it to Riding.
lieve that their animation is at least partly Note that this bonus does not just influence
magical, and others are simply superstitious. toy mounts – perhaps you tamed a mouse? If
This skill, limited by Anthropology, can also you pick it during the character creation, talk
refer to Giants’ superstition and beliefs. with the GM about your mount.
Repair You may also spend bennies to Soak the
This skill applies to both repairing equipment Wounds of your mount, using your Riding or
in the Toy Zone, fixing toys (including toy its Spirit, whatever’s higher.
troopers themselves!), but also to building im‐
provised devices. Shuffle and Disarm
Requirements: Wild Card, Seasoned, Im‐
Research proved Martial Artist, Fighting d8+
Most of the time, Research is made in the
Army archives; Hacking limits the die of us‐ Most soldiers need to make an Aimed Shot
ing Giant computers and phones. when they want to disarm someone, but
you’ve mastered the ancient art of shuffle.
When you make a Fighting-based Test in the
melee range, success means that apart from
making them Distracted or Vulnerable you
can also make the opponent drop their

20
Improved Suppressive Fire
Requirements: Novice, Agility d6+, Shoot‐
ing d6+
You know how to spray and pray – you cover
an area of a Large Burst Template instead of a
Medium one when using Suppressive Fire, us‐
ing the same amount of ammo.

Relentless Assault
Requirements: Heroic, Strength d8+, Fight‐
ing or Shooting d10+
Each successful Wound you deal to a single
enemy (whether melee or ranged) lowers
their Armor by –1 until the end of encounter.
Usually, they will need to heal or repair their
gear to recover fully. If you are wielding a
Real World weapon, you can even chip away
toy Heavy Armor – but not Real World Ar‐
mor.

Timed Counter
Requirements: Seasoned, Calculating,
Fighting d8+, Athletics d6+
You weave, dodge and parry blows coming
from enemies encircling you. Enemies who
weapon. If they rolled a 1 in their Agility roll were on Hold have –2 to attack you.
to resist, you can end up with their weapon in
your hands.
Weird Edges
Duck and Cover Bendy
Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+ Requirements: Novice, Agility d8+
If you are using Cover or lying prone, ranged You know how toys can be found in the ran‐
attacks against you are at –2 (in addition to dom places? Well that’s because, you remem‐
the penalties for existing cover). You also get ber that you’ve got no bones, and as a result
+2 to Evade. you can squeeze through any hole. You have
+2 to Athletics checks to squeeze through
Hack and slay bars, cramped tunnels. If you’re Small, usually
Requirements: Seasoned, Strength d6+, you succeed automatically.
Fighting d8+
Any “real world” melee weapon you wield has Plastic-Eater Lad/Lass
AP +4, and a Raise deals d8 (instead of d6) Requirements: Novice, Vigor d6+
damage. The weapon can be improvised, and In the Real World you still need food – you
you don’t have to make it yourself. can forage or loot the kitchen. Most plastic
soldiers need to eat P-rations or scrounge Gi‐
ant food up in the field (or eat a mosquito in a
pinch). You can sustain on any plastic sub‐
stance. Heck, you can even eat enemy’s gun.
The darker implications of this Edge are… let’s
move on.

21
Toy of a Thousand Faces
Requirements: Novice, Vigor d8+
Your face is generically molded, and you have
learned, via exposure to heat, that you can try
molding it yourself, altering your appearance.
Doing so requires a Repair roll (–2 if you’re
doing it yourself, –1 with a mirror) and a
source of heat. Critical failure means that you
managed to scald yourself – you receive a
Wound you can’t Soak, and you can’t try to
remold yourself until you heal this Wound.

Undetectable
Requirements: Novice, Stealth d6+
You are small, plastic, and wiry. Any oppo‐
nent that makes a Notice check to detect you
has a –2 penalty and subtracts the bonus pro‐
vided by any cover you’re using.

Social Edges
High-Techie
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d8+, Sci‐
ence d6+
Toy armies don’t have many soldiers ready to
experiment with the technology of Giants.
You’re one of them, a real cyber-soldier for Rank: NCO
the digital era. You know how actual comput‐ Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, GM’s
ers work, and thus have a +2 to Hacking and approval.
Electronics rolls. If you’re also Mr. Fix-it, you
also work faster when programming – which The hero has been promoted to the rank of an
is important when you need to jump on the NCO, sometimes due to skills and sometimes
keyboard to press the buttons. due to his experience. He gains +1 Toughness
to reflect his attitude and +1 to all Intimida‐
Rank: Officer tion rolls.
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, GM’s
approval. Leadership Edges
The hero has undertaken an OTC – officer Defend me!
training course and passed the exams. If there’s Requirements: Seasoned, Command,
a commission available, he becomes an officer. Battle d6+, Vigor d8+
He gains the lowest rank of an officer and is
given a frontline duty. Apart from status and When you take a Wound (you can Soak some
greater pay, all the +1 bonuses from Command of the damage, but you need to take at least
Edges are increased to +2. Finally, it allows you one Wound), you can point out a single ally in
to spend Bennies on Promotion rolls, for your‐ your Command Range. They can immediately
self and other members of your squad. make a Shooting roll with an additional –2
penalty against the enemy that just Wounded
you (provided that the ally is armed, can see
that enemy, etc.), even if it’s not their turn.

22
They can make just one shot and can’t use au‐
tomatic weapon.
Ram them!
Requirements: Seasoned, Driving (or
Boating) d8+
Famed commander
Requirements: Veteran, Battle d10+, rank You receive a +2 bonus when trying to Ram
of colonel. enemies – and your vehicle receives only half
damage when ramming other vehicles!
You’re a real commander of forces – even
though toy armies are generally small, your
tactical genius can be compared with com‐
Knee-driver
Requirements: Seasoned, Ambidextrous,
manders of Giant forces. You get 1 free Battle Driving (or Piloting/Boating) d8+, Shooting
reroll per Mass Battle, and you can even use it d6+
to reroll a Critical Failure.
You’re able to divide your attention between
Green Zebra driving and shooting. You ignore –2 multi-ac‐
Requirements: Novice, Battle d4+ tion penalty to Shooting roll if you’re making
a Chase action when driving a car.
You learned there is safety in numbers. Ene‐
mies halve their gang up bonus against any
Green Toy Trooper in your Command Range
(not an auxiliary or other ally). Your Wild
Card allies also gain +1 when they Support
their commander (not necessarily you) in
Mass Battles.

Professional Edges
Trademark Vehicle
Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Repair
d6+, Driving (or Piloting/Boating) d8
Pick one specific vehicle, like “our tank” or
“that red Flywheel car”. When you’re using it,
your Wild Die increases one type (usually to
d8, max d12) when performing any actions
(including Repairing it or Shooting the on‐
board weapons).

23
Setting
rules
This setting works well with the following tic. They’re still Flammable, but there are a
Setting Rules from SWADE: couple of situational rules they need to re‐
member as well.
• Creative Combat
• Fanatics • Plastic floats: Yup, you’re naturally
• Fast Healing buoyant. While you can’t drown, you
• Gritty damage (see below) might still have to make Athletics rolls
• Heroes never die (optionally, see War to maneuver.
is not hell)
• High adventure (see also Abusing • Ice cold: When exposed to cold, you
Physics for Fun and Profit on page become Stiff and can’t Evade!

Living Plastic
45) • Gritty Damage: All damage dealt by
actually living creatures (Giants, rats,
spiders), even indirectly, is Gritty. Yes,
this means you’re more likely to lose a
Your characters are effectively human for hand when a kid throws you from the
most extents and purposes. In the Toy Zones second floor than when you fall on
they function more or less like human beings, your own. War is hell. Sometimes it’s
needing food, water and sleep. A toy soldier better to just flee from bugs.
can take her helmet off, change her clothes • Living Plastic: In the Real World you
and go shower, for example. However, “living are effectively both “plastic” and
plastic” is still flammable. “flesh”. You can be Healed (within the
• Flammable: You automatically catch golden hour) or Repaired (at any time)
fire, and you can only put it out using – but both skills require different
the scenery. You always receive an In‐ tools. Healing does require toy
jury when you receive a Wound from trooper-sized medical kits (although
Fire. You can heal it normally in Toy Giant medicine can be used in a pinch)
Zones if you get there within the while Repair requires plastic repair
Golden Hour. tools, perhaps even an open flame or
Power Glue (cyanoacrylates for you
In the Real World – usually whenever you’re eggheads).
on a mission – toy troopers are animated plas‐

24
In the Giant Zones – usually when Giants are In case you’re asking – recording devices
nearby or in places when they are frequently have the propensity to malfunction or skip
active for a long time – toy soldiers have all when the Toy Troopers fight Toy Wars. As a
the above traits, but also gain the following result, moving toys are never prov‐
traits: ably recorded. No toy scientist has
• Stiff: Sometimes, plastic stands can investigated this phenomenon yet…
manifest around your feet! Either but maybe the devices are animated
way your Pace drops to 2 (in the table‐ too… and secretly on toys’ side?
top scale) and you have –2 to most Ath‐
letics rolls. You can’t Evade blasts. As‐ One last drop
sume that within one inch from a Use the Real World measurements
Giant you can’t move at all – for falling damage, then double
unless you’re Enlisted. it. A 2” tall Toy Trooper falling
• Fully Plastic: Gain +2 to from a 4’ tall kitchen table
shrug off Shaken and ig‐ only takes 2d6+2 damage, for
nore 1 point of Wound example. Don’t “translate”
penalties. You receive no the heights to toy scale – at
damage from Called Shots. least this is a small mercy of
You probably won’t have the square-cube law.
time to apply the Power
Glue, but as long as That’s a big thing
you’re in the Giant Zone The Real World was not built
it is the only way to be for the toys – quite the oppo‐
quickly Repaired. site. However, Toy Troopers are
• Molded: On the minus trained to use many Giant devices
side, the weaponry effectively and know how to wield
and other large gear oversized tools. The penalty for
you had on you be‐ using Giant tools is capped at
come a part of you. –2, and soldiers can some‐
Though you can times lift and use much larger
move and bend arms, you can’t objects than seems possible.
put your weapon away, and you have However, hauling Giant ob‐
penalty to rolls relying on manual jects almost always makes
dexterity, from –2 to –4, depending on you Encumbered, regardless of their weight.
your weapon. What’s worse, these
weapons work only against other ani‐ Toys are somewhat stronger than they should
mated toys, and are useless against be – multiply weight of ordinary objects only by
Real animals (except as a makeshift 100 to estimate their proportionate weight for
club). On the plus side, you can’t run Toy Troopers. This means that a single trooper
out of imaginary ammo and never could carry a plastic cup full of water without
have to reload them. problems! This is just a vague “guesstimate” –
you can learn more about it on page 46.
• Toyetic: You don’t need to eat, drink
or breathe! Of course, sometimes the actual roll to use the
object must be made by a commander of a
• Just a toy: Giants can’t hear you and larger group – to turn a human-sized wrench,
most non-toy behavior is unavailable for instance, you need dozens of Troopers
to you. You can sneak out of their vision, working together. The soldiers don’t Support
though. In the direct FOV of Giants you the commander, they just make the roll possi‐
become paralyzed and can’t move – but ble – and in such a case any relevant check is
the toys can talk to each other. limited by the Battle (or perhaps Persuasion
when dealing with civilians) of the leader.

25
Imaginary explosions
Toy Troopers’ weaponry can affect the real
world, to a degree. It can cause small damage,
and even Incapacitate insects or rats. There is
some impact, but it won’t start fires or perma‐
nently destroy most Giant-made objects. A
salvo of toy artillery on a desktop full of as‐
sorted elementary school homework will
spare the paper notebooks… but it can break
pencils, knock the pencil case off desk and
might cause an important note to go missing
(this is why kids might not be able to find
their homework). Instead of “destroying”
cover, toy weaponry merely blows it away.
Real World weaponry – mostly cobbled to‐
gether of spare parts does affect the Real
World normally. Luckily for the Giants, these
are mostly melee weapons.

Range is range
Well, 1” is 1” in the Real World. Sure, army
guys are on a slightly different scale than your
regular RPG minis, but the difference is negli‐
gible. Let’s just keep it simple.

Vehicle Scale Rip and Tear!


Sure, in the Real World the plane is three Living (non-toy) enemies can make an un‐
times larger than a trooper, but in Toy Zones armed Called Shot to an arm, leg, or hand if
it is the size of a real plane – and somehow, they’re small enough (having no Size penalty
they can transport a lot of soldiers and cargo. to hit a Size 0 Toy Trooper). If they deal you a
The crew can leave the vehicle and enter it de‐ Wound, they can simply tear off the extremity
spite it seemingly being too small for them. in question, and the unfortunate victim gains
Size of Vehicles might not correspond with the appropriate Hindrance. Luckily for Toy
the modifier to hit it, therefore. Troopers, this is fixable in the Real World.

Are Giants around? It’s enough to glue that limb on – this is a Re‐
pair roll made instead of Healing. That’s why
This should depend on the time of day – usu‐ many medics should be trained in Repair as
ally Giants are often indoors in the afternoon well. This can be made in the Real World even
and stay home at least five days per week. Our long after the Golden Hour has passed – and
sample family is a little bit more unpredictable you can use any piece of plastic that generally
than the average one, and the Toy Zones time fits. A limb of a fallen comrade can replace your
can flow a little more randomly. That’s why if own. However, once you’re back in a Toy Zone,
you’re not sure whether a human is around, the Golden Hour starts to flow.
you can draw a card – a Face Card means
they’re at home, an Ace means that they’re just
behind the corner, and a Joker is that the PCs
will soon be in their sight.

26
RANK TABLE Rules of War
BASED ON THE AMERICAN RANKS
These rules are more relevant to the heroes-
Army/Air Forces Navy as-soldiers side of the setting, rather than he‐
E-1 Private Junior Seaman roes-as-living-toys.
E-2
E-3
Private 1st Class
Lance-Corporal
Seaman 2nd Class
Senior Seaman
Promotion
E-4 Corporal Petty Officer 3rd Usually after a successful mission (often when
Class the character advances), a soldier can apply
E-5 Sergeant Petty Officer 2nd for promotion. You need a reason for it –
Class merely doing your job is not grounds for pro‐
E-6 Staff Sergeant Petty Officer 1st motion unless it’s something like “years of ex‐
Class emplary service”.
E-7 Sergeant First Class Chief Petty Officer
To apply for promotion, you need to make a
E-8 Sergeant Major Senior Chief Petty Persuasion –4 roll – you can make it yourself
Officer or it can be made by your superior officer to
E-9 Master Sergeant Master Chief Petty their superior, in writing or personally. A suc‐
Officer cess means you’re promoted, and gain a rank,
O-1 2nd Lieutenant Ensign and corresponding pay increase. If you don’t
O-2 1st Lieutenant Lieutenant (junior have the Officer Edge, you can’t spend ben‐
grade) nies on this roll!
O-3 Captain Lieutenant
O-4 Major Lieutenant Modifiers to the Persuasion roll stack with
Commander each other:
O-5 Lt. Colonel Commander • -2 if the mission was an easy milk run.
O-6 Colonel Captain • -2 if you advance from Corporal to
O-7 Brigadier General Rear Admiral Sergeant or appeal to enroll to OTC.
O-8 Major General Vice Admiral • -2 for a field promotion during a mission.
O-9 General Admiral • -2 if you would be equal to your hith‐
O-10 Force Commander Fleet Admiral erto superior or outrank her (unless
there’s a good reason, like treason!)
General of the Army Admiral of the Navy
• -1 if someone in the squad (not neces‐
War is not hell sarily the character in question) was
reported as behaving dishonorably or
If you want to keep your games of Toy jeopardized the mission.
Troopers a little more G-rated, declare that • +1 if the character was outstanding or
no one dies. The defeated toys lose conscious‐ heroic.
ness, and they can get hauled back to the toy‐ • +1 if the mission was exceptionally
box where they will wake up soon, and ani‐ hard or dangerous.
mals simply flee or submit. Ignore the more
violent rules like Rip and Tear or Gritty Dam‐ • +1 if the character is a Private and has
age. This changes surprisingly little, which is proba‐ no medals.
bly symbolic about the nature of war or something. All other modifiers also apply – and yes, this
means that if your Sergeant is Attractive, it
might be better to ask him to personally appeal
to the Colonel rather than write a letter your‐
self. It’s not fair and someone probably should
complain. You can’t spend Bennies on Promo‐
tion rolls unless you have the Officer Edge.

27
Normally, if the hero advances to the rank of gotiations behind the scenes. Perhaps you
full Sergeant, he or she might be assigned might want to play out a one-shot where elite
more duties, often they are promoted to the troops protect a General on her way to the
Squad Leader of the squad of their own. They frontlines, but usually the highest rank a
also need to undergo a BLC – Basic Leader‐ player trooper can achieve is Colonel. Like‐
ship Course, taking two weeks. wise, higher NCO ranks can be staff ranks and
seldom see battle.
To become an officer, you usually need to re‐
ceive a commission by graduating a military The players can also receive honorary ranks if
college. Since most Toy Troopers are Enlisted, they’re not regular soldiers but a part of an
to trade bars for chevrons, a soldier can ap‐ elite squad. Their duties will be quite different
peal to the commanders to direct them to the than regular troopers’, and usually their rank
OTC – Officer Training Course. The comman‐ will only mean higher pay grade, not com‐
der might always decline without giving their mand privileges. Sometimes these “honorary
reasons – perhaps the character will be more ranks” can even be officer ones, especially if
useful in the field or they just aren’t officer the hero proved their versatility. In our cam‐
material. The course takes three months and paign, heroes serving under General Drabb
you usually receive a Lieutenant (or Ensign) might become such a team.
rank at the end of it.
Air and Artillery support
Advanced advancement
You can receive a field officer promotion, On important missions, the players can de‐
though it’s very rare and requires experience mand an artillery or air support – mechani‐
in command and heroic deeds confirming cally, they have the same result.
you’re an officer material: for instance, taking Very few toy cannons exist in the current day
command in absence of a downed SO and – sometimes the toy army might find a toy
leading the troops to safety is on its own a howitzer, but most of the time they’ll use im‐
good argument… but it might not be enough. provised toy-tech devices. Blame the Chinese
Exceptional events like this shouldn’t be a toy manufacturers. Some generals employ
matter of a single roll. bouncy rubber balls which can make multiple
It’s extremely hard to advance to the General attacks, others usewater balloons launched from a
ranks in play. It isn’t a matter of a Persuasion table – the mechanical effect is the same.
roll but also of political maneuvering and ne‐ A commander might require air-support on

ARTILLERY/AIR SUPPORT
Result A�ack roll Damage
2 Shooting d6-2 2d8
3-5 Shooting d6-1 3d8
6—10 Shooting d8-2 3d10
Jack, Queen, King Shooting d10 3d10
Ace Shooting d10+2 4d10
Select one other attack: The shooter is a Wild Card (d6), and PC can
reroll their damage roll using their own Bennies. If it’s the only
Joker card, it’s Shooting d12+d6 Wild Die. The player gains a Benny for
drawing a Joker as usual.

the radio, or they might have coordinated the

28
Challenges (Quick En-
counters)
strike with the superiors beforehand. Either
way, the character must spend a full round to
light a flare, make a radio call or call support
in any other way, and the player draws cards
from the Action Deck – one card and one for A Challenge is an extended test of a skill,
these modifiers: based on the Quick Encounter rules. Mechan‐
ically, Challenges work exactly like Quick En‐
• +1 if they’re an NCO. counters, but they’re not necessarily “Quick”.
• +2 if they’re an officer commanding a Think of a Challenge as of a “montage” in an
large force. episode of an TV show or a comic book – the
• +1 if they have been awarded a medal heroes are shown working in organized way to
recently. overcome a problem. The PCs in Toy Troopers
• +1 if the mission is important. are trained soldiers, they can and will coordi‐
• +1 if it’s on Green territory. nate their work in an efficient way – that’s the
difference between ‘soldier’ and ‘warrior’.
• -1 if it’s a routine mission.
Before starting to play out a Challenge, por‐
Each red card means an attack by an ally – tray the situation, let the players ask ques‐
whether an artillerist or a pilot. The attack tions, then ask them to formulate a plan. The
affects everyone under a Medium Burst Tem‐ plan itself does not require a roll, it should be
plate. The penalties given in the table include effort of the players, not their characters.
the penalties for movement or distance, but However, actually putting it in motion should
not for lighting or heavy fog. Roll for devia‐ be a matter of the rolls of the given hero – as
tion normally. All damage dealt counts as per normal Quick Encounter rules.
Heavy Weapon.
Remember, that some actions in a Challenge
The attacks occur in the next round, on that might not require a roll – a hero that has an
very Initiative Card. Officer rank doesn’t have to roll Persuasion to

29
gain entrance to the officer club, if the hero idea)… but the squad has lost their rope, un‐
has found a key they don’t have to make a less they try to pull the giant bottle down! If
Thievery check, and a Bricko guy doesn’t the players Intimidate a tribe of dolls on their
have to roll when being rebuilt. This usually way to garage, the dolls will come back with
counts as one success. Automatic successes a bigger party next time.
and failures are also a part of Challenges.
The purpose of Challenges is to give some me‐
Extended Challenges – like a long trek – could chanical “background” to the less intense
be handled via a simple montage: Ask player scenes. They’re there to show that PCs can be
A something like “In the jungle of the back‐ competent, portray that familiar situation can
yard, there are many threats – ants, bees, be risky from a perspective of a 2” tall man,
rogue soldiers… You have encountered some‐ and introduce some “toypunk” planning.
thing only Character B could handle. What
was it?” Remind players of their characters’ The toypunk devices are usually improvised
skills, and accept solutions that can bypass from existing devices. Constructing them re‐
skill rolls, involving gear, Edges and Hin‐ quires skills like Electronics, Science, Anthro‐
drances or in-character knowledge. Ask the pology or perhaps Hacking and Academics.
player B how her character solves the prob‐ Ask the players what they would achieve,
lem, and ask her for a roll if necessary. Then, then tell them to find something that would
ask the Player B what the threat for the Char‐ solve the problem. Finding the materials
acter C was and so on. means a Notice roll, transporting them re‐
quires time, and cooperation might mean
Remember that Challenges, extended or not, Battle roll to reflect the leadership skills.
are not “random skill rolls” called by the
teacher. They are part of the fiction and have
their consequences. If a player declares his
trooper ties a spool of thread to a soda bottle
and tries to climb down from the table, he can
roll Athletics (+1, since it seems like a sensible

30
GEAR: TOYS FOR
GIRLS AND BOYS

Modern wars are won by equipment and hi- • Green/Grey bits. Both nations tried
tech electronics. Tabletop wars are won by an to set up an economy independent of
extra dose of imagination. the Giants, using resources found in
Toy Zones or available elsewhere to
As you have learned in the previous chapter, mint small amounts of small, rectangu‐
Toy Troopers start as molded with their lar green or grey “bits.” They’re low-
weapons, but once they’re animated, they can quality pieces of plastic, worth from $1
wield any kind of weapon, whether plastic to $100. Many independent merchants
gun, plastic blade or improvised Real Weapons. avoid them, because they’re very easy
to forge, but nonetheless they’re stan‐
Currency dard – you can fairly easily exchange
There are three major kinds of currency in them for the Board Game money and
Toy Troopers. cash of the opposite side. A private is

Gear
• Real Money. Giant Cash actually has usually paid 100 bits per month.
some value for toys. In the mall or
school there are vending machines, and
sometimes they can spend Giant
money for things. Most of the time, As soldiers, you don’t usually buy your gear…
though, real bank notes are impractical, and as toys, you don’t need a lot of it! Since
and coins are useful only for a specific the “world” is more or less self-contained,
plan. Some toys, however, seem some‐ only a handful of soldiers need compasses, for
what interested in the Giants’ currency. example. You can’t find bad weather gear in
• Board Game money. Both Nations most Toy Zones… because it usually needs to
and independent Toy Zones usually be tailor-made for a specific mission outdoors.
use Toy money (many rely on barter), To create a set of parkas for a mission in re‐
taken from assorted board games like frigerator you need to hunt a giant teddy bear
Market Domination or Cash Transfer. and use his stuffing and fur to create cold
When taken to Toy Zones, they be‐ weather clothes!
come more “realistic”, trooper-sized Toy Zones have factories (mostly using sim‐
and harder to forge. They come in de‐ ple machines) that churn out a lot of plastic
nomination from $1 to $10000, and so gear using the “fast time” there. They also pro‐
inflation tends to be high in the com‐ duce some consumer items, but a lot of these
munities that don’t use bits. are scrounged – brought in from play sets,

31
freedom of exploring the Real World, so
You don’t have to be generic there’s little permanent constructions there.
These ‘generic’ weapon stats reflect the Regardless of everything, most objects can be
fact that in a small-scale war, soldiers are found in Toy Zones, but each Infantry trooper
far more important than the gear – and receives a set of basic gear. It is important to
that Green and Grey gear are generally note that items that cause fire are never issued
greatly identical. But if you and your party because a lot of equipment in Toy Zones is made
believe in detailed equipment rules, feel

Weapons
of plastic, and fire is extra dangerous to toys.
free to use the more detailed weapon list,
taken from SWADE or another military
setting. In such a case, obtaining and man‐
ufacturing ammo becomes more relevant.
Real Giant armies have hundreds of designs of
rifles, constantly improved and tinkered with.
they transform into appropriate size… or at M-60 has different history and application
least closely approximated one. than AK-47. These weapons have different
A Mindy Doll camera can look oversized for a builds, parameters, and were created with
toy soldier, but it will become functional, different uses in mind. This does not hold true
making real photos – a toy camera that is the for most toy weapons.
size of a real photo camera will still be huge… What toy troopers receive instead, are badly
but not only functional – since it now con‐ molded pieces of plastic, roughly shaped like
tains actual giant lenses it might be even more rifles. Nonetheless, they are somehow func‐
useful than a regular camera. Tinkering with tional and can affect the environment. One
this “Little Bear” effect is one of the basics of toy trooper’s rifle might have a banana-
toypunk technologies. shaped magazine, while other has a long bar‐
Toy Zone technology lags behind Giants in rel… but nevertheless they perform more or
terms of electronics – they’re poorly under‐ less the same on the battlefield. In Toy
stood and the imaginary technologies of the Troopers there’s no difference between a pis‐
toys interface poorly with the human pro‐ tol and a revolver. The Toy Army is techno‐
gramming languages! The toys have limited logically a mish-mash of the early WWII and
more modern designs, simply because toy

32
GENERIC TOY WEAPONS
type range damage ap rof shots min str weight cost
Pistol/Revolver 12/24/48 2d6 1 1 10 d4 5 50
The short weapons don’t differentiate between single-shot or semi-automatic.
Submachine gun 12/24/48 2d6+1 1 3 30 d4 10 80
3RB. These guns can almost always fire 3 rounds.
Basic Rifle 24/48/96 2d8 1 1 10 d4 10 100
Single-shot rifles are seldom used, but if there’s not enough assault rifles, soldiers might be issued this sprue.
Machine gun 30/60/120 2d8+1 2 3 100 d8 25 200
This is a relatively light-weight machine gun – it must be manned by a gunner and Supporting ammo feeder.
Mortar 75/150/300 3d8, MBT, HW – 1 50 NA 50
Mortars shoot heavy charge. Thanks to the ballistic curve, their minimum range is 25.
Bazooka 24/48/96 3d10, HW, MBT 8 1 1 D6 6+6 N/A
Heavy Weapon, Medium Burst Template. Snapfire. Rocket launchers provide aim but are usually Unwieldy.
Assault rifle 20/40/80 2d8 1 3 50 d6 12 125
3RB Assault rifles are used by the frontline soldiers.
Machine gun (mounted) 50/100/200 2d10, HW 3 4 100 NA 30
Reload 2. This represents automated weapons. They must be assembled and carried by at least two soldiers.
Sniper rifle 30/60/120 2d10 4 1 5 d6 10 200
Snapfire. This is any long-range accurate gun, almost always outfitted with scope.
Shotgun 12/24/48 1-3d6 -- 2 2 d6 8 80
Very rarely used by the Real-World armies, but the Chinese toy manufacturers don’t care!
Grenade 5/10/20 3d6 3 – – – 1 25
MBT, Heavy Weapon. Can be evaded.

manufacturers find it easy to design old- ened key as an unwieldy spear, and a lit match
school toys rather than more modern makes a very dangerous two-handed mace.
weapons of war.
When used by toys, these weapons count as
Despite being largely imaginary, toy guns still improvised weapons (–1 to attack unless you
require toy ammo, loading and reloading… ex‐ have the Improvisational Fighter Edge), but
cept in the presence of Giants or “Giant Zones” have range and damage as the typical axe,
– places where their presence lingers. Luckily bow or spear. Despite being “real”, when
for the troopers, ammunition for the pistols, wielded by another toy, they do not cause
SMGs, shotguns, rifles, and assault rifles is inter‐ Gritty damage to other toy soldiers. However,
changeable (treat them as small Bullets). Heavy they are almost always Heavy Weapons – a
weapons use their own bullets or rockets. soldier with a Real World sword can cut a
tank in half.
“Real-World” weapons
The table also includes some of the simple Non-Real Weapons have less chance to affect
weapons made of Real World materials and the Real World (see page 26 for the ‘Imaginary
used by toys. There are some guerrilla com‐ explosions’ rule). Real World ranged weapons
batants using bows made of paperclips or also require Real ammo – craft it yourself using
twigs or crossbows made of pen springs. A matches and sharpened metal bits.
soldier lost behind a couch might use a sharp‐

33
REAL WORLD RANGED WEAPONS
type range damage ap rof shots min str weight cost

Bow 12/24/48 2d6 2 1 1 d6 2 300


Notes: Heavy Weapon.
Crossbow 15/30/60 2d6 4 1 1 d6 5 250
Heavy Weapon. Hand-drawn, most creators incorporate ball bearings or small cogs into design.
Improvised charge 4/8/16 2d6, MBT 1 1 n/a - 4 50+
Notes: It doesn’t have to be an actual explosive – a small inflated balloon or a water bomb has mechanically the
same effect. Depending on the actual charge, it might or might not be a Heavy Weapon.
Net 3/6/12 – 1 1 - d4 6 50
Notes: Net in Savage Worlds, success means that the target is Entangled.
Thrown spear 3/6/12 Str+d6 - 1 - d6 3 100

Armor
Notes: Can be Heavy Weapon, if made of metal.

Use the Savage Worlds medieval or modern


Melee weapons table for the Real World
melee weapons – and if it’s made of sharp You can use all the Modern Armor from Sav‐
metal bits, the weapon is a Heavy Weapon. Toy age Worlds, except for Kevlar ones. Very few
Armies do not use bangsticks or chainsaws. soldiers are issued flak jackets, but they re‐

Assorted gear
ceive helmets.
Squads that have machineguns carry them,
additional belts of ammo, gear like tripod or
tool kits. If the squad has access to grenade
launchers and mortars, someone needs to
carry them as well. Tank crew and officers can
instead of a rifle carry a sidearm, but they can
P-Rations
Soldiers must eat. Prepared plastic rations are
also be issued rifles. made from produce grown in Toy Zones and
Flamethrowers and lasers are usually edible crackers and canned plastic
meat. Soldiers in the field can scrounge up Gi‐
Due to humanitarianism, no toy army manu‐ ant food and some develop a taste for bug
factures flamethrowers… seriously, not even stew. Weight 1. Price: 1-3 bits for basic food.
ruthless ones. Some crazy soldiers might im‐
provise them using tools in the garage, but
then they malfunction on Critical Failure,
Radio
Portable radio has a range of a couple of me‐
dealing damage on the Medium Burst Tem‐ ters. It’s an unwieldy walkie-talkie powered
plate to anyone near the flamethrower. by a short-lived battery. Weight 1.
Lens weapons – essentially big focusing lenses Manpack radio is carried on a soldier’s back. Its
working in sunlight are also banned. They have range is about 200 meters in open ground…
the stats of a futuristic Gatling Laser, and they and two or three rooms in house because of the
are Heavy Weapons, but Shooting rolls are walls. Larger radios can be vehicle-mounted
made using the lower of Science and Shoot‐ and can reach other houses! Weight 10.
ing… with an extra –3 penalty since it’s an Im‐
provised weapon and made to be used by Gi‐
ants. They don’t not use ammo.
Mines
There are two kinds of mines – anti-personnel
and anti-tank. The latter activate only under
large weight, so the normal troopers can tread
gently around them. Both deal 2d10 damage

34
to the unfortunate person that activates them
and 2d8 to anyone around, under the Medium Vehicles
Burst Template… but anti-tank ones count as We have given Top Speed in inches per round,
Heavy Weapons. unlike in other SWADE supplements, so that
you can easily compare it to Pace of giant
Toy mine detector creatures. Long-range travel using toy vehi‐
This device lets you make Notice rolls to dis‐ cles is very risky – too many Giants can spot
cover mines – without it, you roll the lower of you and reduce you to a toy soldier trapped in
your Notice and Battle, with a –4 penalty. The a small toy vehicle. Open streets of the city
device lets you just use your Notice without can be Giant Zones even at night.
penalties – you still must make the roll, no de‐
vice is 100% effective. On the minus side, this Vehicles that have been influenced by a Toy
is useless in the Real World since the mines Zone usually don’t retain their proportionate
are plastic and thus non-magnetic. Of course, size when they return to the Real World, but
mines are rarer in the House but both forces they can still house as many soldiers as they
still use them in the Garden or Park. did in the toy zone – it’s a “clown car” effect.
Most vehicles in the Real world are just Huge
Camera if their “real” counterpart would be bigger.
Toy Cameras are fully functional, but, Some large toy playsets might be an exception
strangely enough, they tend to be monochro‐ to that – a very detailed model of a sailing
matic. The Cameras made by the Green army ship could be Gargantuan (and driving a toy
tend to record in shades of Green. It’s better car for a three-year-old Giant is less of a chase
than nothing, though. Operating a human than it’s an exciting action scene). They do re‐
camera requires at least three Troopers. Price: tain their Toughness no matter what size they
available for around 100 bits. are – which makes them a useful weapon
against Gargantuan animals.
Binoculars Vehicles in the Real World do not need fuel…
Binoculars magnify the sight range four
times, but some electronic devices can in‐ and while they need fuel in toy worlds, there
crease this to 25x. are practically no sources of oil in the Toy
zones. This is one of the reasons some re‐
Medical kit search is carried out in the Giants’ house. Gas
is sometimes taken from the various devices
Using the Healing skill without medical sup‐
plies is at –1 to roll. Usually has three uses. in the Garage, but very few toys want to ex‐
periment with actual chemistry – especially

TOY VEHICLES
TOP
VEHICLE TOY SIZE* MANEUVERABILITY SPEED TOUGHNESS CREW
Light tank 7 (large, +1 Wound) +2 35 35 (18) 5
Heavy tank 9 (Huge, +2 Wounds) –1 35 50 (30) 5
Jeep/Humvee 3 +2 80 15 (5) 1+4
APC 6 (Large, +1 Wound) +- 40 25 (12) 2+10
Racing car 3 0 120 10 (2) 1+2
Helicopter 8 (Huge, +2 Wounds) +4 500 22 (6) 1+6
Fighter plane 9 (Huge, +2 Wounds) –1 800 21 (6) 1
Transport plane 12 (Gargn., +3 Wounds) 0 500 25 (5) 2+50
Bomber plane 12 (Gargn., +3 Wounds) –2 400 28 (6) 5

35
There is also an alternative. Luckily for the
VEHICLE WEAPONS toys, even though the vehicles transform into
their real counterparts in the Zones, some of
type range damage ap rof shots
them still work with batteries! The reason Gi‐
5d8, ants run out of batteries so fast is that the toys
LBT, take them out from various electronics to
Artillery 100/200/400 HW 10 - - power their vehicles and even their cities and
2d10, bases. Players might be sent with a mission to
AA Gun 50/100/200 HW 5 4 200 obtain these in the living room or garage, for
4d10, example.
Tank
cannon
HW,
50/100/200 MBT 10 1 -
Vehicular weapons
There are many model makers that know how
Tank 4d10, to design realistic vehicles with appropriate
cannon, HW, weaponry. And then the Chinese toy makers
heavy 75/150/300 MBT 12 1 - make copies of these well-made molds, then
5d8, some other factories make molds based on the
Missiles/ HW, models based on the models, and some just
rockets 120/240/480 MBT 5 1 don’t bother and design a box on wheels. As a
result, the vehicular weapons work – usually
since plastic is flammable. A lot of the time, – but aren’t terribly differentiated. A tank
vehicles start in Toy Zones using cooking oil, cannon works the same as any other tank
then as quickly as possible move to Real cannon.
World. So far nothing has caught fire, and it
works even with planes and heavy tanks. We enclose them here for the fans of the tac‐
Only Mom sometimes complains that she tical vehicle combat. If you don’t care much
smells French fries. for it, feel free to use the Air and Artillery Sup‐
port system on page 28.

36
Toy
WorlDS
For most of the toys in the House, the
dwelling itself is enough to be an entire
What do they do?
Toy Zones have the property of making “fake
world, and many would like to live their lives things” real – toy people become real people

Toy Zones
simply staying in their Toy Zones. while vehicles become operational. This is
sometimes even called “the Little Bear effect”.
This effect continues even after these toys leave
the Toy Zones, although the more “real” – that
Toy Zones are essentially little “pocket uni‐ is, affected by Giants – the environment is, the
verses” that exist on the fringes of the Real weaker the animation becomes. Most of the
World. Few toy scientists investigate how time, the “humanization” scale is constant – a
they come into existence, since for many toys non-animated Mindy doll brought into a zone
this is simply the natural order of things. controlled by the Green Army will be person-
These few who wonder “how the world scaled, which means that she’ll be able to
works”, assume that the new Toy Zones form wear Green uniform. However, when she
naturally in small spaces humans aren’t leaves the Zone, she’ll be visibly smaller than
aware of, perhaps harnessing some part of Gi‐ the other Mindys. That’s one reason why aux‐
ant imagination. It’s not clear whether such a iliaries are rare – they could raise some ques‐
forgotten space connects to a Toy Zone or be‐ tions from Giants.
comes one, but once shaped, Toy Zones can A lot of – but not all – non-toy objects, tools
be discovered and colonized. and devices are magnified and enlarged when
A lot of toys, when they reflect upon this, brought in Toy Zones. Some are changed in form
tend to assume that what passes for “toy civi‐ and function—a lot of electronic devices don’t
lization” started when an ordinary non-ani‐ work at all, some books carried from the Real
mated doll, toy soldier or action figure got lost, World change size and become toy-sized, but
swept under the wardrobe somewhere. When others might still remain oversized, for exam‐
they accidentally fell into a Toy Zone, they ple. Perhaps this is related to how the giants
awakened. That unknown toy awakened other view the object – items important to them seem
toys – and this has lasted for several Giant gen‐ to be immune to the “Little Bear effect”. None‐
erations, in many houses and other places. theless, that’s why most living toys raid the Real
World, when they need new tools and useful
raw materials. Still, the toys realize that if an im‐
portant object goes missing, Giants can scour
the entire house, looking everywhere… thus
destroying the undiscovered Toy Zones!

37
What they look like? Draw the map yourself
The exact appearance of “inside” a Toy Zone
varies. It seems that say that whoever discov‐ One reason our map is vague is that it’d
ers the Zone first, shapes it – if it’s a toy sol‐ limit a lot of epic feats and war tales (not to
dier, the new Zone will be perfect for an army mention it’d cost money). Perhaps the GM
base, if it’s a pirate it will be an island in the wants a tall shelf atop of which there’s a se‐
middle of an ocean. You might go in through cret Toy Zone with experimental helicopter
a mousehole, then be blinded by the desert base. Perhaps the players want to tame
sun over the hot sands. Most of the time, snakes and there’s one living in Mom’s ter‐
though, they’re comfortable places to settle rarium you just made up. Maybe you need
down and create toy settlements or infrastruc‐ an attic – where Granddad’s old wooden
ture – often they resemble plains with some soldiers sleep, ready to return after decades
natural plastic vegetation and even toy-like of slumber.
wildlife, but there are some Toy Zones that The scale of Toy Troopers is deliberately
seem to be permanently indoors – labyrinths not consistent. Crossing a room can take an
of strange rooms or dank underground mines. hour, or it can take a day. If you need a map,
Time passes strangely in Toy Zones as com‐ you can draw a rough sketch yourself, find
pared to the Real World. Many Toy Troopers simple floor plans on the internet, or create
see Giants as slow, lumbering creatures, and it them yourself, using software like Sweet
seems that in Toy Zones time passes faster… Home 3d (like I did)… or maybe even life-
at least from the perspective of a Trooper. The simulation video games! Make up your own
oldest Toy Troopers are about ten years old, dream house… and then transform it into a
but there’s been Troopers growing into adult‐ battlefield.
hood in the Toy Zone. It’s not clear how syn‐
chronized the Zones are – some toys believe the Real World is important, as are patrols
that it’s possible to disappear in an undiscov‐ and understanding Giants. Others imagine
ered Zone for a couple of hours and return that the Zone is destroyed – and the Giants
years later! In either way, for convenience will discover a smattering of lost toys. The
most toys adhere to Real World time – it’s force animating toys brought to life in that
best to think that a lot can be made in a toy Zone could even be severed.
world in a minute.
The “inside” size of the Zone doesn’t correlate
Death and dying
with the outside appearance – there’s a lot of What happens when a Toy Soldier is killed?
place under the bed and the main base of the Well, regardless of the reality he’s in, he be‐
Greens and a large town is there, but the zone comes an inert plastic statue. The wounds that
behind the wardrobe is about as large, for ex‐ killed him might not be visible to the Giant if
ample. The places in the real world seem to the Trooper was killed with Toy weapons, but
simply be gateways… Real weapons leave their normal mark. What‐
ever the reason, a Trooper is now just a toy
Can they be destroyed? and can’t be re-animated in the Toy zones.
So, what happens when the gateway is re‐ Greens and Greys sometimes melt the bodies
moved? If the bed is moved to a different of fallen soldiers and mold new ones to regain
place, does the gateway under it move with manpower… this is seen as morbid, but some‐
the bed? What if the bed is destroyed? There times necessary.
are two main theories – some think that this
Zone becomes “cut off” from the Real World.
There are some troubling reports of “newly
discovered” Toy Zones already containing
empty building or some plastic wildlife – per‐
haps they are merely rediscovered. That’s
why retaining some presence and guards in

38
The House
We’re using a house and not an apartment
mostly to have fun adventures in the garden
and to isolate Toy Troopers from other homes
The inhabitants of the house are the Mom, the – but you should adjust it to your own coun‐
Dad, the Boy and the Girl (or Brother and Sis‐ try and culture if you want to play in a famil‐
ter). A second, older Girl used to live here too, iar atmosphere. In a crowded apartment
but she left, leaving some of her toys and her block, toys could wage night-time wars on the
room to the younger sister. corridors, encounter neighbors and come in
We’re keeping the names of the humans “off conflict with rats and roaches.
camera” – if you want to play out Toy Troop‐ Does every house in the world have its living
ers in your own home, just adjust the geogra‐ toys? Not necessarily. The Toy Zones might
phy as needed! We’ve given the parents a cou‐ pop up centered on a specific location (or Gi‐
ple of quirks to make them interesting and to ants), but they also might be a relatively com‐
help create the plot of the campaign – our mon phenomenon. It’s your decision to make.
Mom can suddenly appear in the house dur‐
ing the day and will use a 3d printer when
working, while Dad can be absent and sleep The Boy’s room
for days. See the page 59 for more details. Some toys remember that this was once occu‐
pied by both younger kids, but when the Big
You can change the Giants’ gender and nature Sis moved out, the Girl moved to her old room,
of their relationship as needed, of course. on the opposite end of the house. The Boy is
During the playtests we’ve also set the games about twelve, and is growing out of toy sol‐
in a block of apartments, with a single Son diers, but still uses them to play with his sister.
raised by Big Mom and Small Mom. One rea‐
son why the main campaign has a family with This room is small, decorated in pastel greens
two sisters and a brother is that there’s more and whites. There’s a small bed under the left
variety of the toys in the house – and so that wall, and a desk under the window, used for
the two toy armies each can claim a territory drawing, tinkering, and doing homework –
of their own. with a good view on the street and the garden.
There’s a row of shelves for books and toys on

39
the sides of the room, and a wardrobe/book‐
shelf opposite the bed. The plush toys on the The Parents’ bedroom
shelves are mostly inert. Most of thesehave This room is next door to the Boy’s, it’s larger,
been given to the Girl, anyway. with a sizeable walk-in closet. There is a huge
bed is in the center of the room. Opposite to the
Toy Zones: The Green Army’s main base is bed is a TV on a stand and a wall with the
Under the Bed, a large town with numerous shelves with artbooks and films. Above the TV,
garrisons and fields. The Boy seldom looks in there’s a shelf with potted plants, family photos
there and toys can easily sneak to all the places and Mom’s and Big Sis’ awards and trophies.
in the room from there. The other major Toy
Zone, once owned by the Grey Nation and now On the side opposite to the closet, the en‐
occupied and colonized by the Greens, is in‐ trance and the large mirror, there’s the main
side the Wardrobe. window and under it a table with the com‐
puter workstation belonging to Mom. This Gi‐
Tactical hot spots: As the first room the vis‐ ant is sometimes found here, during the day
itors to the house might enter and the HQ of working on the advanced computer equipped
the Green Army, this is a vital place for all the with two monitors, using a graphic tablet and
forces in the House. Often, there are brick a large color laser printer. She pays little
constructions in the middle of the room, in‐ attention to the world around her when she’s
habited by the Bricko men and women – civil‐ working – so the rest of the room might be
ians and engineers. A lot of them end up ani‐ just Real World even when Mom’s around. In
mated by Greens. The Boy loves to build large the corner of the room there’s a bookshelf
Bricko dioramas… often to amuse his sister, with a handful of albums and crime novels.
sometimes leaving them up for days. He also
has more advanced Bricko sets – Hi-Tec Bricko Toy Zones: There’s a small Zone behind the
with programmable circuits. boxes on the bottom of the closet, currently
taken by the Greens with a small military
The kids have strict limit on screen time, which presence. It’s an important outpost. No other
is annoying for the Boy who’s just discovered Zones have been found in this room, which
computer programming and circuit design. On makes the scientists to have some theories on
the desk, there’s a “high-tech” Raspberry Pi (but how human imagination animates the toys.
no monitor), occasionally some electronic de‐ However, Greys also seem very interested in
vices, as well as couple of magazines on elec‐ this area.
tronics and video games the Grey army would
like to peruse. Homework-related books and Tactical hot spots: The computer is powerful,
notebooks are often found lying there. used by Mom for work… but when the parents
aren’t around, the Grey army would like to use
Above the desk, on the left of the window it. Some of the trophies on the shelf might be
there’s the collection shelf. There’s some super‐ repurposed for assorted experiments as well.
heroes figures and a couple of Warrior Robots
– these powerful machines of destruction have
been completely inert, are just large statues… The Corridor
but the Grey Army might take interest in them. The Corridor leading from the front of the
house to the main room is still quite long for
In the Wardrobe there’s season-appropriate a toy trooper, but it contains a couple of inter‐
clothes, board games and some books on esting features. There’s the closet, storing out-
shelves, mostly adventure series, funny ani‐ of-season clothes, old baby toys and a couple
mal comics and some manga. All these books of “general purpose” household items like jars
might be of interest to the few would-be an‐ or sewing supplies. It’s a currently controlled
thropologists who want to find more substan‐ by the Greens, but there two armies fought
tial reading material. There’s also a functional heavy battles for the access to the front door
train set that, if set up, would be very useful and the garden.
to Toy Troopers… but the Giants would notice
that it’s missing.

40
Between the two bedrooms there’s a small counter separating the kitchen from the Din‐
bathroom with a toilet and a handbasin. The ing Room.
Greens think it’s of little strategic importance,
but they do use it for gathering water and other Giants are quite often found here, but often
supplies like soap or cloth. But the Greys hope they just order takeout or bring their food to
to find new Toy Zones there as well. their rooms – which fits the Toy Troopers just
fine. Few Giants want to toil over the pots.
Toy Zones: There’s at least one Zone in the
Closet, inhabited by a collection of small plastic Toy Zones: There’s no stable one here, but the
lovable marketable creatures that were big when inside of the refrigerator seems much larger to
the Boy was six. At least two dozen of them are the toys than it should be. The scouts are also
now awakened and allied with the Greens. looking through the kitchen counters since
they don’t seem that often used by the Giants.
Tactical hot spots: The front door is a con‐
tested hot spot, easy to access the porch and the Tactical hot spots: Plenty of danger here.
outside – and the expeditions to places like Con‐ Though Giant food or leftovers are useful to
venience Store, the Mall or Library. The most soldiers in the fields, the commanders dis‐
contested spot for a small garrison is behind courage taking food, but it can be used to
the umbrella stand, but it can’t hold more bribe and tame wild animals. Greens tell terri‐
than two companies and a single vehicle. fying stories of Greys torturing prisoners in‐
side the microwave or on the oven, and
The Big Room there’s plenty of big sharp knives – the par‐
ents won’t notice there’s one missing…
The central room in the house has three sec‐
tions – the Kitchen, the Dining Room and the The Dining Room
Living Room. This is the central area. It is dominated by the
big dining table in front of the wide window.
The Kitchen Most of the family life goes on here: Dad often
Under the southern and part of the western works here with a laptop when he’s at home,
wall there’s a row of kitchen counters, with kids play games, sometimes do their home‐
more cabinets hanging on a wall. The fridge work together, guests sit down around the ta‐
stands next to the entrance. Next to it there’s ble to gossip, and Mom apparently wants the
a microwave oven built into wall, a large family to eat dinner together at least once per
mixer, kitchen sink, a dishwasher, an oven, week. Opposite the window there’s a supplies
and a trash can. There’s another detached

41
ant-Heavy area, few want to investigate. Ru‐
mors persist that on the top shelf there’s a
Zone controlled by the Greys.
Tactical hot spots: The bookshelves are a
nice vantage point and perhaps could help re‐
searchers. Some Greys do come here to ob‐
serve Giants… or even watch their TV when
humans aren’t around. The taller vantage
points are also popular among researchers
and scouts.

The Girl’s Room


The younger sister is just a very excitable kid,
and so her room is even more chaotic than the
Boy’s. A large bed sits in the middle of the
room; there’s no desk but a large play table,
closet, holding plates, fancy sweets, alcohol and a commode with a mirror. On the win‐
and similar rarely used objects. dowsill there’s a collection of stuffed animals
Toy Zones: There are not enough secret and a large dollhouse set against the bed, with
places for a full-fledged Zone to emerge. Ev‐ Baby Karen’s stroller nearby. On the other
erything seems to be in open sight of hu‐ side of the room there’s a huge toy chest,
mans… But some people claim there’s a secret these days full of Bricko pieces. Since it’s the
base of the Greys – and finding it might be a main base of the Greys for the time being little
priority of the small Green scouting parties. is known about the current situation there,
but it’s assumed that the Greys drafted a
Tactical hot spots: While the table itself is a handful of Mindy dolls.
good vantage point, it can usually be by‐
passed, and the armies can easily go under it. Toy Zones: Under the Sister’s bed there’s the
The side closet is somewhat more useful – if main Grey army base and under the commode
there indeed is a Toy Zone inside it, it could there’s a laboratory/proving ground.
be very valuable as a base overlooking this Tactical hot spots: The windowsill offers
central space. good tactical view of the garden, and the
Greys try to activate the animals to use them
The Living Room against the Green, since there’s so many of
Two soft angled couches separate this room them. On the toy table there’s sometimes vil‐
from the larger area, sitting in front of a large lages of Bricko men, but more often, wooden
flat-screen TV with a gaming console near it. and plastic toy animals – very useful for the
A small bookshelf with books, DVDs, and war effort. The dolls in the dollhouse are prob‐
board games is tucked next to the mantelpiece ably left un-awakened, but the dollhouse
(purely decorative, probably). There’s also a serves as a base of operations of Dr Knight.
small corner table used to play or put tv guide
on. Giants – particularly Dad, when he’s
around – tend to spend a lot of time here. As The Big Bathroom/Laundry Room
a result, despite this place being quite inter‐ This room has been converted into three
esting, it’s still relatively unexplored. Many smaller ones. The large bathroom is the one
soldiers claim that they revert to plastic forms with the bathtub/showers – offering some
even if the Giants aren’t there. possibilities for the Toy Navy when full (these
days it rarely is, but if possible, the ships
Toy Zones: Some theorize there could be could be deployed). The kids are old enough to
Zone under the couch, inside the chimney or not need bath toys… but occasionally some
between the cushions, but since this is a Gi‐ useful toys can be found here, like water pis‐

42
Tactical hot spots: This is a very hotly con‐
tested place, especially when you consider
that it’s right next to the garage. There’s re‐
sources, tools, and even independent settle‐
ments… but the larger problem is climbing the
shelves.
There’s no significant place (and light) for air‐
craft to maneuver here, so it makes climbing
shelves quite hard. The traditional Toy
Trooper method of using string and a bow is
made more difficult by limited space here.

Two-car garage
This big room holds two vehicles, a large
workbench and some stashed objects that are
too big to fit anywhere else in the house –
things like Dad’s lifting weights (mostly un‐
used these days) and his bike. Next to the
tols or balls – easy to be converted into ar‐ workbench there’s a large tool chest, with
tillery. There’s also a shower cabin, and a smaller toolboxes standing on top of it.
closet full of chemicals. A toilet bowl and a
handwashing basin with some soap and other During the spring and summer Mom’s car is
detergents under it have been separated by a often left outside. Because Dad is only home
thin door, and a laundry and dryer with some once every two or three weeks, his car might
shelves and storage space in the third. be here or not, regardless if he’s around.
There’s an intense smell of oil here. The room
Toy Zones: Behind the dryer is occupied by is lit by a weak light, and it can get dim. The
the Greys. Some and of the plastic ships are Kids and Dad can sometimes be found here in
reportedly rusting (well… metaphorically) un‐ early spring, tinkering with bikes.
der the bathtub.
Toy Zones: A couple known. This region is
Tactical hot spots: Plenty. This is a stable poorly penetrated by the Green forces, and
Toy Zone and a base for Greys, and they’re even the Greys, despite having slightly easier
obtaining a lot of resources here. Despite access to the room, don’t know it well.
some nautically-minded Toy Troopers want‐
ing to take the battle to the water, the tub is Tactical hot spots: Plenty. This is a great
not really that strategically important. place to hunt for resources and potential
weapons, especially in toolboxes. The work‐
Storage room shop is hotly contested by both armies. Some
braver commanders try to go inside the cars
A crowded room with plenty of shelves for sometimes!
storing useless cutlery, spare clothes, the vac‐
uum cleaner, and Holidays presents… Very
useful for the toys, but cramped for the Giants. The front porch
The front porch isn’t particularly significant
Toy Zones: Two known, and there are expe‐ for the toy wars, but there are some interest‐
ditions to find some more. One of major inde‐ ing features here. It’s a wooden platform
pendent toy zones here is Tinseltown, where raised a couple of inches above the ground
the armies go on leaves. Sometimes the kids level, with beams supporting the pergola. The
play hide-and-seek here, and so there might window opens to the Boy’s room, but it’s
be less Toy Zones than one may think. closed most of the time.

43
Sometimes kids use these supports to chain Tactical hot spots: That’s the easiest way to
their bikes, but usually they don’t bother, access the garden, so there’s some attempts to
leaving them unprotected. About the only in‐ block the vehicles. Grey Army has set up a se‐
teresting place here are the shopping bags cret jungle base in the flowerpots hanging
Mom and Dad sometimes leave here when from outside the window of Girl’s room.
they park the car. If the timing’s done well, a
small group of soldiers could sneak up to a The garden
bag and grab the wares before the other side
even realizes. Mom isn’t a big fan of well-mowed lawns and
prefers to have as many flowers as possible
Toy Zones: None known. Some hope that un‐ for the pollinating insects… which leads to a
der the porch might be a useful Zone, for the lot of problems from neighbors who like the
future expansion outdoors. neighborhood to look more uniform. In turn,
this means that Dad mows the lawn once a
Tactical hot spots: Bike saddle bags are a month when he feels like it, just so the neigh‐
good hiding place, and if you want to hitch a bors leave the family alone… and for the toys,
ride to the park you might want to crumple this is perfect. The lawn looks like a colorful,
up there. Windowsill is a great place to give untamed jungle from the toy trooper’s per‐
signals to the spective, perfect to establish bases and har‐
vest food and resources.
The back porch
• Veggie patch: Mom grows produce in
The back porch is also not very highly ele‐ the garden, mostly as a hobby. There’s
vated, and it contains a small table with four usually at least a row of onions, another
foldable chairs, as well as two plastic longue one of potatoes (sometimes exotic, un‐
chairs with a small, wheeled tray between usual varieties), and a row of beans. In
them. In the corner there’s a barbecue grill the summer, toys camp here, fighting in
that in the summer is set up in the garden. A the veggie patch, and among the flowers
large French window leads to the living room that encircle the house.
and another window opens to the Sister’s
room. • The Gnomes: A small group of ce‐
ramic gnomes has apparently colo‐
Toy Zones: None known.

44
nized the garden… but are immobile
and seem not to respond to attempts
to initiate conversation. As a result,
they’re left alone and between them
there’s a market of sorts, a place for in‐
dependent hunters and toys living
alone to meet and swap tales.
• Trash can: Sometimes you need to
rescue your buddy mom has thrown
away, sometimes you’re on the look‐
out for technology, spare parts, or use‐
ful devices. You need to lift the lid,
pierce the bag, and dig into the smelly
trash!
• Fort Cardboard: the Giants some‐
times erect this powerful fortification • Box of Confiscated Toys: There’s a
to play war – and that’s when toy sol‐ legend among those who have visited
diers can go outside to play. Some‐ school about the Box of Confiscated
times they’re left there – and almost Toys – dangerous toys taken from stu‐
always a soldier gets left behind… or dents and never returned. For a Toy
leaves for a top secret mission! Trooper, this box is a veritable trea‐
sure trove of useful weaponry… but it
Toy Zones: Some claim that there’s a Toy needs to be found first. There’s al‐
Zone behind every flower, but most under‐ legedly a map or some clues hidden in
stand that Toy Zones are somehow Giant- the Teacher’s Longue.
made. There’s a Toy Zone used as a holiday
resort by Tinseltown celebs in the shed be‐ • Afterschool Special: After classes,
hind the house, and some other are still there’s sometimes some locals or
grownups found in the school – some

Other places
searched for.
might belong to the Movie Club to use
school projectors to watch a movie
and discuss it, there could be an im‐
prov group meeting in the gym or a
School gaming club in one of the classrooms.

The school is fairly large, alien to most toys Toy Zones: Reports are conflicted, but even if
and full of interesting places. Most of the there are Toy Zones in the school, their use is
time, the toys don’t even know how to reach not practical anyway. There’s a story about a
it on their own and need to hitch a ride in one toy soldier striking a conversation with a
of kids’ backpacks. model skeleton, for example, but this has all
traits of an urban legend. Still, there could be
In the house, toys have observed the inhabi‐ animated “toys” out there if the theory on
tants, studied their schedules, and know when kids imagination animating toys is correct,
they can move safely. In school and other there should be more Zones in places where
public places, the Giants are almost always there are more kids.
out and about. Classrooms are almost always
Giant Zones, and spaces in the corners of cor‐ Tactical hot spots: The biggest challenge is
ridors, under the stairs and stairwells are few probably climbing out from the backpack,
places where plastic troopers can shrug off performing a mission, and returning on time.
stiffness.

45
Library
The friendly neighborhood library is not far
away from the school, taking up the entire
ground floor of an apartment complex. There
are shelves with old books, kids’ corner with
comics and adventure stories, four computer
stands available to visitors… and a lot of ap‐
plicable books. It’s not uncommon for the
toys to stay a night here to find useful books
on science, engineering, or mathematics… as
well as understanding the culture of Giants.
Sometimes, this space is used by Giants talk‐
ing around a big table.
Toy Zones: Legends persist of a tribe of toys
that live in the library and hunt trespassers, but
no one has seen such a toy – at least no one
who came back; many Green and Grey explor‐ eral, believing that he’ll awaken if
ers never returned from such a trip. enough sacrifices are made to him!
Tactical hot spots: The front desk near the • Flea market: Near the entrance of the
entrance provides a good view of the whole park there’s a concrete-paved area
room and access to the catalogue. Few toys where parents can rest. At least once
understand the Dewey Decimal System and per month there’s a flea market taking
how the library is organized, and naturally place there – usually elderly people
they can’t just ask… Though the books are full from the district selling old, unneces‐
of potentially useful knowledge, the book‐ sary objects, including electronics and
store offers just as many books – and poten‐ even toys. Distracting the Giants and
tially more toys in the mall. recruiting an experienced auxiliary
might be an interesting mission.
Park
Toy Zones: Some soldiers claim that there’s a
The large municipal park has a soccer field, a small naval base and a pirate settlement hidden
large playground, an open area where com‐ somewhere in the bushes of the riverbanks. In
munity theater plays are performed. These ar‐ the summer, some civilians use these banks as
eas are connected by many paths. A shallow, a toy-sized beach resort. Toy Zones Outdoors
not particularly clear river runs through it, and might be waiting for discovery, but coloniza‐
on its banks many Giants organize picnics dur‐ tion might not be practical. There are also sto‐
ing the summer. There are benches around the ries about toy tribes lost ages ago, now living
playground and the paths in the park and in in the park.
season, some vendors of treats like ice cream or
coffee can be found in the center. Tactical hot spots: Most toy troopers gather
near the rose bush on the southern edge of the
• The General: Some toys report having playground (depends where Giants have cho‐
seen “the biggest Toy Trooper in the sen to camp), and perform a given mission.
world” in the park. He’s reportedly Usually, it takes a Giant about 15 minutes to
made of bronze and was placed in the get home from here, whether by car or by bike
park on a special stand. Some believe – so if the toys know when’s the dinnertime
that when humans aren’t around in the or other home events, they can time their mis‐
park, the General will share his special sions. One more reason to try and spy on the
insights for any toy that asks. There is Giants around.
reportedly a group of Toy Trooper ma‐
rauders congregating around the Gen‐

46
The Shopping Mall Convenience Store
The Shopping Mall is a terrifying, vast place… The Mall is big and far away, but the Conve‐
but it’s full of potential threats and loot. It’s nience Store is, comfortably for the kids,
also full of Giants, so the best time to explore around 15 minutes by bike from the house. It’s
is after midnight. No Trooper has ever suffi‐ a small, franchised retail shop near one of the
ciently explored anywhere beyond the book‐ main streets, with the gas pumps and a small
store, but the mall promises a lot to an enter‐ parking lot. Inside, there are shelves loaded
prising commander – weapons, supplies, new with newspapers, mainstream comic books
recruits in the toy stores… It’d be easy to and magazines; lottery tickets; soft drinks,
sneak out through the grate or vents when water, and beer; simple groceries like flour,
the bookstore is closed, but without vehicles eggs, bread etc., toiletries and painkillers, and
– hopefully found in a Toy Store – toy troop‐ of course junk food…
ers can’t cover much ground.
Except maybe some stuff not easily found in
Toy Zones: Establishing a base in the mall the Kitchen and small, useful objects like sta‐
would be a gamechanger. Both the Greens and tionery there’s little of interest for Toy Troop‐
the Greys wait for an opportunity to visit the ers here. The empty lot behind the store is
mall… used as dumping ground for a construction
site nearby, so there’s lots of scrap metal and
Tactical hot spots: …and both armies have wood… and at night, quite a lot of rats, crows,
already picked areas in the bookstore – fre‐ and stray cats.
quented by all the Giants in the household –
as their temporary Real World bases. A couple Toy Zones: The store is opened 24/7, so the
of troopers hide under magazine stalls and large areas of it are Giant Zones, in particular
book displays during the day, and they try the area near the cash registers. Nonetheless
their best to map the bookstore, and establish the toys can sneak under shelves on the
outposts in the mall, trying to find a toy store ground level. Only a handful of toys ever
or a hardware department. Meanwhile, a small went in deeper among the wares – most
group of researchers tries to learn as much aren’t even aware any storage space exists,
possible about Giants from their books… but and no one even visited it.
the results are very random.

47
Game Master’s
Toybox

This chapter reveals secrets of the setting… stead… but there are people who actually
but since this is a toybox, this might look study these inconsistencies and wonder how
different in your games; if you don’t want to their world works. One of these people, and
play out the campaign in the next chapter or one of the most dangerous figures in the toy
if you wish to play Toy Troopers in another world, is Dr. Zelda Knight.
environment feel free to disregard or change
The main villain

The Greens and the Greys


all the information in this chapter.
This lady is brilliant, inquisitive, and ruthless.
She might be the most evil Bricko piece since
that one brick you stepped on. Having spent a
The Grey Nation is more or less exactly like lot of time in the Real World, close to Giants,
Green Nation. There’s nothing against grey she’s studied it and still tries to understand
plastic that’s intrinsically evil, it’s just that how Toy Zones interact with it and how do
this artificial, Giant-made difference created a they work. She’s explored it on her own, stud‐
division. After the Big Sister moved out, they ied Giant books and even ventured far beyond
founded a new base in her room… but the the house, and she has a certain theory.
Greens seized their previous Toy Zones. This
has pushed Greys to move onward and take the She believes that both Toy Troopers and auxil‐
fight to the Real World, hoping to be able to iaries like herself tap into a frequency of imag‐
take some of the Toy Zones from the Greens… ination of Giant children, and live and explore
the world thanks to the imagination of chil‐
But there’s also another reason for the war dren using toy soldiers playing war. But, logi‐
most Grey soldiers don’t know about. cally, there are other games and toys, and not
all of them are found within the ranks of aux‐
If you’ve been reading the descriptions on iliaries. Could you tap into these? She has
how the world works, perhaps you’ve noticed managed to open a new Toy Zone – already
some inconsistencies, that the world seems to inhabited by new toys, unknown in the house.
“bend towards” the army men. Normally,
we’d tell you to ignore these and have fun in‐

48
She has approached commander Feldgrau
with her plan – and he has decided to prepare Abusing Physics for Fun and Profit
a counter-offensive, to retake Toy Zones for The world of Toy Troopers does not make
the Greys and colonize new ones. Knight’s ex‐ a lot of sense. I mean, living toys? What is a
periments have given him several new toys, toy by the standards of this world? And how
and he’s very eager to use them in play. But in do exactly Toy Zones function?
reality she has hatched a more complex scheme. There are players who like poking at absur‐

Gamemastering Toy
You’ll find out more of it in the campaign. dities of the in game “physics”, and like to
abuse the supernatural effects, mining the

Troopers
resources. In part, the main antagonist of
our campaign, Dr. Knight, has been inspired
by this kind of a player. Let the players make
advantage of the strange time flow or the
The obvious thing is that the PCs are small properties of plastic… but remember that
in a giant world they don’t fully understand. the non-player characters can also learn
Sure, they have their own world, parallel to the how to use this.
human one, but the Troopers are focused on
war and building their small enclaves. If you’ve One part of the fun in Toy Troopers is that
played post-apocalyptic RPGs, the toys are a the player characters really are plastic toys
little bit like settlers in the wastelands. The and not just tiny soldiers. Let the Bricko sol‐
ways of the human world are puzzling to them, dier spin his head 360 degrees when he’s
like the Ancients in the pre-apocalypse world shocked – but if he wants to gain mechani‐
are a mystery to the settlers. cal advantage, ask them for a Benny, as per
the High Adventure setting rule. In this way
Don’t describe everything fully – a you can get non-combat Edges (like Alert‐
tall, shining, strangely warm tower might be ness in this example) or negate the unskilled
a thermos, containing piping hot tea, but the penalty (rolling d4 with no penalties). And
characters and the players might not realize the first such an attempt should be free or
this. It’s mostly a matter of perspective – toys even rewarded with a Benny, if it’s a partic‐
have their own kitchen implements, for exam‐ ularly funny idea.
ple, but a bread cutter is a complicated piece
of technology… and a terrifying weapon. Worlds heroes, so they move thirty times
slower, right? Not necessarily. They might
On the other hand, the characters aren’t cover far less ground than that. They function
totally clueless. The toy soldiers have in a world that’s either made for Giants or is
their own technologies and society. Don’t still wilderness from the perspective of a toy
punish the players for discovering “oh, it’s a re‐ soldier. A thick carpet is soft and pleasant for
mote” and referring to it as a remote afterwards human but it’s a parasite-infested outgrowth for
in character. It might not be their world, but a trooper. A toy soldier needs to have a good
they do live in it and can guess how it works. plan to climb shelves or even stairs in school or
Details matter. The simple shift of per‐ on the porch – especially if they’re on their own.
spective means also that the toys can spot and Numbers might not matter. Real World
notice things we’re too big to spot. Objects armies can number in millions, but no child
that are smooth for us are less so for the toy owns so many toy soldiers. A respectable
troopers, and the soldiers are extraordinarily fighting force can have a dozen or two toy
strong for their size. Strands and screws can troopers. On the other hand, there’s always
support their weight, and they can see seem‐ some new soldiers ready to arrive from a toy
ingly missing things like subtle flaws in store or new vehicles and gadgets. Despite
mechanisms or invisible openings. this small number of soldiers, there’s plenty of
Scale is fluid. In theory, the heroes are officers higher up – most of the toys try to live
thirty times smaller than normal Savage up to the expectations.

49
Real World’s real. A lot of objects in the
real world are usable by the toys… but the he‐ So what animates the toys?
roes need to plan it carefully. Toy Troopers are The toys have their own theories, and the
like ants – they need to coordinate their predominant one is that somehow it’s the
efforts… and they can lift more than their Giant imagination. If Dr. Knight knew about
weight! Toys may be 32 times smaller than hu‐ quantum physics, or even the popular un‐
mans, but aren’t 32000 times weaker. In gen‐ derstanding of it, she might assume that per‐
eral, don’t bother with calculating weight of ob‐ haps the areas that are unobserved by Gi‐
jects, just guesstimate a little bit. You should ants accumulate the potential of imagina‐
play it for comedy (and occasional drama), with tion. Since children are more imaginative,
toys hauling useful objects, or using gear that’s these Toy Zones form in their vicinity…
visibly oversized with a single hand. But honestly, it does not matter. From toys’
Cargo space matters, though. Toy soldiers perspective Toy Zones are more or less inde‐
might have their backpacks and pockets, but pendent of humans and they will probably
it’s hard to fit Real weapons and armors in form as long as humans are around. A mad
there. Sometimes you need to use string or rub‐ genius thinking outside the box like Dr
ber bands to create improvised backpacks. Re‐ Knight or player characters, however, could
member that “toypunk” inventions like this start thinking of how to create and harness
don’t really have to be 100% plausible, this is a these pocket worlds.
cartoon RPG, not a physics handbook. The he‐ beings aren’t aware of… And each Toy Zone
roes can lift much more than the proportionate can be a “dungeon” waiting to be explored. A
strength would allow them… But then again, lot of strategic planning in the game is main‐
applying physics can be really fun sometimes. taining control over Zones and human areas.
If it’d be more exciting or amusing, the rules That’s why we want to keep the scale abstract
like knockback or pendulum can return with and loose – to make you create your own
vengeance. Remember that ‘exciting or amus‐ battlegrounds in unexpected places.
ing’ doesn’t mean ‘harder for the players’.
The heroes are plastic people. While
The world is undiscovered. Part of the the magic of Toy Zones animates them, they
fun of playing Toy Troopers is that an ordi‐ nonetheless stay toys – the uniforms aren’t
nary suburban house becomes a giant world exactly parts of them even in the Real world,
to traverse, and the whole fun of discovering but they are of the same color and texture.
Toy Zones is crawling through spaces human Toys can have visible molding sprues, ex‐
posed joints or even wheels… but they also
have some very human traits. More impor‐
tantly, you’re not just “shrunk human” – the
heroes need things like glue or spare parts
and aren’t fully aware of the world at large.
Humans are a mystery. A lot of the humor
in this setting comes from the fact that you can
look at daily human life from the unusual per‐
spective. The heroes have new skills like An‐
thropology and Navigation that reflect their
understanding of the higher reality, but they
can always fail or hilariously misinterpret a
human behavior. Why are they disappearing,
why are they decorating a tree with baubles?
Of course, don’t go overboard with it – the he‐
roes are not totally lost at sea, they’re soldiers
and professionals that just happen to be 2” tall.

50
Mission generator ♦ Outdoors. On the porch, in the garden or
between the vegetable patches. Weather will
To create an adventure, draw four cards, be a major factor here!
which will create the adventure outline. The
suits of the cards will determine the setting, ♣ Beyond the house. This time the mission
the mission, strength of the main opponent, will take the heroes far outdoors: the shop‐
and the size of the forces the party could ping mall, school or maybe the park.
muster. The values will determine the compli‐ Joker – Home turf. The crucial part of the
cations, strange events, important NPCs, and adventure will be defending an established
the plot twists. territory – perhaps even with Green civilian
Place the drawn cards in a row and check population.
their values in the table below. Feel free to
mix and match ideas and draw extra cards if The second card – the mission
you think that’s not enough to carry an ad‐ This is the objective the heroes have to fulfill
venture forward. Remember that jokers have in this adventure. It can have many smaller
no value or suit – draw an extra card to deter‐ subdivisions, but there is usually one main
mine one of them, depending on how you crucial goal.
want to use the joker. ♠ Patrol. Patrolling the area establishes se‐
Example: I’ve drawn the following cards curity and allows you to spot any threats. It
also allows the soldiers to familiarize them
Indoors/Unusual Environment with the new territory and get used to the
Real World. The players might also have to
Patrol/Mutiny ambush an enemy patrol.
Matched Evenly/Pets or animals
♥ Assault. This could mean a large operation
Only the squad/When animals attack to take new Toy Zones and territories, but it
can also be a small S&D raid with a specific
And the idea writes itself – the heroes will need objective. The difference is less pronounced
to secure an outpost in the garage, despite with Toy Troopers, since even the largest
grumbling from their colleagues… but they’re armies number over hundreds at best.
harassed not just by a small squad of Grey in‐
fantry, but also by a nasty rat. Perhaps the rat ♦ Intelligence. The purpose of the player
can be egged on to attack the Greys – is this eth‐ characters will be to gather data – they can be
ical? Would the heroes consider this? Will their scouts, do some light espionage, capture pris‐
rebellious subordinates agree? oners. They can also perform reconnaissance
by combat – attack the enemy to learn first‐
The suits – The Mission hand of their weaknesses and capabilities.
The first card – the place ♣ Defend! It’s the enemy that started the
The first card describes where the adventure clash, and the players need to hold the position
will happen. You can ignore this result if your or assist other Green forces in trouble. This
heroes are in the specific part of the house or could also mean Protection – the heroes need
can’t reach other areas. to take care of a specific person or a convoy.
♠ Indoors. Quite likely it might mean a fight Joker – Special ops. Sabotage a location, dis‐
in the living room or in the unexplored garage. guise, take part in a secret experiment, rescue
a spy, kidnap a scientist… It’s possible that
♥ Toy Zone. A fantastical landscape – and these missions will automatically grant you a
the fighting might be much more brutal there! promotion… but if you fail, the high command
might not even acknowledge your existence.

51
The third card: The opponent The fourth card: Allies
We assume that the Greys are actively fight‐ Luckily, the point of a war is that it’s fought
ing the Greens. If the mission is to defend, this by armies – and an army means you’re not
means the attackers, if the mission is to gather alone.
intelligence, they might be guards of a secret
lab in the Real World. ♠ Only your squad. Add a couple of allied
Extras to the “party” of player characters –
♠ Weaker. The forces of the opponents are there’ll be a dozen or so soldiers ordered to per‐
smaller, less experienced, cowardly or un‐ form this mission. It might not seem like much,
trained. This could also mean auxiliaries or but hopefully you’ll have some support.
guerillas… The heroes should have some kind
of challenge, perhaps provided by the pres‐ ♥ Another squad/platoon. Your squad
ence of Giants or the weather. leader receives a brevet promotion – you re‐
ceive at least a dozen Extras to
♥ Matched evenly. A platoon command, possibly with some
is equivalent to a platoon – specialists like snipers or
there should usually be medics.
one Grey soldier per one
Green soldier. Or you ♦ Heavy ordnance.
can mix things up and You gain access to a
give the players air mortar, a bazooka or
support and the AA an anti-vehicle gun…
guns to the Greys, for or a load of grenades
example. Either way the or mines. Either way
players need to use their you’re going to hunt
tactical skills to win. something big! Proba‐
bly the scariest weapon
♦ An Edge. The oppo‐ for the plastic troopers is
nents would be more or an actual flamethrower
less equal to the Green or a magnifying glass that
troopers… if not for a sin‐ can destroy all sorts of ve‐
gle thing that gives the Greys hicles – luckily, banned by
a significant advantage. It could both sides.
be better positioning, superior equip‐
ment, a talented leader or air support. Either ♣ Vehicle. Perhaps the mission is a convoy,
way, if you can disable it, you’ll easily win – perhaps it’s a paradrop… or maybe a tank will
otherwise you’re in for a hard time. be able to aid your assault. Either way a
crewed vehicle is under player’s control. If the
♣ Green’s gonna die. Welcome to the plas‐ heroes are normally motorized, this vehicle is
tic toy Hell. Greys are superior in almost ev‐ somewhat special – if they are a tank crew, it
ery area – they have more men and women, might be a fully armed helicopter providing
artillery, tank support, perhaps even powerful extra fire power or scouting capabilities.
auxiliaries like Big Baby Karen. A retreat
might not be the worst option here. Joker – It’s just us. This mission is restricted
to the player characters only – no allies will
Joker – Monsters. Mismatched toys, actual participate in this mission unless the players
living beings like bugs or rats, perhaps even a will recruit them on the job. Why? Is it secret,
plan involving Giants. Greys might not even or maybe the heroes will be captured?
matter much in the plot.

52
The Details Giant interference. Either way, the heroes
can’t communicate with HQ.
The value of these four cards will determine
more details about what happens during the 10: The natives are angry. The heroes need
adventure. to also take care of a small squad of non-Grey
combatants. They can be even Green civilians
Card One: Complications or angry auxiliaries, mercenaries like Baby
Karen, or maybe even bored fashion dolls
Complications are anything that will make
player’s lives harder, and unlike plot twists, who’ve had enough of the little army men.
tend to be known beforehand. Jack: Enemy Sniper. There’s a precise
2: Minefield/Traps. The Greys prepared a attacker targeting commanders, possibly deal‐
nasty surprise for the heroes… or maybe it’s ing Heavy damage!
the player characters that have to set the ex‐ Queen: Unusual environment. This is an
plosive charges. area that requires different strategies and
3–4: Superior defenses. The enemy has equipment Toy Troopers might not know
something they can use to defend themselves how to use. Indoors it could take place over
– perhaps actual brick forts or maybe they’re the bathtub requiring swimming and sailing
hiding among the leaves in the garden. skills or in the refrigerator, necessitating
some cold weather gear. Outdoors might be
5–7: Politics. Sometimes the army can’t do near a canal, in an office or in an industrial
their job because it’d make their government area!
look bad… or sometimes there’s some local
bigshot who wants to use the army for their King: Lost. The heroes lose their objective (or
own needs. Either way Toy Troopers need to someone higher up goofed) – they might
follow some additional objectives – often this themselves get lost in the chaos, discover a
means taking prisoners or protecting an area. new Zone, or even be carried away by a Giant.

8–9: Communication failure. It can be ra‐ Ace: No gear. The equipment doesn’t arrive…
dio static, failure of equipment or maybe even or malfunctions in the worst possible mo‐

53
ment. It’s a good day for a field repair or King: Peace talks. The opponents might sur‐
scrounging up some toypunk inventions! render and want to discuss things with the he‐
roes – after all, Green and Grey are identical.
Joker: Your worst possible day. Everything Instead of rolling Shooting and Fighting, the
that can go wrong, does. It’s one of these days players might want to make use of their Per‐
that prove Murphy’s laws. suasion skill.
Card Two: The Plot Twist Ace: Mad Science! The Greys have access to
This an unpredictable factor that changes the a mad toypunk invention created by Dr.
plans and might totally surprise the troopers. Knight or an equally talented inventor. The
device is lethal and dangerous to characters,
2: Rogue Agent. There’s a single individual using Real World technologies and dangerous
unaffiliated with the Greys and Greens who objects or substances.
wants to fulfill their agenda. Perhaps it’s a
freelance spy, a self-obsessed action figure, a Joker: Sudden shift. The objective changes
bounty hunter or a greedy merchant. They mid-mission – draw a new card. Protection
might attack the characters, but they can also changing into Assault might mean a counter-
be convinced to harass the opponents! attack, for example.
3–4: Supplies! The weaker or losing side might
receive sudden support from the command…
Card Three: The NPC
To spice up a combat mission, add a human
which might not be the best thing for the face to the troubles. This NPC means a role-
players. playing experience, can be an enemy, a nui‐
5–7: A brother is hurtin’. There’s an ally sance, or an ally.
fighting nearby, and during the mission toy 2: Enemy cut-scene. To break a long scene
troopers need to help them. Perhaps this or provide a breather from harsh combat, you
might mean abandoning the original mission! can cut to an enemy gloating to their lieu‐
8–9: It’s personal. It’s time to use some of he‐ tenants or working on some nefarious plot,
roes’ Hindrances against them – especially so‐ while the player troopers are away. Don’t
cial ones like Enemy or Outsider. Or maybe worry about players gaining some knowledge
they just receive a Dear John letter from home. – they paid for it by not being the stars of the
story in this scene.
10: Treason! Someone in the players’ ranks is
a real Benedict Quisling. They might sell the 3–4: An old friend. Your friend – perhaps
players out or desert at the crucial moment. from Basic Training or even a family friend –
The Greys might learn a couple of military se‐ shows up… or you make a new one. GM
crets… or capture the heroes themselves. shouldn’t kill established friends… at least not
on the first session when they appear!
Jack: Mutiny! Your soldiers don’t have to nec‐
essarily ally with the Greys, but they might 5–7: Worried civilians. A toy not directly
simply have had enough. At best, you have a affiliated with the Greens or Greys might
negative modifier to commanding them, at need your help. A lot of humanoid toys are
worst they might desert and abandon you. larger than Toy Troopers… and usually they
have their own agendas! Some toys, however,
Queen: Someone else screwed up. Military need some protection, others might have
operations require coordination, and in this valuable objects they could trade for favors.
case an allied squad or superiors managed to
get defeated which can negate any success of 8–9: Pets or animals. Some toys have animal
the heroes – perhaps the party managed to se‐ intelligence. However, a pet could also mean
cure a post hidden in a flowerpot… but they friendly Real bug and even a small mammal
won’t receive supplies. like mouse. The characters can try to tame
them or even to gain unusual mounts. Of

54
course, deserters and hermits might have tamed but she might just want to taunt them. None‐
these before… theless, the players could have an opportunity
to understand their opponents… or maybe
10: Rivals. Some commanders actively en‐ just play football with them.
courage rivalry between units, to foster the
competitive spirit. It never ends well, al‐ Joker: Special Celebrity Appearance. In
though it can be fun while it lasts. This could the toy world this might mean a famous per‐
also mean personal or even romantic rivals. former from Tinseltown or a Green politi‐
cian… but you can go crazy and unleash your
Jack: Researcher/Journalist. A nosy civil‐ inner impersonator – perhaps a superheroine
ian will accompany players on the front lines from the recent blockbuster appears as an ac‐
– and will be a constant source of trouble, but tion figure, or that toy cowboy resembles a fa‐
the eventual pay off might be worth it. mous Western actor.
Queen: Love is in the air! Decision whether
the character falls in love should always be‐ Card Four: Toy Twist
long to the player, but NPCs can flirt and The final card is here to show the players that
warm up to the toy trooper’s advances – or their characters are living toys, to make the
the heroes become witnesses in a torrid love story more exciting and fantastic.
affair between two different toys. A lot of 2: To pieces, you say? An ally gets broken in
amusing… and baffling situations could de‐ the Real World and must be fixed. For the he‐
velop between the animated toys. roes it might often mean a hunt for some in‐
King: A strange ally. This could mean a weird stant glue or spare parts.
auxiliary unit or an unusual toy that helps the 3–4: Giant territory. The heroes need to
player characters (like Hunter in our PPC). If hide, while Giants hang around in the area,
mistreated, they can turn on the heroes! transforming the battlefield for the rest of the
Ace: An honorable opponent. One of major encounter. The heroes might have ambushed
Grey leaders want to talk with the heroes – the Greys on the kitchen counter… but they

55
should hide once the Dad starts cooking the side, a friendly dog could also be all too eager
dinner! He’s not always around… so charging to chew on a small Trooper. Of course, ani‐
between the hot pots and plates is still an op‐ mals don’t have to be hostile – but very few
tion. troopers would think to try and tame them.
5–7: Play time! You’re a toy, you exist so that Jack: Crazy obstacle. Sometimes it’s easy to
humans might play with you. The kids (or forget that Toy Troopers fight in a strange en‐
their friends or parents themselves) appear, vironment… but this obstacle has no human
grab you (even perhaps mid-encounter) and equivalents. Perhaps there’s a useful device
play with you… and you can act freely only sunk in a fishbowl, or you might have to use
once they’re gone. Sometimes the kids put a fork as a catapult.
you in the toy box and you’ll have to need to
escape from there! Queen: Size mix-up. This time you’ll have to
use some weapon or toypunk device despite
8–9: Giant problems. Giants have difficul‐ size disparity. Perhaps it was left by a small
ties of their own… which creates opportuni‐ group of rogue mercs like Bratty Dolls or
ties for the heroes. A successful Anthropol‐ maybe it is really some Giant device… Or it
ogy roll could reveal, for instance, that the was enlarged in a different Toy Zone.
Girl wants to fake sickness to skip school…
which could be a great opportunity for the King: New Toy Zone. Heroes can always
Greens to strike outdoors, since the Girl’s discover a new toy world – rumor has it that
room will be a Giant Zone! you can rediscover old ones, decorated in
baby pastel colors, or covered in rusted metal.
10: When animals attack. Our sample fam‐ Some say that Toy Zones have toy inhabitants
ily does not have any pets… but guests or already spontaneously existing.
friends who want the kids to play with ani‐
mals are still a thing. And in the park or Out‐

56
Ace: You! Are! A! Toy! Some toys forget Tinseltown also differs from other toy zones
they’re toys and start to act as if they’re the because it’s been founded by toys visibly
actual characters. For toy soldiers it’s not usu‐ larger than your average army soldier, but it
ally evident since they should act like soldiers accommodates them. Most areas visited by
most of the time anyway… but what if that soldiers on leave have facilities adjusted for
toy would be a supervillain from a cartoon or them. A lot of Green and Grey soldiers enjoy
a snobbish fashion doll? watching actors that are, from their perspec‐
tive, 25 feet tall.
Joker: Time and space. Time works funnily
in the Toy Zones… and the players will en‐ Mandy the Mindy
counter the results of their disassociation. Mandy is one of the most famous celebrities
Perhaps a defeated enemy managed to recu‐ in Tinseltown – many Toy Troopers point out
perate… or maybe their kids grew up and re‐ that she looks just like any other blonde

People and places


turn with a vengeance! Mindy doll… but the directors and fans of the
theaters claim that she has the potential. She
really wants to make movies and her en‐
tourage is constantly on the hunt for movie
This section presents important NPCs and equipment… and potential movie makers and
places. Some are important to the campaign, special effects experts. Mandy dreams big.
others might be an interesting distraction and She has the stats of usual Mindy doll, Perfor‐
serve as examples of settlements and Toy mance d8, Anthropology (movie-making) d8
Zones the GM can create themselves. You’ll in Tinseltown she’s Size 0 and is Size +6 in the

Tinseltown (large inde-


find more stats for ‘generic NPCs’ in chapter 8. Real World.

pendent city)
Tinseltown is a rarity in the world of Toy
Troopers – a large, self-sustainable town of
independent toys. Their main business is en‐
tertainment: Tinseltown is a town of theaters
and touring musicians. The actors – mostly
Mindy dolls and some superhero action fig‐
ures – live the lazy life of celebrities, with
some Bricko folk acting as extras and tech
support. They want to loot some toy cameras
from Bricko set so that they could shoot
movies, and work on the technology. They
might perfect it during the campaign.
The sunny, forested town is divided into two
– luxury mansions built of plastic bricks on
top of the hills and simple houses below. It’s
really hard to determine who’s the leader of
the town – there’s usually a handful of prima
donna directors running things and when
something concerns entire town, they meet
together. There’s usually a couple of toy police
officers funded by these, too – enough to take
care of any small group of soldiers on a leave,
enjoying the night life too much.

57
London Town (small inde-
pendent village)
The Londoners don’t want their little town to
be discovered by either of the armies. They’re
mostly self-sufficient, but they need building
materials to expand their town. Yavanna has
Behind the box in the laundry room there’s a went to the garage a couple of times to loot,
small Toy Zone. After a few steps in darkness, but Queenie doesn’t let her sneak out any‐
the heroes can wander in a nice hill-sided area more because it’s dangerous.
with pastures and fields, with wooly sheep
grazing. There’s a small, unfortified village
atop the tallest hill. If you try to go beyond the
k Queenie
small forest or the river stream, you will walk Queenie is a bobble-headed souvenir gift ini‐
out back to the laundry closet. tially meant for the Big Sis – which makes her
older, and somewhat worldly. After all, she IS
In the village called London Town there are from abroad! She’s pompous but overall a
only a handful of buildings – three houses for fairly reasonable authority figure… though
its eight inhabitants, and a large pub that dou‐ she demands to be treated like a real Queen
bles as a courthouse/city hall. Half of Londo‐ and abuses the royal “we”.
nians are deserters: Leo and Matt were ordi‐
nary Grey troopers, BB was a Green pilot, and She cares about all her “subjects” acting as a
Tilly was a scout and hunter. Jeri and Sam are self-appointed mother of the large family
Bricko people, a gardener and a builder re‐ rather than a ruler. In particular, she has taken
spectively. The leader of the Town is Queenie a maternal approach to Yavanna… though the
– a bobble-headed solar-powered souvenir elf both appreciates and resents it. Queenie
from actual London, who founded the town. wants her community to develop but is not
Her second-in-command is Yavanna – a letting her family venture to dangerous places
winged Brickhaus elf archer, and city’s main garage or to kids’ rooms. She lets them steal
line of defense. paper from the bathroom and the living room
(and as a result is relatively well-read for a
toy).
A�ributes: Agility d6-1, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
Strength d4-1, Vigor d8-1
Skills: Academics d6, Anthropology d10+2,
Athle�cs d4, Ba�le d8, Common Knowledge
d10, Figh�ng d4, In�mida�on d6, No�ce d8,
Occult d6, Persuasion d8, Repair d4, Research
d6, Shoo�ng d8, Stealth d6.
Pace: 1; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6
Edges: Command, Hold the Line, Natural
Leader, No Mercy, Scholar (Anthropology)
Hindrances: Big Dumb Head, Cau�ous,
Elderly, Quirk (insists on royal protocol, uses
the royal we and has a pronounced RP accent)
Gear: Small corgi (Willow), purse (containing a
handgun, 12/24/48, 2d6+1, AP 1), crown
(Armor +3 on head in Toy Zones only).
Special Abili�es:
- Bobblehead. as the Big Dumb Head
Hindrance, but her constant nodding can be
interpreted as sagely. A�empts to Persuade
Queenie or detect lies using No�ce are at –1.
k Yavanna the Elf

58
The Elf Friends line of the Brickhaus was Edges: A�rac�ve (to Brickhaus people
fairly popular, but the winged elves were anyway), Alertness, Double Tap (can use it
wildly impractical. Yavanna was well-liked by with bows)
the Girl but as she began to be more inter‐ Hindrances: All Thumbs (well, you get the
ested in animals, Yavanna and her elven general idea), Clueless, Heroic, Stubborn
friends were left on the shelf. Gear: Bow made of Real World wire and doll
hair (12/24/48, 2d6, AP 2), 12 arrows (HW).
Eventually the Grey army animated and con‐ Special Abili�es:
scripted her, but Yavanna escaped and found - Wings: Yavanna has colorful wings made of
Queenie. Yavanna found another Toy Zone in thin cardboard. She can’t fly using them even
the closet, and Queenie founded London in a Toy Zone, but they grant her +2 to
Athle�cs when falling or jumping. In Toy
there, recruiting similar lost troopers, while Zones, they’re a part of her, and enemies have
Yavanna scouts and defends the community.

Major characters
+2 bonus to hit and hurt her.
Yavanna behaves like a stereotypical elf from
high fantasy novel… but also like a rebellious
teenager – Queenie might have “adopted her”,
but she’s now being too overbearing and she’s
not her real mom!
k Dr. Grizelda Knight
A�ributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,
Strength d6, Vigor d8 Dr Knight has always been fascinated with
Skills: Anthropology d8+2, Athle�cs d4, Ba�le the Real World and spent more and more time
d6, Common Knowledge d4, Figh�ng d6, there, sometimes even observing giants
Healing d4, In�mida�on d4, No�ce d10+1, against her superiors’ orders. Eventually she
Occult d6, Performance d4, Persuasion d8, began Grey-sponsored studies of Giants, and
Riding d4, Shoo�ng d10, Stealth d8, Survival how they relate to creation and animation of
d8. Toys. As a result, she’s visibly more “plastic”
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6
in the Toy Worlds. She has studied the prop‐

Our family
This is how we see the family – as said before, this is only a vision that justifies some elements
in the house and in the campaign. A lot of these are not facts, but suggestions.
Mom is in her early 30s. She is a creative designer and an artist (hence the powerful, multi-
screened computer in the parents’ bedroom). Mom sometimes works from home but spends a
certain amount of time both as a part-time consultant at a creative company, and teacher at the
university. As a result, she can be found working at home at any time, but there are times
where there’s only kids playing.
Dad is somewhat older than Mom, he works on an oil rig as an engineer. He works two weeks
offshore and spends two weeks at home with kids. Sometimes he’s completely missing, some‐
times he spends his entire days at home, relaxing, spending time with family and playing video
games during the day.
The Big Sister is in college, studying Law. She’s also on a sports team, and she visits the family
during the major holidays.
The Little Sister is about nine years old, she’s struggling with slight autism and ADHD, but is
a cheerful if energetic kid. She’s taking small amounts of medication to calm her down, but
overall the family – often Dad when he’s around – try to keep her happy and occupy her atten‐
tion. She’s a big fan of the natural world and collects toy animals.
The Brother is twelve. He is a stubborn pre-teen who likes to spend time with his peers and
play board games. He’s a big fan of some superhero series, most notably the Defenders and
Teen Robots. He’s been seriously annoyed with his little sister before, but now he spends more
time with her.

59
erties of Toy Zones and human behavior and No�ce d8, Shoo�ng d8, Stealth d8, Survival
believes that any place has potential to be‐ d6.
come a Toy Zone. Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8
Edges: Brawny, Combat Reflexes,
Dr. Knight’s big plan is ostensibly to subtly Countera�ack, Extrac�on (Imp), Soldier,
control the Giants – commander Feldgrau be‐ Mar�al Ar�st.
lieves that it’s to dominate the Toy Zones in Hindrances: Arrogant, Loyal, Mean.
the house, by making them order more toys Gear: Helmet (+3), plas�c rifle (24/48/96,
for Sister, but actually she wants to create Toy 2d8, RoF 3, 30 shots, AP 2).
Zones for herself to rule, then exploit the Real Special Abili�es:
• Hardy: Ivan is just that tough. To Wound
World, possibly to rule it as well. Why bother him, it’s not enough to Shake him twice.
with dominating a bedroom, when you can
literally create new worlds? k Brigadier-General Olive K. Drabb
A�ributes: Agility d10, Smarts d12, Spirit d8, This stern-faced grim lady is a two-star gen‐
Strength d6, Vigor d8 eral that can take interest in the players’ toy
Skills: Anthropology d12, Athle�cs d8, Ba�le troopers. She is officially an assistant to com‐
d8, Common Knowledge d8, Driving d10, mander of a division, responsible for hun‐
Electronics d8, Figh�ng d6, Hacking d8,
Healing d4, In�mida�on d8, Language dreds of soldiers, vehicles and the organiza‐
(Chinese) d6, No�ce d8, Persuasion d10, tion of large operations – and unofficially
Pilo�ng d8, Repair d10, Science d10, Shoo�ng she’s also responsible for the unusual, irregu‐
d10, Stealth d8, Taunt d8, Thievery d6. lar special operations. She has an investiga‐
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 tive nature, which serves her well.
Edges: Brave, Command, Combat Reflexes,
Free Runner, Jack-of-all-Trades, Mar�al Ar�st, She isn’t sure whether she’d like to be pro‐
McGyver, Mr Fix It, Rich (Filthy), Scavenger moted further – her main motivation is to
Hindrances: Curious, Driven (to rule the keep as many Green soldiers alive as possible.
world), Small (she’s a Bricko person), She won’t accompany the PCs, in part be‐
Suspicious (Major). cause she has been paralyzed by her fear of
Gear: Usually she commandeers any Gray the dark since the Boy left her for days in the
Vehicle, and she’s quite adept in pilo�ng them. backpack during spring break.
She carries a submachine gun (12/24/48, 2d6,
AP 1, RoF 3, 30 shots) and a saber (Str+d6, +1 If necessary, you can use the same stats for
Parry) with her when exploring Real World Commander Jonathan Feldgrau – he has
Special Abili�es: Battle d10, since he has more experience and
• Construct – Dr. Knight insists on spending commanded major battles.
�me in the Real World and she o�en
researches Giants on her own. Regardless A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
of the world she’s in, she’s treated like a Strength d6, Vigor d8
full-blown construct. She feels no pain, Skills: Athle�cs d6, Ba�le d8, Common
and can detach her limbs which s�ll Knowledge d6, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d8,
func�on, unlike most Bricko people. Persuasion d10, Research d8, Stealth d6,
k Ivan
Shoo�ng d8.
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6
Edges: Rank (Officer), Brave, Combat Reflexes,
Ivan is a huge Grey Trooper, one who got Command, Fervor, Hold the Line!, Inspired,
luckily molded to be huge. He believes in the Mar�al Ar�st.
Grey nation and thinks that Dr. Knight is the Hindrances: Cau�ous, Loyal, Curious, Phobia
best option for changing the reality so that (Major, darkness)
the Grey nation can be a dominant power in Gear: Handgun (12/24/48, 2d6, AP 1 RoF 3).
the House.
k Hunter
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
Strength d12+2, Vigor d10 Hunter is a wooden painter mannequin be‐
Skills: Anthropology d6, Athle�cs d8, Ba�le longing to Mom. They are actually one of the
d8, Common Knowledge d8, Figh�ng d10, oldest toys in the house - they don’t like talk‐

60
ing about it, but Hunter remembers times A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
when only the oldest Girl had toys. As a ‘se‐ Strength d12+2, Vigor d8
nior citizen’, Hunter has excellent knowledge Skills: Anthropology d8, Athle�cs d8,
of the house layout (and neighboring areas!), Common Knowledge d8, Figh�ng d8, No�ce
but they don’t like socializing with other toys d8, Persuasion d6, Repair d8, Shoo�ng d8,
and seldom visit Toy Zones. Stealth d10, Survival d6, Thievery d4
Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10
They doesn’t think of themselves as of a boy Edges: Free Runner, Frenzy, Level-Headed,
or girl, being instead interested in explo‐ Trademark Weapon (spear)
ration, and well… hunting. It’s not clear how Hindrances: Code of Honor, Mute, Outsider,
Gear: Real World Spear (Str+d6, 2/4/8, HW),
they ear, but they apparently do. Hunter can ratskin cloak.
hear and see normally, somehow, but they’re Special Abili�es:
unable to speak. They also are, not surpris‐ • Size +4: Hunter is tall, and able to assist
ingly given their origin, a quite good artist. Toy Troopers. Compared to them, they are
Large, and can take an extra Wound.
Since they are mute, no one is sure how they Medium creatures are at +2 to a�ack
call themselves, but their friend Yavanna them.
claims that they’re fine with being simply
called Hunter.

61
Plot point campaign

Thinking Outside
the toybox

This campaign assumes that the player char‐ onto frontlines. There's no official orders, he’s
acters start as a small squad of privates in the heard from his superiors that some of his for‐
infantry but honestly, you could easily change mer men might the first to get into the
this campaign if your players were in a tank grinder. Use this conversation to do two

War is coming
squad or a more elite unit. things. Set a tone by putting the players on
edge and give the players a chance to intro‐
duce themselves. Give their unit a name, es‐
tablish the names of their commanding offi‐
cers and other allies in the squad. Give the
For the last few weeks there’s been a recurring players a chance to describe their characters.
rumor around the Greens, that there has been Because first thing in the morning…
a shakeup in command in the Sister's room. Re‐
portedly, there's a new Grey commander, who
wants to expand more to the Side Corridor and
March out!
discover new Toy Zones there. Instead of breakfast and a morning training
session, the heroes are woken up by a bugle
There's more patrols outside the Boy's Room call, and their superior appears in their com‐
and the Green officers are trying to keep the mon room, telling them they need to prepare
grunts on their toes. The heroes are being sta‐ for the relocation – prep the gear, loadout and
tioned in a Toy Zone in the Boy’s Room – wait for the further orders. They're waiting
they have finished their basic training and anxiously for about an hour, and around 10
they now need to learn how to work as a AM they receive an order: They and two other
team. In the meantime, they can enjoy the companies are to march out of the zone, tra‐
plastic trees and leisurely work after training verse the Boy’s Room, get to the corridor, and
– perhaps doing some boring bureaucratic patrol the kitchen with DRC – Direct Radio
duty like assessing gear or examining vehicles Contact. In the Real World it's still night – the
in the motor pool. Giants are asleep, and the lights are off. There’s
They’re approached by their former drill no moonlight, and all the rooms are Dark.
sergeant a cool, detached tough guy. He talks The toy troopers might want to turn the light
to them for a bit and mentions that it’s not im‐ on – you can play it out as a Challenge (see
possible that they will be thrown straight page. Sample rolls are Anthropology for find‐

62
ing and activating a glow-in-the dark toy or Luckily for the heroes, the Greys are merely
Navigation to find a nightlight. Failure here testing the dinosaurs on the battlefield – if the
means that the Boy wakes up briefly and the beast is Shaken, Grey Troopers make a Spirit
team is delayed and gets flak from their supe‐ check (not as an action), failure means that
rior later. Luckily for the PCs, the door to the they run away. After the fight, the PC unit
room is ajar. might find themselves hopelessly lost in the
darkness. If they are lost, they will need to
Attack in the dark wait until after the Kids go to school in the
morning to go back to Boy’s Room. Ask the
Another group of Green soldiers also marches players what they intend to do. If they try to
out of the Toy Zone in the closet, and they re‐ make their way back in this early morning,
join the heroes. The heroes have to patrol the ask them to make Navigation rolls to find
eastern side of the main room, while the other their way back to a vantage point – failure
squads will take the center and the causes them to get closer to the Grey
western wall. Kitchen seems Base. On their road, however,
quiet and peaceful in the they will encounter a hunter.
dark… But there’s three
Grey planes stationed Nameless Hunter
on top of the cup‐ Hunter is a drawing
board waiting to mannequin – they’re
attack any troop‐ fairly old, since
ers who come into they’re not a toy of
the living room. If Brother or any Sister,
the players men‐ but technically
tion having a Mom's, back when
light, the Greys the little Sister
will bomb their wasn’t around. When
column… and the Mom stopped using
NPCs will immedi‐ them for drawing
ately break ranks practice, she stashed
and flee. There’s them… not that far away
chaos and panic… and from a Toy Zone. The
from the shadows, mon‐ mannequin fell into a small
sters leap! Zone on its own, and they
The player characters luckily taught themselves how to fight on
weren’t Wounded by the air strike, their own.
but each Extra follower suffered 2d6 damage! They are peaceful but will sneak up to toy
If the heroes have avoided the light, a Grey air troopers that are lost and not sure what to do.
scout tries to break their column with assault Hunter is a smooth wooden figure who hides
and bombing anyway – but the Extras only their lack of features behind their trophies –
receive 1d6 damage and the heroes aren’t parts of monsters they’ve slain, including
hopelessly lost. Hunter (see below) will ap‐ even skin of a rat. They motion to the heroes
proach them on their own instead, seeing to follow them under the cupboard… and if
how they fought a monster. the soldiers do, roll Notice (–4 because of the
After the dust settles, the Grey Infantry closes darkness). A success will reveal that up on the
on… with a monstrous ally! Remember that shelves there’s some movement – probably
it’s Dark, but it affects both Greens and Greys. Grey soldiers. If the players failed the Naviga‐
tion rolls before, perhaps a lookout has
• 1 regular Grey Trooper for each Green spotted them as they lost time – and as the he‐
soldier roes follow Hunter, Greys can take one or two
• 1 triceratops pot-shots at them (Shooting d6-4).

63
Hunter leads the players to a very small and
narrow passage between the cupboard and
the wall. The passage opens to a weird papery
toy zone. Instead of happy shiny plastic the
ground here is a white sheet of paper and so
are the walls. Hunter has gathered some pen‐
cil stubs here and will use them to happily
converse with the heroes. If you want to,
Hunter prefers to draw comics (GM, have fun
with it). If the players get bored of this,
Hunter will write to tell the players that they
need someone with guns to shoot cock‐
roaches biting through their paper walls -- in
return Hunter will lead the PCs to a safe place
in the kitchen when Giants aren’t around.
Play out a scuffle with the roaches who got
deeper in the actual Toy Zone… but there’s
also another plastic dinosaur, this time a
bright-colored stegosaurus who will butt in as
the players practice shooting at the roaches.
The Hunter is as surprised as the players at Hunter will lead the heroes back home as they
the sight of the creature. If asked about this promised and try to avoid any Grey patrols.
new toy, they will write that maybe the play‐ They’ll write that there’s been more activity
ers' superiors would need to hear about it, or in the couple of past days – Hunter didn’t re‐
that they have a friend – Yavanna, a fellow alize that they established a base somewhere
hunter who lives quite a long distance away, but it’s not unlikely. It’s up to the commander
but Hunter’s not sure whether she would rec‐ of the players’ squad what to do next. They
ognize this monster. If asked, they will give can accompany Hunter to London Town to
the heroes the way to London Town… prefer‐ meet with the independent settlement who
ably when the kids go to school. See the de‐ might have more to learn, Hunter might lead
scription of London Town above, if you want them back home to report, or the heroes
to use it in your adventure – it’s here mostly might “show initiative” and Investigate Out‐
to provide connection to an independent NPC post Two on their own.
group the players can use to establish some
contacts outside the Army. The reports of the dinosaurs actively used by
the Grey army could be more precise, but the
• Cockroaches (2 per player) heroes risk capture if they investigate the ru‐
• Stegosaurus with the Hardy special
ability. mors – see Investigating Outpost Two for de‐
tails. The patrol was nonetheless a failure. In
The stegosaurus does not ally itself with the fact, if they return without proof of a new
roaches and will attack them if they’re in its type of toy used by the Greys, they might be
way. The heroes can follow the dinosaurs back disbelieved.
to where they came from (a standard Tracking
roll, +1 since the creature was relatively big), After the patrol
to the Grey base in the upper shelves in this Mom has thrown the plastic remnants of the
cupboard. There are Grey soldiers around – other Green soldiers in the garbage as she left
they have seen the Hunter, but think it’s just a work, so there's no evidence of the night fight.
random toy, and they have avoided the Grey There are no tracks or other trails. The
patrols so far. There are 1d6 Grey soldiers pa‐ Colonel will talk with the heroes and will tell
trolling the outskirts of the cupboard, and they them to be on the lookout in the future. Bring‐
will call for backup if they see Green troopers. ing Hunter as a witness would be useful but

64
won’t fully convince the superior. Bringing gather intel on the Grey Army. If they re‐
trophies of dinosaurs might be sufficient treated, they and their squad (a dozen soldiers
proof, though. Remember what we told you total) are sent to establish a camp base in
about the Photography skill being useful Hunter’s Zone. Colonel Zelenski tells them to
sometimes? colonize it officially – if the heroes became
attached to Hunter, he will specifically order
The commanders haven’t heard of the Zone in the troopers to evict this faceless goon or per‐
the cupboard – and so after a couple of days haps make them join the Green Army. The he‐
to recover in the Boy’s Room, the players will roes need to document the number of soldiers
be ordered to investigate the Toy Zone in the in the base, and its unusual features – if they
living room cupboard. The Hunter’s Zone decided it on their own, they should realize
might be an interesting place to set up a camp, this (you can remind them of their duties us‐

Investigating Outpost 2
even if it’s inaccessible to vehicles. ing Common Knowledge).
Hunter themself will be angry and write that
they will only let in the ones they can trust;
they might even evict the heroes forcibly… or
Outpost Two is the newest one of the secret even attack them, which will probably alert
Grey bases, where they plan to use more di‐ the Grey guards.
nosaurs and other toys. Soon, they’ll use the
Outpost for psychological operations. Greys
have never used non-sentient toys on a large
Reaching Outpost Two
scale and truth be told, Sister doesn’t even This camp is set in a Toy Zone, deep behind
collect that many dinosaurs. Where do they the fancy plates in the kitchen. To get there,
come from? That’s one of the few questions Greys perform airlifts and they have a simple
that need to be explained. string setup – the soldiers can rappel up and
down. In the Zone they store cages for the
The heroes might decide to investigate the creatures and toypunk lifts made of cogs and
Outpost on their own in the first adventure – ball bearings to haul the subdued dinos to the
after all, one of the purposes of patrol was to

65
floor. There’s almost always at least one sol‐ ing room. There are even documents in the
dier hiding between plates – and if he doesn’t commander’s office pointing out the location
see the Giants, he’s accompanied by 1d4 addi‐ of said base.
tional Grey guards.
It’s not impossible that the players will be de‐
Plates: This shelf stores the “good tableware”, tected – a handful of guards might spot them
expensive plates used for special occasion and as they sneak by (1 per player plus 1d6 if they
since Giants do not peek here often, the plates have any allied Extras). They can try to run
are far more vulnerable to toy armaments. An away with evidence, it will take a while for
explosion – even a hand grenade – is enough the Greys to coordinate their efforts. An alter‐
to rock the dishes, and shatter some of them – native is seizing a helicopter if the Greens
add +2d8 to the explosion damage from happen to have Piloting!
shattered dishes and draw a card to check
whether Giants heard the plates shattering. It’s up to Toy Troopers to decide what to do
Good news for the Green army, though: while next – the intel could be valuable. Leaving the
this won’t destroy the Zone, if the Giants base now (regardless of whether heroes are
are alerted, they will limit access of the spotted) will lead the Colonel Zelenski to ac‐
Greys to the cupboard. knowledge PCs’ usefulness, and he will send
them to the kitchen to patrol the counters
The base inside resembles a greyish, during the school days of the Kids. After
metallic wasteland, with buildings a couple of days, the players will be
and landing gear for the heli‐ given more gear and promotion and
copters inside, and a small sent to find the Triassic Dome. In
captured group of raptors in the meantime, you can generate
a pen, with some empty your own missions or play some
cages nearby. If the he‐ Savage Tales like this one:
roes spared the previ‐
ously encountered di‐ Grand Theft Toy Car
nosaurs, they will also
be found here. There’s a The spies of the Green na‐
small bunk space for tion have warned the high
around twenty soldiers but command that the Greys are ac‐
not all of them are found here. tive near the kitchen. They claim
The perimeter is patrolled by a that Mom promised “something
single Grey guard and a toy dog. special” to the Boy, and Greys want
that something. If the heroes have a ve‐
If the players haven’t prepared a hicle specialist in their team, it's their
good attack plan, there is high chance time to shine. Unlike with most other mis‐
that their characters will be captured sions, now the Toy Troopers need to act
and tossed into a cage until Giants are quickly, even if a Giant is nearby! This en‐
gone from the living room. Then and a large counter introduces Ivan, a tough Grey
helicopter will take the player characters to Trooper, and a loyal second-in-command to
Triassic Park (see page 67). It shouldn’t be too dr. Knight. If you decide to skip it, make sure
hard to break out – a Quick Encounter based that he appears in a later adventure.
on Thievery should be enough to sneak out
and pick the lock. It has a lot of string mea‐ This mission is dangerous, though! Mom is in
sured up, and a landing gear for helicopters… the Kitchen, preparing a meal. She’s put the
shopping bags under the table, and Greys are
But most importantly there are actual real toy also racing to seize the “gift”. The briefing offi‐
dinosaurs. The small raptors can be captured cer describes the situation, drawing a simple
and if the players aren’t sure how to do it, map on a scrap of paper, and everyone hurries
Hunter can assist them. The guards minding the heroes to leave the makeshift base.
the dinos claim they come from the Triassic
Dome, a secret base near the TV set in the liv‐

66
Reaching the kitchen before Greys
Greys are using a standard jeep. Provided the
heroes won't come up with a good Challenge
to slow down the enemy (like shooting at the
carpet, alert the Giants) the two teams will ar‐
rive at the kitchen table at the same time.
• Regular Grey Troopers (2 per Green)
• kIvan

There are 2 standard Grey soldiers per every


Green (including PCs), commanded by Dr
Knight’s personal assistant – Ivan. Ivan is one
of the biggest Toy Troopers ever, he's Brawny,
Hardy, and superhumanly strong. He won't
even try negotiating with heroes. When the
Greys get to the shopping bag, he will tell his
men to cover him and four novices as they
climb the produce bags on the ground, that
are propped against the legs of the table. Ivan
will take four combat rounds to climb to table Ivan is somewhat bulletproof, but he's not im‐
surface – in the first two rounds he has Cover mortal – he'll jump protecting the car, and fol‐
provided by the grocery bags. Ivan is also su‐ low to the TV set.
perhumanly strong and can pelt the heroes with
fruit and vegetables found in the bags (treat it as The Giants are awake
Improvised Charges, in table on page 30). When If anyone draws a Queen of Diamonds during
Ivan reaches the tabletop, his men on the the fight or the chase, Mom will take some ac‐
ground will take defensive position. tion – immediately shifting the entire scene
into Giant Zone (reducing Pace of characters
Tabletop combat and forcing them to sneak past her). She’ll
If the heroes follow Ivan, they will have to move to the table and look for the toy car –
climb the table legs and performing advanced and if she spots it in the middle of the room,
backflips to jump on the tabletop. The Grey she’ll lift it up, perhaps wondering if the store
colossus believes that he can deal with the added some toy soldiers to the car.
party on his own, but his first priority is to
find the die-cast metal toy car in the shopping She'll be really angry if she's lost her toy car…
bags. He'll pull it out and – since it's in the toy- somewhere. On the plus side, she'll give her son
state now and doesn’t work like a real car – some money instead, which he'll add to his piggy
ride it like sled, jumping off the table. bank… and buy some new toys in his room in the
future. Of course, the heroes won't realize this,

The Triassic Park


Ivan’s Pace is merely doubled when he is us‐ but it’d be nice for the players to know.
ing it in this way. The Grey soldiers on the
tabletop will cover Ivan’s escape, then jump
onto the produce bags, thus reducing the
damage from falling. Ivan can actually grab
the toy car and smack the characters with it, The real secret base of the Greys in the big room
briefly gaining the Improved Sweep Edge (–2 is on the top shelf of the bookshelves near the
due to bulk and being an improvised weapon). TV set. While this whole area is often treated as
He will rush to the nearest Toy Zone, perhaps Giant Zone since Dad tends to rest here, the up‐
the Outpost Two if the Greys haven’t closed it permost bookshelf is safe, even though it is ac‐
– and the heroes should stop him, because cessible mostly through flying vehicles. Heli‐
there the toy will transform into a real car – copters are extensively used to transport beasts.
much faster than most army jeeps and tanks!

67
A couple of steps behind the wooden edge of
the cupboard the Toy Zone begins. Within the Inside the Dino Dome
Toy Zone is a wide plain, with ominous cliffs This is a geodesic dome (in part made of a
on the horizon. Just a couple of hundred me‐ large glass fruit bowl) containing a small Toy
ters beyond there are two dozen airplanes in Zone inside a Toy Zone – only Dr. Knight
grey hangars… and a strange dome. Closer ex‐ knows how to achieve this trick. Now the
amination will reveal that it’s some kind of a heaters and lamps maintain tropical climate for
giant glassware, repurposed and somehow the dinosaurs – the first few spawned “natu‐
enlarged to serve as a roof of a building. It’s rally”, as a background element – now they
the Triassic Dome, where Dr. Knight controls quickly hatch from eggs and mature… The
the dinosaur-aspected Toy Zone. inside of the dome is a thick jungle with
pathways and clearings created by the
There’s a large garrison (around 30 Grey jungle behemoths.
troopers), a crew of technicians and scientists,
and the Zone always has at least 3 heavy heli‐
copters to transport dinosaurs to the ground
floor. Of course, the real danger is the mad‐
woman running the show.
If the players let themselves be captured in
the previous adventures (or during the attack
on the Dome itself) they and their allies will The captured prisoners re‐
be examined by Zelda Knight, and if they’re ceive simple rifles (with full maga‐
auxiliaries or Bricko guys like herself, she’ll zines). They’re usually told that
chat with them. She introduces herself as “dr. they can fight their way out or at least try to
Knight” and explains that she’s been working survive for a couple of days. But the real idea
on creating new Toy Zones – something toy is to condition the dinosaurs to be hostile to‐
science never considered possible. She’s had wards Green soldiers – even if the Greenies
some promising results, transforming an area manage to kill one, the others will be enraged
of this Zone into a more savage, wilder land… by the attack on the herd.
where dinosaur toys spawn naturally. If the
players don’t interrupt, or they comment log‐ It’s time for the heroes to fight their way through
ically on her mad scientist speech (passing an – if you want to, you can play it out tactically, us‐
Anthropology roll), she’ll notice it means ba‐ ing assorted species of dinosaurs found in the
sically unlimited power – creating toys out of next chapter (at this point, one larger beastie
thin air! You could even manipulate the Gi‐ should be matched to 2 characters). The heroes
ants with that! will also find some previous victims and can loot
their equipment for extra ammo… and perhaps
“Sadly,” she callously explains, even improvised melee weapons.
“you won’t be able to learn the
consequences for the entire This is a cruel and unusual punishment, but
toy world. But you will help there is a way out. A skilled technician (Re‐
out with testing the dinosaurs, pair –2) could use the systems of temperature
so you will contribute to science.” regulation to lower the temperature so that
the reptiles get morose – as a bonus, it could
It’s good if Dr. Knight gives the same spiel to lower the temperature of the main heating
the soldiers that invaded the base – try to play vent so that the plastic soldiers could crawl
it out so that they’ll be captured. If the players out without melting! An alternate way out is
have a really good plan, Dr. Knight escapes to destroy the main door – it has Toughness
(jumping behind the shelf from the other 20 but provoking an enraged dinosaur to ram
side), and the heroes can learn this plan from it once or twice should do the trick. Dinosaurs
her notes… that are held in a small camp in‐ will cover the heroes’ escape… you don’t have
side the dome, as pointed by the technicians. to take airplanes or helicopters.

68
Alternatively, you can play out fighting
through the dome (whether the heroes are Trouble in Tinseltown
prisoners or invaders) as a Quick Encounter, The player characters are on a furlough in Tin‐
using Fighting and Shooting to defeat the di‐ seltown, the small Toy Zone that's independent
nosaurs, Repair to find the heaters and Notice but provides a lot of entertainment. Normally
and Science to find Dr. Knight’s camp. this town is full of Greens and Greys on leave
passing each other politely – the Directors of
In any case, this will be the valuable research the town said that if there's any violence, both
– an Anthropology (–3) roll will hint that she groups will be banned for at least a month of
used Sister’s toys and Giant magazines to Real World time and the prices for entertain‐
“push” the area towards the dinosaurs. Either ment and supporting the troops will rise.
way, Green scientists will have something to
study If the players manage to break out of As the toy troopers try to relax in a nice toy
the dome as prisoners, it’s not unlikely that cafe. Madame Jumeau, the cafe owner and an
the camp will be disbanded, and the experi‐ old-school porcelain doll, asks for help. She
ments moved elsewhere. might have heard of what the heroes have
achieved, and tell them a small group of bratty
After the dinos dolls have taken over her friend’s theater. She'll
give them free croissants and say that they
A handful of dinosaurs might be tamed by might be the perfect toys to help her friend.
Greens, but after this adventure, they’re rele‐
gated to sidelines. Dr. Knight wants to try out Tinseltown cops can’t cope with a gang of
other venues of research and besides, the di‐ bratty dolls who wanted to star in the show and
nos had little practical use on the battlefield. took over a theater. The friend of Madame
They might appear in the future scenarios, Jumeau is Chief O’Hara – a plastic action figure
and maybe some escaped to the “toy wild”. cop, who’s in the area and tries to take control.
The heroes can after all this series of mission, The Bratties are strong and heavily armed –
roll for promotion – and they will be trans‐ someone must sneak into the theater and con‐
ferred to the special operations unit. General vince the dolls peacefully to come out. The
Olive Drabb oversees special operations; she gangsters are three big dolls who don't re‐
has heard of new experiments, and will be very spect toy troopers and might actually pull out
interested, when she hears the name of Dr. a gun on them. They have Heavy Weapons
Knight. She’ll tell the players to keep an eye on like machine guns and rocket launchers,
that Bricko person. The heroes will become looted from Green or Grey deserters.
now a more elite, mobile team – they’ll still be
a part of their main unit, but they’ll also be sent • Three Bra�y dolls: Melody, Harmony and
Carol – Extras with Resilient ability.
on several investigative missions, seeking
strange, misfit toys. Remember though that they’re entertainers,
not enemies. If the players shoot a doll – they
To a certain extent, they will be given some sup‐ could be ejected from the town forever. A sin‐
plies, like a new vehicle or dedicated air support gle Taunt, Persuasion or Intimidate roll could
and Drabb will encourage them to explore on be enough to make them less hostile, but a fail‐
their own. “There are many settlements there, ure could turn dirty quick.
and we’re going to need allies. They’ve moved
their bases closer to our borders, and there are re‐ The dolls have prepared a horrible musical act
ports of strange toys nearby. Since we now know that's not very good, but they will relent if they
that our mortal enemies are creating new Toy receive any kind of promise to perform it pub‐
Zones, we also need to learn about them as licly. However, if they are booed after hitting
much as possible.” the stage, this will actually make them willing
to improve more. An enterprising Toy Trooper
Let the players explore Toy Zones for a while, might promise to let them perform for the
sending them on a couple of scouting or re‐ Green Army… and then turn them into allied
source gathering missions, generating them mercenaries!
yourself.

69
Act two: Redesigning Reality
Mom owns a powerful computer she uses in
her work as a graphics designer. Recently,
though, she’s been thinking of acquiring a
new useful gadget – a 3d printer. Would you
believe that it’s because at night, a small of
specially trained Grey Soldiers climbs onto
her bed and whisper stuff into her ears when
she is sleeping? Regardless of any influence
3d printer would indeed be useful in her job…
but first she needs to earn money for it, by
taking some extra commissions. As a result,
she’s been in her room for days… which is not
exactly what the Greys wanted.
But the Greys still need to maintain their
presence in the parents’ bedroom, next door
to the Boy’s. The outlooks and scouts reported
more flying machines getting in the Mom’s
room while she’s running errands. And so, it’s
up to heroes to explore the small Toy Zones in
the room and learn what the Greys are plan‐ something on the computer. They will open a
ning. Officially, they have to establish an out‐ spammy website advertising 3d printers and
post in the room and look for the new Zones. start typing up an order. Note that the player
Unofficially, they must learn what the Greys characters might not understand what a 3d
are planning and what are they going to do printer is – it requires an Anthropology (–4)
now that their dinosaur initiative has been roll to remember what it means for the war!
foiled.
If the players try to intervene or attack, the
The heroes could look for a convenient Toy Greys “send” mid-sentence, and scramble and
Zone in the room, but even if they find one it flee. Dr Knight won’t let herself be captured.
will be small and won’t offer a good vantage The soldiers if captured, will say that this is
point to observe Mom. The heroes need to not the first time they came in here and men‐
spend their time in the Real World and ob‐ tion these sleep-learning sessions.
serve the happenings when Giants are and
aren’t around. Get your players to describe
the decorations in the room, places, nooks
Customers’ revenge
and crannies where they could camp out The very next day Mom will be circling be‐
without being seen by the Giant – a shelf with tween the kitchen, the garage before she fi‐
flowerpots or a bookshelf would work well. It nally decides she’ll drive the kids to school
will take a couple of Real World days to ob‐ herself. That’s a great opportunity for the
serve Mom getting overworked, neglecting Greys to move out with a small invasion
sleep, and overdosing on coffee… but once she force! As the players’ troopers are guarding
leaves the house after three days, the players the room, the Greys gather up in small hidden
will finally see a small commando unit of forces to attack the Toy Zone in the parents’
Greys lead by Dr. Knight sneaking into the bedroom, before Mom gets back.
room. Now’s their chance to get them!
The Greys have significant forces that out‐
The heroes could also observe these invaders number the garrison – even if the players
and report back – that’s not very glorious but have demanded support, the Greys have one
won’t get ragged on by Drabb. If so, the Grey or two platoons more than the Green side and
scrambles towards the desktop, to write a powerful vehicle. The Green defenders can,

70
however, call for additional support from the A couple of days after the battle in Mom’s
Boy’s room so that they might hold on for as room the Greys set up new bases in the Gar‐
long as possible. Play out a Mass Battle (the den. The superiors of General Drabb decide to
Grey commander has Battle d8) – but in this ignore it – the war so far focuses on the goals
case the combat might be small-scale, so the in the house. But in the afternoon while the
players have a +1 bonus to Support the com‐ kids are out at the pool and Mom is sleeping
mander. her crunch off, Big Baby Karen, escorted by
three tanks and a mechanized infantry pla‐
However, if the battle is not resolved in three toon will walk up to the front door and try to
rounds, Mom comes in suddenly, and sees open it while Ivan and his small crew will
toys scattered all over the floor and takes the climb on Mom’s jacket hanging on the hooks
new arrivals on the floor back to the Brother’s near the door, looking for her wallet! This is
room. While this isn’t perfect since the Greys unusual – again, you might call for Anthro‐
might quickly return to the Parents’ Bedroom pology rolls to let the heroes who are slow on
again. If the heroes stayed behind and hid uptake to understand what
somewhere, they’re still closer to Mom’s com‐
puter. the Greys in the invading force can get The players could muster whatever forces
captured and interrogated. they have if they want to stop this. Play out a
Mass Battle. The heroes might convince Gen‐
Even if they lost the battle, Greys are going to eral Drabb to give them a couple of dozen sol‐
move back into Parents’ Bedroom as soon as diers and artillery to stop Greys from chang‐
possible. As the Green Troopers were fighting ing the rules of the battle. The heroes might
them off, a small force of Greys tried to estab‐ win the battle, but if Karen starts to lose, she
lish some smaller camps in the room, hiding will immediately start squeaking and crying
handful of soldiers under the bed. These loud, waking Mom up. Ivan might stay put in
Greys will camp in the living room Zones un‐ the jacket anyway – Mom has the wallet on
til Mom leaves her bedroom and will try to re‐ her, and it’ll take a while for the Greys to find
take the abandoned garrison as soon as possi‐
ble. Within, they begin the preparation for
“Operation 3d”.

Operation Unlimited Credit


After the battle in Mom's room the Greys
have hatched a nefarious plan – to use the 3d
printer to create super-toys that will win the
war and let her take over. To order the printer
– and more supplies for her plans – she needs
to interfere with the Giant world, and she
needs Giant money.
First, though, they need to distract the
Greens. For the next few days, they’ll distract
the Greens by staging operations outside so
good knowledge of the Garden will be useful.
The Grays will try to get Greens fighting on
two fronts. It’s easy for the Greys to get out‐
side through the back porch, but they also
might – as a bonus – try to open the front
door, perhaps using Baby Karen – if the he‐
roes haven’t met her, that’s a good point of
showing that the big baby is now on their en‐
emies’ side.

71
it. Ivan and his men, however, will accompany
Mom unnoticed for a couple of days, learning
a lot about Giants.
Of course, players can ignore it – like the
Green command is apparently willing to do.
In this case, Ivan memorizes the credit card
number and the Greys will order more toys.
The printer might arrive earlier when the

A Day in the Park


Greens are distracted.

It's time to hitch a ride to the park – if the


summer weather’s nice, the Kids bike there to
hang out and listen to the music on their
phones with their friends. With Greys explor‐
ing Outside, the superiors finally start to think
that perhaps the player-controlled Greens
should also learn about their plans. The Toy
Troopers PCs should learn what they’re doing
there, and why did they want to reach the make the heroes lose any Grey pursuers and
front door and while they’re at it, they could remember that any allies the heroes brought
try to find Toy Zones existing outdoors or also need to hold together. Hopefully, the he‐
useful unusual objects useful for war effort. roes lose the pursuers… but might become
lost in the park in the process.
To get to the park you can simply hide in the
basket of one of kids’ bikes. They play ball, Toys raised in the house might not know a lot
rest on blankets, eat some homemade snacks about Outdoors. Give the players a couple of
and sandwiches or getting some junk food minutes to talk this through and ask them for
from the corner store. Climbing down the Survival rolls. Less than two successes or
bike is trivial, and someone, preferably an al‐ raises in the group means they crawled near
lied NPC, needs to stay behind to alert when an anthill of angry ants – all rat-sized to them.
the kids are coming back. It's a Swarm, and the solution is to climb on a
small bush – which also offers a useful view
The PCs are lucky because once they arrive, towards the Grey navy base and their Kids
they already see the Grey soldiers scuttling picnicking and hanging out with friends.
down the riverbank. Following them will re‐
veal a small naval base set up in the Real As the heroes hide among the bush branches,
World among the bull rushes. Using seem‐ they’re greeted by a loud, boisterous “Halt,
ingly discarded cans and plastic bottles as soldiers! You have entered the domain of the
cover, a small toy battleship secretly docked Queen!” The figure might be recognized as a
there. The heroes should roll Stealth – failure golden-armor-clad Dawnqueen superheroine
means that they’re spotted and the ship can‐ doll… er, I mean action figure. This toy is not
nons will try to shoot at them (d8-4 Shooting, from your players household and is not a toy
dealing 2d10 damage under a Large Burst they recognize.
Template). This Dawnqueen has been lost here a couple
Luckily, the heroes can Evade and quickly of months ago and is now a comfortable inde‐
move out of the range of the cannon. They pendent woman who needs no human. She
will be also hunted by Grey patrols. Note that circulates the park, helps toys that are lost
large areas of the park are muddy ground that and want to return home, and builds a small
count as difficult terrain. Play out a chase to community in a Toy Zone she discovered in a

72
rat’s den (after slaying the rat). This doll uses • The General (experienced Officer)
the superhero stats (see page 98 in Chapter 7) • Yorkie (Size +10 dog)
– but unlike other Dawnqueens this one is • 2d6 regular Grey Troopers.
Loyal rather than Heroic and is armed with a • Dawnqueen (see Ac�on Figure).
very sharp halberd made of a soft drink can.
She also has the Slow Hindrance – she fash‐ Even if the heroes get stuck in the park, the
ioned herself a wooden leg that replaces the siblings will visit the park soon enough. With
original one quite well. She also has slightly Dawn’s help the heroes can stay put for a day
peculiar manner of speaking – think “boister‐ or three. The heroes can also hitch a ride us‐
ous upper-class Englishwoman”, with “what” ing a car (roll Anthropology to recognize
at the end of a sentence. which car!).

Dawn doesn't get the Toy Wars – in her There’s also an alternate way of getting closer
household there were no plastic soldiers. She to the house. The heroes can commandeer the
doesn’t see the difference between Greens Grey toy ship or build a raft themselves. If
and Greys – she says “a cat is a cat, whether you’re in a mood for a marine adventure, they
it’s black or white” – and assumes that the he‐ just need to sail closer to the house, near the
roes are related to the Grey base. canal. Then it’ll be enough to cross the street
and bypass just four houses – avoiding a way

The 3d printer arrives


She won’t attack, though, and will ask them too friendly dog on the way.
about the base. Dawn is surprised at the de‐
scription of the war and will point out it
makes little sense to her. Nonetheless, if the
Troopers are polite, Dawn can give them in‐
formation about the park. She’ll mention that After a couple of days Mom receives her 3d
a lot of 'their friends' were interested in the printer and begins setting it up. The heroes
figure of "the biggest Toy Trooper" – a monu‐ are encouraged to spy on the Parents’ Room,
ment of a general standing in the middle of outside of the zone, so they can observe the
the park (that’s true, but a bit of a red her‐ setup… A hard (–4) Anthropology roll limited
ring). Dawn says she remembers an incredi‐ by Repair will allow the heroes to realize that
bly angry Bricko lady with stiff black hair, this device will take a lot of space and is
snooping about the park. She's sent a lot of clearly important. Someone should notify the
her men to observe Giants. Weird, what? high command.
After all, Giants aren't that interesting. She says The messenger notices on the road that qui‐
she saw Greys taking notes and talking about etly, as Mom sets up the printer in her room,
Giant behaviors, how they bought stuff from the the living room is full of Grey snipers and mo‐
ice cream vendors and so on. They even made torized infantry. The player characters could
pictures of various stores in the vicinity… alert the giantess… but if they do so, the hid‐
As Dawn explains it all, someone barks up den Greys in the room will come out sooner
their tree. It’s a high-ranking Grey officer (a or later, when Mom’s not around and use this
general, by the looks of it) ridding to battle on opportunity. Either way, general Drabb will
a miniature Yorkshire terrier. The general is start mobilizing her men, and will support the
commanding 2d6 standard Grey troops; they heroes with a commando squad.
must have followed the PCs and attack them As the hero journeys back, Mom sets up the
and Dawn as well. Combat breaks out, how‐ printer, and starts working on a first model –
ever, if any player character draws a Red Ace a simple teacup. As the strange, unknown ma‐
as their initiative card: their ally calls or ra‐ chine starts spitting out a plastic toy, the Toy
dios them a warning that Mom has phoned Troopers, to their terror, now start to realize
the kids and summoned them for dinner. the possibilities. Luckily for them, Mom will
Time to roll out or return in an alternate way! stay home for a couple of days, familiarizing
The fight might transform into a chase. herself with the device and making basic
shapes. As any good parent, she’ll work to‐

73
gether with her kids to design simple objects needs willing assistants – Ivan is not enough,
and try to have fun creating things together. although he is a start.
And since the device is rather loud, Greys
can’t use it when Mom’s asleep. As soon as the players become aware of the
family leaving home in a rush, they should
Mom now works irregular hours and Dad re‐ talk with General Drabb – it’s a great oppor‐
turns home from his work even before she tunity to take care of the 3D printer and get
leaves for hers. An Anthropology (–1) roll will some of the Toy Zones back. When the heroes
allow the toys to remember that he usually and their forces push the door of the Boy’s
stays home for two weeks but it doesn’t mean room open, they’ll see a veritable horde of
total safety. The parents will leave the house Grey vehicles and a column of infantry to se‐
sooner or later. cure the 3d Printer. This must be at least half
of all Grey forces – they even conscripted Sis‐
Four Giants and No Funerals ter’s fashion dolls as auxiliaries. It’s clear that
this was coordinated, and players might sus‐
The unsuspected arrival of Father is enough pect that Greys knew of the Giants leaving
to provoke Dr. Knight to think outside the their house beforehand.
toybox. She sends a couple of Grey soldiers to
capture Dad’s phone and use it to send e-mail The general’s superiors would rather fortify
to Mom and Dad notifying them of a death of the Boy’s room than to launch a counter-
an important relative in another town, with offensive in the corridor. preparing for the full
little means of contacting them. The parents frontal attack later. A more perceptive players
pack up their children and go to the funeral can realize that this is a large invasion force
(or another unpredictable important event), very close to the base is vulnerable to attack if
leaving the house unguarded. one of the players is a talented officer, he or
she might notice they could manage to repel
The 3d printer is theirs for the taking! Or the Greys and destroy bulk of their forces if
course, Dr Knight realizes that the family will they Greens will be lead under a decisive
return soon, so she only has limited time to attack quickly enough.
create the super-soldiers she desires. She has
phase three of her plan ready, but for now she The players can convince General Drabb to
talk to her superiors – including perhaps even

74
the prime minister. Play it out as a Debate, but and Greys fight. Once Father’s two week
with a –2 modifier on top of everything – leave is over, Knight will sabotage the printer,
since ultimately, it’s not Drabb’s decision to destroying the small elements from the inside
make, but it needs to be taken now. If success‐ so that Green army won’t be able to use it –
ful, the highest ranking PC officer is pro‐ and the family will have to wait a couple of
moted, and it will be up to them to assist days for the warranty repair.
Drabb in running the battle. Drabb probably
won’t risk attacking – she’s too defensive. In Hold the Door!
this case, the players are on their own: she Instead of a battle, toy soldiers might try to
will let them sneak to the Parents’ bedroom as use an alternative route to reach the Parents’
described below. room – the General will note that a small
group of determined soldiers could disrupt
The Greys have ten tokens – the players start the operation as the Green Army hunkers
with six, and they can deliberately weaken back and tries to close the door. Sneaking
the Green garrison, calling them to the front‐ through the window, using the bathroom or
lines! Any tokens lost in the battle means that disguising as Greys are all possibilities. There
in the future there’ll be simply less Green might be some Grey guards – roll a single
troopers to muster. The Greys are commanded group Stealth roll to see how well they will
by Commander Feldgrau himself, with d10+2 cope with sneaking past all the guards rather
Battle. Remember that if they brought them to than make multiple sneaking checks.
Boy’s Room, allies like Hunter or Dawn can
take part too! Whether the PCs won the battle or snuck to
the bedroom, on the tabletop they’ll see a
Victory will weaken the Greys in the future large (at least 3 experienced soldiers per
battles and Greens will be able to make them player + 2 per allied Extra, armed with heavy
leave the Parents’ room for good. But Knight equipment) troop of Greys protecting a
is still creating her specially designed bricks Bricko-woman – that’s dr. Knight operating
and the mighty supersoldiers as the Green the printer.

75
If the players managed to crush the Green concept of ‘evil opposites’ you can ask the
Army, Knight has only one inert super-soldier players for the advantages and disadvantages
created – and a small pile of unusual, of their counterparts.
strangely shaped Bricko pieces. If they snuck
out while the Greens were fighting, she cre‐ If the heroes will start winning, Knight and
ated the pieces and three more massive, ath‐ her bodyguard, Ivan, will try to damage the
letic toy soldiers armed with disturbingly printer (she will return to it, but she needs to
high-tech weapons. ensure it doesn’t fall into wrong hands) and
start evacuating to the main Grey frontlines.
“There are many free ‘RPG Worst case scenario – Knight will let her head
miniatures’ to print online if be detached so that the Greys could flee with her.
you know what to look for.”, Dr
Knight will laugh when con‐ However, if the PCs fought their way through
fronted. “Take them alive, we half of Grey Army and won the right to use
need to study these ‘heroic types’”. the 3d printer, you can also let them do so –
but they will only have enough filament and
She can produce a new super-soldier every time to do it once. They can design a single
three rounds – of course, they can’t fight now, Wild Card soldier with a Rank above theirs:
not being animated in a Toy Zone – they’re let them design a single character with high
just miniatures but these soldiers will eventu‐ physical stats (free d8 in Strength, Agility and
ally encounter the protagonists. Vigor for example – but they’ll need to be
trained for a couple of days), a powerful
Ask the players what do these Greys look like, unique vehicle or a simple weapon… play it
what are they armed with – you can allow out as Challenge, probably based on Repair
them to select their Edges and Traits. These and Science skills, however, design might use
super-soldiers are effectively one Rank above Navigation, Anthropology or Academics.
the heroes. They can have Traits above d12
(up to +2), have even Legendary Edges, and
will be more or less obedient to Dr. Knight Taking the supertoys down
and Ivan (which will make her future plans The Knight Guard – super-soldiers built by
easier). Use the Experienced soldier profile Knight will continue to be a pain in charac‐
from page 85 – if you want to play with the ter’s back in the future. Under Ivan’s com‐

76
mand, they will harass the heroes, appearing Knight Guard don't want to leave any men be‐
just to seize victory from them. If you’re using hind. They view themselves as siblings, and
the mission generator, you can draw an extra Ivan is their cool big brother. The later in cam‐
card – if it’s a face card, Knight Guard will try paign, the less willing Ivan is to sacrifice
to support the Greys in this mission. them; Knight is coldhearted and treats them
like pawns… admittedly, they are kind of
It’s up to players how their toy troopers deal pawns. The further in Green territory en‐
with this new nuisance. They could try to lure

Part Three: Kids, don't try


counter is, the more prepared Guards will be.
the super-greys in a simple trap, perhaps in a

this at home
small, secluded area like the Toy Zone in Lon‐
don Town; they could use Grey PoWs as bait
and releasing them so that they could bring
them to Knight. Knight will send her Knight
Guards to various missions, but she needs
them to prepare a coup and pronounce herself After a defeat with the 3d printer, Dr. Knight
the President-For-Life in the Grey Army… and continues to think outside the box. She has
it would be good if these Knight Guards would decided that in order to work on her master
be seen as ‘superheroes’ by the Grey public. It’s plan, she needs to deal with the Greens and
even not unlikely that these Knight Guards she especially has it out for the player charac‐
would want to capture the player heroes. ters. This time she is trying to learn basic
chemistry using the Big Sis' books and per‐
Nevertheless, it’s the players who have initia‐ haps Mom's computer if she controls it at the
tive here. They are free to prepare the actual moment.
trap and choose the scenery of the conflict.
Knight Guard are naive, but Ivan isn't is an Any patrol in the Parents’ room will tell the
experienced solider, and will make an effort to heroes that Knight is back, surrounded by her
keep them away from obvious traps. Luring big buff guards. This time reading something
these toys into a little-known Toy Zone… or off the computer screen. She’ll use a heli‐
in the field of vision of a Giant, could be a copter to flee the players if the Giants aren't
good example of a trap, and so Ivan won't di‐
vide the core team.
Once the Guards are captured, the heroes can
try negotiating. Most of the Knight Guard be‐
lieve, quite rightly, that Knight is their creator
and are loyal to her. But they're just naïve, not
real fanatics and they could be fairly easily
convinced. Even Ivan isn’t crazy. The best out‐
come the Greens can hope for, though, is
planting the seed of doubt – you can’t change
the world view of anyone in a couple of min‐
utes, even a newly made plastic soldier. En‐
counters with the player characters could
change their opinion overtime.
Preparing a trap with help of civilian allies
like Hunter, Dawn and Yavanna could be easy
enough and the Guards might admit that
Knight is planning a palace coup! The propa‐
ganda machine of the Greens would be for‐
ever grateful for this message. Of course, this
will hinder Knight's research, but she's impor‐
tant enough for Marshall Feldgrau to retain
knowledge.

77
around or she will jump into Mom's purse if
Mom happens to be close by. Either way, he‐ Recipe for disaster, baby
roes quickly learn what Knight is planning. Later on, Knight sends Baby Karen to steal the
cola from the fridge, with a help of a single
Knight doesn't care about the Giant family tank, while a small troop of soldiers and tanks
and so she just doesn’t understand many of are being sent to capture the roll of Mint-Pops
the human concepts. She just wants simple from Mom’s purse. They use some plasticine
solutions, without having to understand the to attach the ingredients to the vehicles, and a
Real World science. And so, she learned how dozen soldiers can carry their prize in a pinch.
to mix cola with Mint-Pops to cause a massive The troops can quickly carry it to the base in
explosion! She retreats to the Grey base in Sis‐ the living room. In the meanwhile, Karen and
ter's room and sends her minions to obtain an elite tank squad are slowly dragging the
cola and Mint-Pops from the kitchen. The he‐ large cola bottle across the floor.
roes can learn this either from the computer
screen or from a captured patrol. The charac‐ Both operations can take hours and can only
ters don't have to stop both groups of Grays, be done when the Giants are absent. Karen
stopping either expedition for a cola bottle or isn’t big enough to pick a 2l bottle of the soda
mint candy is enough. on her own – she must make a Strength roll
each round to successfully carry it. If she fails
The Grey troops are sent to bathroom, garage to roll Str, she can’t move at all this round, and
and various closets, looking for cola and if she rolls 1 on her Trait Die, she drops the
Mint-pops, though many soldiers don't un‐ bottle. Roll a d6 each time when she does it,
derstand what these things are. The players adding a d6 each time (so 2d6 the second time,
can encounter these soldiers, and with a suc‐ 3d6 for the third) – even a single 1 means that
cessful Anthropology roll identify the explo‐ the drink bursts the cap, flooding the area with
sive mixture. sticky soda, and Karen flees, panicked. The Gi‐
ants are sure to take notice and suspect some‐
thing. This is actually somewhat beneficial, and
Knight will abandon the plan for good.
Karen is not a soldier, and she will also flee if
attacked; but she can also be reasoned with.
Knight has promised her maps of the park so
that Karen can flee and hide when Sister
grows out of the baby dolls. If the heroes
won’t stop Karen, she will deliver the bomb to
either Triassic Dome (if it still exists), Parents’
room or a makeshift base near the Green
Room. Technicians at the Gray base will try to
improvise a bomb to throw into Boy’s Room. If
they succeed, it’ll destroy most vehicles out in
the Real World, and get all the soldiers Shaken
(and some of them might even lose lives). The
liquid might affect even the Toy Zones, flood‐
ing them with sticky brown, sugary coke.
To disrupt these operations, the heroes can
use all sorts of Real World tactics – managing
to destroy the bottle or candies deserves a
Benny; but Green Army wouldn't want to risk
mixing these powerful chemicals. A devastat‐
ing use of the bomb in the Boy’s room will
make both Greens and Greys fear this new

78
terrifying explosive. The Prime Minister will the same plastic, no one decides how they
be informed that the Greys now have power‐ were made, and even a notion of “nation” is
ful chemical weapons that can even affect Gi‐ absurd in the same household. If the players
ants. This will cause the hearts of the soldiers engage with them and even appear receptive,
to sink; until the heroes’ side achieves signifi‐ someone will report on them and they will
cant victory, the Green soldiers will have –1 have –2 to their next promotion roll. Any su‐
to morale in all mass battles. perior will tell them it’s treasonous talk and
will tell them to report on the deserters.
Mom will ground the Boy despite him begging
her not to – she’s convinced that it was him But this isn’t the only group trying to con‐
playing with a soda bottle in the room. Since he vince others to their cause. Among these
will have to stay in his room after school, this peaceful protestors there are also Bricko sol‐
will hinder a lot of operations for the Greens, diers, calling for more independence. If en‐

Give the peace a chance!


possibly more than the explosions of the bomb. gaged, some will claim they won’t talk with
Greens – Greys are allegedly more pro-Bricko
and they allow them more freedom.
Knight is not as nice to all her plastic brethren,
Remember, the heroes are supposed to stop though. On their way back, the heroes will spot
these disasters but if they don’t then it will be a group of Grey soldiers escorting a caravan of
dark times for the Green Army. A lot of their Bricko prisoners – kidnapped. If captured,
missions will focus on reconstruction and Greys will say that Brickos are very useful to
holding down the territories they already Commander Feldgrau’s plans – to build some

Knight’s moves
have. To rebuild, the heroes can be sent to the kind of a new superweapon!
Kitchen. the Garage, or Outside to find spare
parts and useful resources. If they go to the
Tinseltown, the heroes can notice a small
group of agitators.
So what's the nefarious plan of Dr. Knight?
A very large group of toy troopers, both She does not want to just rule the house, she
Green and Grey, are now openly protesting want to rule the world. To accomplish this,
the war. They publicly call for end of hostili‐ she is building a toy big enough to be able to
ties and point out that they’re both made of influence the real world by itself.

79
Dr. Knight own Bricko familiarity, the 3D now thinks Knight is deranged enough to
printer, the training in programming and completely destroy the balance between Gi‐
computer use, the ability to create toys will all ants and Toys.
help her in creating her own Toy Empire and
create thousands of small private zones to In opinion of Feldgrau, Knight is risking too
play God in! Eventually she plans to take con‐ much. Knight believes that she can distract
trol of enough humans to be able to create her the Giant woman. A couple of days after the
own Zones – which will give her more toys attempt to create the bomb, she takes her
which means more resources… and the poten‐ Knight Guard with the Mothers room to,
tial seems, in her mind, unlimited. check whether the 3d printer is fixed, and or‐
ders the massive amount of Bricko bricks and
She plans to get as many programmable Hi-Tec sets. She will then hide the purchase,
Brickos, including the advanced, program‐ deleting any e-mails.
mable Hi-Tec sets, to create what she tells
Feldgrau is machine of destruction. In reality, Frightened, Commander Feldgrau asks his as‐
though her plans are much more nefarious. sistants to contact the Greens to warn them…
Feldgrau opposes the plan regardless. How‐ and Knight answers by trying to imprison
ever, Knight has enough power and resources him. Play it out as an Interlude – PCs are rest‐
to be able to get rid of Feldgrau. ing in their base, trading stories, and then
they spot a messenger: a Grey bike rider
Dr. Knight will break into Mom's purse (usu‐ chased by a small squad of Greys. A rene‐
ally left in the Parents’ room) and use her gade? If the players managed to make con‐
credit card then she will use that credit card tacts with someone from the Knight’s Guard
to buy Brickos that she can program to be and tried to negotiate with them, perhaps it
loyal to her and her alone. If the players were was them who shifted loyalties. It can be any
thrown out of the Parents' room, they have other Gray soldiers the players are familiar
little chance of stopping her. This is unaccept‐ with – perhaps one of the protestors from
able to Commander Feldgrau! He, like most “Give the peace a chance!”.
leaders of toys, is deathly afraid that the Gi‐
ants will learn too much and destroy the
Zones that give the life to his people – and he

80
The courier might die if combat breaks out, nity to strengthen defenses. The heroes are
but before he does, he will give the PCs a unlikely to stop Knight from ordering the
message from the Commander. bricks – even if they kept her out of Parent’s
room, she’ll use Mom’s cell phone.
To the Greens.
You can play out attack scenarios, but Knight is
One of my subordinates, a sci‐ able to consolidate her leadership – she's not par‐
entist named Dr. Knight has a ticularly charismatic but her dinosaurs and su‐
peculiar tendency of thinking per-soldiers are quite frightening. Her forces can
outside the box. You might still resist most player attempts of attack. Perhaps
have encountered her and her

Freeing Feldgrau: Escape


it’ll be easier to retake the Parents’ room.
handiwork before. She was

from Dinosaur Park


crazy, but I believed we could
use her. But I was wrong and
now she has plans to disrupt
entire existence of us toys and
break to the Real World using
Giant resources. She has my As the entire House waits for Dr. Knight’s
HQ surrounded, and is coming bricks and the Green planners try to intercept
to arrest me” the boxes, general Drabb has a plan – freeing
Feldgrau will be a blow to Knight’s legitimacy
But you can stop her. She's and give Greens some momentum. A small
planning to build a massive group could track him down and free him. If
machine of destruction and the player characters made connections in
use it to attack the Giants Tinseltown, maybe it’d be a good place to
themselves. She insists that start investigation.
it’s essential, and her 3d-
printed minions pressure us If the Greys took it back Feldgrau is being held
even more. As we speak, she's in the (possibly) rebuilt Triassic Dome in the
leaving for the Mom's com‐ cupboard! If the war has been going badly for
puter, ordering tons of bricks. Greens, getting there requires paradrops and
I am sure that she will turn the heroes can’t take a lot of other soldiers with
against me. This message must them. If the Greens managed to retake the par‐
reach Green leadership – as of ents’ room, the road is easier without any
now, Dr. Knight is a renegade hitches and the heroes can storm it again. You
and must be stopped at all can even play out a Mass Battle versus the gar‐
costs. We will try to distract her. rison (two companies) of the Dome. If the de‐
fenders would lose Morale for the first time,
This is big – and the document seems legit, they shall instead let the dinosaurs out (gain‐
with all the stamps and everything. The play‐ ing two bonus tokens). If the heroes didn’t let
ers don’t know this yet, but after recording Greys retake the Drone, Feldgrau is being held
the message, Feldgrau was arrested, and in another Toy Zone… with similar defenses,
Knight imprisoned him. She’s about to declare also reflecting what the players dealt with in
herself the new President For Life, not just of the first parts of the campaign.
the Grey Nation – of the entire house.
The massive, glass Dome is now dark, but the
Our toy troopers should talk about it with reptiles inhabiting it now grew far smarter.
their superiors – some of them will be con‐ They are still (A)nimals, but they know well
vinced that little about the war has changed, how to hide from the heroes, close on them
but maybe it'll become far easier due to the and attack the most vulnerable victims. They
discord in the ranks of their opponents. A are also smart enough to cut the power or
good idea would be to attack them now, while damage equipment. Use one dinosaur per
they're divided – on the other hand some three or four regular soldiers the PCs have
commanders would like to use the opportu‐

81
with them if you want to play the fight out on
the desktop. Finale: Toy Orders
Feldgrau is kept in a small cage in the center Dr. Knight has the operation under her total
of the Dome, obviously trapped. It’s rigged to control. The family is out – kids in school,
explode with Toy Zone explosives – or a small while Mom will be at work and the house will
cola can and a single Mint-pop, if that adven‐ be empty for the rest of the day. The courier
ture was amusing. Disarming the bomb will leaves the paid-for boxes full of bricks and
take a Repair roll, possibly limited by Anthro‐ parts on the back porch, and after a while the
pology). He’ll shout a warning and will be as Grey Army is hauling them to the Sister’s
helpful to the Greens as possible. He’s expected room – where they immediately unpack them
Greys loyal to him to arrive first and will be and start building… a giant robot!
disappointed in his men – but maybe it’s be‐ The massive brick construct is absolutely
cause the Grey propaganda was too effective. huge – Size 15, the size of a human child… and
On the way back, a skeletal glow-in-the dark it is equipped with all sorts of robot parts, able
T-Rex will attack the would-be liberators – to move fingers or lift heavy objects. Captured
it’s one of the few undead toys! If the PCs Bricko slaves swarm around, erecting the
thought to bring vehicles (or seized grey ones) brick parts with an almost superhuman speed,
it will chase them with Pace 8 (40 mph). If moving them briefly to Toy Zones to “charge
not… well, at least the bones aren’t heavily ar‐ them” with the animation power. Now Knight
mored, so the heroes still have a chance to has everything she needs: the plans for the
take it down. machine, the parts found in the garage, the
Brickos she ordered, and the 3d-printed cus‐
Feldgrau will tell the heroes everything he tom bricks! Everything led to this!
knows – which means everything from the
beginning of this chapter, except that he’s un‐ The Greens need to be led to the final battle.
aware what the real plan of Knight is. He This is the time when the characters can call
treated her more as a resource and didn’t real‐ their allies together – the officer among the
ize she had her own agenda. He will provide player characters regardless of their rank
them with a lot of information on the Greys – should come up with an attack plan. A full
which will come in handy in the aftermath. frontal assault is good, given that half of the
Grey Nation is preoccupied with building the

82
robot! There are about a hundred Greys with spouse who let their identity to be stolen or
heavy weapon – probably an even match for even that the kids pranked them.
the Green forces.
In this case, Knight won’t keep her control
Regardless of whether the Greens win the over the Gray Nation for long. She’ll be over‐
Mass Battle, Dr Knight drops from her heli‐ thrown and forced to take refuge in garage for
copter onto robot’s head… and screaming a day or two… where she tries to take control
“You think it’s about this little house? No, it’s over the family car. Then, she lures as many of
about the entire WORLD after all!”, and Ivan Green troopers to the garage, to run them
detaches her head… to fuse it with the giant over before she and her loyalists drive away,
robot! It animates – despite not being sub‐ blindly. The survivors will be attacked by her

Fate of the would-be


jected to any Toy Zones and grabs the nearest Knight Guard.
toy. Slowly it moves, smashing through the

queen
armies, to open doors and get to the car.
Knight doesn’t care about the house and its
human inhabitants, or about the toy masquer‐
ade – she will demolish Green and Gray
Armies, ransack the house and escape – per‐ The war is unofficially over, whether Knight
haps even using Dad’s car. She has plans for wins or loses. If she loses, her head can be ap‐
further ahead – and she’s ready to skulk in the prehended, tried by a joint Green-Grey-inde‐
shadows and start influencing the Real World. pendent court and probably held in secret
storage somewhere. Feldgrau is willing to try
There are toy turrets near Knight’s head, but to coexist in peace… and if the player squad
it shouldn’t be impossible to disable the robot! became heroes and Drabb gained some politi‐
The players need to climb it (play it out as cal clout, they can help in making it happen.
Challenge, see the robot profile on page 97),
and avoid the turrets and the Knight Guard, to A less happy ending would be Greens laying
detach the Knight’s head. hands on Knight’s research and doing exactly
what the Grey army did – after all, they’re not
Luckily for the players, the robot is still a toy more or less moral than the Greys.
and vulnerable to heavy weapons of the Green
or Grey Army, as well as any toypunk devices And if Knight wins? How about a next cam‐
the characters can create. Commandeering the paign, featuring a small squad of toy guerillas
Grey defenses won’t be too hard if the players trying to stop her from terrorizing the Giants?
look like they know what they’re doing, or
they brought Feldgrau with them.

Alternate finales
Perhaps the players have a great idea on how
to prevent the order – the e-mail and the pay‐
ment details have been quickly deleted by
Knight, and the ten boxes with bricks will be
left on the back porch by the courier.
The player characters can alert the Mom to
check her credit card balance, for example –
risky, but will halt the plans until Dad arrives.
Alternatively, the heroes can keep the family
at home as long as possible, for instance make
them look for car keys or a cellphone. This
will stop Knight from building her robot – but
the parents will assume that it was the other

83
Enemies And
Allies

Regular Soldiers You can use these stats to portray civilians, as


well. Most of the toys your troopers will inter‐
There’s absolutely no practical difference be‐ act with work for the Army (and thus have
tween Grey and Green Armies. They’re both some levels in Shooting and Fighting) but
molded from the same plastic and use the Brickos sometimes create small communities
same molds. The only difference is that the of their own. Any humanoid Toy animated in
Grey Army has a new versatile leader who’s a Zone controlled by the Green or Grey sol‐
cooperating with a mad, amoral scientist. diers will be reduced to Size 0.
Other small-scale plastic figures do exist, but
Regular Trooper they’re not known in the house; you can portray
These plastic people are the backbone of the Cowboys and Indians using these stats as well,
toy army. Add some stats to portray different simply giving them weapons based on Win‐
specialty. For pilots, see officers below. chester rifles and six-shooters, for example.
A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Experienced Soldier
Skills: Athle�cs d6, Common Knowledge d6, Feel free to swap the Edges around, reflecting
Figh�ng d6, No�ce d6, Persuasion d4, their specialty and experiences. Since Toy
Shoo�ng d6, Stealth d6 Trooper combat is small-scale (pun fully in‐
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5 tended), melee combat happens quite often.
Edges: Soldier
Hindrances: Varies. A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Gear: Helmet (+3), plas�c rifle (24/48/96, Strength d6, Vigor d6
2d8, RoF 3, 30 shots, AP 2). Skills: Athle�cs d8, Ba�le d4, Common
Knowledge d6, Figh�ng d6, Gambling d6,
Airman: Electronics d6, Naviga�on d6, Repair No�ce d8, Shoo�ng d8, Stealth d6, Survival d4
d6, Pilo�ng d4 – most crews have learned some Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
basics, but can’t compare to trained pilots. Edges: Soldier, others depending on specialty.
Marine/Sailor: Boa�ng d6, Electronics d4, Hindrances: Various. Many experienced
Repair d6. soldiers are Loyal to their unit.
Medic: Healing d6, Repair d6. Gear: Helmet (+3), plas�c rifle (24/48/96,
Tank Crew: Repair d6, Driving d6, Electronics d4. 2d8, RoF 3, 30 shots, AP 2).

84
Airman/Technician: Electronics d6, Naviga�on Infantryman: Common Knowledge d8,
d6, Repair d8, Pilo�ng d6. Edges: Mr. Fix-it, Athle�cs d10. Edges: Marksman, Suppressive
Reliable or Rapid Fire for gunners. In Toy Army Fire, Rapid Fire, Rock and Roll!
many experienced airmen apply to OTC. Marine: Athle�cs d10, Boa�ng d6, Figh�ng
Commando/Ranger: Smarts d8, Figh�ng d8, d8, Repair d6, Survival d8, Taunt d6. Edges:
Naviga�on d6, Survival d8, Stealth d8. Edges: Frenzy, Iron Jaw, No Mercy, Rock and Roll!
Frenzy, Woodsman. Medic: Healing d8, Repair d8, Science d6.
Infantryman: Add Rock and Roll! and Edges: Healer and Mr. Fix-it. Many have
Marksman. Machinegunners have Suppressive Anthropology d6.
Fire instead of Marksman. Sailor: Boa�ng d8, Repair d8, Electronics d6,
Marine: Spirit d8, Boa�ng d6, Figh�ng d8, Naviga�on d6, Survival d8. Edges:
Repair d6, Survival d6. Edges: Frenzy, Iron Jaw. Improvisa�onal Fighter, Marksman, Reliable,
Medic: Add Healing d6, Repair d8, can also Steady Hands.
add Infantryman Edges. Sniper: Spirit d8, Smarts d8, Stealth d10,
Sailor: Boa�ng d8, Repair d6, Electronics d6, Shoo�ng d12. Edges: Assassin, Thief,
Naviga�on d4, Survival d6. Edges: Marksman, Marksman, No Mercy.
Steady Hands. Vehicle Crew: Repair d6, Driving d10,
Sniper: Spirit d8, Shoo�ng d10. Edges: Electronics d8. Edges: Ace, Marksman,
Assassin, Marksman. Suppressive Fire, Steady Hands.
Vehicle Crew: Repair d6, Driving d8,
Electronics d6. Edges: Steady Hands. Ace for
NCOs
drivers and commanders, Marksman for To reflect NCOs like sergeants and petty offi‐
gunners, Reliable for loaders or commanders. cers add Intimidate and Taunt d6 to the re‐
spective profiles, and the Rank (NCO) Edge.
Veteran Soldier Most regular NCOs don’t have the Battle skill,
Many of these soldiers should be Wild Cards, but more experienced ones might have it.
especially if encountered as part of a small
elite groups. Regular NCO: Add Command Edge.
Experienced NCO: Add Command and Hold
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, the Line.
Strength d8, Vigor d8 Veteran NCO: Add Command, Hold the Line,
Skills: Anthropology d4, Athle�cs d8, Ba�le Fervor, either Inspire or Bolster.
d6, Common Knowledge d6, Figh�ng d8,
Gambling d6, No�ce d8, Stealth d8, Shoo�ng Officer
d8, Survival d6 Add skills and Edges of the appropriate ser‐
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 5 vice branch, like Driving for Vehicle Crew, but
Edges: Soldier, others depending on specialty. remember that the officers lead from the rear.
Hindrances: Various. Many might be Loyal
others can have some traumas reflected by A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Delusions and Habits. Strength d6, Vigor d6
Gear: Helmet (+3), plas�c rifle (24/48/96, Skills: Athle�cs d6, Ba�le d6, Common
2d8, RoF 3, 30 shots, AP 2) Knowledge d6, Figh�ng d6, No�ce d6,
Persuasion d6, Shoo�ng d6, Stealth d6
Airman/Technician: Electronics d8, Repair d8, Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 5
Pilo�ng d6, Science d6. Edges: Mr. Fix-it, Edges: Rank (Officer), Command
Reliable, Rapid Fire. Very few in the Ground Hindrances: Various
Crew are veterans. In the Air Force it’s the Gear: Usually carries a sidearm (pistol) but can
officers who fight the enemy and the enlisted carry a rifle.
men who support them from the rear. Use the
Commando profile for paratroopers, search Experienced: Smarts d8, Naviga�on d4,
and rescue groups and similar personnel. Persuasion d8, Edges: Brave, Inspire
Commando/Ranger: Smarts d8, Strength d8, Veteran: Smarts d8, Ba�le d8, Naviga�on d6,
Driving d6, Figh�ng d8, Naviga�on d8, Persuasion d8, Shoo�ng d8, Edges: Brave,
Survival d8, Stealth d8, In�mida�on d8. Combat reflexes, Fervor, Hold the Line!,
Edges: Frenzy, Jack of All Trades, Thief, Inspire. Can add Figh�ng d8.
Woodsman.

85
Some officers have had civilian training, in for better gameplay. For instance, mites are
particular surgeons or engineers. Add skills the size of mice to a toy trooper. The size of
like Academia, Anthropology, Repair, Science winged creatures is averaged and does not re‐
and Healing to these characters, often at high flect their wingspan.
level.
The weight of the object doesn’t matter much
Pilot – metal toys weigh far more than Real crea‐
As mentioned before, in the air force the offi‐ tures and plastic objects are far lighter. Don’t
cers – highly trained pilots – are supposed to divide the mass of the object by 32000, just es‐

Living critters
battle the enemy, while the ground support timate its weight and remember that Toy
infrastructure consisting of enlisted men and Troopers are far stronger than they seem.
NCO technicians.
A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Logically, most animals shouldn’t attack plas‐
Skills: Athle�cs d6, Ba�le d6, Common tic soldiers – they don’t even smell like some‐
Knowledge d6, Naviga�on d6, No�ce d6, thing they’d like to eat. However, if the toy
Persuasion d6, Pilo�ng d6, Repair d6,
Shoo�ng d6, Stealth d6 troopers disturb them, they can violently
Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 5 attack to defend their territory or their off‐
Edges: Rank (Officer) spring. Luckily, most Gargantuan mammals
Hindrances: None are smart enough to know not to bother
Equipment: Pistol, knife, flight helmet (+2), something that vaguely resembles a human.
and goggles. And the rats and birds sometimes needed ar‐
tillery fire to learn this the hard way.
Experienced: Agility d8, Naviga�on d8, No�ce
d8, Pilo�ng d8, Shoo�ng d8, Steady Hands Yes, the animals can see and hear living toys
Veteran: Agility d10, Smarts d8, Ba�le d8, – and are fully vulnerable to their attacks
Naviga�on d8, No�ce d8, Pilo�ng d10, Ace, (though many larger ones are considered to

Beasties
Level Headed. have Heavy Armor).
Note that some animals have very high
Smarts, while still retaining (A)nimal intelli‐
gence. In part this is to reflect the style of car‐
Toy Size toons, where animals are a lot smarter, can
predict enemy movements and make fairly
We simplify things a little bit by assuming
that 1 inch in game equals… well, 1 inch. Yeah, complex plans. In game mechanics, this
we know that RPG miniatures are a bit means that a lot of smarter animals are smart
shorter than toy soldiers and when the PCs enough to see through your deceptions and
are small, even small adjustments can matter Tests. While they’re the same size as usual,
a lot. On the other hand, toy troopers have Toy Troopers are effectively like bugs to
more realistic proportions than your typical them. Some of these animals also have skills
mighty-thewed fantasy barbarian. unusual for ordinary beasts – they might have
skills like Taunt, Repair and Intimidation. This
In general, though, toy troopers are some‐ does not mean that you can ask a termite to
where around 1:32 scale. As seen in Chapter fix your car – but they can still use them in
3, the square-cube law is much more forgiv‐ Tests and soldiers defend against them nor‐
ing to the toy soldier, though, and they can mally.
carry far more and withstand falls far greater
forces than the size would imply. Since the Size is a major part of the setting, we
mention the penalty large creatures get to
The table on the nest page presents this scale attacks against Average (in toy scale) people.
– look at the size table to compare how big a
given creature would be to a toy soldier. It’s
not perfectly to scale, because we adjusted it

86
TOY SIZE TABLE
size typical strength scale modifier height/length examples

Tiny
–4 1 –6 0.1 in (2,5 mm) mites, nematodes
Very small
–3 d4-3 –4 1/3 in (8 mm) houseflies, ants, small spiders
Small
–2 d4-1 –2 ¾ in (20 mm) larger insects, butterflies, bees
Normal
BRICKO guys, RPG dice, AAA battery,
–1 d4 to d6 0 1 in (2.5 cm) worms, huge spiders and cockroaches.
toy soldiers, AA batteries, small frogs,
0 d6 to d12 0 1.5 in (3.5 cm) shrews
1 d8 to d12+1 0 2 in (5 cm) big RPG minis, phone charger, frogs.
2 d10 to d12+2 0 2.5 in (6.5 cm) mice, frogs, Brickhaus guys
3 d12 to d12+3 0 3 in (7.5 cm) Toads, scorpions
Large (+1 Wound)
hamsters, medium-size fish, action fig‐
4 d12+1 to d12+4 +2 4 in (10 cm) ures, soda cans
5 d12+2 to d12+5 +2 5 in (12 cm) small lizards
bats, REALLY SCARY scorpions, Mindy
6 d12+3 to d12+6 +2 6 in (15 cm) dolls
7 d12+4 to d12+7 +2 7 in (18 cm) turtles, owls, many non-raptor birds
Huge (+2 Wounds)
8 d12+5 to d12+8 +4 9 in (22 cm) salamanders, books, chinchillas
smaller primates (lemurs), large stuffed
9 d12+6 to d12+9 +4 12 in (1ft, 30 cm) toys
10 d12+7 to d12+10 +4 15 in (40 cm) smaller cats, puppies
11 d12+8 to d12+11 +4 1.5 feet (half a meter) chickens
Gargantuan (+3 Wounds)
12 d12+9 to d12+12 +6 2 ft (60 cm) cats, small dogs
13 d12+10 to d12+13 +6 2.5 ft (75 cm) birds of prey, babies
14 d12+11 to d12+14 +6 3 ft (1m) larger dogs
15 d12+12 to d12+15 +6 4 ft (120 cm) small kids
16 d12+13 to d12+16 +6 5 ft (150 cm) big kids, small adults
17 d12+14 to d12+17 +6 6 ft (180 cm) adults
18 d12+15 to d12+18 +6 8 ft (2.1 m) big adults
19 d12+16 to d12+19 +6 12 ft (3.5 m) horses
20 d12+17 to d12+20 +6 15 ft (4.5 n) cars and the like

87
Ants
A single ant isn’t much of a threat. The prob‐
lem is that there isn’t such a thing as a single
ant. A lot of plastic soldiers see themselves in
the ants – a well-disciplined and focused fight‐
ing force, defending their territory. Of course,
ants are also territorial racist jerks sometimes
even practicing slavery, which only makes the
analogy more pronounced. There are tens of
thousands of ants in a colony, so even though
they might be small, you literally can’t win
without heavy ordnance.
Ants can come in Swarms that can divide into
two. You can use the same stats for termites.
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d4,
Strength d4-1, Vigor d6
Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d8;
Stealth d8
Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 2
Special Abili�es:
• Bite: Str
• Tiny: Size –3, propor�onately cat-sized.
There are larger, Size –1 Ants, with some
rainforest species even achieving Size 0.
Queens are bigger, but immobile.
• Wall-walker: Most insects can climb
ver�cal surfaces with their usual Pace.
• Well-coordinated: Their high Smarts propor�onately size of a medium-sized
reflects their ability to cooperate. Use dog. Bumblebees are Size –1. As with
their Smarts when ants try to use their ants, queens are larger and almost
bodies to build bridges, construct tunnels, immobile.
close down on the enemy. When the • S�ng: Str + d6, AP 2. Toy Troopers are
ac�ons are indica�ve of the en�re swarm, plas�c enough to let the bees pull out
they roll a Wild Die. their s�ng repeatedly… and alive enough
to receive a dose of Mild poison unless in
Bees Giant Zone. No plas�c creature is
Bees are just vegetarian wasps. They’re as vulnerable to anaphylac�c shocks, so at
smart as ants are and can fly… and the hives least there’s that.
can, apparently, hold grudges. • Wall-walker: Most insects can climb
ver�cal surfaces with their usual Pace.
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6,
Strength d4, Vigor d6 Cat
Skills: Athle�cs d10, Figh�ng d6, Naviga�on Our sample family has no house pet… luckily
d8, No�ce d10, Stealth d6 for the toys. Unluckily, sometimes friends with
Pace: 8/12; Parry: 5; Toughness: 3 pets do come to visit, and in the garden, you can
Special Abili�es: sometimes encounter neighborhood cats. Cats
• Bite: Str are smart, lazy and usually don’t care enough to
• Flight: Fly with Pace 12. bother soldiers… unless, say, your opponents
• Harry: Bees coordinate their efforts. Each
Bee grants a fellow insect from the same enrage them and lead them on your trail.
hive in the radius of 10” a bonus to a�ack Its Taunt skill reflects the feline “toying with
as if Ganging Up on an Enemy. Each bee the victim”. You might reflect various breeds
can give this bonus only once in the round.
• Small: Honeybees are Size –2, of cats increasing their Size for Russian Blue,

88
perhaps Smarts or Agility for Siamese. Thick
fur gives +2 Armor (and no fur –2).
Cockroach
Okay, ants and bees are like the army, disci‐
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit plined and loyal. These guys are more like
d10, Strength d12+10, Vigor d6 guerillas. They appear suddenly, mess your stuff
Skills: Anthropology d6, Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d6, up, can withstand anything, and while they
Naviga�on d8, No�ce d6, Stealth d8, Taunt d8. seem individualistic, there’s never just one.
Pace: 32; Parry: 2; Toughness: 19 (2) And while ants and bees don’t really want to
Edges: Acrobat eat plastic, cockroaches will bite everything.
Special Abili�es: Note their high Spirit and Vigor – they’re able to
• Bite/Claws: Str+d6. In most of the US it’s withstand any Trick and shrug off being Shaken.
legal to remove parts of cat’s paws to
“declaw” them. A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit
• Low Light Vision: Cats ignore penal�es for d10, Strength d6, Vigor d12
Dim and Dark Illumina�on. Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d4,
• Pounce: If it can leap at least a few feet and Stealth d8
makes a Wild A�ack it adds +4 to its damage. Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6
• Size 12 (Gargantuan): Cats are typically Special Abili�es:
less than a foot high. This Housecat can • Bite: Str+d4
take three extra Wounds and is treated as • Size –1: Some roaches are smaller, and the
using Heavy Weapons and having Heavy largest ones are Size+2, and live only in
Armor. Toy Soldiers get to +6 to a�ack it. Australia (obviously)
However, cats ignore 4 points of penal�es • Weakness (bright light): Cockroaches have
when a�acking smaller opponents – –2 to their Skill (but not A�ribute) rolls in
they’re used to hun�ng smaller game. bright light.
• Stomp: Can stomp on Toy Troopers using • Wall-walker: Most insects can climb
Small Burst Template, dealing Str damage ver�cal surfaces with their usual Pace.
to anyone under it. It can use its Taunt skill
instead of Athle�cs.

89
Crow • Clever girl: Crows are smart enough to
open latches, use s�cks to push dangerous
Imagine a large passenger jet. And give it high objects or throw hard to open objects (like
intelligence, ability to use tools, and a razor- toy tanks full of soldiers) against the
sharp beak the size of a soldier, able to pierce ground. Roll their Smarts –4 to see if such
through a metal can. It’s not suprising that an ac�on succeeds!
many soldiers suspect that these birds to be • Snatch: Your only crime is being delicious. If
smarter than they let the Giants on. the raven gets a raise on its Figh�ng roll
when Swooping against a smaller target, it
Not only they are smart enough to use twigs snatches up the vic�m and flies off with it.
and stones as tools, but they can also even Luckily, it ‘s too smart to eat them in the nest.
learn to use Toy Troopers to their benefit. Ac‐ • Size +10: Huge, can take 2 extra Wounds,
cording to one veteran, a crow chased his +4 to hit it., –6 to a�ack Size 0 toys.
squad into a mouse hole, the mice tried to • Swoop: If the raven can fly at least 12” in a
attack them, were shot down, and escaped to straight line before a�acking, it gains +2 to
its a�ack and damage for this ac�on, but
the surface… where the crow ate the rodents its Parry is reduced by –2 un�l its next ac-
and flew away. Expect being outsmarted by a �on when performing the swoop.
literal bird brain, soldier. • Mimicry: Some corvids are smart enough
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d10 (A), Spirit to mimic any sound they’ve heard. They
d8, Strength d12+8, Vigor d8 are good enough to fool dumb toys – roll
Skills: Anthropology d4, Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng their Performance skill, whether during
d8, Naviga�on d10, No�ce d10, Performance the a�empt to fool or as a Test in combat.
d6, Stealth d8
Pace: 8/16; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8
Dog
Special Abili�es:
All toys in the house should be thankful that
• Beak: Str +d10, Heavy Weapon, AP 4. the family does not have any dogs. When cats
Though the crows aren’t Gargantuan, their are bored, they do nothing. When dogs are
massive, sharp beaks can go through ar- bored, they play, make noise and bite. And the
mor used by toys. scouts in the park and in the yard report that
• Claws: Str+d6, AP2. even the older and larger dogs want to play…

90
chasing anything that runs away from them, • Claws: Str+d4.
biting anything in case it turns edible in the • Swoop: A bat that hits with a raise causes
meantime. And dogs can be fiercely territorial damage as usual, and grapples the prey. Bats
and defensive. To them, Toy Troopers smell like usually don’t carry the vic�m to their nest,
human – if humans played with them recently, instead they toss them against the ground.
so this makes dogs very interested in the toys. The drop deals 4d6 damage, but if you were
on Hold you can beat the Bat in opposed
The Greys actually tell a story about a Real dog Strength roll and, if you pass Athle�c roll, re-
tracking down a missing soldier, persuaded by a ceive only half of the damage.
stolen bowl of food… but it is likely apocryphal. • Size 6 (Large): A couple of inches long. It
can take an Extra Wound, and Toy Soldiers
The stats below reflect a small-to-medium get a +2 to a�ack it, while it has –2 to
sized canine, like a beagle – toy Size 14. Some a�ack Average-sized targets.
dogs can be even bigger (Size 16), others much • Weakness: Sonar. Bats detect prey using
smaller are also faster and more energetic. sounds and echoes. Individual Toy Troopers
against the wall or other objects are not de-
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d8, tected as enemies and are effec�vely invisi-
Strength d12+14, Vigor d6 ble to the bat (-6 to hit them).
Skills: Anthropology d6, Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng
d8, Naviga�on d8, No�ce d6, Survival d8 Giants
Pace: 30; Parry: 6: Toughness: 23 (4) Technically in Toy Scale Humans have Scale
Edges: Fleet-footed (rolls d8 when running). 15—17 – if you want to, use their stats, and in‐
Special Abili�es:
• Bite: Str+d8, AP 4. Heavy Weapon. crease Str to d12+20. But most of the time
• Fleas: Some dogs are infested by fleas. they’re terrifying natural threats, not mon‐
Use Ant stats to reflect these, without the sters to defeat.
Well-coordinated trait, but they can as an
ac�on jump 2d6”. Giants tend to cause Fear in many creatures,
• Size 14 (Gargantuan): The dog is almost a even wild animals or most toys just not used to
foot tall. It can take three Wounds and is them. Toys that are being played with freeze…
treated as using Heavy Weapons and hav- and might simply not remember the details.
ing Heavy Armor. Toy Soldiers get to +6 to
a�ack it, and the dog has –6 to a�acking Lizard
Average-sized targets. Many species of lizards exist, with iguanas,
• Stomp: Deals Str+14 Heavy Damage to gila monsters or goannas achieving Gargan‐
anyone under its body when rolling down tuan Toy Size. The stats below reflect a gecko
– or it can use Athle�cs and Medium Burst about 5 inches long (Toy Size 5). Very few
template to smash soldiers with its paws. lizards produce Lethal Venom – some do live
Flying Rat in South-West of America or (where else?)
Giant rats are bad. And they’re even worse Australia.
when they gain, mysteriously, the ability to A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6,
fly. Most Toy Troopers believe earnestly that Strength d12+5, Vigor d6
these are a variety of rats… and the bats them‐ Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d6, No�ce d8,
selves aren’t telling. They don’t care that Stealth d6
much about regular toy soldiers, but some‐ Pace: 12, Parry: 5, Toughness: 11 (1)
times they can get angry at helicopters noisily Edge: Sweep
intruding on their air space, or think the indi‐ Special Abili�es:
vidual troopers are particularly large moths. • Claws: Str+d4
• Fleet Footed: Geckos roll a d10 when
A�ributes: Agility d10, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit running.
d8, Strength d12+1, Vigor d8 • Size +5: Large, can take an extra Wound,
Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d10, In�mida�on +2 to hit it. –2 to a�ack Toy Troopers.
d10, Naviga�on d6, No�ce d8, Stealth d12 • Tough Hide: Armor +1.
Pace: 4/16; Parry: 7; Toughness: 6
Special Abili�es:
• Flight: Pace 16”

91
Praying Mantis Scorpion
She might be praying so that toy troopers leave There are giant (Size +6) scorpions, obviously
her prowling ground, shooting at crickets and only in Australia because Australia. Overall,
ants she eats. Luckily, while they can live in though, scorpions are not a major threat to
America or Europe, most of the larger mantises Toy Troopers, unless harassed or the soldiers
are found in tropical zones, often in Africa… un‐ get into their nest. The stats below reflect
less some are kept as pets. Some such pets can small, Size +1 scorpions encountered in the
fly with Pace 8. Southwestern USA.
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8,
Strength d6, Vigor d6 Strength d12+1, Vigor d10
Skills: Athle�cs d6, Figh�ng d8, In�mida�on Skills: Athle�cs d6, Figh�ng d8, In�mida�on
d8, No�ce d10, Stealth d8 d8, No�ce d6, Stealth d8
Pace: 6, Parry: 6, Toughness: 7(2) Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 11 (3)
Edges: Improved Frenzy Special Abili�es:
Special Abili�es: • Armor +3: Chi�nous skin.
• Armor +2: Thick carapace • Grapple: A scorpion may grapple a foe
• Claws: Str+d6 with one or both pincers. It has +2 if it
• Low Light Vision: These creatures see well uses two pincers, and the scorpion has +2
in Dim and Dark light. to its a�ack with s�nger if the vic�m is
Rat grabbed with two pincers.
• Pincers: Str+d4.
Rat’s teeth grow during its entire life, and • Poison: Anyone wounded or Shaken by a
these animals love to gnaw on inedible things s�nger a�ack must make a Vigor roll or
like bark, concrete, electric wires… and toy immediately become Incapacitated. Death
plastic. During the 2020 Covid pandemic, follows in 2d6 rounds.
starving rats, devoid of regular sources of • Size +1: Most scorpions aren’t very
food like restaurant dumpsters, banded in dangerous to humans. Sadly, they’re large
huge swarms desperate to eat anything. to small plas�c figures.
• S�nger: Str+d8, AP 2
Hamsters and guinea pigs are cleaner and less
aggressive… but this does not mean that they Spiders
will react more pleasantly to strange green Spiders could attack Toy Troopers if they got
blobs falling in their cages! Drop Fighting and tangled themselves in the cobwebs. Don’t go
Intimidation to d6. typical “fantasy spider” with these; real spi‐
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d8, ders don’t have swarms or queens. Use the
Strength d12+5, Vigor d10 regular Giant Spider stats in SWADE, but the
Skills: Anthropology d4, Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d8, largest spiders (Size –1 to 0) are predators –
In�mida�on d8, Naviga�on d6, No�ce d6, they don’t make webs, instead chasing after
Stealth d8 their victims.
Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 13 (2)
Special Abili�es: The largest spiders occur in Australia and are
• Bite: Str+d6 Size 5. Seriously, GMs, don’t set this game in
• Pack leaders: One in twelve rats is a pack Australia even if you are Australian.
leader – what the uneducated call “alpha”.
Most of the �me it’s the largest male (Size Toad/Frog
+1), and he’s also a Wild Card. These pack Toads are rarely encountered in the cities, but
leaders also have Command, Fervor and some areas might still be frog-infested… or
Hold the Line Edges. some kid might have a terrarium with a pet
• Size +6: Large, can take 1 extra Wound. toad. Most toads won’t try to eat toy sol‐
+2 to hit it. –2 to a�ack Toy Troopers. This
is an average-sized Brown rat, the most diers… at least not more than once.
common rodent in the world. Some And of course, Australia has a real problem
subspecies can larger, but there are many with toxic cane toads, deliberately introduced
are smaller rodents.
• Thick fur: Armor +2 by humans to the ecosystem. At least one ter‐

92
rifying aspect of that is that they can be found soldiers are not good hosts of eggs and
in places inhabited by humans – near chan‐ can easily recover.
nels and ponds. • Wall-walker: Most insects can climb
ver�cal surfaces with their usual Pace.
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6,
Strength d12+5, Vigor d6 Worms/Leecjes
Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d4, No�ce d4, Earthworms aren’t aggressive, but when an‐
Stealth d8 noyed, they might defend themselves! Treat
Pace: 8, Parry: 4, Toughness: 8 them as Constrictor Snake from Savage
Edges: Dodge (Imp) Worlds.
Special Abili�es:
• Poisonous. Cane Toads and similar There might be more deadly worms and crea‐
creatures have poisonous skin. A contact tures than leeches… but very few are as dis‐
with such a frog is treated like a dose gusting. These worm-like creatures live in
Lethal poison… unless Toy Troopers are in swampy, staid water – luckily, in the park the
presence of Giants. river is fresh, but there’s a small canal not far
• Semi-Aqua�c: moves with full Pace un-
derwater, can hold breath for half an hour away from the House where these annelids
• Size +3: Toads are fairly large, and there are might live.
even larger specimen (Size +5). On the other A�ributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6,
side, some small tree frogs are Toy Size –1. Strength d8, Vigor d6
• S�cky tongue: Toads capture their prey by Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d6, No�ce d8,
ensnaring it with a tongue. Amphibians Stealth d8
can make a grab a�ack with Reach 5”. Pace: 2/ 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Wasp/hornet Special Abili�es:
• Aqua�c: Leeches can briefly crawl out
Basically, there are two kinds of wasps – the with Pace 2 on land; they swim at Pace 6.
harmless, disgusting parasitical ones and the • Bite: Str+d4.
“evil bee” ones that sting multiple times and • Blood Drain: Small living creatures start
don’t make honey. Guess which ones are losing blood and take a Fa�gue level when
more popular in the US and Europe. Surpris‐ Shaken by the bite of a Leech – and they
ingly, Australian Hornets aren’t that threaten‐ stack and can lead to Incapacita�on.
ing – most of the dangerous ones are hunted Larger ones might not no�ce the leech,
by predatory spiders. but the leech takes a lot of blood… and
the creature might bleed out. Toy Troopers
Many wasps are quite big, these stats reflect are immune to this in the Real World… and
the size of a Size –1 hornet. Many workers are there’s no volunteers to try it out in Toy
slightly smaller, but they still prey on bees and Zones.
other insects catching them during the flight. • Camouflage: Leeches are used to living in
dark, murky waters – they get a +4 to
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit d6, Stealth rolls there.
Strength d8, Vigor d8 • Size: 0. Depending on the species, some
Skills: Athle�cs d10, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d8, might be long and Size +4!
Repair d8, Stealth d6 • Weakness (Salt): A large block of salt (a
Edges: Acrobat, Combat Acrobat few ounces) sca�ered on a leech will kill it
Pace: 6/16; Parry: 6; Toughness: 3 almost instantly.
Special Abili�es:
• Bite: Str+d4
• Flight: Flies with Pace 16.
• Small: Size –1, queens are larger and
almost immobile.
• S�ng: Str+d6, AP 2. As with the bees, you
can receive a dose of venom when they
bite you. Toy Troopers are alive enough to
receive a dose of Mild poison… that
paralyzes the vic�m. Many solitary wasps
carry them to their nest, but the plas�c

93
k Big Baby Doll
Baby Karen (Care’n Cuddle Baby) is a pushy,
obnoxious and perfectly articulate toy baby
that likes to terrorize smaller beings. Karen is
the biggest toy in the house, but since the Girl
is growing out of baby dolls, Karen’s been
cruising on her own appearance and Sister’s
fond memories… and she knows that in a cou‐
ple of months she’ll go out of favor. She’s
planning to ditch this house rather than land
in the goodwill store, and so she gathers sup‐
plies for her great escape. This led her to a
semi-permanent alliance with the Grey Army.
Karen speaks with a vaguely Jersey accent,
projecting a tough gangster image. Karen
offers “soivices” only she can provide – as the
biggest toy with opposable thumbs she can
open boxes or jars, type on computer key‐
boards fairly easily – in exchange for “protec‐
tion” and some small jobs. Despite living in
Sister’s room she’s a free agent, and is con‐
vinced that Grey Army won’t harm her, since

Toys
she controls a wide area of the Sister’s room.
She’s made herself clear that when the Sister’s
not around, the bed is hers and commander
Feldgrau seems to respect that. Challenging
A visit to the toy store can give you a lot of Karen would require a non-insignificant
ideas for animated toys that can be used to force. She is too big to access most Toy Zones
terrorize your players. One of the reason for and dr. Knight isn’t actually sure what makes
the creation of this setting was to let you, the Karen alive… but she is.
players, use toys as minis! At Gramel Books we do not recommend
Usually, in the world of Toy Troopers we as‐ shooting from toy tanks at real babies. Even
sume that toys become animated thanks to in‐ shooting at toy babies would be questionable.
fluence of other animated toys, who take However, shooting at mean toy baby gang‐
them to Toy Zones. But this is not an absolute sters that are fifteen times as big as you, when
rule, in particular with unaffiliated or non- they attack you first, is somewhat acceptable.
sapient toys. Some might get lost, accidentally Karen’s pretty badass for a baby, and her stats
stumble onto a Toy Zone, not understand reflect this. Other, more polite baby dolls
what it is, and return to the Real World. Ex‐ might be less aggressive.
periments of Dr. Knight can awaken more and A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8,
more toys until there’s chaos in the playroom. Strength d12+12, Vigor d10
Skills: Anthropology d8, Athle�cs d6,
As a rule, only humanoid toys with have hu‐ Common Knowledge d8, Driving d8, Figh�ng
man sentience and intelligence. Toy animals d10, In�mida�on d10, Naviga�on d10, No�ce
stay animals – toy bear can wear cute sailor’s d8, Performance d4, Persuasion d10, Riding
uniform, but it will become an angry bear in d6, Stealth d10, Taunt d10, Thievery d10
ripped rags once children are out of sight. Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 25 (4)
Still, there are outliers – vaguely “cartoon Edges: Brute, Block, Brawler, Charisma�c,
creatures” can have human intelligence if Countera�ack, Level Headed, Mar�al Warrior,
they’re humanoid enough. Rabble-Rouser

94
Hindrances: Arrogant, Habit (minor, and failures can mean she falls… o�en
constantly sucks on her pacifier and toys with dealing Stomping damage to anyone under
it when it’s not in her mouth), Mean her! If she crawls she doesn’t risk falling,
Gear: Stroller (effec�ve Pace 12, may run. You but can’t Run.
can treat it as a Size 12 vehicle with 20 (4) • Stomp: She has �ny adorable baby feet
Toughness), pacifier/dummy (a magne�c and can Stomp affec�ng everyone using
“plug”, Karen’s most prized possession). Karen Small Burst Template, dealing d12+24
stashes her loot in a secret hoard in bathroom Heavy damage. Say goodbah.
– old books, screws, nuts and bolts, some ac-
tual Giant coins. Big Ol’ Lion
Special Abili�es: Did we mention that Little Sister is into ani‐
• Accurate: Karen has adorable baby fingers, mals? Well, usually most toy animals are ani‐
she ignores 4 points of penal�es when mated by bringing them into Toy Zones, so
a�acking smaller creatures – so hi�ng Toy Troopers have to deal with Lions and
individual toy trooper is only –2 for her. Tigers and Bears. Use the normal animal stats,
• Baby kung-fu chop: Unarmed, Karen deals perhaps increasing their Size to +4.
Str+d8 damage and adds +2 to her
Figh�ng rolls. She’s big enough so that her
strikes count as Heavy Weapons. She can Bratty Dolls
usually li� toy vehicles (though she needs Most of the time, Toy Troopers recruit fashion
two hands to do this). dolls as auxiliaries – they’re adjusted to Toy
• Cute: She is a giant thug… but she’s also a Zones and are treated like regular plastic sol‐
cute baby. To a�ack her for the first �me diers. Big Sister reportedly has had a couple of
in a scene, you need to spend a Benny fashion dolls which weren’t animated, but in
unless you’re Mean or Ruthless. recent years a new trend for dolls has started.
• Cry ac�on: Karen can cry, a�rac�ng Some say that Grey Army tried to recruit
Giants’ a�en�on. She doesn’t want to do some of these smaller, Brattier dolls, but they
it, because it will make them think she’s were very rebellious, anti-authoritarian and
broken when crying on her own. S�ll, she too punk for the army. They animated some
might do it if she’s threatened or bribed.
• Gargantuan: Size 12. She can take 3 addi- other dolls and fashion toys to create a group
�onal Wounds (so 6 in total), and enemies of mercenaries and renegade dolls, trying to
add +6 to a�ack her. She is considered to push Greys out of Toy Zones. The original
be Heavily Armored, but the Real World Bratties were Toy-Trooper sized, but they
objects and “toypunk” weapons can by- awakened a couple of bigger friends in proba‐
pass her Heavy Armor. bly undiscovered Toy Zones. You can use
• Real World: Karen is one of the few toys these stats for most fashion dolls as well.
that can func�onally affect the Real
World. Some�mes you might want to see A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6,
how well she copes in “normal-Scale” envi- Strength d12+2, Vigor d12
ronments where she is Scale –2. Her Skills: Athle�cs d6, Common Knowledge d8,
Agility and Figh�ng drop to d6, her Figh�ng d8, Naviga�on d6, No�ce d4, Persua-
Strength is d4-1 in Real World and Tough- sion d6, Taunt d8
ness drops to 6 (1). Her mar�al arts style is Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12
based on sheer size, so it’s rather useless Edges: Sweep, Acrobat
against Real World objects. She counts as Gear: Improvised club (Str+d8), o�en dealing
a Construct, and in the vicinity of Giants Heavy damage
she can only crawl with Pace 2 (though Special Abili�es:
not in their direct field of vision). She’s also • Punky: Many Bra�es developed love for
fairly realis�c – if seen from distance or in punk. As long as one of the dolls (or some
dim light, she can impersonate a real baby other toys) devotes an ac�on to singing or
using her Performance. playing loud music (detectable by Giants),
• Slow: Karen’s legs don’t bend that well, all the other dolls in the pack have +2 to
actually. While she’s bigger than Toy Damage and their melee a�acks count as
Troopers and covers ground faster, she Heavy Weapons.
rolls a d4 when Running. She subtracts –2 • Size 4: Bra�es are Size 4, propor�onately
from Athle�cs when running is necessary, 10 � tall! It makes them Large (+2 to

95
Edges: Sweep (tail)
Special Abili�es:
• Armor +3: Thick hide.
• Stomp or tail lash: Str+d8.
• Hardy: A second Shaken result doesn't
become a Wound.
• Size +10 (huge): Increases Toughness by
+10. –4 to a�ack medium-sized foes, they
receive +4 to their a�acks, can take two
extra Wounds.
Stegosaurus
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6,
Strength d12+3, Vigor d10
Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d8
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 17 (3)
Special Abili�es:
a�ack them) and they can take an Extra • Armor +3: Thick hide.
Wound. • Tail: Str+d8, raise on an a�ack roll can
• Swat: Bra�es that are used to figh�ng – force the opponent to roll Athle�cs or fall
so most poten�al opponents can a�ack prone.
smaller targets using weapons without • Hardy: A second Shaken result doesn't
penal�es. become a Wound.
• Size +7 (Large): Can take an extra Wound.
Dinosaurs! –2 to a�ack medium-sized foes, they
receive +2 to their a�acks.
Most people forget that “herbivore” does not
mean “non-dangerous”. And plastic dinosaurs k Skeletal T-Rex
aren’t really herbivores in the first place. Tricer‐ Remember these collectibles? Well appar‐
atopses are belligerent and untamable. Despite ently, they’re still around and Dr. Knight
Mom and Son’s efforts, they can’t find proper made a living skeleton!
feathered ones at a reasonable price, so most are
in the 90s reptile style. A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d8,
Strength d12+4, Vigor d8
Triceratops Skills: Figh�ng d8, No�ce d8, Stealth d6,
A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d8, In�mida�on d8
Strength d12+5, Vigor d12 Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 13
Skills: Athle�cs d10, Figh�ng d6, In�mida�on Edges: Sweep
d6, No�ce d8 Special Abili�es:
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 16 (3) • Bite: Str+d8, AP 2.
Special Abili�es: • Glow in the dark: It has no penal�es to hit
• Armor +3: Tough hide. in melee in Dim and Dark light… and
• Charge: If the dinosaur moves 6” in a anyone a�acking it also has no penal�es!
straight line before a�acking, it gets a +2 • Large: Creatures a�acking the dinosaur
to hit and damage. add +2 to their rolls, it can take an extra
• Horn: Str+d8 Wound.
• Size +5: This dinosaur is massive: Larger or • Roar: It can make an In�mida�on roll
smaller creatures exist. This one’s Large, against anyone facing him as a full-round
and can take an extra Wound.. –2 to Ac�on.
a�ack medium-sized foes, they receive +2 • Size +5: It’s bony and skeletal, and slightly
to their a�acks. smaller than a propor�onate dinosaur
would be.
Brontosaurus • Undead: +2 Toughness, +2 to recover
A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, from being Shaken, called shots do no
Strength d12+5, Vigor d12+3 extra damage.
Skills: Athle�cs d4, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d6
Pace: 4; Parry: 6; Toughness: 22

96
Raptors
A�ributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit
d6, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d8, No�ce d6
Pace: 8 (d8); Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Edges: Frenzy
Special Abili�es:
• Talons/bite: Str+d4, AP 1
• Low Light Vision: No penal�es for dim or
dark ligh�ng.
• Fast Runner: Rolls d8 as the Running Die.
• Pounce: +4 to a�ack and damage and –2
Parry a�er leaping d6" in a straight line
towards non-adjacent foe.
• Herd tac�cs: Add +1 to the Gang Up
bonus (if they have one). would-be climbers.
• Size –1: Reduces Toughness by –1. This is a specific Quick
Encounter – as the rest of the party
Dire Bears fights off the robot, the climbers simulta‐
Since toy men become real men in Toy Zones, neously (deal cards normally) make Athletics
toy cars become real cars, and one of the most rolls to climb up to the head. If they draw a
popular toys becomes… real bears. That are club as a card, it means complications – if
usually much bigger than your average toy they haven’t been defeated or convinced, the
trooper. Quite a lot of them are the propor‐ Knight guards or Ivan will show up face the
tionate size of a real bear, but in the Real heroes (and Knight, in her turn, can use an
World you can find animated toy bears or action to swat them off). On the plus side,
other with Toy Size +5 or even Toy Size +10, simply grabbing the head and picking it up
and accordingly increased Strength. does not require any roll… but Knight might
Luckily for toy troopers, these bears in real Hold her action to pick such interloper up in
world are softer and deal only Str damage. the critical moment.
A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d12, Spirit d8,
Dragons Strength d12+16, Vigor d8
A dragon is a mystical creature that’s inexpli‐ Skills: Anthropology d12, Athle�cs d10, Ba�le
cably popular among kids. d8, Common Knowledge d8, Driving d10,
Figh�ng d8, In�mida�on d8, Naviga�on d6,
Usually, toy dragons are non-sapient, and No�ce d8, Persuasion d10, Repair d10, Sci-
thus use Drake stats. Some have wings and fly ence d10, Shoo�ng d10, Taunt d8
with Pace 24 in Toy Zones, but they’re still Pace: 60; Parry: 6; Toughness: 21
unable to reason and talk. Edges: Brave, Command, Combat Reflexes,
Jack-of-all-Trades, Mar�al Ar�st, McGyver, Mr
Fix It, Scavenger
k Giant death robot Hindrances: Curious, Driven (to rule the world),
Suspicious (Major).
Well, not as much as “death”, more like “Giant Special Abili�es:
Serious Bodily Harm Bricko construct” – but • Size +15 (Gargantuan): Can take 3 extra
it’s the main opponent in the great finale of Wounds, +6 to hit it, is at –6 to hit individual
the campaign, created by the insane Dr Toy Troopers. It moves slowly but it can
Knight. It has a lot of her skills (we omit the Stomp.
ones that probably won’t get used in the final • Smash: Str+d4 damage, –6 to hit most Toy-
battle – she cares little about Tests now). sized targets.
• Turrets: Just in case of a sudden a�ack, Dr
Defeating the robot is childishly simple – just Knight built small turrets into her new body –
remove the Bricko head from its peg. Climb‐ affec�ng toys only, dealing 2d8 damage in a
ing the colossus is an Athletics roll – but the 10/20/40 range. She has –6 to Shoot them
robot can swat off (-6 to Fighting roll) any but using them is not an ac�on for her.

97
Matryoshka doll Each doll has slightly different stats.
Usually, representations of humans become
human, and function similarly as humans do The stats below work for Elizaveta – she's
in Toy Zones. But this “Little Bear Effect” is heavy, though and has the personality of a
unpredictable. Occasionally it creates strange, drill sergeant. She’s Mean and Overconfi‐
but interesting auxiliaries. Elizavieta, Lud‐ dent.
mila, Ekaterina, Natasha and Anastasia are a
family of matryoshka dolls – Russian nesting Ludmilla – despite looking exactly like her
dolls, where a larger doll contains other dolls sisters – thinks she’s the most beautiful one
which contain other dolls. The “inside” doll and is a bit of a flirt. Arrogant, Quirk (proud
controls the outside one. Anastasia is the beauty). Size +2 (Toughness 11), Strength
smallest, and she controls her “sisters” once d10, Persuasion d8.
she enters Natasha inside Ekaterina, and so Ekaterina – She's a perfectionist, obsessed
on. The sisters work as enforcers for the Grey with proper pronunciation. Arrogant, Quirk
Army, but they actually seem to have their (shows off her knowledge), Smarts d6,
own agenda. Strength d8, Size +1 (Toughness 10)
A�ributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Natasha – Out of all sisters, she is the most
Strength d12, Vigor d10 morbid one, posing as a stereotypical
Skills: Athle�cs d6, Common Knowledge d8,
Figh�ng d8, In�mida�on d8, No�ce d8, “necromancer”. Overconfident, Quirk (mor‐
Persuasion d8, Taunt d8, Stealth d4 bid), Bloodthirsty. Size 0 (Toughness 9).
Pace: 6; Parry: 9; Toughness: 12 Smarts d8, Strength d6, Intimidate d10,
Hindrances: Varies per doll. All are Loyal to Fighting d8
each other.
Edges: Varies per doll. Anastasia – A real meanie, she Arrogant,
Special Abili�es: Greedy and Vengeful. Size –1, Strength d4,
• Bash: If necessary, she can slam an Smarts d10, Anthropology d10, Common
opponent with her body, dealing Str+1d6 Knowledge d8.
damage+her Size.
• Competent: Only Anastasia is a Wild Card Greens nor Greys like to animate superheroes
– though if she’s possessing a larger sister, – they invariably end up with superiority com‐
she rolls her Wild Die. plex, entirely undeserving since they have no
• Matrioshka: Each doll can possess her actual superpowers. On the other hand, since
larger sister and be possessed by her most action figures are molded as big, beefy
smaller sister (it’s best not to think too
much about the “sister” metaphor). While dudes once in a while someone might think up
possessed she uses her the traits of both to use them. On the plus side, while few action
dolls – use the higher stat. figures really “believe themselves” to be the he‐
• Mostly Armless: Matrioshka dolls have no roes they portray, they often have their own
limbs. She can't use objects – but her honor and ethics related to the hero… which in
painted arms and mouth can allow her to turns might conflict with the military disci‐
perform Tests. Her Agility and Figh�ng pline and mentality.
score reflects bodily reflexes, she
automa�cally fails any Agility rolls These stats reflect action figures that are en‐
requiring limbs. She can “jump” with countered in the Real World – many found in
normal pace. Toy Zones have Size +0.
• Size +3: As the subsequent dolls are
defeated, each next doll has one less size A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8,
(up to –1 with Anastasia). Strength d12+2, Vigor d10
Skills: Anthropology d6, Athle�cs d8, Ba�le
k Superhero action figure d6, Common Knowledge d8, Figh�ng d10,
In�mida�on d8, No�ce d8, Occult/Science d6
Kids love superheroes. Kids love toys. And so, (for wizards or scien�sts), Persuasion d8,
it’s perhaps unavoidable that most toy super‐ Repair d4, Riding d6, Stealth d6, Survival d6,
heroes love themselves. In general, neither Taunt d10

98
Pace: 8; Parry: 7; Toughness: 11
Edges: Brave, Elan, Block, Combat Reflexes,
Dodge, Mar�al Ar�st. Some have more.
Hindrances: Varies, but most have Code of
Honor, Overconfident, quite a lot are also
genuinely Heroic, while villains are Mean.
Gear: O�en come with a simple weapon
(Str+d8) and other accessories – o�en
somewhat high tech for Toy Troopers, like a
grappling gun or a lightweight shield.
Special Abili�es:
• Size 4. Can take an Extra Wound, +2 to hit
them, and they have –2 to hit Toy
Troopers.
The popular superheroes these days are:
• Sky Knight: Armor clad pilot fighting
the nefarious evil computer MIND.
Toy Sky Knight can’t remove most of
his protection, and has Armor 2. The
toy inherits some of the skills of the
pilot – he won’t fit any of the Green
Army cars or planes, but nonetheless
has Piloting d6 and Navigation d8.
They are generally Arrogant and
Heroic.
• Dawn Queen: Beautiful warrior
princess wearing a golden suit of ar‐
mor. Attractive, Armor 2.
• Gecko Guy: Troubled teenager im‐ • Kick: Str+d6. Unicorns can make Str+d8,
bued with power of reptiles. Some AP 4 melee a�ack with their horn.
models have sticky fingers and the • Size +2: Most are larger than any toy
Wall-Crawler monster ability. soldier mounts.

Unicorns and Pegasi Evil machines


Quite a lot of girls, including our very own
Girl. enjoy their “unicorn princess” phase. It Many machines can be an excellent threat for
doesn’t matter whether the unicorn or pega‐ the characters. Some can be handled like Dra‐
sus is “realistic”, or its cartoon counterpart matic Tasks, others can be personified as
was a cute farmer with a hick accent, when it characters, with effective levels in Athletics
enters a Toy Zone it becomes a horse… well, represented their mobility.
somewhat smarter than a regular horse. Very
few of the pegasi can fly – only in a “fairy- Vacuum Cleaner
aspected” Toy Zones. It’s more of an environmental threat, and
many toys can be grabbed in the suction of
A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8 (A), Spirit the vacuum.
d10, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10
Skills: Athle�cs d8, Figh�ng d6, No�ce d8, A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts --, Spirit --,
Stealth d8 Strength d12+15, Vigor d8
Pace: 10; Parry: 5; Toughness: 9 Skills: Athle�cs d6
Special Abili�es: Pace: 8; Parry: 2; Toughness: 30 (10)
• Fleet Footed: Unicorns roll a d10 for their Special Abili�es:
running die. • Armor+10: It’s Real, Heavily Armored with
metal.

99
• Size +14: The vacuum cleaner is massive
and can hold hundreds of toy troopers.
The Lawnmower
• Suc�on: Anyone near the suc�on entrance Toys aren’t aware of it, but the reason behind
(use the Large Burst Template) becomes the purchase of this brand new electric lawn‐
sucked into the vacuum cleaner. It is an mower is a whole complicated saga in itself,
opposed Strength roll (holding onto with Mom arguing with Dad for days. Since
something grants the character +4 to the the Lawnmower is electric it is relatively
roll; remember about other bonuses like quiet when the blades start whirling, unlike
heavy gear or using a fast vehicle). Failure the vacuum. “Relatively” means that the Toys
means that the character is grabbed and might confuse the terrifying whooshing
flies up… Then you can make an Athle�cs sound for wind or storm.
roll with –4 penalty to avoid ge�ng
swallowed. A cri�cal failure in any of these A�ributes: Agility d8, Smarts --, Spirit --,
rolls can actually be good for the characters Strength d12+15, Vigor d8
– the vacuum briefly stops working… but Skills: Athle�cs d10, Stealth d4
the character hit something while Pace: 10; Parry: 6; Toughness: 30 (10)
kidnapped and becomes Incapacitated. Special Abili�es:
• Size +14: The lawnmower is large,
equipped with a quiet electric motor.
• Armor +10. Covered by real metal!
• Whirling blades: Str+d12, Heavy Weapon.
Anyone under the Lawnmower might be
hit… And it’s unlikely that the mower is set
at more than two or four inches.

100
Index
“Real-World” weapons 33 fire 24 N
3d printer 70, 73 G Navigation 19
A garage 43 Navy 17
Air Force 17 garden 44 P
Air Support 28 Gear 31 Paratrooper 16
Anthropology 19 General Drabb 60, 74, 81 Parents’ bedroom 40
Army 14 Giant devices 25 Park 46, 72
Artillery 16 Giant Zones 25 Promotion 27
Artillery support 28 Girl’s Room 42 Q
Auxiliaries 7, 11 Green Nation 5 Queenie 58
B Green Nation. 48 Quick Encounter 29
Baby Karen 78, 94 Grey Army 5 S
Bathroom 42 Grey Nation 48 School 45
Big Room 41 H Scout 16
Boy’s room 39, 62 Hindrances 17 Service branches 14
Bra�y Dolls 95 House 37, 39 Shopping Mall 47
Bricko 12 Hunter 60, 63, 65, 77 Short history of toy soldiers 15
C I Sister’s Room. 5
Chain of command 6 Infantry 15 Sniper 16
Chucks 13 Ivan 60, 66, 77 T
Commander Feldgrau 5 K Tank Crew 15
Commando 17 Kitchen 41 Technician 16
Convenience Store 47 Knight Guard 76, 83 technology 7, 32
Currency 31 L Tinseltown 57, 69, 79
D Library 46 Toy Zone 5
Dining Room 41 Li�le Bear effect 37 Toy Zones 24, 31, 37
Dinosaurs 96 Living Plastic 24 V
Dr. Knight 48, 59, 68, 75 Living Room 42 Vehicles 35
E London Town 58, 64 Y
Edges 20 M Yavanna the Elf 58
elite soldiers 11 Military Police 17
F Mindy 13, 57

101

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