Dragon Ball, Naruto and My Hero Academia inspire tournament tabletop RPG Stand Up! Hero!!!

Classic anime including Dragon Ball, Naruto and Hunter x Hunter have inspired a new tabletop RPG about taking down a formidable villain as a hero’s companions.

立ち上がれ！ ヒーロー！！！(Stand Up! Hero!!!) borrows the idea of a climactic tournament arc - a common storyline in manga and anime - as its premise, throwing players’ characters into battle with a big bad and their minions.

Designer Takuma Okada leaves the exact definition of “tournament” open, allowing two to six players to structure the two to three-hour RPG as a traditional competition between good and evil, or bend it to fit their own series of escalating fights that culminate with a final showdown in anything from a squared circle to a castle.

Tournaments can be anything from deadly battle royales and medieval tourneys to no-less-intense sports competitions and card duels, with volleyball manga/anime Haikyuu!! and card game classic Yu-Gi-Oh! also named as key influences. Alongside Stand Up! Hero!!!’s classic shōnen manga touchstones, Okada credits modern inspirations such as superhero ensemble My Hero Academia and fantasy twist Seven Deadly Sins.

Stand Up! Hero!!! uses the card-driven gameplay of Alex Roberts’ storytelling RPG For the Queen as its foundation via the open ‘Descended from the Queen’ licence. Rather than controlling the game’s hero(es) directly, players create companions that will accompany and support the main protagonist in battle.

Players draw cards from a standard deck of playing cards to prompt events and character development during each session. Each suit and value presents a specific question for players to answer, detailing everything from the past relationships and tribulations of the hero and villain to their celebratory post-match food, facial expressions and the shape of their final form.

Stand Up! Hero!!! can be downloaded from Okada’s Itch.io page now, with a pay-what-you-want price starting at $5.