TAZ is a post-cyberpunk tabletop roleplaying game about resistance and loss of control. Set in a world stripped of all its resources, you play as desperate idealists searching for a place to build a free enclave far from the tentacles of the dystopia.
TAZ is a post-cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game about resistance and loss of control.
Set in a world stripped of all its resources, you play as desperate idealists searching for a place to build a TAZ, a free enclave far from the tentacles of the dystopian underworld of Subterrea.
Beneath the surface, inhabited by outcasts and the desperate, those with money and power live in luxury and comfort that knows no bounds.
Will you survive in a world dominated by corporations, in a world that seeks to uproot your home? How far will you go to resist?
All those who participate in the campaign in the first 48 hours will receive the patch for free! This applies exclusively to physical pledges ("Punk" Pledge Level is excluded).
"It's cyberpunk, but it's about something. And it's not about being the best at working for the corps, or the lowest sneakiest hustler the streets have to offer. It's about community, and the difficulties of trying to get along, and the relentless hunger of capitalism portrayed in a very real way by the inevitable collapse of your enclave. It talks about a different kind of resistance - one lived in the moment, not geared toward endurance at the sake of its own ideals - and it's inspiring to see our rules being used to talk about something radical like this. Plus! You can be a big robot with guns for hands. So that's good too."
Grant Howitt
The Earth of TAZ is a place of conflict and desolation: a rust-colored, ravaged wasteland, dotted with mountain ridges, canyons and rare corporate settlements. In the ruins of ancient cities, in an abandoned skyscraper, in the depths of desolation or in plain sight in the wastelands, in strange places like fungal forests or in reclaimed corporate settlements, TAZs rise up.
A TAZ, a place created to be free from the chains of the system, is a space of unbounded possibility in which people gather to imagine, and to create, possible futures of survival together. At the same time, it is constantly open to corruption by the conflicting political agendas of all its members, and of outside forces. Here, you will tell stories of resistance and self-management.
Subterrea, on the other hand, stretches for miles of abyssal depth. Vertiginous mansions occupied by its rulers tower over arc-lit slums; gaudy advertisements promise joy, life and happiness for all who have the resources to spend on products made from vanishingly rare materials. It is a labyrinth of luxurious distractions and impossible dreams; a golden space of absurd wish-fulfilment.
Within Subterrea, you are unwelcome. Few people have awoken to the possibility of life outside of the systems that are strangling your planet. The Capitalocene era has irrevocably changed the Earth and its people, and Subterrea is its most massive, most malevolent manifestation. Here, you will tell stories of radical refusal and change.
In TAZ you will play a collective of people: desperate, but also resolute; ready to do anything to build, grow and develop their TAZ; ready to do anything to defend these spaces from the systemic threat. Your characters will be idealistic revolutionaries, and they will also be terribly human: living in collectivity involves the pooling of decidedly divergent practices. The characters ultimate goal is to resist the oppression forced upon them by the Capitalocene era–but by what means, with what practices, will be up to them and their players to determine.
The Earth is a barren shell. Water and oxygen are distant memories. Some say they were stolen by the MegaCorps, used to fuel their factories until there was nothing left. Others claim the Earth itself is a story, and the planet has always been this way: the corps lied about everything else, after all. No one knows how it got this far.
The characters, as any other in this post-human setting, are equipped with a Husk, a synthetic, semi-synthetic or biotechnological body capable of superhuman feats, which will be pushed to its own limits, Operation after Operation, grafted and upgraded, to face the many threats coming from Subterrea.
TAZ is a role-playing game Sparked by Resistance, using the Resistance System created by Grant Howitt and Chris Taylor in their games Spire: The City Must Fall and Heart: The City Beneath, both published by Rowan, Rook and Decard.
In TAZ the Resistance System has been hacked and readapted in all its aspects for this specific setting: you will find Classes such as the Living Tank, or the Neural Singularity, and Resistances such as Panopticon and O2 - as well as many other disturbing new Fallouts centred on cybernetic bodies, the loss of humanity and ideological extremism.
In TAZ , the players will take on the role of desperate idealist, post-apocalyptic Johnny Silverhands; the game system is designed to make the players lose control over their characters, generating a chaos both creative and explosive, session after session.
In a derelict world where chrome dictates the law, the life-cycle of a TAZ symbolises the organic process of life, death, decay and rebirth. It's a never-ending cycle of setbacks, but even in the worst situations, there's always a glimmer of hope. When you're living in a dystopia, you're always chasing utopia. This life cycle consists of four separate but fundamental stages: Search, Settle, Grow, Collapse.
The TAZ is like a collective character, used by the entire player group. It has its own sheet, where all Operations (the mission you take), Facilities (the structures you build) and TAZ NPCs (the other characters) are noted down.
The TAZ also has Resistances and can acquire Protection, just like the characters. They will be crucial to delay Collapse as long as possible. The Collapse is like a Fallout: something that happens, a crisis you can’t control, that can erase your TAZ from the map.
Your Class details your background, aptitudes and role in the collective: this is the way you participate in the life cycle of a TAZ. In a world where oxygen is a rare commodity, a Class such as the Living Tank is a living reserve of oxygen, their lungs capable of distributing this rare resource without suffering extreme consequences. In this world, the Weave interconnects everything, a network that extends from computer systems to mushrooms, and a Class like the Neural Singularity is a network surfer, a post-apocalypse hacker capable of interconnecting with everything.
Your Drive is why you are in the TAZ life cycle, why you oppose Subterrea and the ideology of the Capitalocene, and why, despite constant defeats, you continue to resist. The Drive gives the character Twists: situations and secrets to use during play. The character advances by using these Twists during the game, allowing them to advance and potentially become even more multifaceted. You can be driven by Riot: you want to destroy the system, tear it to shreds, but you have no idea how to rebuild after the current world has collapsed. Or maybe, you can be driven by Reformism: you want to change the system, but from within; you want to infiltrate it, undermining its foundations, eroding it like water does to the hardest rock.
Fully biological human bodies are luxuries reserved for the Avatars down in Subterrea. They are vestiges of an ancient tradition: an obsession that only the apex predators of this collapsed world can afford. Few of them choose this form of conspicuous wealth. Everyone else has a Husk: a personal mix of cybernetic components that augments, or simply replaces, their human form.
From Cyborg Husks, semi-artificial bodies with augmented components capable of facilitating a variety of once-biological functions, to Fullborg Husks, the world of TAZ has an infinite variety of bodies. Some even chose a Symbiotic Husk with an internal ecosystem within their own Husk, from integrated hydroponics, to fungal cultivation, microbial colonisation, or something stranger and more fantastic.
But some bodies are corporate-owned, mass-produced or experimental prototypes of Subterrea: the 90s.The rumour is that these things have surveillance mechanisms, self-destruct routines and other dangerous tech built in them. Thus, no one trusts a 90, not even the 90s themselves.
Each Husk can provide a Skill, one or more Resistance protections and an Ability, but a Husk does not always provide all of these elements. Some Husks also provide the GM special Fallouts to choose from.
This hardback book, which will be over 300+ pages long, will transport you to a world dotted with TAZs, Temporary Autonomous Zones, fighting for their independence against the most oppressive powers. The Corebook is available in two editions: the Standard edition, featuring a hardcover, and the Deluxe Edition, bound in high-quality vegan leather in burnt orange, enhanced with an engraved variant design.
Complete rules for character creation, including nine classes, and a host of Husks and abilities to choose from.
Complete rules for the life cycle of your TAZs, and structure to make your Operations sing.
A deep dive into the concept of Convictions and Husks, introduced here in the quickstart.
A list of antagonist and friendly factions that might oppose, or support, your TAZ.
Details about the politics and geopolitics of the world of TAZ: of Free People, of Subterrea and of the tremendous powers that lurk within.
This hardcover book contains a huge campaign, consisting of multiple scenarios that can be played independently or as interlocked chapters interconnected through narrative choices. The campaign represents the continuation of MushrO2ms, the scenario contained in TAZ's Quickstart.
Support the project and help us expand the number of scenarios included in this book through the stretch goals!
Material for an entire TAZ campaign, divided into several playable scenarios, which can be played separately or in sequence.
End Game Scenarios, which involve raids into the underground world of Subterrea.
Deep dive exploration of the various locations and realms of Subterrea.
Complete your gaming experience with this plethora of accessories!
GM SCREEN Find the rules of TAZ on the screen and get ready for heart-pounding sessions, with all the information you need to run the session at your fingertips. This GM screen is made of cardboard and opens into three panels.
CARDBOARD MAP
The TAZ Map is the key to unleashing your gaming creativity and letting you play your game session with unparalleled agility. Made of cardboard, it can be folded up thanks to its practical panels, making it the perfect piece for all you players out there! On these panels, you'll find your TAZ sheet, along with spaces for all the important details.
Discover the Earth of TAZ by placing the tokens and creating the various areas where the game scenarios will unfold.
TOKENS
Punch out the tokens from the cardboard sheet and get ready to use them on the game board. Sure, you could use anything as a token. But ours are really badass.
DICE SET
With their vivid colours and unique design, taz dice are an essential accessory, with attention to detail in their aesthetics, to recreate that street art style we love so much.
The PDF edition will be fully bookmarked and hyperlinked to make it as easy as possible to run games of TAZ. You’ll receive the game on DrivethruRPG. Every physical version of the game will come with a complimentary PDF edition.
The Standard Edition of TAZ is a practical letter hardcover book, including all the information required to play your sessions in this post-cyberpunk world. With this pledge, you will also receive the role-playing game PDF edition.
The Deluxe Edition of TAZ is a special and unique letter hardcover book, embellished with a rich vegan leather cover, shiny metal foil details and embossed cover, including all the information required to play your sessions in this post-cyberpunk world. With this pledge, you will also receive the role-playing game PDF edition.
We are thrilled to offer you this exclusive Pledge Level, featuring the Standard edition of the Corebook, a full campaign written in the Scenario Book, the hardcover Map to create your game world and the useful GM screen. And that's not all! You'll also get a set of dice, tokens for playing, and PDFs of the two books.
Our featured Pledge, complete with the amazing Deluxe edition of the Corebook, a full campaign written in the Scenario Book, the hardcover Map to create your game world and the useful GM screen. You'll also get a set of dice, tokens for playing, and PDFs of the two books.
If you are a retailer, bring the post-cyberpunk into your store with this valuable opportunity.
We love UV Spot. It really drives us crazy. We couldn't help but share this great passion with you.
Enter this unique End Game Scenario created by the authors of Heart: The City Beneath and Spire: The City Must Fall. This scenario will be included in the Scenario Book.
Do you play online? Then these digital materials are really all you need for your sessions.
What’s Project 99 and who are the 99ers? Discover the terrible goals of this scheme in Subterrea. This scenario will be included in the Scenario Book.
Do you keep losing your spot? You need a nice bookmark; if it's cool too, even better!
Discover the End Game Scenario created by Emanuele Galletto, author of the award-winning role-playing game Fabula Ultima. This scenario will be included in the Scenario Book.
An always useful tool to speed up your RPG sessions and ensure you're always ready to play.
Mana Project Studio is an Italian roleplaying games publisher, game creator, and crowdfunding consultant. We have designed and published a wide range of award-winning tabletop roleplaying games.
Among our biggest hits of the moment, there is the Official Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game, in whose original system you can play bounty hunters traveling around the solar system described by one of the most-loved anime of all time.
One of our most recent creations is Elder Mythos TTRPG, a hacked Year Zero horror roleplaying game in which players incarnate Lovecraftian Entities, with the objective of either controlling or destroying the world.
Among the settings for 5E, you may want to take a look at:
Journey to Ragnarok, a Norse and mythological setting for 5E, as well as a Mithral Best Seller on Drive Thru RPG.
Historia, a dark fantasy Renaissance setting populated by anthropomorphic animals, nominated for Best Setting and Best Interior Art at the ENnie Awards 2022.
Nightfell, a grim dark fantasy setting, whose inspiration is rooted in Italian folklore, which won a Golden ENnie Award in 2022 for Best Adversary / Monster.
Seven Sinners, a collection of Cultists, Demons, and Relics compatible with both 1st Edition (OSRIC) and 5th Edition, which won a Silver ENnie award in 2023 for Best Interior Art. Seven Sinners also got nominated for Best Adversary / Monster at ENnie Awards 2023 and for Best 2D Art & Illustration at Origin Awards.
You can find our smiling faces at different conventions!
Mainly, you can find us at GenCon Indianapolis, Pax Unplugged Philadelphia, Essen Spiel, Play Bologna, and during the days dedicated to the Lucca Comics & Games. If you are attending these events too, come to say hello!
TAZ is available in two languages: English & Italian. If funded, you will be asked to choose your edition after the conclusion of the campaign, on the pledge manager with a BackerKit survey.
We'll ship anywhere in the World except Russia, and if we succeed, shipping costs will be collected after the Campaign. Shipping costs and applicable V.A.T. will be calculated automatically for you and charged to the pledge manager.
Below is a rough estimate of the costs, which will also depend on your pledge level:
Europe. ~ 15/25€
United States. ~ 18/25€
United Kingdom. ~ 20/30€
Remote Europe. ~ 30/35€
Canada. ~ 35/40€
Rest of the world. ~ 40+€
As soon as possible, we'll set a more accurate shipping costs list, as some changes will be based on achieving some stretch goals, and the cost of logistics worldwide is currently notoriously volatile. Fees will be collected only with the BackerKit survey.
