Kickstarter raises $1M for The Last Airbender tabletop game in a single day

As tabletop role-playing games (RPG) like Dungeons & Dragons increase in popularity, Kickstarter has become the go-to place to fund such endeavors. When there’s a lot of excitement surrounding a project, it can meet its crowdfunding goals in a day — something that happened when Magpie Games announced a tabletop game based on Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender universe.

In fact, it didn’t take an entire day to fund the The Last Airbender tabletop game. It only took 16 minutes for the company to hit its goal of $50,000. It went on to surpass that goal, accumulating $1 million on the first day. At the time of this writing, fans had pledged more than $2.9 million toward the project.

Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising following the resurgence of Nickelodeon’s animated series last year, along with its spinoff The Legend of Korra. Bringing both shows to Netflix drew old fans back into this universe and created new ones, accumulating so much hype that Nickelodeon went ahead and created an Avatar Studios division to create more movies and shows set in this world.

Still, Magpie Games responded seemed pleasantly surprised by the amount of support the game received. “Avatar Legends: The RPG  is fully funded at $50,000!” the company wrote in a Kickstarter update. “That’s absolutely incredible! We’re so grateful for the excitement and support you’ve all shown us and all your love for the Avatar Legends world!”

What is The Last Airbender tabletop game?

The game, dubbed Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, will offer fans a more direct way to immersing themselves in the world of The Last Airbender.

According to Magpie Games, players will choose which of the Four Nations they want to represent, and then set out on missions with specific goals. Here’s the official description:

"Avatar Legends: The RPG is a heroic fantasy game set in the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra in which you and your friends take on the role of young heroes from across the Four Nations who have joined together to make the world a better place. It’s a game for people of all ages who want to look at the world beyond the scope of the existing stories and explore the meaningful actions heroes take for the good of others."

The company also teased the types of villains players will be up against, underscoring that they’ll have complex motivations much like the game’s heroes:

"The villains of Avatar Legends: The RPG are never simply monsters, never mere antagonists who must be struck down by blasts of fire; they are instead people with their own desires, personal struggles, and goals, no matter how misguided."

The campaign for Avatar Legends continues to add physical stretch goals as people throw more funding at it. You still have 27 days left to donate if you want. Those looking to grab a copy of the game can learn more on its Kickstarter page.

Avatar: The Last Airbender inspired Olympic athletes

If you want more evidence of how much Avatar: The Last Airbender has inspired people, look no further than the 2020 Olympics in Toyko. There are multiple athletes modeling their looks off the show, including Mexican synchronized swimmers Nuria Diosdado and Joana Jiménez García, whose leotards paid tribute to the series:

The outfits, designed by Mexican brand Gilling Activewear, are emblazoned with the koi fish Tui and La, the moon spirit and the fish spirit from The Last Airbender. In the season 1 finale, it’s revealed that Tui and La maintain balance on the planet with their “eternal dance of push and pull,” appropriate for synchronized swimming. And on the back of the outfits we see represented the four elements from the show: water, earth, fire and air.

And then, Dutch windsurfer Kiran Badloe spraypainted his shock of hair blue to imitate Aang’s head tattoo.

“It’s about a kid that controls the wind, and he needs to control all different kinds of elements of nature in order to do something great, and I’m doing the same here,” Badloe told Reuters ahead of his big race. “I need to be in tune with the wind and in tune with the water and everything around, and hopefully that leads me to something great.”

Naturally, he won gold. Thank you The Last Airbender!

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h/t PopSugar