project-image

Monsters of Murka Trilogy: Ratified & Radified

Created by Action Fiction

Enter a World where Capitalism is King. Then, punch it in the face. Monsters of Murka is a Platinum-Best-Selling trilogy of campaign settings for 5e D&D. We've added hundreds of new spells, items, and monsters, all with that over-the-top Murka flavor!

Latest Updates from Our Project:

100k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: VTT Support!
9 months ago – Thu, Jul 17, 2025 at 05:58:43 AM

I woke up like thisss~
("like this" meaning "a walking disaster unprepared for the incredible generosity of our supporters who have pushed us past 100k wtf")


My fellow Murkans,

I cannot believe we hit 100k just three days in. To be completely transparent, this is now officially the largest campaign we have ever done in terms of money raised. And it's only day three. I cannot thank you all enough. 

We have now unlocked:
  • 95k: Minis Series 3
  • 100k: Foundry VTT Conversion

Before I jump in, I just wanted to shout out our awesome Discord community who have been so supportive. It feels like every few minutes I take a scroll through those chats and see really kind words. So, Dewey, PrinceofBelAir, Stryker, Lythar, Kimber, Dave, Beelze, Zelan, and the entire Pretzel Cult - thank you all. You all rock. Your support is appreciated by everyone at Action Fiction, and on a personal note, you fill my life with a lot of joy.



For those not in the Discord, there's no better place to chat with other folks who have the same sense of humor, who love to homebrew their own Murka items, and who support the hell out of one another. 10/10 community, even if I'm a little biased.

Minis Series 3

Here, have another Sir Valence WIP, courtesy of Hermz:

When I told Hermz we would be doing 3 series of minis (my current goal is like 10-15 minis total at this point), he had the following to say:

"LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO"

And I gotta say, I agree with him entirely. lmao. I'm working up a list of all the creatures and critters who might become a mini so that you all can vote. There are a few that I 100% know will become a mini and so they won't be included in the poll (like the Walrog), so if you don't see those monsters in the poll, don't worry! They'll still be in the list of minis. The poll will be exclusively for y'all to pick and choose your faaaavorites.

And now, the moment I know MANY of you have been waiting for...

Foundry VTT Conversion

It feels like I barely even had time to announce that this had been revealed before we've already unlocked it. I suppose that goes for all of our stretch goals, but this one was a big one for me. I've wanted to see a VTT implementation for Murka for a LONG time, and I'm so damn excited that we're finally gonna make it happen. I've reached out to a VTT creator to see what it's gonna take to get it made, but the jury is still out on whether we'll be working with a VTT creator, or if we'll be making it ourselves (see: I will be making it myself, lol).



If you happen to know someone with VTT/Foundry creation experience, send them our way! You can hit us up on the Discord or email us at [email protected] about it. We love working with folks that like our stuff, it's a great way for us to support our supporters.

Next Stretch Goal: Minis Series 4 & Dice Tray

Our next two stretch goals are the fourth mini series and a dice tray. We've done dice trays before, and if we unlock this, I think you guys are gonna LOVE what we have in store for it!

Also, just to clarify: we have more stretch goals cooking. We, uhh... we thought we had more time, haha. So, once we blow through these next two, our Murkan road trip will not be over. We'll be making a detour so we can continue our journey together!

Thanks again, to each and every one of you. I know you're reading this and going "ah, sure, he's thanking everyone else" but no, I mean you specifically. You the person that clicked this update and are currently reading these words. Thank YOU for your support. 

Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,

Jaron R. M. Johnson
And the Action Fiction Faction



90k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: Printed one-shot and MAXIMUM ART
9 months ago – Wed, Jul 16, 2025 at 04:45:55 PM

I cannot believe my eyes, and it’s not even ten million fireflies (nor is it butter???)


My fellow Murkans,

I leave you all alone for 9 measly hours and you complete two more stretch goals. You can’t be trusted. And now I will have to punish all of you (with rewards)

We have now unlocked:
  • 85k: Printed One-shot
  • 90k: More Art Version 3 (Which is the last one I swear)

Okay here we go formal stretch goal update time let’s go here we go okay here we go heeere we go yep let’s go here we --

Printed One-shot, Monsters of Murka: Hometown Heroes

I know I kind of talked about it a lot in the last update, but I want to restate some of that, because there are 500 of you and I know not everyone has time to read every single update even though I pour my BLOOD and SWEAT and TEARS and HEART and SOUL into every single WORD I WRITE. Haha, I'm just kidding.

Unless... 👀

We livestreamed a playthrough of the Hometown Heroes one-shot here on Backerkit. You can watch it here!

For me, the most interesting part of this adventure’s design is how customizable it is. With VERY little set-up, you’ll be able to tailor a villain SPECIFICALLY designed to antagonize your party, which will make it all the more satisfying when they beat the living shit out of them. Also, your players (temporarily) get their hands on a Legendary magic item, so even though they’ll only be 3rd level, they’ll get a taste of power and immediately thirst for more. You know, like little politicians.

Anyway, here’s the synopsis of the adventure:
A group of adventurers are enjoying the amenities of their hometown when their ONE day off is quite rudely interrupted by a villain who has set their sights on taking over the town. The group will need to work together to uncover the villain’s plans, make a quick pit stop at their local library for a powerful arcane tome, and then put a stop to the machiavellian machinations and become the heroes their hometown needs—and hopefully the ones it deserves.

Hometown Heroes serves as a perfect introductory adventure for low-level players to get a sense for what Murka is, and provides tools for a GM to handcraft a villain for the party, as well as bring their real-world hometown—including some of its most notable characters, locales, and features—into the world of Murka.

The adventure will be available to everyone digitally for free, and we’re still figuring out what print costs will be for something like this. If we can keep costs low, we’d love to include it for our physical backers, but we need to make sure it’s a cost we can sustain first (being a tiny team in Columbus where all of us are also working full-time jobs to pay bills is hard) We’ll keep you posted on what we come up with!

More Art (The Final Reckoning)

This is the last stretch goal tier we had planned for adding art to the books, which means we have reached maximum artitude. It’s all ov-art now. Art’s well that ends well. Art thou glad I didn’t say banana? I forgot what I was saying.

Next Stretch Goal: Minis Series 3

At the next stretch goal, we’ll be adding yet another mini series to the campaign. I got some great recommendations on the last update, someone suggested we do some PC/subclass minis, and I think that’s FABULOUS. Here’s a short list of some of the options we’re considering between Series 1 and 2, to get your ideas flowing:
  • Sir Valence
  • Draguns
  • Guillaume Fierre
  • The Walrog
  • The Poultryoshka
  • Das Kapital
  • [REDACTED UNANNOUNCED MONSTER]
  • Tasting Beast
  • The Magnum Bull
  • Jay Krowling
  • Jo Ro’gaan

Throw some other ideas in the comments for things you’d like to see, we wanna make them all! :) 

Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,

Jaron R. M. Johnson
And the Action Fiction Faction



80k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: Custom Murka Soundtrack, Painted Edges, and more minis!
9 months ago – Wed, Jul 16, 2025 at 06:56:46 AM

*falls out of bed*
OKAY YES HELLO GOOD MORNING WE UNLOCKED THREE MORE STRETCH GOALS WHILE I WAS SLEEPING BUT I--
*trips*
-- I’M HERE NOW SO I CAN UHHHH DO THE POST NOW OKAY HERE WE GO

My fellow Murkans,

Well y’all were BUSY BEES last night, it would seem.

We have now unlocked:
  • 70k: Minis, Series 2
  • 75k: Murka Soundtrack
  • 80k: Painted Edges

Get strapped in and let’s talk about 'em.

Minis, Series 2

We’ve had some great suggestions for minis on Series 1, including Draguns, the Walrog, and some of our other boss monsters like Das Kapital. Loving these suggestions, keep them coming! I want to make sure whatever minis we design, they’re the ones you guys want. Maybe we should do a poll?

Also, we just revealed MINIS SERIES 3 on our Murkan Roadtrip for stretch goals, so, like... if we keep this up... I’m really gonna need those suggestions from you guys.

Our 3D artist, Hermz, is kicking a bunch of ass on designing these minis so far, so whatever we wind up with, trust that it’s gonna be AMAZING.

Murka Soundtrack

Listen this is the coolest shit ever. So we have had the pleasure of working with Reed Reimer of Fable Factory on a number of our projects, including our sci-fi horror RPG, Cthulhu Dreamt, as well as previous Murka campaigns. For Murka, he once created the Jester’s Jingle Medley, which is (in my humble opinion) the greatest testament to the horrors of capitalism since people started making those spin-off Monopoly games.

So now, Reed will be working with us on a full bardcore/fantasy soundtrack. You can probably safely expect some cursed covers and magnificent medleys. We’re open to your suggestions on this one! Reed’s engine is already revving for this one.

Painted Edges

I teased what this looks like in our last post but I’m just so damn excited that I’m gonna shout it from the rooftops (and in text, that looks like bolding it). Our Deluxe books will now have painted edges, and that’s SO RAD. Each deluxe book will have its edges painted to thematically match the color palette of the book as well as its contents. These deluxe books are probably gonna be the coolest ones in your collection, ESPECIALLY since they’ll be collected together in that box set as well. You simply are not ready for how rad this will be.



Next Stretch Goal: Printed One-shot

At the next stretch goal, we’ll be able to offer our Monsters of Murka: Hometown Heroes one shot adventure in print form! We actually had the pleasure of running this one-shot a few weeks ago (time is an illusion so that may not be precisely accurate), and we livestreamed it here on Backerkit.

You can watch it here!

Here’s the synopsis of the adventure:
A group of adventurers are enjoying the amenities of their hometown when their ONE day off is quite rudely interrupted by a villain who has set their sights on taking over the town. The group will need to work together to uncover the villain’s plans, make a quick pit stop at their local library for a powerful arcane tome, and then put a stop to the machiavellian machinations and become the heroes their hometown needs—and hopefully the ones it deserves.

Hometown Heroes serves as a perfect introductory adventure for low-level players to get a sense for what Murka is, and provides tools for a GM to handcraft a villain for the party, as well as bring their real-world hometown—including some of its most notable characters, locales, and features—into the world of Murka.

The adventure will be available to everyone digitally for free, and we’re still figuring out what print costs will be for something like this. If we can keep costs low, we’d love to include it for our physical backers, but we need to make sure it’s a cost we can sustain first (being a tiny team in Columbus where all of us are also working full-time jobs to pay bills is hard) We’ll keep you posted on what we come up with!

Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,

Jaron R. M. Johnson
And the Action Fiction Faction

65k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: EVEN MOAR ART! (Also, Potion Contest winners revealed!)
9 months ago – Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 06:31:40 PM

I swear if I see a single one of you posting that "ALL THE ---" meme in the comments I will riot


My fellow Murkans,

HERE COMES SOME MORE ART. You wanted it, you got it!

I wanted to showcase a specific piece from Sal actually, for one of our subclasses in Arcana Americana:


You see those neat little silhouettes with question marks? That could be YOU!

For those who may have missed it, we have a very limited quantity of Be in the Book pledge levels. At those tiers, we’ll actually put YOUR face (or your loved one’s face, or your character’s face, or your dog’s face—really, any kind of face) into one of the art pieces for Murka. Now that we’re adding more art, this book is gonna be TEEMING with places where we might be able to sneak in your dazzling smile.

Next Stretch Goal on the list is another series of Minis, which is wild because we haven't even finished collecting your ideas for the first series. SO LET ME HAVE THEMMMMM.

Potion Contest

Also, we’re here to announce the winners of our Potion Contest! Those winners areeeeee...

  • Action Fiction Favorite (Design)
  • Action Fiction Favorite (Art)

  • Community Pick (Design)
    • The Draught of the Sho’tg’un by Zelanart
  • Community Pick (Art)

Our brilliant artists Zelanart and Isaac will be getting a free PDF bundle of the Ratified & Radified books, and our brilliant designers Zelanart and Swan will be getting their potions adapted for publication in the Murka books, as well as a free copy of the book their potion appears in! GREAT WORK Y’ALL.

Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,

Jaron R. M. Johnson
And the Action Fiction Faction

 

60k STRETCH GOAL UNLOCKED: ARTIST BONUSES! (open for art previews, including a cool Evil Dead parody!)
9 months ago – Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 05:27:51 PM

Our artists say “thank you,” and so do we!

My fellow Murkans,

As I mentioned in our last update, we REALLY love our artists, and we want our success to be their success. I wanna take a second to highlight a few of our artist superstars.

Bianca Papalardo is our art director. She’s been with us since the very first Murka book (you’d recognize her work in any of the items from that first book, all of which are being redrawn for Ratified & Radified), when she was just a fledgling. Now she’s an absolute POWERHOUSE in the art world, having worked for everybody from DC Comics to the Dauntless video game. She’s crazy skilled, we love her.

Hermz Villamor is the artist behind our 3D models. We met him when we started work on our board game Goblin Cave, where he did the minis for all the goblins and adventurers alike. He’s crazy skilled as a 3D modeller, and we’re really lucky to get to work with him. He’ll be bringing Sir Valence to life (as covered in this update), as well as the rest of the minis we unlock.

I also want to give a shoutout to Sal the Dark Cloak. Sal’s been with us for several projects as well, and is responsible for our Star Wars parody piece, which is one of our most widely-appreciated pieces. Every time someone sees this piece at a convention, they lose their absolute MINDS. He’s the artist who has done our Brewmaster art, and he’s also behind a new parody piece themed off of Army of Darkness (WIP below, I adjusted the contrast here just to make it easy for y’all to see his magic).


Thanks to you, each of them—and the rest of our artists—will be getting a bonus for their INCREDIBLE work in bringing the world of Murka to life.

The next stretch goal we’ll unlock is more art. How convenient, since we’ve just given our artists that nice bonus! ;) 

Also, we’ve revealed the printed one-shot, Hometown Heroes stretch goal! Folks may remember us playing this one-shot on a livestream last week to showcase it. Now, we’ll be making a printed version of that one-shot! We have to explore the print costs of this—we’d love to include it for free to all physical backers, but we need to make sure we’re able to eat that cost first. We’ll keep you all in the loop!

Yours across the plains of Midwesteros,

Jaron R. M. Johnson
And the Action Fiction Faction