Basic Action Games was founded by Chris Rutkowsky in 2004, beginning with the launch of BASH! Basic Action Super Heroes.  The game was created while Rutkowsky was working for an after-school program and wanted to introduce rpgs to kids.  Thinking that superheroes was the ideal genre, he looked for a Supers game that would be simple enough for kids-- but was unable to find one.  So he created his own, using very simple math, with a minimum of record keeping.  While play testing, friends told Chris that this would make a fine mainstream supers game-- and that was the birth of Basic Action Games.

The system seemed so malleable, that it was later adapted for cinematic fantasy role-playing, and science fiction games, as well as in partnership with some third party publishers.

Since then, Basic Action Games has also produced the Honor + Intrigue Swashbuckling RPG.