FIST is a tabletop roleplaying game about paranormal mercenaries during the Cold War doing tough jobs: stopping disastrous science experiments, infiltrating occult compounds, neutralizing eldritch horrors, and the like. FIST agents tend to be outcasts and misfits with military expertise, but the game isn't about hoo-rah good guys with guns. Players are typically outnumbered, easily killed, and disliked or hunted by most sources of authority.

If you work for FIST, you do the missions no one else can do, no one else wants to do, and which no one will let you do undisturbed. You don't have tons of money and gadgets backing you up, just your wits and a few tools. War is hell, and you're one of the little guys.

FIST is inspired by Metal Gear Solid, the A-Team, and Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol. In terms of gameplay, it's its own funky little thing, mechanically descended from John Harper's World of Dungeons and Offworlders, by Chris P. Wolf and Olivia Gulin.

JAM OVERVIEW

This FIST: JAM OPS installment (the third one, preceded by the original and the Mad Science jam) runs all through February to coincide with Zine Month! You can check out a collection of projects from previous jams (plus other cool FIST knickknacks) right here: https://itch.io/c/2461905/compatible-with-fist.

Other than "zines", this jam has no particular theme. If it fits in an easily-printable format, it's fair game. You might submit:

• A mission module or collection of missions
• A book of lore, factoids, and stories
• A bestiary of monsters, enemy soldiers, and vehicles
• An artbook with designs for strange combatants and paranormal locations
• A collection of random tables for improvising missions
• A toolbox of maps, items, NPCs, etc.
• New traits, roles, or house rules
• A book of referee advice and procedures
• A rules reference or re-format of the core rules
• A whole new game based off of FIST's framework
• Something else!

FIST is licensed under CC-BY-3.0, which means it's public domain. You can create whatever you want to create with it, no OGL required, and we won't ever stop you or charge you money for it. FIST and homebrew are fast friends.

RULES and RESOURCES

• No hateful or bigoted content will be tolerated. FIST is set in a fantastical, science-fantasy version of the real-world 20th century (similar to Wolfenstein, Metal Gear Solid, and various superhero universes), so those topics may arise—keep in mind that bigots and warmongers, fictional or not, are always the enemy.
• Please keep your entry free for the duration of the jam and voting period so everyone can see and rate it.
• After the jam, whatever you make is yours to sell—you can charge for anything you make that's compatible with FIST, you don't need permission. FIST is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

You can get the game here: https://claymorerpgs.itch.io/fist. Community copies are available for the jam. Also, if you bought the BLM, Ukraine, or Abortion Rights bundles, you already have FIST!

The FIST compatibility mark (and an itch.io thumbnail template with the mark included) can be downloaded here: https://claymorerpgs.itch.io/compatible-with-fist. You don't have to use this compatibility mark, it's just there if you want to!

ZINE CRITERIA

Zines come in all shapes, sizes,  materials, formats, and color schemes, but we've put together some (optional) criteria for what makes a "classic" zine (e.g., a document which can be easily printed and folded into a booklet with tools and materials most people have on hand).

• Pages should be half US letter size, 5.5" by 8.5" (or half the size of the most common paper type in your area). The page number should be a multiple of 4, so the zine can be folded into a booklet with no extra/missing pages. 
• Zines should be in black and white, as grayscale printing tends to be more accessible and affordable (as well as available more often at workplaces, schools, and libraries).
• Production value and polish don't have to be particularly high (unless you like doing that kind of thing). You're also encouraged to plunder text, illustrations, and photographs from other sources to cobble together your zine, as is the tradition (but make sure your sources are alright with that, especially if you'll be selling what you make, and credited if credit is requested).

As always with a FIST jam, you don't have to follow these guidelines to the letter (or at all). They're just there to provide some theming and skew the entries toward the classic zine format—but if you want to make some full color interactive hypertext monstrosity, hell yeah, don't let us stop you!

VOTING and PRIZES

After the jam is over, everyone who submitted a project will be able to vote for their favorite entry. Each entry can be rated separately for STYLE and SUBSTANCE, and itch.io's new voting system will prompt you to rate a random selection of 5 entries before voting freely so that no entries get ignored. The voting period lasts from 3/1 to 3/15. 

The winner of the jam will receive a physical copy of our jumbo-sized campaign zine, MANDELBROT SET, courtesy of Exalted Funeral! Everyone who submitted a project can also contact our jam-running email address, moonsofcerberus@gmail.com, to claim a digital download key for MANDELBROT SET as well.

Thanks for reading and we hope to see your project in the jam!

All the best,

CLAYMORE