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FIST: AVALON's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| Overall | #4 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
| SUBSTANCE | #7 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
| STYLE | #8 | 4.444 | 4.444 |
Ranked from 9 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
A solid recontextualization. Well laid out, good font choices, and a rebalancing of PC power that makes the play more about choices and moral conflict. A subtly (and in places not subtly) different beast, but one with real legs. I'd enjoy playing this, I think.
I'm really enjoying these compatible hacks the community is building up. FIST's already fantastically wide range of operatives can not be joined by werewolves, undead amateur hotrodders, time traveling knights...
FIST: Avalon takes the game in a new direction, adding layers of complexity and chivalry. This is one of those FIST supplements that add so many new rules and features, I’d probably want to try it out as a player, just to get the hang of things. But I think I get it, and what I get, I definitely like.
What does it mean to be a knight? Virtues! Courage, Generosity, Nobility, all that jazz. You pick a Virtue and a Vice, but what’s interesting here is your Vice isn’t chosen from a list of sins. Instead, you pick another Virtue, one which you most struggle most with. Following your Virtue or Struggling with your Vice leads to Advancement, a la Roles. I would absolutely love it if the entire party each picked different Virtues, but all had the same Vice. So everyone’s bopping along, feeling good and Knightly, until some poor villain asks for Mercy and then… blam! Vice activated, my friend. It’d be the Team Attack of personal failures, and I for one want to be part of it.
I like how you gain War Dice for succumbing to your Vice. I like how Origin Traits can only be selected at creation, tying you to the land you were born. I like the Valeborn Origin – ’tis not music that tames the savage beast, ’tis I! I also like the regular Traits: Acrobat (which allows you to save a floating +2 modifier on a dodge), Bastard (is basically a Thief), and especially Beastwarden, which furthers my descent into starring in a shot on video adaptation of Beastmaster.
The layout is clean and ready to print. The artwork consists of medieval woodcarvings, which feels 100% appropriate. It’s a little thing, but I sort of wish the logo had a more Arthurian take on the “FIST” logo, perhaps a medieval font with a knight’s gauntlet, something like that.
It’s interesting to see FIST: Avalon arrive before Mythic Bastionland. I wonder if we’re on the verge of an Arthurian Renaissance. You hear that, Pendragon, all high and mighty? FIST is gunning for your throne!
FIST Avalon is an interesting exercise in bending FIST systems into new shapes and possibilities.
More than altering, Avalon extends many of the core concepts of FIST. Roles become two sided with a vice and virtue, that not only rewards role playing but challenges players to follow their knightly oaths to avoid negative effects. To go along with this change, the included mission creation rules recommend adding these virtues as constant themes.
Traits with their own advancement trees have been added, including permanent and temporary bonuses for adding new traits and swapping old ones out. This adds another layer to character growth that encourages a character trying new traits to gain power.
Avalon adds a different crunchiness to FIST that those who are seeking out more character building options will find enjoyable.
On the other hand, its ethos might run counter to those who enjoy FIST for its relative character minimalism and high lethality. By increasing both character build options and complexity, it becomes a harder pill to swallow when your character inevitably dies or if you are consistently having to make new ones.
If you are looking to add more mechanical complexity to character building or bring knighthood into the forefront of play, Avalon will give you a lot of material to run with.
Not exactly what I think of for Fist. But it is entertaining to come a fantasy adaption for Fist.
FIST: Avalon is an arthurian hack of the cold war supernatural espionage rpg FIST.
The PDF is 16 pages, cleanly organized, with a slight OSR vibe. Everything is easy to read, and there's some appropriate public domain artwork.
In terms of departures from the FIST engine, the biggest mechanical changes here are the inclusion of Virtues, which require you to behave in certain ways during your adventures. Also you have a home base by default, plus a knightly order that you can progress through the ranks of.
The new Traits are nice and thematic, and the new progression system allows you to swap out Traits while keeping some of the old Trait's bonuses. This is flexible and dynamic and fits with the theme of knights changing and establishing themselves as they quest.
The game's scenarios, called quests, have a wonderful gimmick where they include both physical and moral obstacles, and this kind of guarantees that you're always thinking about what you stand for while you play. There's also a wide range of sample quests, each about three sentences long, and all of which feel easy to run off of the cuff.
Knights from FIST: Avalon can also be dropped into regular FIST games with a little bit of finessing, and don't overpower the existing game balance. They have a bit more growth potential than an average FIST agent, but are slightly more limited in their powers and technology and also by their Virtue. You could have a lot of fun just reverse Connecticut-Yankeeing a PC from this system into normal FIST.
Overall, if you like arthurian fantasy, or low-magic medieval settings, or courtly politics and heroic combat, this is a great FIST hack. It *does* require the base game to understand it, but it also fully transforms that base game in a really satisfying way. FIST: Avalon is well worth your time.
Minor Issues:
-This is a personal design philosophy thing, but I feel like recovering from being Broken or Tainted should give you two advancements to make up for the extra hassle. Arthurian knights had a tendency to kind of constantly lapse, get bested by their vices, and then try again, and providing two advancements turns the mechanic from one that the players want to avoid and the GM wants to force them to interact with into a mechanic where nobody feels the need to throw out their character if it comes up.
-Alchemist might benefit from a bomb/elixir carry capacity limit. Alternatively, "you start quests with X number of bombs and elixirs" prevents downtime bomb-farming shenanigans.
-Bastard and Foreigner thematically feel like Origin Traits.
-Patron gives -1 Creative. Should this be +1? Otherwise the Trait seems to be mostly downside.
-I would've liked to see a bit more about Castles, plus some example foes, but neither of these is strictly necessary to play or enjoy FIST: Avalon. It's a great hack, and I hope there'll be more supplements to follow it.
Thanks for your review!! I always appreciate your thoughtfulness!
About Broken and Tainted, that's an interesting and compelling point, and something I'd want to playtest about to see how it goes over. Making recovering from either of those statuses more beneficial I think would encourage players to engage with it more, but I want to balance that with not punishing players from leaning into never wanting to become Broken or Tainted. Yeah, I'm of multiple minds here, lots to tinker with!
You're spot on about the Alchemist max limits, that'll def be going into v2.
Bastard and Foreigner are in the same design space as Orphan and Scion - more about parentage than about the where. I agree though that in this group of 4, Foreigner is the odd man out.
With Patron, I wanted to capture the idea of a noble being the kind of person that likes (or likes to be seen in public liking) art, but also being very terrible at making it themselves, like the Medicis and Da Vinci or the popes and Michaelangelo. The tradeoff is that Patrons gain the Commission action, which could be quite the game-changer.