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Arcane Atlas Games

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A member registered Jun 19, 2021 · View creator page →

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Operation Broken Trident is a detailed cargo-ship extraction mission with a Kraken, a nuclear-tipped RPG and the potential to escape on jet skis.

Style:

  • The layout is simple, but does the job
  • It feels on-theme for FIST

Content:

  • A classic, and effective mission hook - 'retrieve the powerful weapon' with a dilemma on whether to use it to escape
  • The operation has detail poured into every aspect of its content - the ship, the factions, the foes and even the narrative structure and ways it might escalate
  • The threats are varied and fit the maritime theme, the incentive to not hurt enchanted crew members gives an interesting choice to the players
  • The referee is supported with an effective overview and guidance on choices they can make

Operation Broken Trident is a detailed cargo-ship extraction mission with a Kraken, a nuclear-tipped RPG and the potential to escape on jet skis.

Style:

  • The layout is simple, but does the job
  • It feels on-theme for FIST

Content:

  • A classic, and effective mission hook - 'retrieve the powerful weapon' with a dilemma on whether to use it to escape
  • The operation has detail poured into every aspect of its content - the ship, the factions, the foes and even the narrative structure and ways it might escalate
  • The threats are varied and fit the maritime theme, the incentive to not hurt enchanted crew members gives an interesting choice to the players
  • The referee is supported with an effective overview and guidance on choices they can make

What might I change?

  • I wonder if there is almost too much detail, though that might be personal preference. In editing down where you provide information, could you retain the feel of the operation whilst making it easier to pick up and quicker to reference during play?
  • I wonder if more choices around the layout could better support use while playing (e.g. could the ship diagram + points of interest text be a single spread)

Three Point Insertion is a flooded-base crawl packed with strange enemies in a video-game manual style.

Style:

  • The art and colours set a clear spooky underwater tone from the get go, it feels like an old-school video game manual
  • The underwater setting is front and centre, clearly informing the enemy design, air-tank mechanic and location-specific threats

Content:

  • I love the clear mission structure of an initial singular objective that opens up to three points that you have to reach
  • Each location is thoroughly described, reinforcing the underwater tone with a unique feel and threat
  • Enemies pose different and interesting challenges, I particularly liked the 'hold your breath in real life' boss move
  • A range of interesting traits and items serve as rewards and tools for agents that survive this lethal mission

Three Point Insertion is a flooded-base crawl packed with strange enemies in a video-game manual style.

Style:

  • The art and colours set a clear spooky underwater tone from the get go, it feels like an old-school video game manual
  • The underwater setting is front and centre, clearly informing the enemy design, air-tank mechanic and location-specific threats

Content:

  • I love the clear mission structure of an initial singular objective that opens up to three points that you have to reach
  • Each location is thoroughly described, reinforcing the underwater tone with a unique feel and threat
  • Enemies pose different and interesting challenges, I particularly liked the 'hold your breath in real life' boss move
  • A range of interesting traits and items serve as rewards and tools for agents that survive this lethal mission

What might I change?

  • I wonder if moving the 'exploring the base' / 'three filtration systems' sections before the locations might be easier for the referee to reference.
  • I wonder if adding a diagram showing any connections and any location-specific NPC stats to the location pages might be easier for the referee to reference
  • An extra proof-read to catch repetition and page references could make the text even punchier

Piranesian slum is a FIST op with punchy design and a strong 'zone' vibes.

Style: 

  • The flow-chart map gives the adventure a strong visual structure and grounds it's twisting layout for the referee
  • The palette and clear layout fits the F.I.S.T. aesthetic but adds a dash of colour and its own spin, it feels fresh
  • The art / diagrams are rad and feel purposeful

Content:

  • Each location is packed with description to support referees
  • The clear setting, (body-horror themed) altered locations, suggested music and written-flavour create a cohesive unwelcoming and eerie location
  • The hook of being the support team while things go wrong for the A team is neat, and builds on the dangerous zone that you reluctantly have to enter
  • There are some bigger swings - use of non-D6, interesting enemy traits and weapon effects

Piranesian slum is a FIST op with punchy design and a strong 'zone' vibes.

Style: 

  • The flow-chart map gives the adventure a strong visual structure and grounds it's twisting layout for the referee
  • The palette and clear layout fits the F.I.S.T. aesthetic but adds a dash of colour and its own spin, it feels fresh
  • The art / diagrams are rad and feel purposeful

Content:

  • Each location is packed with description to support referees
  • The clear setting, (body-horror themed) altered locations, suggested music and written-flavour create a cohesive unwelcoming and eerie location
  • The hook of being the support team while things go wrong for the A team is neat, and builds on the dangerous zone that you reluctantly have to enter
  • There are some bigger swings - use of non-D6, interesting enemy traits and weapon effects

What might I change? 

  • An editing and proof-read pass could have tightened up the content
  • I wonder if a 'what is happening' section for the referee would give a helpful overview of the scenario before diving into the detail (I was still a little unclear about what the entity was after reading)

Thanks for the kind review! 

We’re glad you guys enjoyed it, and those models sound amazing!

I like how you’re thinking - but I think it’s a potent enough word without being an acronym! A series of adventures where you undo a mess you’ve created.

Thanks!

DURF me to the moon is delightfully whimsical, slightly out-there and simple one-shot. It gives a clear hook, sets up a few interesting locations and lays them out neatly over a few pages with nice art. Great work!

Thanks for letting us know, we’re glad you had a good time!

Thank you for playing and for sharing your reflections! I think that'

Thanks for the invite! We won’t be able to take part this time as we don’t have capacity and are leaving Super as an experiment for now. But best of luck with the jam, it’s a great theme!

Thank you so much! We’re glad you enjoyed it, have a blast with the mini campaign <3

Thank you for the feedback. We’ll keep your points in mind for future projects and we’re glad you enjoy 1e.

Thank you for the feedback, we’ll keep those points in mind for future projects. We’re glad you enjoy 1e.

R.e. the ‘crack the case’ section in 2e - that is a slight mistake that we’ll correct, it is intended to be up to the players when they want to end the game instead of after 2 suspects every time.

No worries! I’ll have a think to see if I can come up with a more print friendly version that still pops.

Thanks!

I'm not 100% sure what you mean - what do you mean by a weird shape?

It's not really designed for a5 singles / booklet printing at the moment as 2 of the pages would have text running across the middle of the page. I could maybe do an a4 singles version if that would help?

A fun, calustrophobic mission for mothership. I played with Mothership 1e and a mix of newer and experienced players and everyone enjoyed it. 

Running it was easy with a well-laid out pamphlet that has the information that you need but with plenty of room for the warden to be creative in building an atmosphere. The infestation mechanic nicely raises the tension and keeps things feeling theatening as the players gradually realise what is happening. The monsters are scary, but don't tend to kill players instantly, which helped give the newer players time to come up with solutions. 

A few maps handouts are available in the creator's discord, which helped the players understand the submarine and navigate the space.

Thank you for checking it out!

That’s really useful feedback. We were already thinking that ‘Roll 2 dice’ is more intuitive than d66 / d36, especially to people less familiar with TTRPGs, but particularly helpful to have that confirmed by another creator.

Thank you for the kind and detailed review!

We're glad you enjoyed it (and hope you retrieved your cat!)

No Bones About It is a rad, skeleton street racing FIST hack.

My favourite hacks / jam submissions stay true to the original ideas behind the mechanics, but twist them in a new and exciting way. No Bones About It nails this.

Mechanically it sticks to the player driven, d6-only, 4-stat simplicity of FIST. The stats are not only relabelled, but adjusted to fit the vibe and how the player characters would make decisions within it. 'Death' is great - why shouldn't skeleton characters get a chance to straight up not die? There are a few twists here, most notably the addition of vehicles. Vehicles are designed as an extension of the characters themselves, directly enhancing their abilities on the character sheet.

Thematically the zine is on-point, the skeleton and car filled art, punchy writing pair well with the mechanics to bring the street-racing skeletons to life (or undeath?). The scenario is a good demonstration of all of these, with a strong narrative and twist.

The character sheet, contents and quick reference pages are all useful additions for running or playing the game.

No Bones About It is a rad, skeleton street racing FIST hack.

My favourite hacks / jam submissions stay true to the original ideas behind the mechanics, but twist them in a new and exciting way. No Bones About It nails this.

Mechanically it sticks to the player driven, d6-only, 4-stat simplicity of FIST. The stats are not only relabelled, but adjusted to fit the vibe and how the player characters would make decisions within it. 'Death' is great - why shouldn't skeleton characters get a chance to straight up not die? There are a few twists here, most notably the addition of vehicles. Vehicles are designed as an extension of the characters themselves, directly enhancing their abilities on the character sheet.

Thematically the zine is on-point, the skeleton and car filled art, punchy writing pair well with the mechanics to bring the street-racing skeletons to life (or undeath?). The scenario is a good demonstration of all of these, with a strong narrative and twist.

The character sheet, contents and quick reference pages are all useful additions for running or playing the game.

Thank you for the lovely feedback!

Old Dogs gives ideas and enemies for FIST agents that have somehow survived a few too many times.

The layout is crisp, and fits the FIST aesthetic perfectly, complete with even more acronyms. The vibe of all the content is spot on, conjuring up images of grizzled veterens in action films. I'm such a sucker for a 'one last job' trope, and you can bet your cotton socks that this includes it.

 This feels very useful as inspiration for referees to create their own, or adapt existing, missions for long-in-the-tooth player characters.

Old Dogs gives ideas and enemies for FIST agents that have somehow survived a few too many times.

The layout is crisp, and fits the FIST aesthetic perfectly, complete with even more acronyms. The vibe of all the content is spot on, conjuring up images of grizzled veterens in action films. I'm such a sucker for a 'one last job' trope, and you can bet your cotton socks that this includes it.

This feels very useful as inspiration for referees to create their own, or adapt existing, missions for long-in-the-tooth player characters.

A 2-parter, To The Slaughter is part NPC generating mechanics/representation and part campaign.

The generating mechanics took a bit of getting my head around, but they clearly have a lot of depth represented in a really concise way. With a bit of practice they would be allow referees to act as NPCs with a lot of detail and interesting motivations. The NPCs in the campaign illustrate the mechanic nicely, a clever touch.

The adventure equally took a bit to grasp, but has loads of depth, interesting challenges and a cool setting (it is pretty dark and graphic, but in a 'part of real-life that we prefer to ignore' sort of way).

Squad traits is a pamphlet adding a simple, but creative and clever mechanic to FIST. The players or referee choose from a list of traits which make the game easier, harder or a bit more unique. It stays true to the feel of traits in the main rules, but with great ideas for how these could impact a group all at once.

The use of art from a field manual fits the vibe and jazzes up the simple and clear layout.

This is a great mechanical addition to a referee's arsenal with a lot of potential for people to build on top of.

Squad traits is a pamphlet adding a simple, but creative and clever mechanic to FIST. The players or referee choose from a list of traits which make the game easier, harder or a bit more unique. It stays true to the feel of traits in the main rules, but with great ideas for how these could impact a group all at once.

The use of art from a field manual fits the vibe and jazzes up the simple and clear layout.

Currently, the layout works better digitally than printed. This isn't a negative, as I think most users will look at it digitally (and it's easier to follow this way round than print-friendly pamphlet layouts!). If you did print it, the page break for telepaths would be a little awkward, and I think the cover might open backwards (but I don't have a printer, so can't check for sure).

I love the idea of Wave Function Expansion, spending war dice to mess with the referee is really cool. However, it might be of limited use as the referee rarely (if ever) rolls dice in the main FIST rules.

Overall, this is a great mechanical addition to a referees arsenal with a lot of potential for people to build on top of.

Outer Self is an elegant and original FIST adventure.

This zine has such a striking, clean, and intentional aeasthetic. The red pairs so well with greyscale images and fits the tone of the adventure. The text accents are punchy and the map is a cool and unique culmination of the look. I love the attention to detail with the page border containing a signpost to the section the reader is on.

The adventure itself is well thought through, with a different pathways for players to explore. Each of the pathways has varied threats and meaningful discoveries for the players to make. The author has paid attention to the different ways that the players could reach certain points (even a a particulrly murder-y party). It definitely suits more of a creepy / horror vibe, as if the players get involved in combat the numbers look pretty deadly.  Successfully completing the mission leaves the players with an intereting set of potential items to use in future sessions.

I love the addition of a mission synopsis at the start to help the referee quickly get an idea of the scenario.

Outer Self is an elegant and original FIST adventure.

This zine has such a striking, clean, and intentional aeasthetic. The red pairs so well with greyscale images and fits the tone of the adventure. The text accents are punchy and the map is a cool and unique culmination of the look. I love the attention to detail with the page border containing a signpost to the section the reader is on.

The adventure itself is well thought through, with a different pathways for players to explore. Each of the pathways has varied threats and meaningful discoveries for the players to make. The author has paid attention to the different ways that the players could reach certain points (even a a particulrly murder-y party). It definitely suits more of a creepy / horror vibe, as if the players get involved in combat the numbers look pretty deadly.  Successfully completing the mission leaves the players with an intereting set of potential items to use in future sessions.

I love the addition of a mission synopsis at the start to help the referee quickly get an idea of the scenario. I wonder whether shifting the npcs before the map might help them get up to speed even faster.

Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback!

A zine with a lot of timely and solid advice for getting started running FIST one-shots. It has 3 contrasting, but super creative adventures. Each is filled with locations and npcs that have no right to be so vividly in my head when they're each only described with 3 sentences.

This hidden underground lab leaflet/pamphlet adventure for FIST packs a lot into 2 sides of a page. There's a crafting system, enemies, and (fairly gore-y) things to discover in the facility. Your objective is clear, but there are a few different ways to achieve it, leaving freedom for the players and referee to explore and create their own take on how to resolve it. The layout and style are clear, on-theme and easy to follow.

This hidden underground lab leaflet/pamphlet adventure for FIST packs a lot into 2 sides of a page. There's a crafting system, enemies, and (fairly gore-y) things to discover in the facility. Your objective is clear, but there are a few different ways to achieve it, leaving freedom for the players and referee to explore and create their own take on how to resolve it. The layout and style are clear, on-theme and easy to follow.

The scenario does use d4s and d8s but I'd have loved to have seen if you could have achieved the same goals sticking to the simplicity of just d6's. That's very much a personal preference though!

A zine with a lot of timely and solid advice for getting started running FIST one-shot. It has 3  contrasting, but super creative adventures. Each is filled with locations and npcs that have no right to be so vividly in my head when they're each only described with 3 sentences.

Thanks for the feedback! My bad on the afpub file (uploaded it in a rush), have replaced with the correct pdf.

We threw around the idea of a print version close to Halloween, but no firm plans yet!