RAHHHHH NIGHTMARE KART!!!!! hell YEAG
YootScute
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Like with Copper Glow a year and a half ago, E5Burrito has once again created something extremely appealing to me. DISAFFILIATED is a rules-lite, narrative-and-investigation centered RPG, cross-compatible with FIST if you so desire.
DISAFFILIATED reminds me of Delta Green in vibes. In DISAFFILIATED, the characters are underfunded, undersupported, and pitifully human in the face of the paranormal. Unlike FIST, characters do not have paranormal powers. Instead, a system of Traits and Skills describe their learned abilities as clandestine agents.
Mechanically, DISAFFILIATED is simple, but it takes a more structured approach than FIST, encouraging planning and social interaction. I think the RTP and KIT system is an excellent way to get players thinking ahead about their actions without getting bogged down in the details.
There's a lot of stuff in here that can be useful both within DISAFFILIATED and in any game. The mission structure system is excellent for keeping players making decision and engaging with the narrative, and the guide for creating paranormal threats and campaigns about them is truly awesome. The example mission provided is very cool, and it has some neat "The God Whale"-like post-human stuff going on.
I'm not entirely sure I'm sold on the Out Of Commission system of health. It feels like there's not really any reason not to push through being OOC, unless you're in a situation where you can immediately get rest.
Also, a small nitpick: It's a little weird that The Director is referred to with he/him.
DISAFFILIATED is a grounded and intrigue based RPG filled with all the fear and uncertainty of a newly post-Cold-War world, and it would make for an incredible experience with the right group. I'd recommend it. I'm definitely excited to get together a group and play it!
GUTS is a nifty little collection of music-inspired traits and weapon tags. Admittedly, I think a lot of the traits are a little bit overly niche/underwhelming, but there's some cool stuff here. GUTS is very stylish - the traits are all very evocative of the songs they're inspired by, and the illustrations are excellent.
I think GUTS is definitely worth checking out, especially if you're a fan of any of the bands it involves the music of.
I probably won't even use Operation Sarcastic Riot, but it 's an awesome concept, and a well executed one. It's a referee-centered guide on how to adapt OSR adventures to FIST, both mechanically and narratively. It's written in a casual and informative style, which makes it easily understandable, and a table of contents means that it's still easily reference despite this format.
Sarcastic Riot seems like it would make for a very fun "special episode" session in an ongoing FIST campaign, or by having an entire campaign centered around thwarting CYCLOPS with time travel. I'd recommend it to any OSR or fantasy fans out there.
holy crap, this is impressive. IRREGULARS is not only a reimagining of the FIST rules to fit the extremely awesome concept of essentially “blade runner with hyper combat robots”, but it is also 100 new traits, featuring everything from a Bionicle trait to a BFG to a pogo stick.
The mechanic of TRAUMA and going IRREGULAR is quite interesting, (both mechanically and thematically) and I think will encourage some good roleplaying. I sort of wish that it allowed for the possibility of whole team going IRREGULAR and rebelling (along the lines of WOLF) but it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out how to run that.
IRREGULARS is a very stylish and in-depth hack, and I’m definitely going to try scrounge up a group to run it with.
Not as far as I’m aware. Anthrax is real life is an infection caused by bacteria, so arguably anthrax in real life is “alive” as well.
I didn’t really put much thought or research into how Anthrax in real life works for this mission. (though I kinda wish I did, it would have been fun to make the players have to use PPE or whatever)
I more just took the idea of Anthrax being sent though the mail (something that happened in real life) and went “what if the Anthrax turned people into zombies instead of killing them”.
Anyway, I’m glad you like my mission! Thanks for checking it out!
BBRT is delightful. It does a great job of explaining how to run FIST well, has some truly awesome tables, (The partial success table is a godsend. I think it's going to mean a good bit less of me getting stuck figuring out what should happen next) and some great missions. All that and there's a goofy story to it! Fisty is the best! This toolkit is amazing.
Intermezzo instantly gives you a scenario and drops you into playing FIST, and it is excellent at doing so. It doesn't go into too much detail, which is perfect: You get an idea of what's going on, and you fill in the gaps to make it fit with your group. The contents of the tables are excellent and evocative. Intermezzo will definitely make my FIST-running easier, and it no doubt will make yours as well. Oh, and it's so clean looking! The graphic design is great.
Operation Ghost Moon is a crazy ass (in a good way) mission. It immediately hooks you in with it's evocative imagery and the way its bizarre premise is presented completely unapologetically. It feels like a conspiracy theorist fever dream, which is on-brand for FIST and a lot of fun. The "space shuttle is flying past, go catch it!" mission format is excellent. I love missions where the players have a goal and have to trek their way through a map to get to it, and the time limit means players will have to take risks and move quick. The usage of art in the "cobbled-together info" style adds to the great vibes Ghost moon has going on.
However, it does have a big issue, and it's a little unavoidable: The formatting is garbage. The text is almost entirely unreadable digitally, is very low res, has compression artifacts, and is extremely small when printed. I like the "cobbled-together info" style of the document, but the map is taking up way too much space, especially considering how half of it isn't even used.
The other critique I have is that it's very light on actual content. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but with a straightforward mission like this it might be over quite quickly if you have trouble improvising. Throwing some more factions (the Soviets, the US, aliens maybe) into the mix and scattering around the map might spice up the scenario and make the players think on their feet.
Ghost Moon is fine little mission, and evocative. I'd recommend, though it will take some improv to make it flow well.
Red Mirror is a pamphlet for making Nemesis Operatives, enemies that are duplicates of player characters with some changes. It's awesome, and I'm not just saying this because I'm credited for helping with it. The Nemeses are designed counter the character they are a duplicate of, making them a great way to up the stakes or just mess with characters that have become overconfident. Not only are they great mechanically, Red Mirror also makes them exciting narratively. There's also some very fun traits for if the players don't get killed by their reflection. The trifold layout is very neat and readable, and the art is used well.
Red Mirror can be used in any campaign or game, so I'd say- Give it a try!
HANDS is a world/campaign building game for FIST. It's similar to games like Questlandia and The Creature Comes For Us, but with it's own take on the process and with a FIST flair. The "throw another punch" step means that new ideas can develop without the older ones being left behind. I have not actually played it, but I'm excited to! The art is also awesome, I love the collage style.
If I had one critique, it would be that there not being many idea prompts (stuff where it tells the players to create a type of idea - like in the Shield Your Face step) might make it flow a little less smoothly than if there were a bunch of them, but that's understandable for the zine format, and one can always use prompts from other games or online.
Overall, HANDS is very cool! I'd recommend playing it if starting a campaign that you don't already have a campaign idea for or just for fun.
Rainforest rampage is a super tightly designed mini hexcrawl where the players have to rush to capture animals (non-lethally, requiring them to be clever) before they run out of time. The time limit is tight, requiring players to play it smart and take big risks, which is when FIST is at it's most fun. It's extremely lethal, which I like!
I've run HAZARD FUNCTION a couple times and played it solo (an interesting experience) a couple more. It's a delight. The speed at which characters meet their gruesome fate and the variety of possible situations keeps things from getting boring, and it means players have to play smart. I highly recommend it, though I do also recommend replacing the robots with humans around half of the time as they make for more dynamic threats.
The Creature Comes for Us is an excellent collaborative worldbuilding/storybuilding game. You create a setting (you can also play it with a pre-created setting in mind, like for example, setting it in the world of a particular piece of fiction) and the characters and things that inhabit it, and you determine the threat that is facing the setting/characters. The "creature" is kept very vague by the rules. It could be an actual creature, a group of people, a disease, even something existential. Whatever it is though, it's a threat. You decide how it threatens the world or people. The Creature Comes for Us does a great job of encouraging collaboration and letting everyone have input. Once everyone has helped create the world, you then must face the threat. You may or may not succeed, as determined by dice rolls and card draws, but your most important tool is your imagination here. When everyone is contributing, it's extremely fun. And then afterwards, you have a setting and some of it's history that you can use in other games! (or even for another session of The Creature Comes for Us) This game is well worth it.