Updates, playtest, and the Kickstarter Round 2

Third, I’d like to have the second kickstarter campaign, Round Two, launch in December. Right in time for a very merry Fistmas to all. I’ve got some groundwork to lay for that, but it starts here, with this declaration. Spread the word; we’re delayed, not dead.

HO HO MOTHERFUCKER

Below is a three-hit combo, my writeup of my late-night Denny’s-based playtest session and my thoughts on it. This first appeared on our Discord, the Fistoverse. Part one are my musing on the current design and rewrites, part two is a video I recorded this morning after a few hour’s sleep post-session, and part three is the written session recap.

This playtest was based on Blood from God’s Eye, the Quickstart Adventure which you can download for free (or money if you want to see more art sooner rather than later) and follow along with. 

PART ONE: HOLD YOUR FISTS UNTIL AFTER THE ROLEPLAY

“So! First: It went well. Actually so well that I was surprised

The lone combat (which happened two hours into the session, wowee) was a gigantic setpiece with tanks, armies, and six Degree 1+ heroes

Lasted about two rounds, but they were big and explosive with a ton of action

Takeaways:

1) I have no idea what I was thinking with the new Prana calculations. What, FIVE in the pools? What?

So that needs to get fixed

2) Effortless doesn’t work as a core for action. BUT, it works well as the passive defense and the basis for unrolled actions. So that’s nice

3) All or nearly all of the way processes and content are being designed works like a motherfucker in play. This pacing was solid

4) I need to probably divide the way Imbalances work; it’s fine to have the GM doing rulings and adjudications for player actions (basically expanding their interpretation and veto powers) but it doesn’t work for NPCs under their direct control. I should probably just have a set of guidelines for roleplaying and describing injured characters that GMs have to adhere to, because if those are available to players, then you effectively flip that adjudication role and the player is given limited veto over GM descriptions. That feels like a more functional paradigm, will have to work on it

5) Argh failure spiral. Bad guys might never be tough enough to survive an asswhuppin’ in round 1 by a table of capable players

And THAT problem might actually be unavoidable so long as NPCs and PCs use the same rules to advance

We’ll see if my fixes to mid and high-level Techniques, which gives them expanded free functionality against groups, can turd the tide there and make bosses tough enough to feel right

I also might make it more explicit in the rules that followers can absorb attacks for you, so they can be used to pad out the health of bosses

Even though that feels kind of lame, like Frieze never hid behind his minions. Motherfucker was just a solid wall of asskickin’

“Punch THIS you dirty monkey!”~My hero, the genocidal bishonen alien

Anyway, the players were incredibly engage and had a fantastic time. They basically begged me to run again, and now man I want to because I want the boss battle with Flesh Eating Sage.”

PART TWO: PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE

PART THREE: WHY PUNCH ONE TANK WHEN YOU CAN PUNCH TEN

“Okay so the session itself

I took it from where the last playtest left off, which actually makes this a record third consecutive game in a playtest for me

Which is good, because I need to see how the game holds up as it acquires rulings and has to deal with it’s own history

Spiteful Prince, our Silver Phoenix, was recovering in Last Hope Fort, having been wounded by Oily Manyu and brought there by Hiro and the surviving Golden Lion soldier from the tank battle at the Battle Zone

Anyway, they were soon joined by Seven Sorrows Raven (player reprising her from an earlier playtest, actually) who was seeking out Hiro (a friend in that game) to help her get revenge on Flesh Eating Sage

Finally, Cave Buffalo, newcomer to the group, came down from the Brotherhood stronghold to ensure that package they’re carrying gets delivered to Bao.

Quick sidenote: That player was a dream player for me. Constantly working within the fiction, thinking tactically, roleplaying consistently, just jumped feet first into the game and was a fucking blast the whole time. Every one of my players was radical but that guy, whom I have never roleplayed with before, was just a joy and it was such a blessing to just, luck into a dude like that

So, here’s the interesting thing about this session

Next guy to show up, with his army, is Luckless Chuan

And he DEMANDS the package from the party, citing the desperation of his circumstance and the huge consequences if Flesh Eating Sage takes his goldmine (and no joke, they are DIRE)

And… They talked it out. Like not one punch is thrown

Almost pure roleplay, players are engaged, trying to find compromises, figuring out the tactical situation, trying to come up with plans

It was beautiful. And unexpected, my players are usually such hilarious murderhobos

So they investigate the fort, since Buffalo uses his water-charming mantra to sense the presence of old, stagnate water in the pipes around the ancient fort, and he finds a water main leading WAY downward and they figure they can get into his stomping grounds that if they follow it down

They are CORRECT; they actually wind up in tunnels that connect them eventually to the resting place of the ORIGINAL Two-Souls Bao

So they encounter her out of sequence, which I found delightful, and skip the whole “Haha the quest was a TRAP!” twist and they actually NEVER meet the evil clone Bao

Man, Bao got their respect though. She’s really high-degree and she just tears through their stealth attempts like tissue paper

Not that she does anything but invite them to her hobo-dinner because like, she’s cool if they kill her. She just refuses to die without dignity and calls them out like “Look if you’re gonna kill me, just do it. Otherwise it’s supper time”

Anyway, they crack open the box, find the note from Hiro’s deceased master, and actually get Bao to agree to return with them to Last Hope to defend the Lions against the Vipers. She Refuses the blade, saying it should be in the hands of a worthy hero (as she still considers herself a failure). Hiro winds up with it, since it was his master that sent the blade.

Anyway, they return to the fort, make plans, aaaaand then the tanks start rolling in

A runner arrives and tells them that the Viper’s tank armada is on the move through the Battlezone, en route to Luckless Chuan’s outpost

Shit gets real quick; they unearth some AT weaponry under Last Hope, but it’s ancient and not necessarily safe. I rule that they get 1 shot per rocket (10 total) and they’ve got a 20% of being duds, with a 10% of catastrophic misfire

They make an actually great plan to hide the newly-arrived Brotherhood of Freaks reserve troopers under the marsh with the missiles, cover them in a thick mist summoned by Seven Sorrow’s weather control, and ambush the tanks before they can besiege the mining operation and starve them out and/or demolish everything

Unlucky for them, BOTH Oily Manyu AND Yeman the Elephant-Eater are on those tanks, and Manyu’s epic R6 Senses action discovers their hidden forces. He orders his line of five tanks to entrench and shell the area, while Yemen’s brigade of 6 Blitzkriegs around

Roll Initiative

Thankfully, Buffalo bids high, grabs initiative and manages to snake out 7 hits with zero misfires (curses!), disabling the back line of tanks and wrecking Yeman’s lead charger. Yeman leaps out and Buffalo personally engages the madman, they trade blows and Buffalo’s Riptide Defense shield saves him from a near-certain decapitation

Manyu however, eager for a rematch, spots Spiteful Prince hovering above the battlefield and sends both a Glint of Hellish Steel and Summoned Hellish Armament (poisoned chalcedony shadow needle) his way, breaking through his defenses and sending Prince crashing into the mud

No tanks were thrown in the making of this conflict

ALTHOUGH, the previous battle had one punched to death by, who else, Hiro, who had snuck inside it’s bombed-out husk and points the main cannon at Manyu’s tank, cratering it and sending Manyu face-first into the dirt (and breaking just, so many of his bones and internal organs)

Hiro THEN proceeds to pop out of said tank like a DAISY, calls out Yeman (who’s ass they had previous beaten in that fight) and punches him into a bloody pulp, finishing him via decapitation with his shiny new god weapon

The Prince, not to be outdone, summons a psychic shockwave that crushes the tank crews into a pulp Tetsuo-style, and in the next round, Manyu’s attempt to escape is cut short by a Prana-devouring beam from Heaven’s Tear and his LIFE is cut short by a fusillade of bullets form the machinegun-armed Brotherhood warfighters

Battle over, no enemy survivors”