hey there, I'm not sure of a way to do that but I'm adding more copies now! also we may release a solo play supplement in the future and the new book itself should have enough tools to hack together a solo-play mode i think!
Super flexible mechanics with tons of campaign ideas, I have found it to be extremely compatible with all of the currently popular genres. i.e. Liminal-Fist, Mother-Fist, Primal Fist, 9 Fists to Valhalla, Apocalypse Fist, Fist of the Week, just to name a few...
FIST lives in a very difficult to manage sweet spot between what makes OSR style games appealing and what makes narrative-heavy indie games fun, accessible, and freeing. With an easy to pick-up and hyper-lean ruleset, it gives you a treasure-trove of gameplay and storytelling that laser focuses on its genre.
Creating new characters is always a blast because there are so many options that mix and entwine in strange and delightful ways. FIST does that thing I love with its character generation where you get pieces of story to fit together - but also some clear mechanical things that your agent DOES.
You will read FIST and think "Oh, this is pretty good." You will play FIST and think "Oh wait oh my God why did I sleep on this it is FANTASTIC!"
I've actually been compiling notes for something like this over the past few days but I'm not sure what direction to go with it! What kinds of solo content would you like to see?
Just picked this up, I really like it. Excited to run my first game in the coming month. I have a question about dealing damage. If a character doesn't have a weapon (one of my players chose two traits that don't provide an offensive ability/weapon), how is damage handled on an unarmed attack. I couldn't find anything in the pdf, and I figure it probably isn't 1d6 cus then it would be as good as a gun, which would seem strange to me.
I've still to run the session proper but just spitballing with my group has made for a fun evening. I'm glad that I've stumbled into this. Even more so with all the cool extra books added.
We've played around with those deep military conspiracy angles of wild experiments and immoral scientists. Actually, in the few weeks since writing the comment, we've started prepping for a proper set of missions. Starting with odd experiments in small compounds and capping off with an island base of weaponized animals and hybrid soldiers, whole bit being heavily inspired by the Vivisection video game.
thank you so much for the review!! re: setting info, a lot of people have said similar things, and there's a new edition in store with much more flavor and fluff, hopefully to be released sometime next year!
thank you so much! ultra edition is gonna be chock full of random tables and lore snippets to flesh out the fluff, I'll be uploading some drafts of them soon
This looks like an absolute blast and I can't wait to try it out. It does something I've often thought about with PbtA (that you could roll with just the stock "do something dangerous" move and toss everything else in the bin) and mixes it with Fate Accelerated/Condensed Approaches in a really clever and seamless-looking way.
That's all, for now - just blind praise and excitement at giving this one a go!
Actually, getting set up now to run it for my tabletop gaming Discord tomorrow evening and wanted to check in with you. Do you have any freely accessible character creation rules, for sharing with the people who will be playing? Mostly I'd think the Traits/Roles need to be publicly accessible. If not, would you have any issue with those elements being copy/pasted for the group to be able to reference during character creation?
You may want to also check out World of Dungeons, which takes Dungeon World and cuts it down to basically just Defy Danger. I like 'paranormal cold war' as a theme better, but that's a good fantasy hack if you like the minimalist PbtA approach
I've run a couple missions so far, but I feel like my players felt a little lost with a more rules light game
For example, I had a player playing an Undead cowboy character that wanted to fan the hammer of his six-shooter to attack multiple enemies, but I felt that would be too strong so I ruled him having done 1 damage to everyone near him. Luckily they were weak enemies anyway, but I was unsure of that ruling.
Is the idea to keep things more loosey goosey and trust the GM's judgement, or would something like a PbtA move-list be helpful? (I am currently thinking of making a moves sheet)
hey there! FIST also takes a lot of inspiration from OSR games and their "rulings over rules" playstyle, so edge cases or complex actions are meant to be up to either the GM's judgement or, ideally, the judgement of everyone at the table! that said, there's no reason FIST can't be hacked to include pbta style moves (traits are basically just simplified moves with some bonuses tacked on, so maybe a pool of generic traits players could choose from?)
if you do end up making a move sheet and you post it somewhere, I'll signal boost it in the devlog!
I've just finished a first session and the reception was great. FIST has a great balance between mechanics and narrative content and the combination of traits and roles allow for really interesting and memorable characters. Great game !
In FIST, you play as a bunch of misfits turn paranormal mercenary in the dystopian future. It has fast brutal action, and reminds me of 90s action flicks.
jokes aside I haven't thought of anything specific, perhaps it's derived from the mythology of some shadowy cult or the name was inherited from a surveillance satellite program? could be anything!!
Hey, I've been reading through the new rules and I'm unclear on if War Die are meant to return between missions. They aren't consumable items or HP, but I can't imagine taking a 1 use War Die instead of a trait is an option many are going to take (especially as some traits give War Die). Are these dice one per mission or literally once ever?
Loving the look of the game, hoping to run it soon!
okay, so I went back and checked my design notes, and i guess i got things twisted somewhere along the way 😅
originally, War Dice were supposed to be single-use, and you were able to gain +1D6 War Dice when levelling up, not just one. that way, you can either take a trait and get a reusable, specialized buff, or gamble for multiple, universal consumable buffs. some traits give one War Die and a small reusable buff as an in-between option.
somewhere along the way I got the idea that War Dice were reusable and then "balanced" +1D6 War Dice to just +1. thanks for catching this pretty big design error!! I'm going to upload a version with this + a few other fixes, but to definitively answer your question, War Dice are single-use and you can choose to gain 1D6 War Dice when your character advances!
This game is amazing, but is missing one simple thing: Numbered traits. Would make randomly rolling for traits so much easier if the traits were just numbered 1-100.
I got FIST in a bundle and did not paid much attension to it at first, but man is it fun. I did not played TTRPGs other that DnD 5e with my pals, so no prespective and overall feel compared to other ones, but still it's fast paced and easy to grab shenanigans. We play it as a gloryfied action movie, with conspiracies inbetween fights, and i think it's supposed to be played like this.
I'v been so pumped about it, that assembled a map with cunstom character sheet for Tabletop Simulator and wanted to share. It does not contain FIST rulebook, however if you want it be avalible on said map - let me know, i will gladly add it. Here is a link for it and anyone who wants to check and play it - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432850101
this is awesome !! the character sheets you made look great - feel free to put the rulebook on there too. i'd definitely say that your guys' action movie style is exactly how the game is meant to be played. i'm glad yall are having fun with it, keep an eye on this page cause the second edition of FIST is nearly done 😁
I will update as soon as I can(and try to keep the map up to date), thank you for allowing the rulebook. Well, now I eager to see what's new! Again, thank you for making such a rad TTRPG!
honestly, i haven't either! most of the inspiration for this game came from comics, video games, and tv shows - it's a very pulpy, action-movie type gig. in the game's credits page i did list some media which inspired the game though !
honestly i don't remember which schematics are which, i don't know the first thing about guns - just picked out ones that looked cool ! i got them from a place that sells reference schematics for repairing firearms if that helps
A Simple World style game with some tasty traits and a bit of crunch in the combat system. Light paranormal elements, which the table can season with to taste.
TL;DR It's beautiful, it's cheap, it's great fun. You should buy this game.
Overall the system is simple, clear and intuitive, it uses a 2d6 system to play. Players roll 2d6 + attribute for all rolls, the only exception being when a character is inflicting or recieving damage. There are 4 attributes FORCEFUL, TACTICAL, CREATIVE & REFLEXIVE, they were each well defined in the documentation and at no point in playing were myself or any of the players unsure about which attribute to use ina certain situation.
The influence of "simple world" which is listed as having helped inspired FIST is clear, but ultimately FIST does enough to make it it's own.
The documentation quickly establishes a theme and maintains it throughout. Once again some of the items listed as to have inspired FIST have a clear influence but FIST manages to blend them together with enough original material to create something that feels familiar whilst being new and exciting.
The documentation is simple and sleek, but gorgeous. It's simple black & white design and at 19 pages long the documentation is printer friendly for those who wish to print and play.
There is enough variety of character "trait" options that players can get creative with their character builds, but not so many that character generation becomes a chore. Traits typically offer a mix between powerful abilities, attribute points and weapons or items that could help the character in game. The traits seem balanced and offer surprising depth and huge variety in potential character builds.
The character "role" options helps give players direction in how their character could act without being overbearing. The fact that player advancement is tied to these roles means that players look to fulfil these roles to advance but can get creative about it.
In conclusion, it's a great game and an absolute steal. If you like metal gear solid, deus ex and the a-team, you will LOVE this.
hey there !! just wanted to say thank you for this very kind review, and ask you a question if you don't mind. i'm working on an update for the game that includes a wider variety of traits. you mentioned that there aren't so many traits that character creation becomes a chore - what do you think is a reasonable upper limit for the amount of traits ? i was thinking definitely less than 100, but i'm having a hard time figuring out exactly the right amount.
Whilst I only recently came across your game, I just want to say again I've had ablast playing it and really admire it.
Having played things like pathfinder in the past and having to trawl through the feats, I think anything under 100 is a good number. I think as long as you keep the traits relevant and intuitive to their names as you have done, you should be good. It means that often people can take a good guess at what a particular trait does, or be reminded quickly just by the title, so no trawling through an online SRD and having millions of tabs open.
I think at the moment you have 35 after having a quick count? Maybe try for 50 and see how it feels?
Once again though, I really enjoy it and now you've mentioned an update I can't wait to see what you have in store :)
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is FIST playable solo? And is there any way to get a notification when a community copy is available? <3
hey there, I'm not sure of a way to do that but I'm adding more copies now! also we may release a solo play supplement in the future and the new book itself should have enough tools to hack together a solo-play mode i think!
Thank you so much! I will introduce the game to my party but I'm super interested in trying some solo mods.
np!! Might be the reverse of what you're looking for but the PET (player emulator with tags) is very cool: https://katamoiran.itch.io/pettish
this game is absolutely AMAZING. i can't even explain how good it is!
The second that theres a community copy avaliable im grabbing it and playing it
added some!
THANK YOU SO MUCH OMG
SAAAAME
adding some more!
You are my new god.
Super flexible mechanics with tons of campaign ideas, I have found it to be extremely compatible with all of the currently popular genres. i.e. Liminal-Fist, Mother-Fist, Primal Fist, 9 Fists to Valhalla, Apocalypse Fist, Fist of the Week, just to name a few...
had no idea it was that cross-compatible!! I would seriously love to hear more about some of these
FIST WITH LIMINAL HORROR??? OMG pls Tell me More about this if you can!!!!!
FIST lives in a very difficult to manage sweet spot between what makes OSR style games appealing and what makes narrative-heavy indie games fun, accessible, and freeing. With an easy to pick-up and hyper-lean ruleset, it gives you a treasure-trove of gameplay and storytelling that laser focuses on its genre.
Creating new characters is always a blast because there are so many options that mix and entwine in strange and delightful ways. FIST does that thing I love with its character generation where you get pieces of story to fit together - but also some clear mechanical things that your agent DOES.
You will read FIST and think "Oh, this is pretty good."
You will play FIST and think "Oh wait oh my God why did I sleep on this it is FANTASTIC!"
just wanted to say thank you so much for this review, it made my month and threw fuel on my Ultra Editon-development fire !!
Brandoff covers some of the action in the Discord's ongoing FIST Ultra playtest!
this is the essence of FIST, the target of the ice-cream mafia is in a firefight with a dinosaur themed robot with a gun way ahead of his time
Hi, would you consider writing a solo module/adventure for FIST?
I've actually been compiling notes for something like this over the past few days but I'm not sure what direction to go with it! What kinds of solo content would you like to see?
Feel free to swing by reddit.com/r/solorpgplay for feedback on this. We've got a rad little community.
ooh thanks for the recommendation!!
A charity actual play stream of FIST by the amazing D4, with characters dynamically boosted by donations throughout the stream!
Just picked this up, I really like it. Excited to run my first game in the coming month.
I have a question about dealing damage. If a character doesn't have a weapon (one of my players chose two traits that don't provide an offensive ability/weapon), how is damage handled on an unarmed attack. I couldn't find anything in the pdf, and I figure it probably isn't 1d6 cus then it would be as good as a gun, which would seem strange to me.
Thanks
Okay I had a scroll through the discord and it seems like the answer is Disadvantaged d6 for damage
yeah that's right!! glad to hear you like it; I'll be sure to add a clarification about unarmed damage to the rulebook!
I've still to run the session proper but just spitballing with my group has made for a fun evening. I'm glad that I've stumbled into this. Even more so with all the cool extra books added.
thanks for checking it out and glad you guys had fun! what sort of stuff did you spitball?
We've played around with those deep military conspiracy angles of wild experiments and immoral scientists. Actually, in the few weeks since writing the comment, we've started prepping for a proper set of missions. Starting with odd experiments in small compounds and capping off with an island base of weaponized animals and hybrid soldiers, whole bit being heavily inspired by the Vivisection video game.
man that sounds so cool!! you cannot go wrong with a good island base
Hello, I added your game to Goodreads, and wrote a review!
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62688850-fist
thank you so much for the review!! re: setting info, a lot of people have said similar things, and there's a new edition in store with much more flavor and fluff, hopefully to be released sometime next year!
That sounds great! I have noticed people have been writing and publishing lots of additional material already, so that's fun.
Next up: reviewing the Mandelbrot set.
awesome, looking forward to it!!
FIST is my current gaming obsession. Character creation is brilliant, the setting and fluff are great.
thank you so much! ultra edition is gonna be chock full of random tables and lore snippets to flesh out the fluff, I'll be uploading some drafts of them soon
Wanted to inquire when the print version might be available again on Exalted Funeral. Was going to pick it up today, but I see it's sold out
Hey there, according to EF the restock should arrive Sept. 21st, barring any complications!
cool, thanks for the update
part 1 of a FIST AP by Roleplay Road Trip, using the popular Red City scenario!
a review of FIST by Larred, who will be doing an AP series soon on twitch!
Thank you for sharing this!
Thanks for makin it 😄
Hello
The Discord Link is down.
hey there! do you mean the discord widget on this page or another link?
This looks like an absolute blast and I can't wait to try it out. It does something I've often thought about with PbtA (that you could roll with just the stock "do something dangerous" move and toss everything else in the bin) and mixes it with Fate Accelerated/Condensed Approaches in a really clever and seamless-looking way.
That's all, for now - just blind praise and excitement at giving this one a go!
thank you so much, I hope you like it!!
Actually, getting set up now to run it for my tabletop gaming Discord tomorrow evening and wanted to check in with you. Do you have any freely accessible character creation rules, for sharing with the people who will be playing? Mostly I'd think the Traits/Roles need to be publicly accessible. If not, would you have any issue with those elements being copy/pasted for the group to be able to reference during character creation?
no issue at all!! the physical book is meant to be passed around, so if you're playing digitally go ahead and send the game PDF to the players!
You may want to also check out World of Dungeons, which takes Dungeon World and cuts it down to basically just Defy Danger. I like 'paranormal cold war' as a theme better, but that's a good fantasy hack if you like the minimalist PbtA approach
An actual play of FIST using a system agnostic setting created Bleak Horizons Press, ALL MUST BOW!
Spencer Campbell of Gila RPGs reviews FIST in five minutes!
I've run a couple missions so far, but I feel like my players felt a little lost with a more rules light game
For example, I had a player playing an Undead cowboy character that wanted to fan the hammer of his six-shooter to attack multiple enemies, but I felt that would be too strong so I ruled him having done 1 damage to everyone near him. Luckily they were weak enemies anyway, but I was unsure of that ruling.
Is the idea to keep things more loosey goosey and trust the GM's judgement, or would something like a PbtA move-list be helpful? (I am currently thinking of making a moves sheet)
hey there! FIST also takes a lot of inspiration from OSR games and their "rulings over rules" playstyle, so edge cases or complex actions are meant to be up to either the GM's judgement or, ideally, the judgement of everyone at the table! that said, there's no reason FIST can't be hacked to include pbta style moves (traits are basically just simplified moves with some bonuses tacked on, so maybe a pool of generic traits players could choose from?)
if you do end up making a move sheet and you post it somewhere, I'll signal boost it in the devlog!
I've just finished a first session and the reception was great. FIST has a great balance between mechanics and narrative content and the combination of traits and roles allow for really interesting and memorable characters. Great game !
thank you, glad you had fun!!
In FIST, you play as a bunch of misfits turn paranormal mercenary in the dystopian future. It has fast brutal action, and reminds me of 90s action flicks.
has anyone decided what CYCLOPS stands for (as an acronym)?
that's classified
haha. I’m about to run our first game and the players were asking me.
jokes aside I haven't thought of anything specific, perhaps it's derived from the mythology of some shadowy cult or the name was inherited from a surveillance satellite program? could be anything!!
Midgardia plays the beta version of FIST Revised and Expanded for a trans rights charity stream !
Hey, I've been reading through the new rules and I'm unclear on if War Die are meant to return between missions. They aren't consumable items or HP, but I can't imagine taking a 1 use War Die instead of a trait is an option many are going to take (especially as some traits give War Die). Are these dice one per mission or literally once ever?
Loving the look of the game, hoping to run it soon!
okay, so I went back and checked my design notes, and i guess i got things twisted somewhere along the way 😅
originally, War Dice were supposed to be single-use, and you were able to gain +1D6 War Dice when levelling up, not just one. that way, you can either take a trait and get a reusable, specialized buff, or gamble for multiple, universal consumable buffs. some traits give one War Die and a small reusable buff as an in-between option.
somewhere along the way I got the idea that War Dice were reusable and then "balanced" +1D6 War Dice to just +1. thanks for catching this pretty big design error!! I'm going to upload a version with this + a few other fixes, but to definitively answer your question, War Dice are single-use and you can choose to gain 1D6 War Dice when your character advances!
This game is amazing, but is missing one simple thing: Numbered traits. Would make randomly rolling for traits so much easier if the traits were just numbered 1-100.
that's an awesome idea!!
So when you advance and pick health, that health is added as max health, right?
correct! thanks for catching that typo, it should say +1D6 MAX HP
Sweet, thank you! Haven't gotten a chance to play yet but I've been putting some characters together and can't wait to actually play them.
accidentally deleted my last response lmao but hell yeah!!
I almost want to play this with someone just so I can pretend it's a spinoff of Forged In Shadow Torch. XD
I bet it's not related, though. I just really like Forged In Shadow Torch.
i meannnn there's no reason you couldn't change the setting a little and play in the universe of The Other FIST !!
Hey - I recognize that patent drawing! :laughing:
the next edition of FIST will hopefully have proper illustrations!
The patent drawing looks great, just amused that I recognize it!
you've got a good eye!!
I got FIST in a bundle and did not paid much attension to it at first, but man is it fun. I did not played TTRPGs other that DnD 5e with my pals, so no prespective and overall feel compared to other ones, but still it's fast paced and easy to grab shenanigans. We play it as a gloryfied action movie, with conspiracies inbetween fights, and i think it's supposed to be played like this.
I'v been so pumped about it, that assembled a map with cunstom character sheet for Tabletop Simulator and wanted to share. It does not contain FIST rulebook, however if you want it be avalible on said map - let me know, i will gladly add it. Here is a link for it and anyone who wants to check and play it - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2432850101
this is awesome !! the character sheets you made look great - feel free to put the rulebook on there too. i'd definitely say that your guys' action movie style is exactly how the game is meant to be played. i'm glad yall are having fun with it, keep an eye on this page cause the second edition of FIST is nearly done 😁
I will update as soon as I can(and try to keep the map up to date), thank you for allowing the rulebook. Well, now I eager to see what's new! Again, thank you for making such a rad TTRPG!
thanks for playing, and making such a rad digital version 🙏
Hey I'm wondering if you have any reading suggestions for inspiration! I haven't read much in this genre.
honestly, i haven't either! most of the inspiration for this game came from comics, video games, and tv shows - it's a very pulpy, action-movie type gig. in the game's credits page i did list some media which inspired the game though !
Cool thanks I appreciate it!
Hey - are those Smith & Wesson patent drawings
honestly i don't remember which schematics are which, i don't know the first thing about guns - just picked out ones that looked cool ! i got them from a place that sells reference schematics for repairing firearms if that helps
A Simple World style game with some tasty traits and a bit of crunch in the combat system. Light paranormal elements, which the table can season with to taste.
As I read FIST, and its supplements, I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a light and flexible system of paranormal action and thrill.
TL;DR It's beautiful, it's cheap, it's great fun. You should buy this game.
Overall the system is simple, clear and intuitive, it uses a 2d6 system to play. Players roll 2d6 + attribute for all rolls, the only exception being when a character is inflicting or recieving damage. There are 4 attributes FORCEFUL, TACTICAL, CREATIVE & REFLEXIVE, they were each well defined in the documentation and at no point in playing were myself or any of the players unsure about which attribute to use ina certain situation.
The influence of "simple world" which is listed as having helped inspired FIST is clear, but ultimately FIST does enough to make it it's own.
The documentation quickly establishes a theme and maintains it throughout. Once again some of the items listed as to have inspired FIST have a clear influence but FIST manages to blend them together with enough original material to create something that feels familiar whilst being new and exciting.
The documentation is simple and sleek, but gorgeous. It's simple black & white design and at 19 pages long the documentation is printer friendly for those who wish to print and play.
There is enough variety of character "trait" options that players can get creative with their character builds, but not so many that character generation becomes a chore. Traits typically offer a mix between powerful abilities, attribute points and weapons or items that could help the character in game. The traits seem balanced and offer surprising depth and huge variety in potential character builds.
The character "role" options helps give players direction in how their character could act without being overbearing. The fact that player advancement is tied to these roles means that players look to fulfil these roles to advance but can get creative about it.
In conclusion, it's a great game and an absolute steal. If you like metal gear solid, deus ex and the a-team, you will LOVE this.
hey there !! just wanted to say thank you for this very kind review, and ask you a question if you don't mind. i'm working on an update for the game that includes a wider variety of traits. you mentioned that there aren't so many traits that character creation becomes a chore - what do you think is a reasonable upper limit for the amount of traits ? i was thinking definitely less than 100, but i'm having a hard time figuring out exactly the right amount.
Whilst I only recently came across your game, I just want to say again I've had ablast playing it and really admire it.
Having played things like pathfinder in the past and having to trawl through the feats, I think anything under 100 is a good number. I think as long as you keep the traits relevant and intuitive to their names as you have done, you should be good. It means that often people can take a good guess at what a particular trait does, or be reminded quickly just by the title, so no trawling through an online SRD and having millions of tabs open.
I think at the moment you have 35 after having a quick count? Maybe try for 50 and see how it feels?
Once again though, I really enjoy it and now you've mentioned an update I can't wait to see what you have in store :)