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A jam submission

OLD DOGSView project page

A retirement/high level play supplement for FIST.
Submitted by nectarpoints — 3 days, 33 minutes before the deadline
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OLD DOGS's itch.io page

Results

CriteriaRankScore*Raw Score
STYLE#203.7503.750
Overall#203.9383.938
SUBSTANCE#214.1254.125

Ranked from 8 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.

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Comments

Submitted

OLD DOGS is a module that expands FIST's ability to handle high level play by allowing agents to age into a sort of veteran status in the organization.

OLD DOG's PDF is 2 pages, with a clean, well-organized layout that uses black and white contrast to make the text pop.

Contents-wise, there's a lot of meat here, and all of it's flavorful. A Milestones mechanic is added to player Roles, tracking their progress towards their personal goals. Veteran FIST agents have a variety of directions they can go in, from burning out to fading into the background as a supporting cast member. There are also options for higher level threats or more dangerous scenarios, allowing veteran agents to stay in the field and face escalating stakes and difficulty.

Overall, the feeling here is grizzled and heroic, and it's great. If you find yourself playing a fair bit of FIST, and if characters are starting to survive multiple missions, roll these mechanics out and let the players be OLD DOGS.

Submitted (1 edit)

"Old Dogs" gives groups fun thematic options for dealing with agents that might have gotten too powerful to go on missions with their former peers. 

The supplement gives you examples of how to determine when a character might be considered an "old dog" and even more options of what to do with them once they are. The options include a career change to a instructor of the next generation of agents or maybe sending the veterans into outerspace to fight to the death against aliens. 

It offers a few mechanical tools in the form of high level enemies and a couple of different options to alter advancement methods, but the core of this zine is creative thinking. This zine jumpstarts the conversation about high level play and brings a lot of fun options to tables dealing with it for the first time. Definitely recommend reading.

Submitted

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.

Submitted

This pamphlet takes aim at dealing with the "problem" of having FIST agents that have survived too much. There are 2 paths provided to achieving OLD DOG status - enough advancements, or fulfilling milestone achievements based on their role, which is the main rules innovation here. From there, we're presented with branching options for our OLD DOGS: retirement has 3 end-points, and there's an open-ended option by pointing at high-level play with ARM (which feels like a solid mix of RED and Suicide Squad, a great combo). There are some rules of thumb for ARM Unit play, including a specops team of CROs that specialize in neutralizing OLD DOGS.

Overall, it's a solid set of ideas, and has good enough bones and momentum to hopefully be iterated on and fleshed out even more.