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ACES, for FIST's itch.io pageResults
| Criteria | Rank | Score* | Raw Score |
| STYLE | #23 | 3.429 | 3.429 |
| SUBSTANCE | #25 | 3.571 | 3.571 |
| Overall | #26 | 3.500 | 3.500 |
Ranked from 7 ratings. Score is adjusted from raw score by the median number of ratings per game in the jam.
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Comments
Lots of love for hidden Community references!
This hack seems up to the task of hacking FIST to work in the "unsettled" American West. Fun new traits, a quality grounded-to-ungrounded (in a good way) adventure involving a train heist, and some new mechanics.
The Reload mechanic added for firearms seems a bit strange to me, but it's possible I'm just not understanding it - if a character's gun runs dry, they reload a die-amount of cartridges (weapon dependent) before the situation changes and they're forced to do something besides finishing the reload. But now they (immediately) have a live gun again, and (in my experience) they weren't going to repeatedly roll +FRC while the baddies stand around gawking even if they had infinite rounds in the chamber. "You made a roll, now the situation is going to change" plays out whether the reload die is used or not, and from the example text it seems like (partial) reloads happen as a matter of course, so I don't see how it changes the flow of play. Maybe if they roll a one it shifts their narrative options in a massive, town wide free for all?
Again, I think I'm probably just missing something here. I do dig the scenario, new traits, and mission, so even if I'm not off-base with my hesitation to use the reload mechanic I see some real value for Wild Wild West / Kung Fu / Aliens and Cowboys mashups.
Thanks for the review! And I'm glad someone got my community reference :). The idea of the reload mechanic is that it attempts to keep the action coming nonstop, so much so that the PCs barely even have time to reload before the next crazy thing happens. It also kind of incentivizes a risk reward system where maybe a PC decides to keep on moving with fewer guns and go into the next scenario with the upper hand, rather than reloading and immediately being in a bad situation. I do admit though it's a little clunky and unfortunately i didn't get the time to properly playtest this zine, so I don't know if my ideas translate well to the table. Thanks again for the comment!
Thanks for the feedback! Am I reading your intentions right that SOMETHING happens whenever someone reloads, even if it's an otherwise narratively calm moment? (Riding in a stagecoach or in their room above the bar or what have you?)
correct, it's really meant for chaotic oneshots where it's just nonstop action
If you want cowboys instead of mercenaries when investigating the paranormal, ACES is a great place to look. It adds in a good amount of thematic traits for the setting and adds some crunch to ranged combat with reloading mechanics. Perfect for gamers who want a bit of mid combat drama.
The included adventure shows some creative ways to combine the western genre with the more nebulous "paranormal."
If you want to explore different genre combinations with FIST, you should see what ACES can do for your table.
ACES is a pulp wild west hack for FIST.
The PDF is 8 pages, with clean, readable layout, lots of white space, and some public domain illustrations.
Lore-wise, ACES takes place in the same general timeline as FIST, just much earlier. Mechanics-wise, ACES digs deeper into the minutia of combat and tracks things like ammunition and reloading.
ACES includes a variety of new Traits, with an expected western flavor. Some of them (such as Deadeye) really expect to be interacting with a revolver, and may go rogue if exposed to more modern firearms.
ACES also includes a sample mission, which is eerily similar to the first mission of Hard West II? It also doesn't have an explicit end-point, and feels a little like it needs something to tie it together.
The supplement finishes with a mission generator, which is fun and thematic, and includes a card-drawing system for adding random encounters and complications.
Overall, if you want to play some western style FIST, this is a great place to start. It also feels like a very solid foundation to expand on. Bullet tracking opens up new possibilities for Traits and encounters. Reloading incentivizes melee combat. I think there's room for ACES to spin off into its own core system, and I'd love to see it develop further.
Thank you for the review! I have never played Hard West 2, but I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of a super wierd train heist. And I do agree with you about the mission not being too tied together. Unfortunately that is the product of running out of space and time to submit for the jam.
All good! Time limitations affected my own submission, and I definitely don't want to urge anyone to overscope. I would absolutely like to see more ACES content, though. It's a cool spin on FIST, and I'd love to see it develop further.
As for the mission in Hard West II, it's beat-for-beat identical, right down to when enemies spawn and when the train wormholes to another realm, which made me wonder if it was the inspiration. What happens after the wormhole is different between the two games, and honestly I like ACES better.
Yee Hawl
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