Another Dice Goblin classic, a fun social game hidden beneath an icy exterior and cyborg penguins.
- An amazing twist on the usual "shoot first, questions later" format of a FIST mission. By having the outcome engineered from the start, it becomes more about why the outcome is what it is, rather than what it will be. I can see this being a struggle for the more action-oriented FIST teams, but teams who love deep roleplay and character relationships will excel in this high-stake environment.
- A mission like this needs an enigmatic group of protagonists, and the mission delivers that in spades. Each of the agents feels unique, with a main selling point for a referee to draw from. The descriptions of the setting itself are evocative and help to build that sense of tension as players head into the belly of the compound.
- A perfect FIST aesthetic in the layout, clean and easy to follow, with the rules for generating the roles and their outcomes clearly explained for a ref to use in the heat of the moment.
- I maybe wish that there was a bit more of a funnel towards the control room, rather than just the one confrontation with the penguins. I get that the social engineering of the agents' motivations is the main draw of the mission, but a few random rooms like HAZARD FUNCTION might have given the mission that little bit more for the players who need their action fix. That being said, there's nothing to stop a ref from adding a few more rooms and playing with the idea of splitting the group up even more to play on their fears and tensions of others' motivations.
It's like putting a square peg into a round hole but making it fit perfectly, creating a mission that moves the focus away from players' direct actions and more to what they're thinking behind the eyes. I can see this being adapted where the players are the ones looking to steal the money from each other! A masterpiece in manipulating your players.