Project KINMAKER feels solid and professional. The graphic design is downright intimidating, especially the “mandala” image spread across pages 5-8, which fully reveals itself only if you’re reading the PDF in two page Book View. If it’s weird I’m opening with the layout rather than the design, it’s because it’s that damn good.
KINMAKER adds rules for paranormal weapons and powers: Pyrokinesis, mental Domination, and everyone’s favorite Stargate Project, Remote Viewing.
There are Consequences for pushing yourself too far, a favorite game design element reminiscent of Dungeon Crawl Classics. (And of course, nearly all fiction dealing with psychics.) The consequences go far beyond a nosebleed, ranging from adopting a false personality to randomly disappearing from reality.
New Traits are always a favorite of mine, there are ten new ones to play with. They’re all tied to the Powers. A Traveller takes the Universe Hopping power, etc.
To balance out all this power, the book offers new enemies with powers of their own, ranging from humanoid to Oh My God It’s Coming Right Towards Us. There are only three, which leaves me wanting more. It should be easy enough to add Powers to existing enemies. But still. More! More!!
I am bewildered by the sheer amount of stuff. There are printable reference cards for powers, weapons, and attachments, all illustrated with line art. There are blank cards of each time, allowing you to homebrew your own additions. The product page promises more to come: more powers, more traits, more cards, and – I quote – “More of everything!” Considering the present abundance of content, I believe it.
My one complaint (other than more monsters! More! MOAR!) is that key information is highlighted in red, which looks very nice in the PDF, but my gut reaction would be to bold those lines as well, as the red highlights are bound to look gray when printed. And considering all the cards and things, I’m totally printing this.
Look, here’s all I need to know: With Project KINMAKER, I can finally live out my dream of personally reliving the glorious headsplosions of David Cronenberg’s Scanners.
Is any of this balanced? I have no idea. Is balance as important as being able to explode someone’s head? I would say no. And based on the obvious care, talent and love poured into this project, I’m willing to bet the answer to the balance question is a resounding, “Yup!”
Thanks so much for the kind words ! I'm a big fan of giving players immense powers with the ever-present risk of going too far and I thought this philosophy of risk/reward would fit the aesthetics of FIST.
The enemies section was made near the end of the jam in a bit of a rush so it feels too rushed for my taste. I'm thrilled you like it though and expanding it is definitely on my to-do list for the second version.
Concerning the balance, it is the part that I'm the most unsure about. I tested it with friends of mine very quickly in a mockup scenario and it felt fine, and since the idea comes from other systems with similar mechanics, I would think it's fine. I don't know for sure, though I intend on testing it in a real session soon.
I have a lot of ideas for KINMAKER that I didn't get to expand on and plan to continue to work on it (After reading it back a bit, I saw a few spelling mistakes. Embarrassing !)
As for printing it, I looked some time ago at some card manufacturers for indie games to have a professionally made deck for the reference cards. I might propose it for the second version.
Glad to hear about the upcoming updates! I can’t wait to see what comes next.
The balance thing wasn’t meant to be a critique, more of a disclaimer about my own inability to eyeball game mechanics. :D
The printed card idea sounds great. I forgot to mention in my review, but I really liked the line art on the Weapon and Attachments cards. Keep up the good work!
Kinmaker is an expansion for FIST that increases the overall power level and supernatural volatility of the game by adding psychic abilities in the vein of Akira and Firestarter.
The PDF is 23 pages, with a solid and easily readable layout. The vibe is more sleek modern supernatural and less old military technical handbook, but it's consistent and nicely atmospheric.
In Kinmaker, using supernatural powers generates Heat. Heat causes catastrophic effects if it gets too high, but decays by a big chunk at the end of every session.
Powers are unique to this book, but are gained by taking Traits from core or from Kinmaker. Foes can also use powers, and there's a neat multi-page bestiary included, with multiple possible powers for each foe.
Powers are individually statted out, and each include three different levels of use with corresponding Heat costs, plus a bonus for mastering them.
While not part of the book's central theme, there's also a weapon rarity mechanic, weapon attachments, and some other peripheral rules that add more of a modern looter shooter feel to the core gameplay.
Overall, if you want to focus on pulpy psionic espionage, I'd definitely add this to your game of FIST. The mechanics are fun to fiddle with, the themes are solid, and there's a lot of player and GM-facing content in this meaty supplement.
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Project KINMAKER feels solid and professional. The graphic design is downright intimidating, especially the “mandala” image spread across pages 5-8, which fully reveals itself only if you’re reading the PDF in two page Book View. If it’s weird I’m opening with the layout rather than the design, it’s because it’s that damn good.
KINMAKER adds rules for paranormal weapons and powers: Pyrokinesis, mental Domination, and everyone’s favorite Stargate Project, Remote Viewing.
There are Consequences for pushing yourself too far, a favorite game design element reminiscent of Dungeon Crawl Classics. (And of course, nearly all fiction dealing with psychics.) The consequences go far beyond a nosebleed, ranging from adopting a false personality to randomly disappearing from reality. New Traits are always a favorite of mine, there are ten new ones to play with. They’re all tied to the Powers. A Traveller takes the Universe Hopping power, etc.
To balance out all this power, the book offers new enemies with powers of their own, ranging from humanoid to Oh My God It’s Coming Right Towards Us. There are only three, which leaves me wanting more. It should be easy enough to add Powers to existing enemies. But still. More! More!!
I am bewildered by the sheer amount of stuff. There are printable reference cards for powers, weapons, and attachments, all illustrated with line art. There are blank cards of each time, allowing you to homebrew your own additions. The product page promises more to come: more powers, more traits, more cards, and – I quote – “More of everything!” Considering the present abundance of content, I believe it.
My one complaint (other than more monsters! More! MOAR!) is that key information is highlighted in red, which looks very nice in the PDF, but my gut reaction would be to bold those lines as well, as the red highlights are bound to look gray when printed. And considering all the cards and things, I’m totally printing this.
Look, here’s all I need to know: With Project KINMAKER, I can finally live out my dream of personally reliving the glorious headsplosions of David Cronenberg’s Scanners.
Is any of this balanced? I have no idea. Is balance as important as being able to explode someone’s head? I would say no. And based on the obvious care, talent and love poured into this project, I’m willing to bet the answer to the balance question is a resounding, “Yup!”
Thanks so much for the kind words ! I'm a big fan of giving players immense powers with the ever-present risk of going too far and I thought this philosophy of risk/reward would fit the aesthetics of FIST.
The enemies section was made near the end of the jam in a bit of a rush so it feels too rushed for my taste. I'm thrilled you like it though and expanding it is definitely on my to-do list for the second version.
Concerning the balance, it is the part that I'm the most unsure about. I tested it with friends of mine very quickly in a mockup scenario and it felt fine, and since the idea comes from other systems with similar mechanics, I would think it's fine. I don't know for sure, though I intend on testing it in a real session soon.
I have a lot of ideas for KINMAKER that I didn't get to expand on and plan to continue to work on it (After reading it back a bit, I saw a few spelling mistakes. Embarrassing !)
As for printing it, I looked some time ago at some card manufacturers for indie games to have a professionally made deck for the reference cards. I might propose it for the second version.
Glad to hear about the upcoming updates! I can’t wait to see what comes next.
The balance thing wasn’t meant to be a critique, more of a disclaimer about my own inability to eyeball game mechanics. :D
The printed card idea sounds great. I forgot to mention in my review, but I really liked the line art on the Weapon and Attachments cards. Keep up the good work!
Kinmaker is an expansion for FIST that increases the overall power level and supernatural volatility of the game by adding psychic abilities in the vein of Akira and Firestarter.
The PDF is 23 pages, with a solid and easily readable layout. The vibe is more sleek modern supernatural and less old military technical handbook, but it's consistent and nicely atmospheric.
In Kinmaker, using supernatural powers generates Heat. Heat causes catastrophic effects if it gets too high, but decays by a big chunk at the end of every session.
Powers are unique to this book, but are gained by taking Traits from core or from Kinmaker. Foes can also use powers, and there's a neat multi-page bestiary included, with multiple possible powers for each foe.
Powers are individually statted out, and each include three different levels of use with corresponding Heat costs, plus a bonus for mastering them.
While not part of the book's central theme, there's also a weapon rarity mechanic, weapon attachments, and some other peripheral rules that add more of a modern looter shooter feel to the core gameplay.
Overall, if you want to focus on pulpy psionic espionage, I'd definitely add this to your game of FIST. The mechanics are fun to fiddle with, the themes are solid, and there's a lot of player and GM-facing content in this meaty supplement.
Looks so slick! Well done
Thanks :)
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