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I also had the opportunity to playtest Planet FIST very recently. Character creation as a group was a breeze; intentionally linking the characters together set us up for a couple of good organic roleplaying moments in the gameplay. I rolled the Goofball trait and picked the Loved trait, becoming a lowest-of-the-low-ranks Private with a sense of humour he probably isn't cleared to have, took Jet Trooper as my first class and immediately rocketed off into the battlefield to crack jokes and drop blocks of C4, and get blown up by my character creation-established rival, to much enjoyment.

The setting is -- well, it's (legally distinct) Planetside! An eternal war that is as much satire of the military-industrial complex as it is a chance for tabletop players to intentionally participate in an unending science fiction murderfest (as opposed to many tabletop groups that become that accidentally or against the GM's wishes).

And the Planetside vibe has been nailed 100% in the gameplay mechanics - death is a temporary setback, or even an intentional choice, before you're pushed right back into the field, maybe closer to the objective if somebody managed to park the APC up close. So there isn't even time spent rerolling a new character for insertion; you just re-enter on the next combat round, maybe with a different class and equipment if you want.

The traits are toned down from FIST's supernatural content towards normal soldier specialisations, so combat turns are a flash affair of speed - movement, safe action and/or risky action, consequences, move on. A breath of fresh air in clunky wargaming.

All in all I think Planet FIST is a unique and well-designed entry into the indie tabletop industry. Could very well be my best experience in wargame-focused tabletop for sure.

As another Downtime supplement writer I couldn't very well not look at this!!

I like that you've chosen to make Downtime a much more slow, careful affair, and I really, really like that each base type comes with traits to pass on to its occupants. RQ points seem like a very deliberately rationed resource, so improvement is a slow - or well-haggled - affair, clawing your way to better attributes. I also appreciate that RQ is a shared resource, encouraging the squad to actively discuss where they should focus their resource usage as a team. Feels very much like the Crew rules from Blades. I would be very interested in implementing this on its own or to try combining this with my system; although the power curves we've chosen differ wildly, I think the two combined would lead to some unique roleplaying opportunities.

Hell yeah! A straight-up table that completely changes the game for armor-wearing enthusiasts everywhere. I would also combine this with my Downtime stuff and let players mod their armor between missions.

A solid, simple entry.

If you mean implying that time is cyclical and everything comes right around back to the exact same point and the exact same sequence of actions, I love the universal and spiritual implications and would love to see it.

I also agree that switching to a dedicated in-doc collection of in-universe objects would be better. The SCP collection is huge, having it be a random one from their archives has a very skewed probability of it not being very good.

I'm a sucker for superheroes, I'm a sucker for "society that bans superheroes" and I'm especially a sucker for "superheroes that absolutely do not give a damn about the superhero ban". So, ultimately, yes. I like this a whole lot.

I'm seeing a few parallels to MASKS with the origin & drive beats, but handled completely differently in that each beat has its own unique effect on the character as opposed to granting the character the option to choose one of many advancement effects, and I wholly appreciate that each one has at least one "negative" outcome from a beat where its occurrence would be out of character - self-doubt, overconfidence, collateral damage.

When you tidy this up for a final version don't forget to clarify your tables' dice outcomes - you mention a D36 table but then both axes on it go up to 6 rather than one of them going up to 3, and similar formatting with your other tables. It might be better to just state D66 (especially since almost nobody has a d3, and a d2's just a coin flip which would make the axes even less readily parsed).

I'm very eager to see a final version of this one.

I really did not expect that amount of content going in. So many pages, so much writing!! Wow.

OPERATION FROG EATER is a gigantic amount of work and clearly a labor of love. That's a whole extra supplement inside a supplement. You should be proud of what you accomplished here.

My one hangup is with the setup of the CRO players' fireteam - why the choice to go with just one trait, altered independently and uniquely, as opposed to, say, one rolled trait and one fixed trait (or one of four fixed traits, to ensure at least one attribute bonus), like you have done with roles (CROW)? I'm definitely not saying "come up with pre-defined unique effects for every trait" because I opted to do that and I wouldn't wish that on anybody else, but it seems odd that the universally better-funded, better-run, evil organisation would be disadvantaged in trait count, of all things, even if all their other stuff is slightly buffed.

I really like what you're going for here. I think the range of universe alteration is a bit off in the sense that there's a 1-in-36 chance absolutely nothing happens when the player carefully arranges their ultimate damage combo, but a 2-in-36 chance two effects go off simultaneously (I really, really like including "Deja Vu" twice from a comedy perspective, though).

Honestly, the only effect I don't like in here has to be Nothing. I think that if you're gearing up for a spirit H-bomb to the point that you have to roll on a table for an ultra kill effect, it feels wrong that there's a possibility that "reality just rejects that" and nothing happens.

My favourite effect in here has to be either Fatality or Boiling War. I like any reason for the player to get extra WAR DICE, and I love the image of the world superpowers getting enraged by each other clearly overstepping, because nothing else on Earth is powerful enough to register on the doomsday tracking system.

The amount of effort that has been put into developing, editing and perfecting this near-total conversion is staggering. I highly recommend trying it with a group inclined towards traditional "wargaming" tabletop; I imagine a full party platoon of soldiers (6+) could be a very unique and engaging experience within Planet FIST.

There are a couple of bits I've specified within the dedicated playtest feedback form which could do with polishing, but nothing major - this is a well-written, special tabletop game from an established, experienced indie developer, and it shows throughout. Full marks across the board.

Let me know how it goes if you do!

When I saw the words 'herculean effort' I nearly cried because this took so long to finish. Thank you, my friend.

I've followed your content for a while and having a review from you on something I made is an incredible feeling. Thanks for your kind words; "wildly ambitious" is definitely right!

Full rolling breakdown here:

Setup Rolls

• d86 = 82 (STOLEN)
• 2d6 = 11(5+6) = You may
• 2d6 = 8(2+6) = make a [d4 = 4]REFLEXIVE check to
• 2d6 = 7(4+3) = boost something you can do this turn
• d8+d6 = 8(3+5) = +-1D6 / +-1

• d4+d8+2d6 = 19(4+8+6+1) = 2 items, 1 stat

Stat Rolls

• d6 = 2 = [d4 = 2] TACTICAL attribute
• 2d6 = 6(3+3) = +1

Item Rolls

Item 1

• 2d6 = 5(3+2) = weapon
• 2d6 = 8(6+2) = medium (1D6+1 DAMAGE)
• d6 = 4 = ranged spray
• 2d6 = 5(1+4) = no tag
• d46 = 36 (ROOT)

Item 2

• 2d6 = 12(6+6) = 0 ARMOR
• 2d6 = 6(5+1) = zero ^
• d6 = 1 = for the arms

Thought I'd revisit this and try rolling a new ULTRA TRAIT.

Trait: EDENBORN.

You are a fugitive from a mythical garden, having awoken into the world carrying the only things you were able to purloin: a branch from the tree of knowledge - a ranged weapon that blasts true knowledge from its tip - and fig-leaf wrist guards. While wearing the wrist guards, you may roll +REFLEXIVE to fire slightly less true knowledge from the branch. Doing so successfully does no damage, but roots enemies in place so they can't move, and increases your ARMOR by 1.

• Twig of Knowledge (1D6 DAMAGE), Fig Leaf Wristguards (0 ARMOR)

It's coming up with the flavour that's the hardest part! Let's be honest, everybody loves rolling lots of dice, and having the doc track all your progress dynamically is very cool. Full marks for style. Whether you can get your ref to agree to use things output by it is another matter entirely, but for the sheer amount of possible outcomes we can't not rate this high in Substance, too.

ghostlenin's work on this trait generator is fucking incredible. Sure, you have to put in a little creative work yourself to come up with the specific flavour of the final trait, but this generator provides the backbone, the skeleton for starting your own traits, and balances every part against one other in a way that makes the whole thing come together just right.

So far, I've used this five times and every time has been a fascinating experience. It's especially good for trying to figure out a replacement for a base game trait you're not fond of - I can't stand Centipede thematically, so I carefully crafted a new trait using this generator and replaced it for my party.

The doc is stylish, colourful and carefully laid out, and has automatic calculations if you open it in software that lets you fill it in properly. And holy shit, is it fun to roll all those dice.

SCALPEL (ULTRA TRAIT): In a freak detonation your arm was blown clean off at the shoulder, being replaced with a prototype robosurgeon arm. Once per encounter you can use the arm to gain a bonus 1D6 on a REFLEXIVE check that requires extreme precision. You can also detach it at the shoulder to throw at your enemies, though obviously you'll need to go and get it before you can use it again.

- ProtoSurgeon™ Arm (1d6+1 DAMAGE, thrown, hit targets drop everything they're holding), +1 WAR DIE, +2 FORCEFUL

At the risk of beating a disintegrated horse, is this a direct sequel to your previous [HONORIFIC_NOUNHANDS] game?

Nice short game. Nice to see pixel art renditions of Klaymen, The Dig, and Loom! All thoroughly underappreciated in games history. 

That is how it read, but I just wanted to be absolutely sure I was playing as intended.

The best kind of rules are a complete dissociation from existing rules. Thanks for writing this - I will definitely have fun with it.

I read it and I'm still confused so I'll just ask: Is a valid path to the destination space for a piece required or is it literally a case of go anywhere for every move?