Hey, It's EV!?

At every hour of every day on Sixaura, the soldiers of each empire are killed and reborn in an endless loop. Their dead bodies derezz, the bonds between their nanos dissolving—just in time for them to be reassembled elsewhere, fresh with the memory of death and ready to kill once again. These clone commandos do not die, do not rest, and do not age. They are duplicated forever, frozen in the same unchanging body, save a few occasional gene-edits from the top brass in order to optimize their killing potential. This is the only life they know. It is a meatgrinder without meat—a bloodbath without blood. And it is also, soldier, your life.

PLANET FIST is a Powered by the Apocalypse narrative wargame of satirical scifi skirmish storytelling and a hack of CLAYMORE's FIST. It is inspired by Planetside 2, Starship Troopers (2002), and Battlefield: Bad Company.

If you submitted to FIST: Ultra Jam and want to play PLANET FIST so you can rate it in the jam: leave a comment & I'll contact you to set up a game! Those interested in GMing a playtest this month are also welcome to inquire.

If you review or cover TTRPGs or you record or stream actual plays: I would be happy to provide you with a press kit and the jam edition for you to review or play. A post-jam expanded edition will be releasing next month, after jam voting ends—there will be actual plays of the jam edition appearing on Role Playing Public Radio and Plus One Exp to mark the launch of the expanded edition, and I would love to coordinate additional actual plays or reviews around that release!

What are playtesters saying about it?

"PLANET FIST is a quick-to-learn and quick-to-play system for characters thrown into FPS-style deathmatches on a world that knows nothing but war. It's a game of high-emotion, low-consequence combat, for when you're wondering what the infinite Master Chiefs are thinking during Halo multiplayer. PLANET FIST is 'war never changes' said with the same inflection as 'it's all made up and the points don't matter.'"

Curious about the game? Read more below the break!

Post-jam edition goes on sale September 1st!

Set on the isolated planet of Sixaura, you are soldiers of one of the planet's three ruling empires: the corporate libertarian New Committee, the fascist Tyrat Council, and the techno-supremacist Velian Ascendancy. These ruling bodies fight an unending—in truth, unwinnable—war for control of their new forever-home. This endless march of murder and death is sustained by "nanos", microscopic robots that can be assembled into flesh itself.

Through nanocloning, the empires of Sixaura have done away with the need for medical care, reproduction, and yes, even death. There is no longer any need for children, parents, homes, funerals, hospitals. There is only work. There is only war.

PLANET FIST is inspired by Starship Troopers (2002), Battlefield: Bad Company, and most of all, by Planetside 2. Three principles guide it:

• DEATH IS LIFE: Don’t fear death, soldier. Pain is temporary, but war is forever. When the enemy blows your nanoassembled body to bits, you simply "derezz", dissolving into dust cloud of spent nanos. The pain of death still fresh in your mind, you're printed once again at a nearby reassembly tank and thrown back into the field. In PLANET FIST, 0 HP is only an inconvenience. That stupid idea that would either get your character killed or be really fucking cool? Do it, every time.
• SHOOTOUTS ARE STORIES: This is a combat heavy game, but that doesn’t mean it’s just a turn-based combat wargame with some wordbuilding as set dressing. For Sixauran soldiers, not even sleep comes to relieve them. They live on the battlefield, and must learn to make a life out of it. Chat, hang out, make someone laugh, care about people, get revenge. Show your crush that no one can operate a jetpack like you. Pass a joint to your best friend while you hold the objective, waiting for that inevitable enemy charge. Live life as fully as you can manage—just do it with a gun in your hand.
• FICTION FIRST: Don’t let the rules fool you: the story precedes them. The rules help ensure your game is balanced and consistent enough to be fun, but you’re not playing a video game with a list of preset actions—if you want to do that, just go play Planetside 2 or XCOM. Express the fullest extent of what your character would want, and the referee will fit it to the game’s mechanics. You miss 100% of the trickshots you don’t take.

PLANET FIST has is a 134-page, 67-spread rulebook that includes:

• A unique system of death and reassembly, allowing you to throw your character into the grinder, and catapult them back to the battlefield next turn
• A narratively flexible combat system that reserves room for storytelling and does not require rulers or a grid
  
• 18 FACTION TRAITS, 12 CHARACTER TRAITS, and 12 ROLES all with unique flavor, skills, equipment, and other perks that you can choose from or roll randomly
• 12 BONDS to choose or roll randomly, connecting your characters and building lived-in relationships from the very beginning
• Rules for customizable VEHICLES, tactical ASSETS like the feared ORBITAL BEAM, dozens of ITEMS, and more
• PRINTABLE PLAY AIDS, like flowcharts & summary sheets
• DIGITAL PLAY AIDS, like an automated spreadsheet with rulebook content integrated
• A FIELD ASSIGNMENT minigame to assign open officer roles to reluctant grunts
• Did I mention the combat system doesn't require a ruler?

For the referee (GM) PLANET FIST provides:

• A prewritten example MISSION for use by the referee
• An original BATTLEMAP for that example mission
• 12 THREATS, premade enemy squads, each with their own stat blocks and unique abilities
• Systems for PROCEDURALLY GENERATED MISSIONS & MISSION REWARDS, bringing in friendly and enemy reinforcements, and more!
  
• Random TABLES for partial success results, mission objectives, enemy deployment options, accessories, music, and more!

• Jess Levine, the creator and lead game designer, whose previous games include going rogue and I Have the High Ground
• satah, the editor & game design consultant, whose previous games include HOOK LINE & CYB3R
• Viktor Sych, the map illustrator, who can be found as @navypink_dev

Until the end of the FIST Ultra Jam voting period, PLANET FIST will continue to be playtested (and free), and a for-sale expanded edition will be released after the jam. If you play in a playtest before them you get a free copy of the final version. If you GM a playtest, you get a free copy of all of my games. Contact me to inquire about playtesting.

If you submitted to FIST Ultra Jam yourself, please consider checking it out and rating it, or contacting me to see about joining a playtest!