I toss down a disc of nanobots that quickly assembles itself into a squad beacon, sending its beam of light up from the balcony of the building I’m in and into the sky, before looking through the scope of my sniper rifle. A squadmate, Ultra Rare, is trying to 1v1 an assault trooper using only her knuckleblades, and I sigh wistfully; we used to be an item before I accidentally got her demoted. I fire a shot, miss terribly, and am immediately targeted by the assault trooper’s team and ripped to shreds by machine gun fire.

Reassembled in orbit, switching from a force recon loadout to that of an engineer, I crash onto the balcony in a drop pod next to the beacon and the nanodust that was the smear I left behind. I exchange greetings and a salute with another squadmate – “Butler.” “Setback.” – who walked into the room while I was dead, and I look down into the courtyard. An enemy mech is literally stomping all over an allied squad – what a bunch of blueberries. I raise my anti-materiel rifle and blast off one of its arms – and am splattered across the wall behind me by the weapons in its other one. 

I’m considering another drop pod, when suddenly I schlorp back together, on the ground next to Goblin, who apparently got splattered as well at some point. Between us is a spent revive grenade, and standing over us is Butler. More salutes, more greetings. “Setback. Goblin.” “Butler.”

Just another day on PLANET FIST.

When I reviewed FIST, CLAYMORE’s game of mercenaries in the paranormal Cold War, I did mention that it was designed to be very hackable, and that I’d be looking at an example of that from a familiar name. Sure enough, Jess Levine of I Have The High Ground and going rogue has derezzed to deliver a Powered by the Apocalypse narrative wargame.

And I thought FIST was an odd duck – compared to its not-much-older ancestor PLANET FIST goes screaming into an even more intense realm of odd duckitude in an orbital drop pod that may or might not see its occupant explode into nanobot-flavored chunky salsa within seconds of landing. 

Before we get into it, full disclosure, I’ve got a bit more bias in favor of this one then usual – as part of the run up to reviewing it I managed to wheedle my way into one of the last playtesting sessions. In addition, well, there’s some future involvement too. You’ll see towards the end. But first-

The Basics

Keeping in line with FIST and eschewing the preset basic moves of traditional PbtA, yet also doing the same for the often well-defined options of its wargame routes, a player gets to do two things per turn: a SAFE action and a RISKY action. Which one of those your desired action is will be determined by a quick conversation with the referee after you describe your intent – still a conversation, too – and if it’s risky you’re off to the races with the dice. You know how it goes by now, 2d6 plus an attribute, degrees of success and failure, with the added note of rolling double sixes being a critical success. PF maintains the War Die mechanic from FIST, that you can add to a roll – you can also add it to a fellow player’s roll, and multiple WAR DICE can be added, although never more than one from a given player.

As with FIST, PLANET FIST characters have four Attributes (GRIT, TACTICS, ETIQUETTE, and PRECISION), Traits that modify said Attributes and/or offer unique abilities, and Roles that allow them to advance. Past that surface level understanding of how things are going to work, though, PLANET FIST takes some pretty serious diversions.

There’s a reason the ‘Compatible with FIST’ sticker on the cover has a ‘KIND OF’ stamped on it.

Welcome to Sixaura

PLANET FIST is set on the planet Sixaura, a faraway world cut off from the rest of the galaxy by a destroyed jump gate, now ruled by three empires: the corporate libertarian New Committee, the orthodox 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 nanotechnology, a scientific breakthrough first made on Sixaura. Sixauran Scientists perfected the art of replicating known substances with programmable “nanos,” and continued their research until their machines crossed the final barrier: flesh itself. 

Few on Sixaura live in their original bodies. No, these are far too brittle—too likely that a worker might be injured, or a soldier might be lost. 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.

Enter the player characters, a squad of these nano-infused clone commandos, fighting and dying and fighting and dying and fighting and dying, pretty much forever, and having to make a life in the margins.

So, the first thing a squad has to choose is which faction they’re all going to be working for – point of order, in case the quote above didn’t make it clear, they’re all terrible and by no means should anyone be unironically rooting for them, but you’re stuck with them – and that choice actually determines the list from which characters can choose their first Trait (labeled a Faction Trait). The New Committee’s Traits focus on gear, like a VIBRO-BAYONET that can pierce shields and armor or an EMERGENCY STOCKPILE AUTHORIZATION  that doubles the uses of all consumable items. The Tyrat Council’s Traits all revolve around the faction’s so-called principles that, if adhered to, grant authorization for assets like surveillance drones or ‘Rod from God’ orbital strikes; those who value RETRIBUTION will want to kill those who have killed a squadmate, while those who treasure OVERKILL are hoping to get 12+ on a roll to harm an enemy. Finally, the Velian Ascendancy modify the body, such as with the KNUCKLEBLADES that can be used as melee weapons after being (painfully) deployed or the VEHICULAR SIMJACK that grants a bonus to all rolls involving vehicles… although you have to jack in, because VA Command didn’t bother teaching you how to drive otherwise.

Next, as with FIST you choose or roll for two Character Traits, although in this case the d66 has the first die only caring about even or odd and sending you to that result’s respective list for the second die. 1v1 lets you do exactly that against an opponent, reshaping the narrative if need be and granting +1 GRIT, +1 PRECISION, -1 TACTICS, and a damage bonus against lone enemies. The Feared can force an enemy to flee the battlefield, and gets +1 ETIQUETTE, +1 GRIT, -1 TACTICS, and +1 against the last enemy standing. The Connected knows the person who brings Command officers their coffee and can thus get useful intel, with +1 ETIQUETTE, +1 TACTICS,  -1 GRIT, and +1 WAR DIE.

With Character Traits chosen your Attributes will have settled, just in time for Officer Assignments. In order of TACTICS from highest to lowest, players can choose to take on a role of more advanced rank in the squad. Promotions get refused because none of the players are foolish enough to want to be the one that has to deal with Command? Tough, the dice will get involved until all roles are filled. At the minimum of three players, there’ll be a Squad Leader. Larger squads might also have a Tactical Officer, and maybe even a Logistics Officer. Everyone else in the squad is simply Enlisted, but everyone gets something. The Squad Leader, Tactical Officer, and Enlisted get to respectively reroll one ETQ, TAC, and GRT roll once per session in addition to narrative strengths like lower-ranked friendly NPCs listening to the Squad Leader. The Logistics Officer gets first choice when it comes to putting together the squad’s vehicle, and gets a reroll if protecting any REASSEMBLY POINT that can be used to get troops back into the fight.

Roles serve much the same, er, role in PLANET FIST as they do in FIST, basically detailing a kind of behavior that if played into will allow a character to advance. Another d66 even-or-odd list is provided, divided between Combat Roles and Social Roles. Someone who is Fearless wants to never retreat from dangerous situations, a Scavenger wants loot, Rebels want to violate the spirit of the law while following the letter of it, and the Yellchat wants to taunt the enemy. Each also comes with a backstory element to fill in. The Fearless describes a time they stood up for someone, the Scavenger details their collection of war trophies, the Rebel details a time they enraged a superior officer, and the Yellchat tells of their infamous reputation among rival factions.

Something unique to PLANET FIST is that every character has Bonds with their squadmates. There is a mechanical aspect to it, as if the criteria of a Bond is fulfilled during a session then the characters can advance, meaning that they can advance up to twice a session if they fulfilled both their Role and a Bond. While that is by no means insignificant, I think it pales in comparison to how narratively important it is. Remember, these characters are stuck in a pretty much literal forever war. There are no homes to go back to, no families, no social life outside of what you can grab among and in between firefights. The Bonds are vastly important for, frankly, giving your characters people they give a damn about, one way or the other. Every player chooses a type of Bond between their character and that of the player to their left, who then answers the ‘describe’ prompt of the Bond. Ultra Rare and Setback were Exes (so were Ultra Rare and squad leader Major so, you know, that was a whole Thing), and Ultra Rare’s player described how Setback’s Goofball and Yellchat tendencies had gotten them demoted. We’d advance if both stared longingly at each other without getting caught. Setback and Goblin were BFFs, and I described how we had an in-joke of funny faces the characters often saw on their victims targets since both were widely Feared. We’d advance if we managed to make one another laugh during the session.

Classes are the crunchy bits that you’ll interact with literally every session, no matter what, and you pick from one of five. Each grants you a weapon, a piece of equipment, and a special ability. The Assault class has a light machine gun, a rocket launcher, and a Nanomesh Shield. The Engineer has a carbine and a deployable autoturret and can repair damaged vehicles and deployable equipment. The Field Medic has an assault rifle and a revive grenade, and can restore HP or revive other characters (we’ll be coming back to this in a bit). Force Recon has a sniper rifle and a proximity motion detector, and can activate optical cloaking. The Jet Trooper carries a carbine and some C4 charges, and can use jump jets to fly around the battlefield and be harder to hit.

Here’s where the classes go from simple but effective to dynamic and fun. FIST characters could be pretty fragile, but they could make some early choices to mitigate that and then become more sturdy over time. PLANET FIST characters have 2 Shields which take damage first, and then two HP, and that’s it. There can sometimes be extra Shields (which, if depleted, can be restored with a safe action) and more rarely there can be ways to otherwise avoid damage, but you will never have more than those two HP. This where I point out that the carbine, the weakest of the weapons issued via class, deals 1d6 damage. Enemy Medics are going to instagib a character that rolls poorly trying to attack them 50% of the time. So, what’s the point of roles and bonds and caring about your character? 

Easy: as described above, death isn’t permanent. First of all, there’s the Field Medic who can revive dead characters by convincing the nanos that make up their bodies to stitch back together. However, say you don’t have a Medic nearby, not even within revive grenade-throwing range. There you are, splattered all over the ground, being dead. You can ‘derezz’ yourself, abandoning your splatter to appear in a new nano-built body at a friendly location, even dropping back into the fight from orbit if a beacon has been set up. Even better, every time you derezz and rez, you can switch classes. Got killed as a Force Recon, but know that a mech has closed in on the blueberries? Drop from orbit as an Engineer who has gained an anti-materiel rifle and start blowing chunks out of the enemy. You can also always derezz even while alive to switch classes, adjusting your gear and tactical abilities to match your needs. Advances are all tied into providing alternate class weapons and equipment like the aforementioned anti-materiel rifle, giving you increased flexibility.

All of this get thrown into very tactical gameplay, as most standard missions will involve attacking or defending a facility. The enemies are just as unkillable as you, so it ends up being a tug of war to claim or hold Sync Points that code that facility to a faction. You’ll charge in or hold your ground, respawning at your facility’s reassembly point or vehicle or any squad beacons that have been set up, and generally speaking fight over territory or other targets while trying to hamper or outright eliminate your enemy’s ability to keep respawning into the battle by taking over or destroying respawn points. 

If this is sounding very video-game-y, you’ve got the right idea – LUMEN and PLANET FIST are probably pretty good friends. PLANET FIST itself is directly inspired by Planetside 2, which… I’ll be honest, I know nothing about, so the good news there is that it all works just fine for those unfamiliar with the source material.

Conclusions

PLANET FIST does have a weakness, at least when compared to FIST. Granted you might never make said comparison in the wild – unlike going rogue re: galactic, you can play PF without ever seeing FIST. I certainly did, and the fact that I reviewed FIST first has more to do with the fact that it had been in the queue for longer rather than being needed in order to understand PLANET FIST. Once you do put them together, though, it’s hard not to feel like PLANET FIST could use a lot more options for things like Traits or advancements. 

This, of course, is quite unfair to say; FIST has had a good bit longer to generate material,  PLANET FIST came out of a game jam for FIST so there was a time limit on what could be done, and oh yeah the number of options for FIST: Ultra Edition is honestly ridiculous. Plus PLANET FIST is currently itchfunding to add more content to the game, and there’s a game jam for PF itself, so… self-solving ‘problem’? That’s not even taking into account the idea of re-flavoring things from FIST as nano-granted abilities on Sixaura.

One other potential issue with more meat to it is that if you’re a die-hard theater-of-the-mind fan… that’s not really going to work out here. Whether on a physical table or a VTT (the game itself recommends Owlbear Rodeo), you’re going to want a map of some kind. It doesn’t have to be super detailed, but with how important controlling certain locations and keeping track of zones is, you’re going to want something to keep things clear.

Other than these, however, PLANET FIST is a fascinating example of what comes out of what I think of as the mad science division of indie game design. The mechanical bones are strong, we know that from both PbtA design in general and FIST in particular. The changes made to those bones are simple, but very effective in managing to change how you feel about something very core to many RPGs, that being the chance of a character dying. It’s still not without consequence – if everyone in the squad gets used to repaint the Sync Point you were trying to capture, then the best case is that you’ll have to fight your back in and start all over again – but as the game’s principles of play say, ‘death is life’. Where things go mad science, though, is how PLANET FIST pulls as much on the storytelling tradition of wargaming as on the storytelling tradition of roleplaying games.

Now, by default, I wouldn’t consider myself a wargamer. It’s not something I’m doing right now, and all my Star Wars Armada ships have been called up by my eldest to… support all the LEGO clone troopers, I think? That being said, I spent a decently long time playing WarMachine and Hordes back in the Mk. II days, and what struck me about PLANET FIST is how it taps into the same kind of emergent narrative that I got to play around with back then. Yes, wargaming units often come with their own in-universe names and lore, but the concept of ‘these units are mine’ with their own stories and tales is a popular one. Yeah, sure, this is just another unit of Winter Guard, but first of all they’re in winter camo because they’re always really far north fighting Everblight, and that one right there is Crazy Ivan who managed the killing blow on a warlock that one time. 

PLANET FIST taps into that same desire to build a story around what might otherwise seem like purely mechanical gameplay, while bolstering the effort with worldbuilding and character building tools like the Traits, Roles, and Bond.

That little intro up above was the highlight, for me, of getting to playtest PLANET FIST. I’ve had quite a few characters shuffle off of the tabletop coil over the years. Some were a bummer, some were great and memorable ends. I’ve never quite had so much fun getting blown to smithereens twice in as many turns as with PLANET FIST, and my only regret is that my time with Setback and the rest of Wolverine Squad was a one-time thing, because I really got to know and like them quickly.

Luckily, it won’t be my last time on Sixaura. As part of the itchfunding campaign, PLANET FIST is getting an actual play miniseries, so you’ll be able to hear me getting blasted to bits on PLANET FIST: WEST MARSHALS very soon as part of a cast I’m really excited to play with.

As for yourself, you can usually get a dose of nanos for $10, and there are also community copies – there are savings and more community copies being generated by the itchfunding as well.

Welcome to a bloodbath without blood, soldier. Welcome to the rest of your life. Let’s see what you make of it.