FLIPPRISM

I admit I'm not the biggest fan of flipping coins, as they tend to fly all over the place when I do it. Nonetheless gave this a go with a solo Engineer with the scenario where the level he's in was getting flooded. Four coins/dice and no successes! Uh oh.. he did put up a good fight against the servitors, and found the hatch after that combat, broken. But it wasn't going to be easy, and I like my final showdowns. As he tried to get out, a spider servitor found him and shoved him back into the drowning level. RIP.

Bare bones but there's enough to latch on to, and I can see how it takes inspiration from one of my fave manga BLAME! Had a good time with this, but with just three stress expect a high casualty rate! Don't worry; more sacrifices are on the way! 

I think, the provided scenario where three boundary hysterical people who are trying to escape the Megastructure and trapped inside the enclosed space with steadily rising water infested with half-human half-machine servitors (Tetsuo the Iron Man, is it you?) really sealed the deal that this game is something really cool.

Well, you get it from the design alone – the whole underground punk-zine aesthetic absolutely nails the theme. Personally, I dig the strong "Blood Electric" by Kenji Siratori vibe from the whole project – even the page you're holding in your hands is visibly hostile to you. "You, hacker!" the page tells me in SHODAN voice.

The coins (What an idea for resolving checks! Metallic smell on your hands dials the immersion to 11) don't love you too, the checks are adrenaline inducing. The game rapidly teaches you a lesson that capitalism, bureaucracy, and every broken workplace already understand: find the one person who knows how to do something, then make them solve the machine while you stand behind them holding a gun. Or swinging something to scare the servitors back – it's up to you. The different stats for different roles flesh them out easily.

My run of the game failed successfully and miserably – my TWO hackers from the party died quickly, succumbed to servitors. It made the escape part even more rewarding! And I think the intentional ambiguity in rules makes it even better, there's no happy end (obviously), you just keep moving (or wading) through the industrial sludge filled with mechanized menace.

The whole session feels like a story told later by someone who cannot stop shaking. I can absolutely imagine the under-the-voice dialogue late at night, in a godforsaken by relatable safe pocket of the Megastructure:

“Then we got the door open”
“And?”
“And the door opened”

Absolutely rad stuff!

'Make it miserable' ah speaking to my GM heart there haha