Here’s a section from my upcoming “Fictive Hack: Basic, Player’s Book.”
Intended Play Style
Fictive Hack is designed to be low-prep, improvisational, reactive, cinematic, and fast-paced. Character advancement is based on the kind of game the players and DM want, and how they reward each other for playing in that style. (The game can be silly and over-the-top, or focused on tactics, or serious with emphasis on character development, etc.) Decide what is awesome, and that decision drives the game. A few interlocked systems (Awesome Point economy, weapons and arenas, armor, inherent abilities and talents) express a wide variety of action.
Why Play This Game?
- The Awesome Point economy (points awarded from the DM and also shared among players) encourages camaraderie and fun, and substitutes for many complex mini-systems by charging Awesome Points to adjust outcomes.
- A simple codification of weapon types combines with the concept of an “arena” as an area in a fight to create simple tactical variety that encourages movement and swashbuckling.
- Skills, feats, magic, and special abilities all combine under the “talent” umbrella to create a consistent but flexible system, tightly integrated with the Awesome Point economy.
- This game is built on a permissive, bonus-over-balance, easily improvised mindset. It is fun.
- Preparation can be very fast, even improvisational. A few flexible rule sets accommodate a wide variety of cinematic and exciting action scenes and social interactions. Allies, foes, and monsters can be swiftly developed and dropped into play.
- Characters can access abilities they have not earned, within limits, and “multi-classing” or taking abilities from other areas is easy. Characters advance quickly and are extremely customizable. The Basic game can take characters to 12th level or further. Character advancement is tied into the Awesome Point economy, and players choose the speed of their advancement as a group.
