# Character Creation Challenge 2024: Day 06 - FIST :: Venger, Veteran Mercenary
tags: #thoughts/CharacterCreationChallenge/2024 #game/rpg/fist
> [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2024]]
>
> ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]]
It's time to show everyone our **[[FIST (Freelance Infantry Strike Team)|FIST]]**. And by that I mean our **Freelance Infantry Strike Team**. Odds are good that this is a game that you have never, ever heard of – which is a bit of a shame. It's relatively new, relatively rules light, and surprisingly professional and presentation. (A trait shockingly common in the games I'm choosing for the Character Creation Challenge.)
What does the game have to say for itself?
> [!quote] FIST: Freelance Infantry Strike Team
>
> Now: the second half of the twentieth century. The powers that be are locked in a tense nuclear standoff, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Away from the watchful eye of national intelligence, a cadre of exceptional misfits is assembled. These soldiers of fortune are uniquely equipped for covert and unusual operations.
>
> In these uncertain times, the line between science and superstition has been broken, and the new arms race is only beginning. You, or your associates, may be faced with weapons, tactics, and actors unlike any you have ever seen. For a price, those exceptional misfits can help.
>
> When you’re all out of options, it’s time to call…
>
> ![[FIST logo.jpg]]
When a game explicitly calls out its inspirations as **Metal Gear Solid**, **The A-Team**, **Doom Patrol**, **Samurai Jack**, **World of Dungeons**, **Offworlders**, **Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game**, **Maze Rats**, and **Yu-Gi-Oh**? It may be so insane as to demand a certain level of appreciation. What they left out is something I think is an obvious choice but maybe a little on the nose. **[[Delta Green]]**.
You know you're intrigued. I was intrigued.
As a side note, the text of FIST is Creative Commons CC-BY-SA, which has been extremely successful for **[[Ironsworn]]** and **[[Ironsworn - Starforged|Starforged]]** because it allows people to create expansions and conversions and publish them. In an era where people have been stung by the OGL more than once, it's nice to see others got the clue early and never fell into that trap.
We're going to skip a couple of pages on and I'm going to grab a bit more of the text because I can't be any better at pitching this to you than the book itself:
> You belong to a legendary rogue mercenary unit called **FIST**. You are a soldier of fortune who doesn’t fit into mainstream society. You are one of the little guys, caught up in the death and destruction of pointless proxy wars and oppressive establishments. You may also be someone who can turn into a ghost or control bees with your mind. The paranormal secrets of the Cold War are your bread and butter, and you fight for
> your life to make ends meet alongside others like you.
You know, you could probably do G.I. Joe with this and do a better job than the current licensed [G.I. Joe TTRPG](https://renegadegamestudios.com/g-i-joe-roleplaying-game-core-rulebook/). That's not a slam; I own the special edition hardback. I'm just saying that the system over there is pretty garbage and it would make a lovely sourcebook for **FIST**.
Regardless, you know who you are. You're a mercenary. You're a spook. You're creepy. You might fit into **[[Night's Black Agents]]** except you're not a vampire. If we stretched a bit, you might even fit into a Saturday morning cartoon like **Centurions**.
Man, I loved that show.
Essentially, characters are a fistful of *traits* which do things like give you a special skill, and item for your inventory, or modify your stats. Character advancement is effectively just grabbing another trait. Mechanically, this game is pretty simple. It's a bag full of tools and toys for you to play with.
Let's get it on.
## Chargen
Step one is to grab a character sheet. I've got that. And recognize that you have four *attributes*: Forceful, Tactical, Creative, and Reflexive. Basically base skill levels. You know how this goes.
### Traits
Next we choose to traits from the traits index or roll 2D666 – which is one of the most fun dye designations I ever get to refer to on a regular basis. Look, you just roll 3D6 and then read them one at a time left to right. The trade index starts at number 111, goes to 116, and then 121. You get it. You're smart people.
I am not generally inclined to random generation but there are a lot of traits here and I haven't done a fully randomly generated character in a long time. Let's bust out the dice.
353\. Listen. Looks like a pretty useful trait for a mercenary to have.
> LISTEN: You have incredibly sensitive and specific hearing, but a tumultuous relationship with the rest of your senses. You may always perfectly eavesdrop on conversations, listen for tell-tale sounds, and approximate the locations of things you can’t see without rolling the dice, but loud noises, bright lights, strong smells, grating textures, and intense tastes all deal 1 DAMAGE when you are first exposed to them.
>
> - Blindfold (helps you focus), +2 REFLEXIVE
That's pretty neat. Super hearing but we get dazzled easily by everything. Flash bangs are clearly our enemy. We also get a cool piece of gear, a blindfold, and a bonus to REFLEXIVE. I can't object.
651\. Veteran. Okay, this is starting to form up into an interesting character concept. I'm getting some ideas for character background. Terrible ideas.
> VETERAN: You've seen war, plenty of it, and you know in your gut where to start looking when there's a target on your head. Whenever you enter a new area, you can ask the referee if there is a hidden danger and get an honest answer.
>
> - Assault rifle (1D6+1 DAMAGE), +1 ARMOR at all times
An older guy who seen time in the shit. Head on a swivel. Probably explains why he's always listening – and always so jumpy. This is a man whose seen terrible things, done terrible things, and come out the other side.
Remarkably successful. Let's go on.
### Attributes and Such
Now we just fill out the relatively static *attributes*, *inventory*, *armor*, *HP*, and *war dice*. Extra points to the writer for having a stat literally called "war dice."
(War dice are effectively a consumable story point which lets you add +1D6 whenever someone rolls the dice.)
There are standard issue items that we can randomly roll to possess or just pick one and – I truly appreciate this – a sidebar box that specifically calls out what happens if your character dies.
Short version: you make a new character and when you're ready to deploy roll 2D6. Six or less, something goes wrong. Seven through nine, you just show up. 10 or above? You show up with an extra standard issue item. Double sixes? Extra gear and a +3 to your first roll.
*"So odds are you're going to die. Don't sweat it. Just be ready to put together a new guy and you'll make a dramatic entrance. It'll be fine."*
Right there on the chargen page. I love that. I love that so much.
Alright, let's get some stuff put together here.
| Attribute | Level |
| ---- | ---: |
| *FORCEFUL* | 0 |
| *TACTICAL* | 0 |
| *CREATIVE* | 0 |
| *REFLEXIVE* | +2 |
| Inventory |
| ---- |
| Blindfold |
| Assault rifle (1D6+1 DAMAGE) |
**Armor:** +1
**HP:** 6
**War Dice:** 5
You get an optional choice at the end of this block to either have a standard issue item assigned to you, +1D6 Max HP, or +1D6 war dice. I decided to go for the war dice given our veteran status. This is a man who has seen it all and done it all.
### Role
Now we pick our role – or roll randomly for it. It effectively decides what our character wants to do and by doing it, we get to advance. Interesting complication: you can't choose a role someone else already has. Everybody has to have a different place in the party.
I quite enjoy a bit of forced differentiation and since we've already started with the random generation, I'm going to roll D66 in the same way we've done before to randomly generate our role.
> 53\. REPRESENTATIVE: Describe your vision for a world where the ultrahuman condition has been publicized and normalized. Advance if you created empathy and understanding between ultrahumans and the world.
I – don't know how I feel about that one. Especially since it's literally to up from RETIRED, which would fit the character concept we have going on perfectly. But creativity is not fostered by always getting what you want, so we'll go with this.
What are ultrahumans? I'm sure I'll get to that.^[They're mutants. They're always mutants.]
### Pick a Codename
That was quick. We are pretty much done with character generation. That's it. That's the generation. It's fast, it's easy, it's lightweight, and it's good to go. It's hard to believe that there are 150 pages in this book. Like I said, a lot of toys.
> Pick a codename for yourself that fits who you are and what you do. Also, pick a real name, but don’t tell it to anyone—not even the referee—until the perfect dramatic opportunity occurs.
**Code Name:** Venger
No, I'm not telling you his real name!
Let me grab the character sheet. We'll want that.
## Character Sheet
![[Venger, Veteran Mercenary.jpg]]
## Exunt
I know, I normally don't go out of my way to use the original character sheets – but this seemed like a special occasion. I had the extra time, the system is simple and easy to use for character generation, and let's be frank… It looks damn cool.
First one to figure out the reference gets a **[No Prize](https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Glossary:No_Prize)**!
As you probably figured out, this is another game heavily inspired by the [[Blades in the Dark|Forged in the Dark]] architecture and it simplifies the core mechanical loop found in those games into something that just runs fast and easy. It's intended to be high lethality, high-speed, low drag.
I also appreciate the fact that you could really use this game for a ridiculous variety of things and not all of them are immediately obvious. Looking for something lighter than the [**Leverage** official RPG](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leverage:_The_Roleplaying_Game)?^[And which you can no longer get your hands on via legal means except for the secondhand market because the original publisher lost their license? Yeah, there's a rant for another day.] Here you go. Put together your team, jump into the field, go steel yourself a monument. **Delta Green**, as I mentioned earlier? That's pretty much the premise of the game except you want to play it even darker and messier. G.I. Joe? No changes necessary except maybe to turn down the weirdness very slightly.
Very slightly.
In closing, I want to share this bit of the text from page 7. Yes, all the character generation is done by page 2 (except for references to the large tables) and everything else is goodies. It's hard to get much faster and easier.
But here's the attitude.
> As a player, you are encouraged to lie, cheat, and steal as necessary to ensure the success of your mission. This doesn’t mean you should antagonize the referee or the other players, but it does mean that the game is unfair, and completing your objectives will require shifting the advantage from the enemy to yourself. Lying, cheating, and stealing are not game mechanics per se, but should be your foremost tools when death is breathing down your neck.
I think this set you up for everything you need to know.
Happy hunting. Out.