Sound the trumpets, raise the banners, and grab your bows, friends!
The mockup of Why We Fight: Direct Actions future physical release!
Why We Fight: Direct Action playtest kit is now here! Technically the 1.2 version of the game, this will double as our quick-start game version once fully released.
If you can't wait to get your hands on it, you can get it in one click as part of our most recent newsletter, otherwise it's available via our website or itch.io!
Pretty much everything has had an overhaul, having been playtesting and adjusting the game through online and in-person playtests since the last version's release in May. The core basis for the game and how the characters work all remains the same, but... here's a quick breakdown of all the key parts we've changed!
You learn about your Crew before you handle a Situation...
This allows you to add Personality Discoveries and the opportunity for roleplay as you explore the world before there are problems to solve or fascists to fight. It helps you get more of a grip on your characters and have a better idea about at least two of them once you're kicking butt together.
Enemies now have Objectives...
These are an adapting focus that they complete at varying paces, depending on how you deal with them. These are typically made up of a collection of circles that are crossed off as they progress, and the less they cross off, the better your rewards at the end.
The Tally Strikethrough system now gives your enemies their own turn...
While this was loosely implemented before with their Special Ability being activated, there is now a full process of actions that represents their turn, becoming more powerful the more of them that there are. It makes combat far more dynamic and varied without much more time or mental load required during play!
Local Area Discoveries can be Combined...
Allowing you to build all manner of contraptions in the field to unleash a powerful game-state changer! Struggling to get past particularly well dug in opponents? Got characters who use brains over brawn to handle their enemies? Put the punk back in Solarpunk and Get Creative with your environment! Tests so far have seen:
- Players cutting the leg off a water tower so that it collapses into power lines, flooding and then electrifying their opponents.
- Strapping an aeroplane engine to an airport baggage trolley and launching it into their opponent's cover.
- Attaching a megaphone to a crate of chickens and rolling it out of cover, using the deafening squawking to distract and confuse their opponents.
Let us know what YOU end up building!
All that wouldn't be possible without the new Effects system...
Three tables of Status, Positioning and Elemental Effects allow you to really delve into tactical coordination like never before, allowing you to overcome your opponents with a massive collection of possibilities, provided they don't do the same to you first!
We've cut one Mission and three Situations and replaced them with new ones...
These are more in keeping with the tone we're looking to set, addresses many of the misgivings people had about those scenarios, and just generally improves the game experience. As before, Direct Action lays everything out so you don't have to work out what you're doing, just follow the set up instructions and jump right to the fun bit!
Significantly improved first time experience...
Not that it was bad before, in fact we had a lot of people tell us that the ease of access was a major draw for them, but we feel we've improved it even further by giving an initial overview of the core rules that everything is based off of, and allows people to start their adventure without having to stop and learn the system part way through.
A shift towards system-agnostic and demilitarised terminology...
We've always been upfront that Why We Fight is based on lessons learned from years of playing Fate and Powered by the Apocalypse games, but when you've only ever played D&D or never even touched an RPG before, what the heck is a Move? Most people also aren't familiar with military jargon, so we've also stripped out a lot of that, making the game far more in keeping with how our home grown defenders might refer to stuff, rather than military talk of Flanking and Suppressing Fire.
All established in a re-designed process of scene establishment and resolution...
Putting more focus on roleplay and establishing your characters before a Situation arises, redeveloped to focus on a changing, Solarpunk world, and ending each Situation with a variety of downtime scene options to unwind after any encounters.
So what are you waiting for!?
There's a lot to discover in this update, whether you've only just found the game or played before, we're certain you'll find the update to be a... well, a game changer! If you haven't already, go download it from our website or itch.io!
We're not anticipating anything major to be changing with Direct Action after this stage, so future updates will be looking at the core Why We Fight book and its developments, along with our progress towards our BackerKit Crowdfunding campaign, which we aim to launch in March. Next month, likely as a little new years gift, I'll be releasing a solo playthrough video to showcase the game and how it all works, and then be looking to work on a demonstration video of the core game and the differences it has in playing it.
Want to experience it sooner? Come and join our monthly online playtests via our Discord server, or if you'd like to play with an established group, let us know and we can arrange a guided session!