Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands - Gameplay

Originally shared by Vincent Baker

Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands - Gameplay

MF0:Firebrands is the strangest game I've made yet.

It's a highly structured, turn-based game with no GMs, no character sheets, no stats, barely any dice. It consists of nine individual, independent, thematic mini-games. On your turn, you choose one or more of the other players, choose one of the mini-games, and play it with them. Once the mini-game ends, it's the next player's turn, and they do the same: choose player(s), choose a game, play.

It's technically a role-playing game, I assert, but it's not much like most other role-playing games. It doesn't include any free play, any "we go here what do we find?" or "bang, this happens, what do you do?"

It's also Powered by the Apocalypse, I assert, but it's not much like Apocalypse World proper. It's Powered by the Apocalypse because its mini-games are elaborations of Apocalypse World's moves, designed explicitly to treat your conversation as the medium of play.

At least one person has been disappointed by how unlike Apocalypse World it is, so look out.

Anyhow back to how it plays.

Each of the mini-games plays out in a series of alternating questions or challenges and answers. You choose your questions or challenges from the lists in the book, and, in most of the games, your counterpart answers them however they want.

For instance, in the grand Free-for-all, you might choose me as your opponent and ask me: "I open fire on you, pounding you with everything I’ve got. Can your mobile frame take it? How?"

And I might answer: "You know it can't! As soon as your first round hits me I dive for cover and scramble away."

Or, in a Conversation Over Food, you might choose me as your conversational partner and ask me: "I accidentally spill the secret that —. I cover it gracefully, but do you pick up on it anyway?"

And I might answer: "Haha! No! I chatter blithely on. Pass the mussels, I love them cooked this way, nobody prepares them like this but here on Bantral."

In all of the games, what you do is, you take the other players' characters' measure. You find out who they are, what they are, what they're committed to, what they care about, what you are to them, where they can bend, where they can't.

The object of the game is to fight with your friends and fall in love with your enemies. You might not be able to do it, though! The games are designed to build emotional momentum between you, by consequentially revealing you more and more clearly to one another. By the end, you might find that, no matter how dashing, passionate, and conflicted, your enemy really is your enemy after all.

So, that's an overview of the game. You can read one of the mini-games, An Animated Disagreement, here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+VincentBaker/posts/ax8YaatzqwF

You can buy it in PDF or in print, if you're interested, here:
http://nightskygames.com/welcome/game/MobileFrameZeroFirebrands

And as always I'm delighted to answer any questions you have, here, by email, or anywhere.
http://nightskygames.com/welcome/game/MobileFrameZeroFirebrands