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FIST Paranormal Mercenary RPG Box Set

Created by CLAYMORE

FIST is a TTRPG about paranormal mercenaries doing the tough jobs no one else can (or that no one else wants) during the Cold War.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

JULY UPDATE
10 months ago – Sun, Jul 13, 2025 at 12:44:27 PM

Hey everyone! This'll be a short update, we just wanted to share the table of contents from the expansion to FIST's core rulebook, titled SUPPLY DROP.

SUPPLY DROP's development is going well (knock on wood) and we're slowly arriving at a slim-but-dense volume that expands the world and gameplay of FIST from something best suited for short campaigns and oneshots to a framework supporting long-term play. SUPPLY DROP is also the most heavily playtested project CLAYMORE has done so far, which has been a factor in its long development - but it's imperative we slow roast this one to perfection. 

As you can see, a good portion of the book is dedicated to theory, by which we mean discussions of FIST's themes and the intent behind its design. We don't want to inject too many bolt-on rules/subsystems/supersystems into what is at its core a very simple game, so we've instead spent the last few years collecting feedback from folks for whom the game didn't quite click and devising "theory articles" to address their concerns. It's true you can't please everyone, but your biggest critics often have stupendously useful, trenchant insights about the areas where your design fails. On top of that, we're trying to widen the game beyond its default campaign mode by taking inspiration from video games - what's an action game without a robust PvP mode and a co-op wave-based mode a la CoD Zombies and Halo's Firefight?

We'll update you more as we go. Please note that SUPPLY DROP will probably have less pre-release material available than our other projects. We want to get this book just right, then drop it, simple and clean. Until then, we appreciate your continued patience and support!

All the best,
CLAYMORE

ART UPDATE
11 months ago – Fri, Jun 13, 2025 at 03:11:16 PM

Hey all! Just thought we'd post some new, fully illustrated pages while MANDELBROT SET wraps development. Please note that this book has not yet been sent to editing, so the text in these screenshots may not reflect the final, retail version of the adventure.

EXCURSION (6 MAX HP) ROLE: SCHOLAR (learn how exotic radiation affects the body) ARMOR: 0 WAR DICE: 0 FRC: +1 TAC: 0 CRE: -1 RFX: 0 TRAITS EXPERT, HAZARD INVENTORY - Hazmatology textbook (answer any field-related question, one use) - Customized gas mask (ignore breathing-based DAMAGE) - Makarov pistol (1D6 DAMAGE) EXCURSION is a molecular biology whiz kid and walking encyclopedia regarding obscure and novel forms of radiation. His ultrahuman resistance to hazardous materials was gained following the excavation of a wish-granting artifact while mapping a similar but less volatile zone in the Estonian SSR. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT [COMPUTERS BEEPING, HISSING BREATHS] You Americans are very... eh... “foolhardy,” I think this is the word. You do not think before you act. You probably did not consider the logistics of creating an exclusion zone before the need arose! What if something were to escape? [AUDIO ENDS] STARLIGHT (6 MAX HP) ROLE: WANDERER (banished from intl. ninja clan post-coup) ARMOR: 0 WAR DICE: 3 FRC: 0 TAC: 0 CRE: +1 RFX: +1 TRAITS NINJA, WITCH INVENTORY - Ancient ninja weapon (six uses) - Star-shaped charm (ignore death and fully heal, consumable) STARLIGHT was chosen to breach the Zone for two reasons: 1. her incredible affinity for unreality as shown by her mastery of the Outer Tongue, and 2. it being potentially the only place on Earth where she won’t be harassed by elite wizard hit squads loyal to the nefarious sorceror Zhou Fang, Avatar of Agonnaz. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT [BROODING RASP] Parallel worlds? Yeah, I know a bit about those. I’m in my own parallel world. The shadows. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen. Glittering vistas in the fifth corners of squares. Eldritch watchers, pernicious and vile beyond conception. Forbidden knowledge in antediluvian tongues. It’s enough to bring most witches to their knees, and it follows me... always. [AUDIO ENDS] WAVELENGTH (10 MAX HP) ROLE: AMNESIAC (woke up in a triage tent outside the Zone) ARMOR: 0 WAR DICE: 0 FRC: 0 TAC: 0 CRE: 0 RFX: 0 TRAITS BUDDY, RADIOACTIVE INVENTORY - Paraffin wax treated bandages (accessory) - Tropic Lightning dogtags (matches Faraday’s) WAVELENGTH stumbled out of the Zone mere seconds after the initial breach event, claiming to be the only survivor of a previous exploration mission before collapsing in the dirt. We were unable to line up an interview; they only speak to Faraday, who they insistently identify as their best friend and ‘Nam buddy, Sgt. Jack Warren. The attached transcript is of a tape liberated from a mobile hospital at the Zone’s border. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT [HEARTBEAT MONITOR SPEEDING UP] -something like acute radiation syndrome. Subject is incapacitated without insulation. It’s strange, the decay seems to happen in a kind of “loop”- [WHIRRING, TAPE DISTORTION] -dangerous to us, yet may be the very thing keeping them alive. [AUDIO ENDS] FARADAY (6 MAX HP) ROLE: MERCENARY (save the whole staff = maximum paycheck) ARMOR: 0 WAR DICE: 0 FRC: +2 TAC: 0 CRE: -1 RFX: 0 TRAITS BUDDY, GROUND INVENTORY - SPAS-12 pump-action shotgun (1D6+1 DAMAGE) - Police riot shield (1 ARMOR, equip as weapon) - Tropic Lightning dogtags (matches Wavelength’s) FARADAY is a soldier of fortune from Boston previously employed by the CMA, then the Sandinistas, then the major industrial conglomerate Hartmann-Tendo. FIST snagged him for this op by showing him a photo of Janssen’s Rolls-Royce. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT [SPEAKER VERY CLOSE TO MIC] Yeah, buddy, I’ve worked with FIST before, I know the drill. Listen to me: I don’t care about egghead shit. I don’t wanna hear a two-hour spiel about politics that doesn’t make any damn sense. I don’t believe in magic. Or ghosts. Or aliens. I don’t wanna give a bug-eyed monster a friggin’ hug. I want money. I wanna get P-A-I-D “paid.” I’m here for the cash. Capisce? [AUDIO ENDS]
ZONE EQUIPMENT The Fractal Zone is rife with environmental hazards. This FIST operative is well-prepared for navigating the Zone’s alien expanse, handling exotic materials, and surviving sudden attacks by exocosmic entites. Some of these items may be available during character creation or in storage from previous missions; others can be found in the Zone: Gas mask: PPE is essential. Subregions of the Zone manifest toxic atmospheres. Contaminants like ice-nine, necrotic rain, and fear drinker toxin have deleterious effects on most operatives’ biology, and mucous membranes are ever vulnerable. Hazmat suit: For further protection, consider a hazmat suit. Exposed skin can be the death of even the most seasoned mercenaries. Knife: Guns are flashy, but nothing beats a knife when you’re cleaving through malicious foliage. An easy-to-reach knife is also your first and best line of defense against close-quarters assailants and animal encounters. Glow sticks: Subterranean structures and solar anomalies necessitate the use of personal light sources. Low visibility is a frequent impediment to Zone operations. So is non-Eucliean space. F-KIT: Listen closely. The F-KIT is your best friend. By extension, whoever’s carrying the F-KIT is your best friend. Keep them alive at all costs, keep the machine in working order, and keep your FCUs low, because fractal corruption is no joke—you ever see metal sprout from a man’s bones? For more information about the F-KIT, flip to p. 10. Note that the team’s FCUs (Fractal Corruption Units) begin at 0. Exposure to the Wyrd raises fractal corruption, unlocking more dangerous random encounters and hazards. Maximum corruption (6 FCUs) unpredictably changes the body. Should the team split and regroup, FCUs are averaged and rouded down. ZONE INSERTION Things go into the Zone via select weak points in its shimmering perimeter. Excepting extraordinary circumstances, they do not come out. This applies to matter and energy alike—FIST can get transmissions from outside the Zone, but responses, tracking data, backup requests, etc. cannot be relayed. While it’s technically possible that an observer outside the Zone could receive your outgoing message, all RF bands are contaminated with every possible variant of every possible outgoing message, reducing nearly all signals, no matter how strong, to noise. This presents a handful of problems. FIST’s handler(s) outside the Zone have no way to know when an operative has died, and thus no way to emergency insert fresh mercs when currently active ones die. Consider consulting this table to inspire the backstory or justify the presence of new operatives: FRACTAL ZONE EMERGENCY INSERTIONS (1D6) Alternate version of recently dead character Civilian trespasser out of their depth Fractal Zone denizen decides to join up Miracle emergency insertion—worked anyway Operative from a parallel Earth’s version of FIST Soldier from slaughtered non-FIST squad You can also use these tables to flavor and complicate mechanics which require outside comms access (e.g. SUPPLY trait, SUPPORT base upgrades, etc.): FRACTAL ZONE SUPPLY DROPS (1D6) Delivered in person by poor sap nameless grunt Drop has aged centuries, perishables wrecked Equipment just a little bit too alive Item severely, dangerously irradiated Not the thing you wanted at all Requested item arrives in triplicate FRACTAL ZONE INCOMING TRANSMISSIONS (1D6) A lie for each two truths, woven interchangeably Eerily clear, but speaker is not what they seem Nearly unintelligible due to crosstalk Player character calling from outside Riddled with subliminal messages Unfamiliar handler from an unfamiliar timeline ZONE EXTRACTION So: nothing comes out of the Fractal Zone excepting extraordinary circumstances, and FIST’s mission is to extract several people. It follows that forcing said extraordinary circumstances to come to pass is the only solution. What does this look like in practice? Boundary breaks: Aforementioned “weak points” in the perimeter occur because random noise is clumpy, not uniform. Trying to align an outgoing signal (or, God forbid, your physical body) with a split-second weak point is unreliable and nearly impossible, but—like everything else impossible in the Zone—it can happen. Divination, precognition, and other methods for wresting the causal flow of information from the arrow of time’s control may come in clutch. Spontaneous events: On that note, sometimes things that shouldn’t work just do. If you absolutely need to handwave something to make the story work, handwave it. You may have noticed while reading this section that the Fractal Zone operates on an alien and malleable logic. You’re right. Lean into it. Zone collapse: This, of course, is FIST’s primary objective: deactive or destroy the Resonator to bring about the Zone’s collapse. Collapse happens from the epicenter as exotic spacetime daisy-chain cascades into rebecoming baseline reality. “Riding the wave” on your way out is a surefire way to return to the worldline you came in from. Don’t get too cocky, though. Failure to outrun the shockwave of collapse will result in getting “Zoned”—imprisoned in the extradimensional churn of material that fractal iterations pull from. ZONE RECURSION Systems past a certain complexity threshold acquire a living character. The Zone is a system of systems of systems. It lives, it breathes, and it remembers. Consider using this property of the Zone to dispense information about its mechanics diegetically. Players may come across graffiti, notebooks, audio logs, and NPCs who remember multiple incarnations of the Zone and can explain its unusual properties. For some Zone-dwellers, the place has always existed, and our world is simply the latest in a list of realms incurred upon by the Wyrd. Character who were left behind and subsequently Zoned by a shockwave collapse may reappear again, changed, warped, and aged.
WYRD OVERVIEW Between the islands of causal stability anchored by the three Outposts lies a middle ground of unreality and illogic called the Wyrd, a fluid and dreamlike grout which fills the grooves of the transdimensional mosaic that is the Fractal Zone. Although Wyrd Hexes were once a part of the Nevada desert, they are now overgrown with fractal foliage, creating a dense jungle of unfamiliar plants and alien geometry. There is no sun, no moon in this no-man’s-land, yet thin dusklight dances eternally through the octarine fog as though the air were made of shattered mirrors. If the referee would like to keep the Wyrd’s terrain unpredictable and varied, they may optionally make a biome roll upon the players’ discovery of each hex: BIOME ROLL (1D6): Baseline Nevada desert Spiral rock gardens Undulating fractal jungle Mist-shrouded bayou Crystalline bamboo forest Sub-zone (Zones, FIST: Ultra Edition p. xx) THE F-KIT Choose which player will keep track of the team’s Fractal Corruption Units (FCUs). Their character gains the F-KIT trait. The longer FIST spends in the Wyrd, the more corrupted they become, eventually leading to the development of Fractal Traits (p. xx). F-KIT: You’re in charge of measuring Fractal radiation and its effects on the team, so you get to schlep a cumbersome high-tech backpack called the F-KIT through the Zone. When FIST enters a Wyrd hex, make a Wyrd Traversal roll and report the results to everyone at the table. The corresponding encounter or event occurs among the blooming vines and chromatic mist. F-KIT (maximum reading is 6 FCUs), -2 REFLEXIVE WYRD TRAVERSAL When FIST moves to a new Wyrd hex, roll 1D6 on the traversal roll table below. Resolve events following the listed order of operations: Announce the new FCU reading (FCUs start at 0) If FIST is DISORIENTED, determine where they are Play out the Wyrd encounter, clue, or harvest FIST can move one hex per traversal roll on foot, or two in a land vehicle. Air vehicles move at a three-hex rate but are vulnerable to anomalous bad weather. TRAVERSAL ROLL (1D6): +2 FCU, DISORIENTED, WYRD ENCOUNTER +1 FCU, DISORIENTED, WYRD ENCOUNTER +1 FCU, WYRD ENCOUNTER +0 FCU, WYRD ENCOUNTER (1D6, p. xx) +0 FCU, WYRD CLUE (D66, p. xx) +0 FCU, WYRDFRUIT HARVEST (1D6 fruits) DISORIENTED When the players become DISORIENTED while travelling to a new hex, the unit has lost their way. Roll 1D6 and count to the corresponding side of the hex FIST left, starting from the top and going clockwise: this is the direction FIST actually heads in. If the team would be pushed off the map, keep counting clockwise until you find a valid direction to go. WYRD ENCOUNTERS Wyrd encounters are determined by rolling 1D6 on the table that matches the current FCU reading. Visibility is poor and neither party can see each other at first. FIST may attempt to sneak past encounters, start a fight, run away, etc., but the ref must maintain an air of mystery until FIST encounters the entities in a hex directly. Wyrd encounters don’t happen at 0 FCUs. WYRD CLUES and WYRDFRUIT HARVESTS Wyrd clues are anomalous tracks, sightings, or litter which the referee can use to give hints about a possible Wyrd encounter. Wyrdfruit are edible clusters of alien geometry that reduce the FCU reading by 1 if consumed simultaneously by the whole team.
Six members of the Facility’s staff, all on the US Army’s payroll, have managed to survive within its halls by fighting off the FRACTAL HORRORS. If FIST escorts these staff members out of the Fractal Zone, the referee should mark them off as rescued on the campaign sheet. It’s likely that FIST will meet someone they’ve already saved during subsequent runs through the Zone, or even two copies of the same person within the Facility. “Who’s the real one?” has no easy answer. 1. GENERAL CRANE (8 HP, CHOKE 5: Take control by force) M1911 pistol (1D6 DAMAGE) KA-BAR combat knife (1D6 DAMAGE) Walkie-talkie (frequency 140.15) Torn formal uniform CORNERED: Richard Crane was tasked with overseeing the research at Facility Zero, and believes (perhaps correctly) that this assignment was a punishment. He learned early on of OGHMA’s new sentience, but hid everything in fear of losing his job. He trusts no one, knows little, and now fancies himself an unstoppable one-man army ready to escape the Zone with his life. Crane will only interact with FIST to blame them, belittle them, or issue asinine orders. 2. LT. LEWANDOWSKI (6 HP, CHOKE 4: Freeze at a bad time) M16 rifle (1D6+1 DAMAGE) Concussion grenade (1D6 DAMAGE, one use) Walkie-talkie (frequency 140.15) Olive drab fatigues, GI glasses LOYAL: Lewandowski is under direct orders to shut down the Resonator and recover it intact for further use in the field. As these orders come from the US Army, Lt. Lewandowski feels obligated to follow them to the letter despite the total breakdown of the chain of command. Highly private and known to rarely speak, the Lieutenant is a flawed but competent force of nature, harboring a cutthroat cleverness beneath a calm veneer. 3. DR. WONG (5 HP, CHOKE 4: Sacrifice self to save another) Fire extinguisher (3 DAMAGE, used as melee weapon) Overload tape (damages the Resonator for 10 HP when inserted into its terminal) Facility Zero keycard (opens all Facility Zero doors) Lab coat, broken wristwatch RESPONSIBLE: Amanda Wong is Dr. Okonkwo’s most trusted assistant. Having expressed concerns about the safety of the OGHMA project from the beginning, she feels a certain ethical obligation to make up for her complicity by giving FIST a hand. In addition to her expertise in programming and computer science, she is an avid moviegoer with a particular affinity for horror. 4. DR. JANSSEN (2 HP, CHOKE 2: Attempt to euthanize an ally) Model 686 revolver (1D6+1 DAMAGE) Frozen bullet (COLLECTIBLE, p. xx) Antifractal serum (remove all Fractal Traits, consumable) Chewing gum (cherry flavor) Sweater vest, bow tie HOPELESS: Adrian Janssen’s ego has collapsed completely beneath the weight of the Fractal Zone, his pride having turned into petulant nihilism. He is capable of astonishing mental gymnastics to justify even the cruelest of actions. Reasoning that there is no way out—and determined to convince the others of this “unfortunate truth”—Janssen has become unpredictable and prone to killing on a whim. 5. LEO WALSH (5 HP, CHOKE 3: Suffer a panic attack) Gas station knife (3 DAMAGE) Walkman, bulky headphones, progressive rock mixtape 1D6 lighters, assorted colors ENTHUSIAST: Mild-mannered, unassuming longtime janitor Leo Walsh is an avid consumer of counterculture media, a fan of underground literature, and an armchair historian. He has somehow heard of FIST’s past top-secret missions, and he takes an eager, foolhardy interest in any supernatural phenomena. He’s as scared as anyone would be in a multi-reality nightmare that never eems to end, but his curiosity and the vindication of meeting real, live FIST ops keep him going, always. 6. GY. SGT. de FATIMA (8 HP, CHOKE 6: Enter Rambo mode) M60 machine gun (1D6+2 DAMAGE) Tactical machete (1D6+1 DAMAGE, GRIP) Flak jacket over forest camouflage (1 ARMOR) Well-worn beret (accessory) Engraved Zippo (“Love, Meche”) MYSTERY: Gunnery Sergeant Wilson de Fatima, a hardened US Marine, has a singular goal: identify objects and entities from alternate timelines and terminate them with extreme prejudice. De Fatima is level-headed and professional, cagey about his past (but clearly comfortable with the paranormal), and insistent that he prefers to work alone.

That's all for now! We'll keep you posted on the exact date pledge manager emails will be sent out. Also: please don't be alarmed if you see print copies of MANDELBROT SET for sale soon - we need to sell things we make as we make them to stay afloat as a business! Rest assured, finishing the box set is still our end goal and you will get all those goodies in due time. In the meantime, thank you for following along!

Best,
CLAYMORE

MAY UPDATE
12 months ago – Thu, May 15, 2025 at 08:31:13 PM

Hey all! We're pleased to report that we've arranged with BackerKit to open up the pledge manager before we charge shipping. This means you can expect to receive a BackerKit email this summer which will direct you to a page where you can enter your shipping address, upgrade your pledge, etc. You'll be getting another email prompting you to pay shipping later in the year. This flexibility works well for us: with the TTRPG industry plunged into uncertainty by recent economic goings-on, charging shipping right before we actually ship will let us avoid underestimating shipping costs later this year (which would screw us over) or overestimating them (which would mean overcharging you for shipping, something we'd really like to avoid). We'll be sure to let you know when the first pledge manager email has been sent out.

Until then, sink your teeth into this teaser for CRY HAVOC...

INCOMING TRANSMISSION [SYMPHONIC CHANTING, WHISPERS] Do you hear us, FIST? Hear us now, hear us... [CHANTS DEEPEN] We are the Outsiders. We mean you no harm. Since the hour of Pangea we have tended to a verdant corner of Earth, ageless, watchful, hiding 'neath the cover of folded space, never interfering with the creatures and affairs of your world. [MANY VOICES SHARPEN INTO ONE] One lunar cycle ago, our soil first tasted human blood. Interlopers bearing corporate symbols landed brutally on our hidden shores, seeking to dissect and enslave the Old Gods of Origin Isle so that your species may more effectively wage war upon itself. [MEMORIES OF BATTLE ECHO] For twenty-eight solar days we have maintained a tenuous stalemate, holding fast against the advancing enemy line. Now, the invaders supplement their forces with Earthling sellswords and champions bearing abilities that rival our ancient technologies. Our seers foretell ruin at the hands of Cullan Defense. [CHANTING ABATES] We choose to make a counter-move. Contact Ichiro Miki; join us in the region you call the "Devil's Sea." You will be rewarded. We choose you. [AUDIO ENDS]

All the best,
CLAYMORE

APRIL UPDATE
about 1 year ago – Wed, Apr 30, 2025 at 03:49:54 PM

Hey folks! We've got some good news and bad news. Given the state of things lately, everyone's a little stressed out... so we'll start with the good.

MANDELBROT SET is undergoing intensive playtesting and we're currently about 1/3rd of the way through a full campaign. We've noticed some key areas lacking, for which we're writing more content:

  • Zone mechanics will be explained and revised. We'll be adding a spread to address how people, items, and information can get into and out of an exclusion zone which is largely disconnected from traditional spacetime. 
  • OGHMA, the primary antagonist of the campaign, will be expanded with further characterization and advice for referees to portray the misaligned AI system.
  • We'll also be dedicating a spread to explaining how the module's time loop mechanic works, to make running it easier on referees. 
  • Various smaller elements are also being reworked so the module runs better — we've prototyped less confusing and fiddly traversal rules, as well as clearer guidance on the module's special gadget, the F-KIT. 
A FIST operative kitted out and ready to enter the Zone.

This new content will push MANDELBROT SET significantly past its original target page count of 64 pages, making it more expensive to print, but we think we'll be able to eat that additional cost in order to deliver a high-concept adventure that feels intuitive to play. Once our big, final playtest is wrapped, we'll move to proofreading and editing, then a final release. Please note that you may see physical copies of MANDELBROT SET appear for sale where TTRPGs are sold before the box sets are delivered - that's us selling our new releases as we build up to the box set, which helps keep the lights on and provide our Kickstarter backers with a better bundled product.

CRY HAVOC has entered active development. Since MANDELBROT SET's complexity and weirdness have made it prone to development hell and scope creep, we're aiming to keep CRY HAVOC a nice, simple adventure about liberating an island from occupying corporate soldiers. You can expect a fairly linear story compared to MANDELBROT SET and a higher difficulty level tuned to advanced play. Your team will be able to learn all-new traits from local trainers and slowly prop up the local rebels in their efforts to recapture key locations from the invading profiteers.

SUPPLY DROP continues on the back burner. As we block out its material, it's spiraling into a more involved project than we expected: expanding the core FIST rules to work with long campaigns, PVP content, and a focus on base management means reckoning with design flaws in the core rules. Here are some major issues we're trying to figure out:

  • What's the best advice we can give to support referees running combat? This is a common snag for a lot of players, and a lot of the advice we're writing is geared towards combat theory. Right now, we're trying to adapt the OODA loop to game terms, and create several informative examples for varying edge-case situations.
  • How do we account for power creep? We're discovering inherent mathematical issues with longer campaigns, and it's proving a complex problem to solve. After surviving about ten missions (and sometimes sooner), FIST operatives can more or less stumble into being functionally unable to fail. Retrofitting a new set of rules onto the original is kind of like fixing a car while it's driving, but we've got a threefold approach: broader advancement options, a long-term levelling system, and domain-level play.
  • What supplementary material was obviously missing from the original rulebook? We're working on solo mode, other major factions, and varied premade missions. Should we have random tables for generating FIST hideouts? Should we provide a more robust tool for dealing with partials? How about a balancing key for gauging enemy and NPC power levels?

We'd love to hear your feedback on these questions in the comments here!

The bad news is that the Trump administration's new tariffs and the resulting trade war may imperil our ability to manufacture the box set as planned. This isn't something that's just affecting us — you may have heard the news that DriveThruRPG's print-on-demand prices will be rising, and that more established publishers like Paizo and Steve Jackson Games are courting indie studios (likely due to some awareness that between the worsening economy and the new trade wars, it will become harder to stay afloat for indies like us). We had planned to source a lot of our components from China, and even the US printers and manufacturers we'd looked at may raise their prices due to inflation and reliance on imported materials. We're worried right now that we might have to specifically cut or pare down metal components like foil decorations and steel/aluminum dice.

In terms of delivering in general, we've planned for this. There's a reason most of our books aren't full-color, why the game only uses the most commonly manufactured type of dice, why we've cultivated a prolific community of third-party FIST material creators. We thought the economy might tank so we designed a game that was as economically collapsible as it is scalable. Even if we're reduced to a shoestring budget by historically high manufacturing costs, we'll deliver a game that's good enough to play. Even if your budget as an RPG player tightens, FIST will keep you company in the cold. We're always trying to design things with high replayability and tinkerability, so you feel like you got your money's worth.

Those of you interested in physical fulfillment will be happy to know that we're locking in the first stages of manufacturing, storage, and logistics, as well as consolidating our currently existing inventory (for a while it's been scattered between a few locations). We think we'll be able to manufacture and deliver box sets to backers in 2025, not 2026. That'd make us a year behind schedule - not what we'd hoped, but a valuable learning experience and seemingly common for KS campaigns that go way, way beyond their funding limit and unlock a ton of stretch goals. Considering our surprise tax-based cuts to budget (compounded with the pain of recent inflation) and loss of contracted personnel, a year late ain't too bad, you know?

By the way...

It's FIST: Ultra Edition's second birthday, and we're doing something special to commemorate it: the FIST ANNIVERSARY JAM, our biggest game jam yet!

This time around, there's no theme, no ranked voting, no prizes — just four months (4/30/25 to 9/1/25) to make whatever you want that's compatible with or related to FIST, a season-long celebration of our lovely community.

You can join up here: https://itch.io/jam/fist-anniversary-jam

Whether you're a seasoned homebrewer or this is your first time getting in the guts of game design, we'd love to see what you've got. If you're looking for resources, collaborators, answers to questions, or just a good time, come hang out with us on the FIST official Discord server, right here: https://discord.gg/G7GDdkTw34

Finally, we'd like to thank everyone for their continued interest in and support of FIST, and of CLAYMORE as a studio. We're always excited to delight you, allergic to disappointing you, and without you, we'd probably be face down in a ditch somewhere. You make us what we are.

All the best (and here's to many more years together),

CLAYMORE

MANDELBROT SET Open Beta - Happy 2025!
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jan 28, 2025 at 03:40:47 PM

Hey everybody, MANDELBROT SET is now in open beta!

The cover of MANDELBROT SET, overlaid with a sticker that says "WARNING! OPEN BETA: This build of MANDELBROT SET is content-complete, meaning it's fully playable with all planned features in a usable state. This build of MANDELBROT SET has not been edited, thoroughly playtested, or fully illustrated. It's also missing bookmarks, links, fillable player materials, and layout polish. Even so, this build should be able to support a full campaign with no headaches. We're looking forward to your feedback! - CLAYMORE"

This version is pre-editing and mid-layout; there's art to add and polishing to do, and we're already noting a few clarifications and accessibility tweaks to make in that next pass, but the campaign kit is completely playable and we're very excited to get it out there.

The beta doc is free for everyone (just scroll to the "Download demo" header and you'll find the Open Beta) so we can get as much community input as possible before the final release; we'd love for you to join our Discord server (https://discord.gg/G7GDdkTw34) and tell us what you think in our #feedback channel, or feel free to leave a comment on this update.

Thanks for bearing with us for the year it's taken to get here from the alpha — here's to an overly ambitious first adventure!

Download it here: http://claymorerpgs.itch.io/mandelbrot-set 

— CLAYMORE