Atomic Robo @ Gam3Day

So, Gam3day...EPIC!

Mike Olson came down to run an alpha playtest for the FATE based Atomic Robo role-playing game. It was a Super Secret play-test! And it was really fun.



Pretty cool because Mike has come up with some epic concepts for this specific game. The pyramid of skills isn't present in its current incarnation, and Mike has emphasized quick character creation over advancement, to make this game play like the Atomic Robo comics. When you want to come up with some character's background, you can go back and play an earlier episode in the character's life. If the other characters aren't in that story, no problem, you just create some other characters instead and run with it. Organizations will be a major way in which your characters advance, granting different aspects to the characters by being members of the organization. (Remember this is an Alpha version and nothing is set in stone)

This game does use FUDGE dice rather then d6s like Legends of Anglerre. I prefer the FUDGE dice even though it does mean a different type of die you need to own, but you only need 4 to play, so it's not very expensive. Besides FUDGE dice are simple to use.

So Mike said he used Kerberos Club as one of his references, but he didn't use a lot from it, one of the things he kept which I really like is the Collateral Damage rules. Makes for a really interesting scene when you let a Robot crush the floor under you instead of crushing your head! Then of course you fall through. I will definitely be watching what's going on with great interest.

Stunts are in, refresh is out, in keeping with the simple system. (currently, who knows what the FUTURE MAY BRING!)

The first PUBLIC play-test will be at GenCon:

If you're eager to check out Atomic Robo's progress, we'll be conducting the first public playtests at GenCon in August. It looks like we ("we" being Andy Blanchard, Chris Czerniak, Morgan Ellis, and myself) will be offering six scheduled sessions between us:

Thursday, August 16th at 2:00 pm
Friday, August 17th at 2:00 pm (two sessions)
Saturday, August 18th at 12:00 pm
Saturday at 2:00 pm (two sessions)And possibly a Sunday game as well. Odds are also good that you'll see some ARRPGgames at Games on Demand, too.
You can find all of them in the schedule as Atomic Robo: Sneak Preview. Not an evocative name, maybe, but it gets the point across. The blurb's the same for all of them:

 Action! Science! Robots! Playtest the new RPG adaptation of the hit indie comic book series Atomic Robo, coming soon from Evil Hat. No experience with FATE or higher-dimension mathematics required.