Final Stand

Eastern (martial arts)

Self Published

2002

Complexity: 3

Final Stand is a game about martial arts action fighting, and also a game that was recommended to me by a reader, which is convenient for me because I didn’t have to find it myself.

Setting: 1/3 [−]

The setting of Final Stand is a city with hundreds of dojo described as “stereotypical medieval Asia” with modern aspects, which is somehow weirdly specific and incredibly vague at the same time. It feels like they had a very specific idea about the world the game should take place in, but didn’t really do much to explain it or incorporate it into the actual game. Like you could literally change the setting to 1960s Iowa without making any changes to the game. Also I’m just not fond of the “generic east-Asian” settings in general, they feel lazy.

Character Creation: 2.5/5

The first step in creating a character is to select one of fourteen ‘stereotypes’ which provide two ‘quirks,’ an ability that can be used twice per game, and two skills. We then chose our ‘way’ which is a combination of a style (drunken, flowing, Iron, ect.) and form (cobra, dragon, monkey, etc.) which grant energy and action points, two and three special techniques respectively, and two skills each. Then we add everything together, divide our actions between punches, kicks, and throws, and end up with something like this.

Name: Yuka Yen

Stereotype: The Street Bum

Quirks: Bad Manners, Street Smarts

Ability: Dogged Tenacity (regain 1 energy after KO)

Energy: 20

Actions: Punch (3), Kick (4), Throw (2)

Skills: Acrobatics (2), Contacts, Intrusion, Perception (2)

Way of the Empty Eagle

Special Techniques

No-Thought No-Concept Strike: 2 punch moves, 4 damage

Void Attack: 2 throw moves, 5 damage

Tearing Beak: 2 punch moves, 4 damage, and opponent loses one move

Raking Talon: 2 kick moves, 6 damage, and opponent loses one move

Flying Kick: 3 kick moves, 9 damage

So overall, it’s an okay system. You pick three things and distribute some points and that’s it. Also there are a lot of options with 14 stereotypes, 12 styles, and 12 forms, but a lot of that just feels more like minor variations than meaningful options. Also if there’s any intentional system of balancing the energy, actions, and moves of the styles and forms it is lost on me, it all seems mostly random and arbitrary.

Mechanics: 2.5/5

The mechanics here are a little odd, for all your non-combat skills if you have the skill, you succeed, if you do not, you fail, there is no rolling involved. If you have the skill from multiple sources (e.g. from your stereotype and style) you succeed better, so you can have any skill up to three times, but every skill you have multiple of is another potential skill you don’t have.

Combat is really the main focus here (hence the lack of any actual skill system) and is a little complicated. At the beginning of a fight, both parties roll the specified number of d6 for their punches, kicks, and throws, then dice that come up 2 or higher for punches, and 3 or higher for kicks and throws, are put into a move pool for the specific attack types. Still following? No? Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine. The combatant with the highest total number of move dice acts first and selects a basic technique or one of their special techniques which can each be used once per fight. So for example, a basic light kick costs one kick move die and deals 2 damage. Attacks are automatically successful unless they are opposed by a defense move, for example, the dodge move costs one kick move die and can stop any incoming attack. However, unlike attacks, defense moves do need to be rolled, in this case requiring a result of 5 or higher. After the attack is resolved the defender becomes the attacker and it goes back and forth until both parties are out of moves, at which point the whole thing starts over again until somebody is knocked out.

It’s all definitely within the realm of “not as complicated at it seems, once you go through the entire thing and make sense of the eccentricities of it.” It’s a bit rough around the edges, but definitely comes across as something that has a definite intent behind it, and does something different.

Writing: 1/3 [−]

For the most part everything is understandable, but getting to that point may require a bit of re-reading. The order of things is also a little off, presenting character creation outline first, then the full mechanics, of which the basic techniques are listed last, then the stereotypes, styles, and forms, then miscellaneous game stuff. Which ends up requiring a lot of flipping back and forth between sections and hunting for the rules you need, which shouldn’t be that hard in a twenty-three-page document. Of course the thing that bothers me most, even though it might not be objectively the worst, nothing is in alphabetical order. The stereotypes, forms, and styles are just presented in what is as far as I can tell is a completely random order. And like, that had to be done intentionally, as there is an order followed in the lists and descriptions, but that order is completely nonsensical.

Presentation: 2/5

The layout is okay by the standards of a web-published game from 2002, which is to say it isn’t great. Basically just words on a page but with some effort put into formatting things into proper lists and tables.

Final Remarks

Final Stand is a game that seems to have had a clear idea of what it wanted to be; however, it is definitely lacking in the execution. Although I can’t say if it’s due to inexperience, or sanctifying the ideas and insisting that everything else had to be built around them. Overall, it just comes down to okay, another one of those things that has the feeling of having been worked on until it was “good enough.”

Base Points: 7

Character Creation: 2.5/5, Mechanics: 2.5/5, Presentation: 2/5

Adjustments: −2

Setting: −1, Content: N/A, Writing: −1

Overall Score: 33% (5/15 Points)