Battlefellaz: RUBICON

Play the thoroughly ridiculous Stillfleet prequel

You are a battlefella—a professional rabblerouser fighting the God Emperor. You have one goal: find out what metaphorical Rubicon the God Emperor is about to cross and stop them.

Wythe Marschall (creator of Stillfleet, co-creator of Blister Critters) never made a one-page game before. This year, he said he'd try. The idea: a distillation of online Leftist discourse about the near-future of U.S. politics, summarized in a single word that he thought he heard Felix on Chapo Trap House mumble, imitating Biden: "Battlefellaz…"

The first draft came out to ten pages, but he cut it down to size: one front, one back, just like the rules of the game jam stated.

The result is a game built on a mini version of the Grit System that powers Stillfleet and other fine story-driven games. Battlefellaz invites you to save your hometown from destruction at the hands of neo-fascists. Plus, there's a card-drawing/-discarding mechanic! Check it out!

Obligatory shout-out to Grant Howitt for his innovations in the one-page RPG genre. Like everyone else, Wythe has played Honey Heist, but Nice Marines is a personal favorite.

Work across tendencies

The reasons to rise up against the God Emperor are various. We do not know from which tendency the champions of the Rubicon will arise…

Play as one of six political tendencies (classes), each with a unique set of scores, power, card-drawing effect, and weakness:

1. Ex-Muskovite
2. Freegan
3. Green paladin
4. Pod John
5. Tankie
6. Trad Chad

There are also fun tables of weapons and utility items, because let's face it, you'll need to fight the God Emperor's capos and dog-bots with something more substantial than posts.

Note, this game is expressly political and features a couple of curse words. Please use safety tools and take care of each other. 

Embrace the narrative structure

The first rule of Antifa is, everyone is secretly the antipope of Antifa. The second rule of Antifa is, everyone is secretly the antipope of Antifa. The third rule of Antifa is—if it’s your first night, you have to fight…

Each session of Battlefellaz is imagined as having unity of time, place, and action, meaning it’s a single extended act, in one place, with all of the characters who matter either on-site or nearby.

The GM should set the scene and give the fellaz a chance to make a plan—hopefully something dumb, elaborate, and cinematic in scope that contains the seeds of multiple good ideas (possible win scenarios) as well as clear failure points (reasons for tension to rise). There should be scenes of planning, early skirmishes/struggles, and a major climactic confrontation.

At the end, there is a trading-narrative-power mechanic (a clear nod to Fiasco).

Continue the fight for liberation

First, the God Emperor burned some of the books. Then all of the books. Then, when he finally realized kids were learning 97% of their useful skills from short-form explainer videos, he burned the internet. That was a big ole Rubicon, CROSSED…

What would you like to see added to this game?

• A d20 list of Rubicons to stop the crossing of
• Hardcore mode, wherein you start with less grit (fewer cards)
• More antagonists
• Other tendencies to play as
• Pets! Every battlefella should have a pet
• PVP? Is there a way to make this narratively fulfilling?
• Settings by guest writers from other national contexts who have hacked these rules to explore the struggle against fascism outside of the U.S.?
  
• Trashposting as a mechanic? Any ideas?
• Traumas, rules therefor

Note, Wythe has already drafted some of this, but it didn't fit the one-page version.

Special thanks, in alphabetical order

1. Ian Derk
2. Ben Ferber
3. Scott Neagle
4. Will Savino

Inspirations, in alphabetical order (d20)

1. The Agony of Eros [book]
2. The Antifada [podcast]
3. Chapo Trap House [podcast]
4. The Communist Necessity [book]
5. The Coming Insurrection [book]
6. Dead Beats [game]
7. Death Game [game]
8. Deathmatch Island [game]
9. The Deprogram [podcast]
10. Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune 2052–2072 [book]
11. Groundings [podcast]
12. Guerrilla History [podcast]
13. Hunting Billionaires for Sport [game]
14. Inhabit [book]
15. May Fire Devour Lazy Bastards [game]
16. Millennials are Killing Capitalism [podcast]
17. Planetary Mine: Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism [book]
18. Psychodungeon [game]
19. Red Nation Podcast [podcast]
20. Revolutionary Left Radio [podcast]

☉☉☉

v1.0, "Trat."
Writing, layout, etc. by Wythe Marschall.
© 2024 Wythe Marschall, but please hack this. Do whatever you want, just don't plagiarize the exact words offered here, and obviously don't make a pro-fascist version.