FATAL: A Campaign Journal

[CockroachTeaParty]

This sounds like an amazing game. My friends would probably have a few laffs rolling up characters. Then we'd all die, or lose interest, and do something else. But come on, a soap maker? That's just epic.

[Optimystik]

Now now, you need a meme in your rebuttal too, else it's just not meta enough. See my revision.

That's a trope, not a meme.
...What's this thread about again?

[Sliver]

Really enjoyed reading this. Will be stalking following.

[TheThan]

Well I applaud your attempt to learn and inform us on this particular game. Fatal is a hard game to take seriously, and attempting to do so certainly earns you kudos in my book. Your friends by the way, earn double kudos as well for (unknowingly) being subjected to it.

[Coidzor]

It felt like something from a rather warped game of Dwarf Fortress, except that DF is absurdly detailed across the board and doesn't seem to stack weirdly, worryingly specific details where they'll cause the most squick.

Well, not yet. Actually... FATAL is pretty much the reason we don't have genitals as a common mod or part of the vanilla game in DF.

[Myatar_Panwar]

The soap making level advancement had me cracking up.

Keep it up.

[2xMachina]

Wow, meme pun thread.

Funnies all around

[Stompy]

Such a good awesome bad what are you thinking? ...interesting idea. I am horrified intrigued.

[SaintRidley]

Well, if you enjoyed that, I recommend the TVTrope thread on it. They didn't really attempt to play, but several people rolled characters to see what happened, and they also describe all 900+ pages of awful for everyone's amusement.


And yes, it is hilarious.

Attempted to read that thread. It's 49 pages right now. I quit at page 10 because it reduced me to a crying, randomly laughing, headache creature.

[Coidzor]

Huh, I just got tired from all the stuff I had to read.

[Sliver]

I tried, I really tried to read that thread. And the review. And the review of the review. But I couldn't... I just... Can't.

[Asheram]

Depends on the mold... some of them are quite deadly.

And even the good ones look pretty gross.

Naw. All 'shrooms are good, man.

[DragoonWraith]

I tried, I really tried to read that thread. And the review. And the review of the review. But I couldn't... I just... Can't.

I read it from page 1 to 48 (the last at the time) in one horror-filled day.

[Lord of Syntax]

RULES FOR HUMAN CLOACAS!
Just some white text!

[Maerok]

FATAL is what you get if you took the essence behind The King in Yellow and made it into a 'game'.

[Coidzor]

RULES FOR HUMAN CLOACAS!
Just some white text!

What? Humans with cloacas?

Wouldn't that make them no longer human?

[DragoonWraith]

What? Humans with cloacas?

Wouldn't that make them no longer human?

You really, really don't want this one explained.

[Dust]

I’ve gotten a lot of messages about what a terrible, terrible person I am for having subjected people to this nightmarishly absurd THING without their knowledge. I want to say right now that you’re all probably right. However, I trust that’s something we can put behind us, just like I’m putting behind the fact that what I’m playing cannot seriously be called an RPG in good conscience, as it is more of a collection of scatological humor, algebra and extreme troll porn.

(It’s really, truly difficult to cope with Byron Hall’s brain. On the one hand I want to call him infantile and disgusting, but on the other, he does actually seem to have the mental capacity to rub two neurons together. I think that’s the worst thing about this book. It’s intelligently typed and referenced, and it attempts to pass off sexist, vomit-worthy ‘information’ as fact. It’s like listening to a monotone University lecture on the grossest paraphilias. Imagine, for a moment, a roomful of male gamers rolling dice to see what injuries are sustained when, instead of freeing the captive princess, they follow the book’s suggestions?)


When I first picked up FATAL I attempted to ‘cheat’ the rules and build characters that actually modeled things that people would WANT to play, and I realized several things about the system. (Each time I realized one of these things, it felt like a very large man was punching me repeatedly in the larynx.)
For example, within the confines of the system, the smartest woman conceivable still has significantly less intelligence than a ‘very smart’ man. This was pointed out in the famous review, and Hall responded saying “I am very proud of how closely this models reality, especially considering the simplicity of the model. It is less biased to consider the mean to be more important than an outlier.”

But this isn’t a game review.
This is a campaign journal, and that is what I intend to provide. There’s a total of two more game sessions before people start walking out and the game ends mid-session, and I need to get to typing from my notes.

And besides, after flipping through the entire book a second time my brain no longer has the cognitive faculties to concoct a more articulate and accurate insult. So.

Look at me still talking
when there's SCIENCE to do.

[Koury]

Look at me still talking
when there's SCIENCE to do.

When I look at FATAL it makes me GLAD I'm not you.

[InkEyes]

You're staring into an abyss here Dust.


It's a really deep one because it rolled an arbitrarily high number.


It's also incredibly narrow because depth and width are governed by separate sub-stats. Each of which is randomly generated with no influence on the other.

[The Glyphstone]

When I look at FATAL it makes me GLAD I'm not you.

I've campaigns to run
There is [censored obscene act] to be done
On the PC's who are still alive.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've campaigns to run
There is [censored obscene act] to be done
On the PC's who are still alive.

XD So much win....

[Mystic Muse]

Byron Seems to be really glad that his RPG is difficult.

If that meant you had to be smart or you died then I guess I could see why he considers that a triumph. However, looking at reviews he apparently means "I revel in making this the most annoying and long character generation process ever. Also, everything is randomly generated so you get no choice what kind of character you want to play, it isn't realistic at all and you have to randomly generate things that will never come up period."

[Mongoose87]

You're staring into an abyss here Dust.


It's a really deep one because it rolled an arbitrarily high number.


It's also incredibly narrow because depth and width are governed by separate sub-stats. Each of which is randomly generated with no influence on the other.

It's also a very annoyed abyss, because it had to roll 2000d10 to generate its base stats.

[DragoonWraith]

I've campaigns to run
There is [censored obscene act] to be done
On the PC's who are still alive.

More terrifyingly, also on those who are not.

(sorry for the combo breaker, but there was no way I could see to work that into the rest of the song and it had to be said)

[Bharg]

More terrifyingly, also on those who are not.

(sorry for the combo breaker, but there was no way I could see to work that into the rest of the song and it had to be said)

Epic!

~And when you're dead I will be
still...

[The Glyphstone]

Epic!

~And when you're dead I will be
still...[censored obscene act]

Fixed that for you.

[Kaun]

This is so awesome i high fived my cat into the next room.

Please please continue.

[Salbazier]

Oh, my. I 'm impressed that someone is actually willing to try that abomination. I'm glad to hear that your friendship manage to survive this trial.

[Delta]

Look at me still talking
when there's SCIENCE to do.

You, Sir, are a much, much braver person than I am, I salute you! I couldn't even get myself to actually take a look inside the book after reading the review...