Dave Kizzia of Monkey Fun Studios

I have been singing the praises of Spirit of 77 since I started this blog about a month ago. I recently interviewed Dave Kizzia, co writer of the game on a podcast I co-host called Word Bros. I figured since there is a bit of cross over, you might want to take a look. If you've ever wanted to write your own game or have an interest in the process, give this a watch.

Page Twelve and the Creative Player

As I was prepping for my latest installment of Heavy Gigs in Sea Side City, our Spirit of 77 podcast, I scoured through the rule book looking for helpful info.

Anton, our DJ (GM) had put my character, the ex-pro wrestler turned PI Buddy White in a no win situation. In a bit of quality story telling by Anton, the repercussions of Buddy's actions in the first secession were coming to haunt him at the end of the second. See, what had happened was, Buddy broke into a hotel room to investigate a potential client for Miss Sweetwell (the disco owner, arms dealer Buddy works for.) During the B&E, an old woman pulled a pistol on ol' Buddy, who was trying desperately to talk his way out of this heated situation. His chatter only enraged the old woman, mainly because she knew he was bs'ing her, so this old lady fired a warning shot at Buddy. So, in a moment of panic, Buddy White, with all the might of his six foot 4 inch 246 pound frame hit this old broad in the face, crumpling her old bones to a pile of dust. Buddy quickly fled from the scene. Fast forward to the end of secession two, that same old woman and a gang of goons show up ambushing Buddy and his pals. I needed a way out and I needed one quick. This is where the players guide comes in.

Spirit of 77 is not your average roleplaying game. The writers tell the players that the book is only a base of rules and if those rules they have constructed hamper the fun don't use them.Wow! this, as a creative player is great. The writers are actively encouraging the players to play their game their way! The rules also tells the players to help the DJ set the mood of the scene by adding props, scenery, characters and other items that could move the game along. I found this nugget of salvation on page twelve! Good old page 12! This was my way out! Using page twelve as a guide and bit of my own creativity, I envisioned a window cleaning scaffolding high  atop the building on the street where the old woman's car pulled up. In my minds eye, I'll have Buddy pull his trusty .38 and file a shot that will cut through the rope sending the scaffolding crashing down on the cars below, giving Buddy and his pals a window to escape,in a move Jim Rockford would be proud of. Did my idea work? You will have to listen to the third episode of "Heavy Gigs in Sea Side City" to find out.

The point is, it is nice to see the creators of the game give  the players room to be creative by not letting the rules of the game hamper the fun. Because at the end of the day, RPGs should be fun, right?

Dead Suns Incident at Absalom Station Chat

Wait! Oh, yes wait a minute Mister Postman! That's right mama, I got my Starfinder Dead Suns mod today. Well, technically I got it yesterday but I didn't have a chance to sit down and write a brag post about getting it. I am pumped! Obviously! I am posting about it!

I bought the mod because I've decided to GM a game and figured this would be the quickest and easiest way to get the players accustomed to the new system. Well that and I've never GM'ed a game before. Hold on, let's put a pin in that last statement (I will post about being a first time GM later in the month) and focus on the mod.


The adventure is pretty straight forward. A ghost ship pulling a mysterious asteroid has parked itself right outside of  Absalom Station. Its the PC's job to answer all the questions that normally come with an empty ship towing a rock. The mod also features a few new monsters/aliens, which serves as a nice preview until the Alien Archive hits the streets in October.

My fav of the new aliens/monsters is the Bone Trooper. What is a Bone Trooper you ask? Well, let me tell ya! Using space magic and technological experiments powerful space magic folks have been able to reanimate the dead. Some of these creatures are mindless, boring boobs easily controlled by their creators. While other, these Bone Troopers preserve their intellects, memories and personalities! That's right! Walking, talking space skeletons with all of their meatbag persona. We're talking space Skeletor, BABY!!! I think I found my PC race, that's of my GM is cool with it. There are a few stats for the creature and with a little reverse engineering and some input from the GM I should be able to make a first level BT for my homebrew game.

Game Night! Spirit of 77

By far, the funnest game I am currently playing in (we will see if that is the case after I get my Starfinder book) is Spirit of 77 from Monkeyfun Studios. For those of you who have never heard of the game, Spirit of 77 started out on Kickstarter (which seems to be the birthplace of many inventive games) and after a successful campaign the game went game shops and sites. Spirit of 77 is the exploitation film of table top RPGs.  Players can play boppers (think "The Warriors"), sleuths (Kojack or Columbo) or a good old fashioned tough guy (Kane from Kung Fu) in an alternate reality where Nixon  was never impeached and Agnew was sent to Mars, or something like that.

Anyway, the game is a real blast. The system is a easy to pick up D6 system with little math needed. The core rule book even goes as far to say the most important rule of the game is to "have fun," and "if something in the rules is not fun, then ignore it, change it, or make something up."  It is truly a players game with the point being to have a good time. And man, do they hit the mark!

If you are a fan of exploitation films of the 70's or the Rockford Files, this is the table top RPG for you.