An introduction is rather necessary for this kind of thing, no matter how spontaneous it may be, so, this is it.
I am Evelyn Wrothesire, TTRPG player and aspiring TTRPG writer, and Iām currently trying to make Feather in the Gearsāwhat I originally called āLeftist Infighting: The TTRPG.ā F/G for short, because FitG is too close to FitD for my liking. F/G *is* inspired by Blades in the Dark and those TTRPGs that have been inspired by BitD, like Wildsea, but I like differentiating. Plus, I like how F/G looks; sorta like something slim and flimsy, stuck between two large things, no? Like, say, a feather between two gears.
The idea for F/G is fairly simple: One is either a player or a Mediator, of which there is usually only one Mediator, who is basically just a GM by another name. The players are trying to destroy the Automatarchy, a despotic system created by world superpowers as a means of creating perpetual control via basically having the government run like a company, where people are hired into governmental positions, with a preference for people who are skilled at ensuring large groups continue existing for as long as possibleāthus giving rise to the Fedxecutives, corporate execs, or ex-execs, who join the Automatarchy and fill most of its positions, turning the world into a hyper-corporate hellscape.
Each Player-Character has a unique Ideology, composed of a number of Ideas, where each Idea is composed of 3 Tags. Iāll probably make a post later listing everything Iāve got on that so far. The point of these distinct Ideologies is to have political conflict. Of course, as you can tell by my PFP, Iām not a big fan of rightist ideas, so those donāt really show up, especially since they would fucking love this shitfuck world. I have a system Iām working on by which Ideological Conflicts are resolved through one of the following possibilities: Common Ground, Concession, Synthesis. Common Ground works by having a shared Idea, or something to that effect, Synthesis works by having shared Idea Tags, and Concession is if none of those are options, one Player Character can promise something to the other, in exchange for letting them have this one, basically.
The Player-Characters also have Skills, Techniques, Traits, and Equipment, and maybe other stuff. Skills and Equipment provide dice for a dice pool, with Techniques adding dice or making it so you donāt have to roll or letting you do something weird. Traits are a little too work-in-progress for me to say much about them beyond what you might intuit from the name. Equipment is made of tags which can be applied when using them, and the tags are different things the equipment can do. So, a Forklift might have the Hauling Forks tag and the Protected Cab tag and the Sticky Wheels tag, so if youāre hauling something heavy you can add a die to your dice pool because of the Hauling Forks tag, but if youāre trying to not get damaged by something falling on your forklift, you would add a die from the Protected Cab tag.
Iāve also got ideas on making your own of everything above, but thatās also pretty damn WIP.
Another thing: Failing is kinda hard. Basically, when you roll, the results of your roll determine your Impact, based on the number of hits on your dice from your dice pool. However, even if you get 0 hits, you still succeed, so long as you donāt have any Doom subtracting your Impact. More Impact means your success is more, well, impactful, but even an Impact of 0 still lets the thing you rolled for work, even if just barely. For an example, letās say you got an Impact of 0 to convince the security guard that youāre a maintenance worker here to fix the elevator. It will work, but the guard might start doing a background check after they let you through, putting you on a time limit. This is a good time to say that, yes, Feather in the Gears will have clocks.
Doom is gained from Major Threats. For example, we might point to Supervisor Meero from Andor as a Major Threat, or straight-up Darth Vader. However, a Major Threat could also be another Faction (weāll get to that) working against you, or being at a major disadvantage, like being incredibly outnumbered or facing an enemy who knew you were coming, perhaps because you were Sold Out.
Of course, a revolution isnāt 3-6ish people, it requires a network of support, which comes in two forms: Community Relations and Allied Factions.
Community Relations are people in your community who can do work that you need and who you have a good relationship with. But, your community can also turn against you, especially as your attacks against the Automatarchy heat up in intensity and thus the chances of your group being found and your whole community being punished increasing. If you arenāt helping out your community enough, someone will eventually sell you out in order to save their own skin.
Factions of other groups exist, including ones who are fighting the Automatarchyābut, unfortunately, just because you share an enemy doesnāt mean youāre allies. Youāll need to engage in diplomacy in order to make nice with them, which will often end up with āI scratch your back, you scratch mineā types of deals. Why would you wan to do this? Scale. Your community member might be able to get you a couple guns, but Big Rickās Gunsmiths can get you a couple *crates* of guns.
All of this is in pursuit of the final objective: the destruction of the Automatarchy. Since the Automatarchy works by hiring people to fill positions, you canāt just assassinate some key figures and be done with it. They are pulling people from across the planet, and unless you want to engage in horrific genocide, you are not going to be able to stop them from doing that. So, you need to hit them hard and fast. Most of the early sessions of a campaign of F/G will involve getting what you need to bring the fight to the Automatarchy.
Another thing of note: the Automatarchy is set up in a pyramid of administrations, with the Lunar Administration at the top. It, as the name implies, has its headquarters located on the moon. The ultimate goal is to destroy the Lunar Administration, causing such chaos that the rest of the Administrations can be destroyed and a new world can be made. This may involve stealing a rocket ship and flying up there yourselves, depending on how your group wants to do things. Itās epic, itās over-the-top, and itāll hopefully feel awesome.
Final note: Iāve got ideas of giving the Mediator toys to play with and things to help guide them, from big tables to player-esque choices, but thatās so WIP that I havenāt really got anything to say about it for now. Suffice it to say, the ideal game of F/G has the Mediator shape the Automatarchy and how it responds to the Revolution, and having tons of fun doing so.
Thank you for reading, hope you stick around for more, which will be coming soon!
