Flashback at PAX was a blast - thanks to Good Games for inviting us! We met with Tabletop Game Designers, RPG Developers, Podcasters, Youtubers and more! Dozens of eager Titan hunters delved the mysteries beneath Reychester, sharing tales from their past and crafting all manner of steampunk gizmos and widgets.

Although each group ran the same adventure, each time the story was totally unique and we gathered some excellent suggestions from the playtest games on the schedule.

Similar to last time, lets go through the top things that worked and the things that we’ll focus on improving in the next release of the Flashback rules:



Working Well

1) Everyone still loves fighting Titans.

Players always have a lot of options during play, but climbing, jumping and swinging around a huge monster is exciting, dramatic and just plain fun. Even more rewarding is being able to then gather the Titan’s scales, teeth and spines for weapons and armor!

2) Character creation is fast, simple and makes roleplaying easy!

It was amazing how naturally players were able to improvise complex and creative backstories for their characters - in just an hour of play. Even brand new players got the idea straight away and were roleplaying characters with deep personalities, interests and hobbies, tragic pasts, lost fortunes, life events and even whole family trees!



3) Being a mad inventor is lots of fun!

The weapon and damage system was one of the things that needed attention in our last round of playtests, but the new “steampunk inspired” weapon and part combo system has transformed it into something players love!

Work in Progress

Abilities and magic items use the same build-it-from-parts system that weapons do, but there is a layer of extra complexity to manage resources (entropy and spirit). This was too much of a learning curve for new players - although they had lots of fun customizing the spells once they understood the basics.



This complexity is intentional - players who want to explore more advanced mechanics can just bolt on magical parts to their weapons or create their own spells. The problem is that we didn’t create any simple/starter spells or prayers to introduce the concepts in a gentle way.

Coming soon

Thanks again to all our players and supporters! Because of your help, we gathered lots great of ideas to include in the next release of the Flashback rules, so like and follow us to get updates! If you have any suggestions, join the discussion in our playtest group!