You know, I started reading this game before Trump tried to beat Hitler's "dismantle democracy" record, but man, I'd very much like a meat mech about now.
The Game: Extreme Meatpunks Forever
The Publisher: Sinister Beard Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, but it's PbtA
Books Required: Just the one
Extreme Meatpunks Forever is based on some video games of the same name and...oof, how to describe it. I'd put it in the same category as Red Markets and Between Clouds and EcoPunk 2044 in that it commits to its premise really hard. Said premise is basically that the continent of Meatworld (also the name of the planet, also the nation, for which the author actually apologizes in the book) is, in various places, mined for meat-mechs. One wears a meat-mech and can fuck shit up whilst doing so, but the meat-mech and you form a symbiosis. The mech can go feral while you're wearing it if you die or are critically injured, and then it just constantly acts on your last thoughts.
But meat-mechs and the history of Meatworld generally are a lot of extended metaphor for American (USian, that is) history and how it's inextricable from the violence and bloodshed that enabled it.
(Side note: Realizing that so much of American "exceptionalism" has less to do with us being awesome and more to do with always having an easily exploitable slave class was a big paradigm shift for me.)
Anyway, all of that wrapped in meataphor, if you will (and lordy, the meat puns come thick n' juicy around here) and with a hefty dash of "be gay, do crimes" and punching fascists of various stripes, which of course the world could use more of.
So let's make a character. As is so often the case in PbtA games, we start with a playbook. I'm torn between Bright Child and Weird-o-the-Wisp, but I think I'll go with the latter because the former reads too much like a religious zealot (that's an oversimplification, but I'm just doing chargen here).
(One criticism I have of this very interesting game is that the playbooks are a little inaccessible. Not unplayable or uninteresting by any means, but they don't really pass the Chupp test because I'm not reading them and thinking "ooh, I know exactly how I'd play that.")
Anyway, the Weird etc uses magic and is all witchy n' stuff. The playbook has a lot of strange and open-ended magical powers, which I enjoy. I'm gonna say my Weirdo's name is Meninge (as in meninges, the layers protecting the brain). Male, he/him pronouns, just keeping that simple today. Meninge dresses in a black outer layer, probably a long coat, boost, black shirt, black mask, but the clothes underneath are white or gray (his underwear is red, thanks for asking). He's got a wide-brimmed hat and he's very flowy and swirly in his movements.
Stats! I get -1, 0, +1, +2 to put in to them. What am I likely to be rolling on for Meninge? Well, Chill is what I role for my wizard move, and I can leaning toward putting the +2 there anyway. I'll put the -1 in Attention - Meninge is easily distracted by things Beyond Our Ken and also French Fries. I'll put the +1 in Awkward (Meninge is fun to talk to) and that leaves the 0 in Guts.
As mentioned, I get wizard so I can do magical shit, and then I get two more moves from my playbook. Let's take weird fucky dreams and...hmm. I like toiling, troubling, the usual, but the mechanical effect is super fuckin' wibbly (and frankly as a GM I wouldn't like it, since it's basically "bad stuff has less of a chance of happening to you" - like what am I supposed to do with that). Let's instead lean into the "visions from beyond" and take intuition.
The only other thing I'd do with the character right up from is Love (this game's version of Strings), but I ain't got no players, so...oh, hang on, need to make my mech!
So I picture Mengine's mech as largely sinew and cartilage, much skinnier than other mechs. When he's in the mech, they're called CSF. Starting with stats, I get +2, +1, +1, -1. I think either Corpus or Viscera gets the negative...oh, it's gotta be Viscera. Nerve can get the +2, that means Sinew and Corpus get +1.
I get to pick items from some lists to describe the mech in each stat. Each stat gets [score] + 1 of them. Let's start with Corpus! I think tight, smooth, and white. For Sinew, we're describing the link between the mech and Meninge, so let's say it's focused, stretched, and brain-zappy.
Over with Nerve, which describes the sensory apparatus and limbs of the mech, let's take coppery, predatory, rubbery, and fluid. And, finally, for Viscera (I only get 1 here), let's take tubes.
Now I get options, which are basically little upgrades or extras. Same rules as descriptions, so I get a bunch of these. I get three under Corpus, so let's take psychic steak (if I get hurt, I get insight into what did it), byrd bones (I am super fast in battle), and excellent seasoning (I can describe how I look super tough to ignore the first hit in a fight).
For Sinew (once again, 3), I'll take translucent glass spinespike (if I fail the move to synch up with my mech, I can choose to succeed but everyone around me can see some of my memories), organization quickeners (affects how I use the get organized move while in the mech, trust me it's appropriate), and neuron fibers (I roll with advantage to synch up with my mech).
Nerve! Ugh, I've got so many here. Let's take thousandfingers (my mech has multiple tendril-like fingers so I can do multiple things at once), brainstems (once a session I can bump a result on Nerve up by one), glowteeth (when I speak as the mech I can hypnotize others), and delicate turnspikes (I have bone spikes in my arms I can use to stab stab stab).
And, finally, one option for Viscera. If I take scabbed-over guts and raise my Viscera by one, do I get another one? Let's assume I would. Do I wish to do that? I don't think I do. I will take invisible scars. CSF is, as mentioned, outwardly made of cartilage and therefore it's hard to see when it's injured.
And then I get a weapon! I could make my own up, but I like screaming mouth vents, actually.
That's actually it, because I don't start with any pulses. So Meninge is ready to bash some fash!
