An incredibly hastily written entry for Ryan Macklin’s Furious Game Jam. This is an Otherkind/Psi-Run (both pdfs) hack, and I’ll try to update this post in due course with a lovely pdf play-aid.
Game concept inspired by a screening of the first six Fast and Furious movies, which are notable for:
- Going three movies without having a plot which is both compelling and coherent, and the first time they achieve both (Fast & Furious) they do so by fridging Michelle Rodriguez.
- After a scene, by the way, where Vin Diesel literally just watches her sleep; what the hell Vin.
- In Fast Five, after pretending to not be a feminist BUT SECRETLY HE IS, The Rock literally snatching a file out of Elena Neves’ hands, throwing it across the room, and yelling at her that she’s not allowed to read.
- Also in Fast Five, Paul Walker asking Mia what she’s reading and then straight-up just stealing her magazine, seriously Fast Five has problems with women who read.
- Just… all the T&A. Constant T&A. After 10 hours you start not noticing it – and this is the biggest problem.
Anyway, let’s have a game.
The Fast, the Furious, and the Feminist
This is not a game to play with people you don’t know and trust. It deliberately recreates the harmful misogynistic aggression (micro- or otherwise) of the Fast and Furious franchise – but hopefully in a self-aware, ironic, entertainingly deconstructive way. You should only play it with people you trust to (successfully) approach it in this manner; you should only play it with people who trust you to do the same.
Keep the action PG-13
Some answers to probable sticking points:
- If you fall behind but do carnage, you probably destroyed the wrong threat.
- If you punch the nitro but suffer brutality, you probably broke your own limits.
Questions
You have questions about your Driver. Four, five or six of them. First player to run out calls time. Make them twisted and make them leading. One question should be about justice. One question should be about family. One question should be about freedom.
Action
Roll five D6. You always assign for Fast, Furious, Fiction and Feminism.
- I’m a bad ass (but see below)
- I want to do something important
- I exist in a capitalist patriarchy
- I’m fast
- I’m furious
You can roll an extra two D6 if relevant.
- My feelings are a factor
- My flashbacks are a factor
Are you a loser?
Sometimes you’re not a bad ass. You’re a loser. If you’re a loser, you can’t roll your bad ass die. Losers become bad asses again by having flashbacks.
Are you broken?
Sometimes you’re broken. If you’re broken, assign your dice and the GM will choose one to make you re-roll. Broken people fix themselves by dealing with their feelings.
Fast
What do I do?
6: Punch the nitro. Driver has the upper hand: describe your overwhelming dominance in the scene.
4-5: Take the lead. Driver has the power for now, but keep your eyes open. Describe your strength, but highlight the threat coming up behind.
3: Too soon. Don’t get cocky, kid. Describe your arrogance and immediate hubris. Highlight the threat to others in the scene.
1-2: Fall behind. Describe the threat taking control. Until you can punch nitro or take the lead, you’re a loser. If you finish the scene a loser, you stay one until you’re fixed by a flashback.
Furious
How do I do it?
6: Carnage – you’re pitching. Describe blood splatter and bone shards and headshots and cool.
4-5: Violence – you’re trading. Describe bullets and knives and holla and hot.
2-3: Edge – you’re on a hair trigger. Describe eyes and twitches and sweat and hard.
1: Brutality – you’re catching. Describe fire and fear and pain and dark. You’re also broken, and stay that way until you’ve dealt with your feelings.
Fiction
Who’s in the driving seat?
4-6: The Driver narrates the action. GM can suggest cool swerves.
1-3: The GM narrates the action. Driver can suggest cool swerves.
Feminism
Patriarchy is in the driving seat.
6: Something genuinely positive happens! Women take the lead. Men support a drive for justice. Actively pass the Bechdel test.
3-5: Nothing egregiously offensive happens, but include in your description some of the background misogyny in the scene.
1:2 Something horribly misogynist happens! Men steal agency from women. Women establish rivalries with each other. Actively fail the Bechdel test.
Feelings
How am I dealing?
5-6: You’re dealing great. Crush your fears. Scream into the city night. Launch a Buick into the sun. Stop being broken.
3-4: You’re dealing. You’ll do. Punch a wall. Light a cigar. Make it rain. Stop being broken next time you punch nitro or take the lead.
1-2: You’re overwhelmed. What’s the point? Stay broken.
Flashback
Why am I dealing?
6: Driver describes a flashback that answers another driver’s question. Explains how you’re part of the action – obviously or secretly, for good or for bad. Neither driver is a loser, if relevant.
4-5: Ask another driver to answer one of your questions. They can explain how they’re part of your action – but if they’re a loser, they stay one.
1-3: No flashback triggered.
Student Roleplaying and Boardgaming Regionals 
[…] suggested (ages ago) a cool, feminist Fast & Furious hack of Psi*Run. (Said hack can be found here.) Michael pitched two games… then he went and wrote a third completely different game. (Check it […]
this is interesting, not being a super big narrative rpg user, the rules are bit strange to me and how to use them. So die rolls as we play together? Treat Fast, Furious, Feminism, Feelings, and Flashbacks as story/combat phases I’m guessing. As for character questions some to came to mind was: “How mature are you (because I want to play an aging granny who was once a hot rod racer or Pam from Archer)”, “Do you fall in love easily” “What’s your relation with the gang leader” “How girly or manly is your ride” “how do you earn cash”
I’ll try to write this up better (and indeed reply in more detail) when I have more time, but incredibly briefly: Psi-Run is a game about compromise. Every time you take an action, build a dice pool based on what’s relevant (as above, normally 5, plus one if your feelings are a factor, plus another one if your flashbacks are). You normally want to be rolling as many dice as possible.
You roll your dice and then have to decide what’s important to you: where do you assign your highest die? where your lowest? where in between?
Say neither your feelings or your flashbacks are a factor, so you’re just rolling five D6. You get 6, 4, 3, 2, 2. You discard one of the 2s. You really want to narrate this action yourself, so that’s your 4 assigned to Fiction. What else? You’ve got a 6 – you can either punch nitro, pitch carnage, or do something genuinely feminist. Say you punch nitro. So you still have to assign a 3 and a 2 to Furious and Feminism. Either one on Furious means you’re Edging. A 3 on Feminism is background misogyny, but a 2 is overt.
Wrap these four things into your description of your action. Let the outcomes cascade. Keep driving, keep rolling.
Replying to your questions, remember these should be dealt with in a flashback, so the answers shouldn’t be obvious by looking at you. Taking your “How mature are you” question, I’d suggest revising that to be something more like “How am I still driving after all these years?” or “Why am I driving my grandson’s car?” Use your questions to establish a fact – but then ask how or why. It can be about your character, as above, or the setting (“Why do we always race across the Alaskan tundra on December 13th?”)