HOW to PLAY

[How to Play] [Player's Guide] [CC's Manual] [Missions] [Downloads] [Story] [Weblog]

Steps to Playing the Game:

1. Read the Player's Guide and create your character.

Phyrfight™ is a roll playing game (RPG) that is designed to be light on the "R" and heavy on the "P" but it doesn't have to be that way. You can develop your characters as fully as you wish. A word of advice though: this game is much less forgiving than most games in the "getting killed" aspect, much like real life. If you stick your head up in a gun fight someone will probably put a bullet in it. And there are no spells or health packs to bring you back once your brains leave your skull. So it might not be wise to invest too much time in character development your first couple of games. Oh yeah, keep your head down.

2. Select the Combat Coordinator.
The Combat Coordinator (CC) is responsible for all aspects of the game that are not controlled by the players. The CC should already be familiar with the CC's Manual and all the Matrices. It's probably a good idea for the CC to go over the example Missions too.

3. Draw the Map.
This is usually the responsibility of the CC.

4. Define the Mission.
The CC will tell you what the situation is and probably give you a specific mission. For example: go into the warehouse at the end of this block and recover all computers from the building. However he may just set up a general scenario and leave it up to the Phyrfight™ team to decide what they actually want to have as mission objectives. For example he may tell you that you have intel that a group of high ranking Peace Enforcers are going to meet at a certain place and time, then simply say,"What do you want to do?"

5. Kit Up.
Now that you know what the mission objectives and parameters are, it's time to decide what you are going to take with you. This may be a group process to be sure that when you get into the mission someone doesn't say,"I thought you brought the wire cutters."

6. Insertion
This is the point on the map where you enter the game. All team members may be together or you might have multiple insertion points. The CC may tell you where you are inserted or he may leave it up to you to find out ,but you cant get any real-time information about what is happening on that map until you hit the Insertion Point. At that time you can start asking the CC questions about what you can see and hear.

7. Game On.
Time to rock and roll. This is where Phyrfight™ is very different from all other RPGs. Just like in the real world, many things can happen at the same time and it is the responsibility of the CC to keep everything  in sync or In Phase. Hence the name Phase-based™ RPG. The CC can literally move the game back and forth in time within a particular event or series of events. For example, if your team is suddenly ambushed, the team members would not just stand around and twiddle their thumbs until it was their turn to do something. Everyone would do something immediately, at the same time. The CC moves the game back and forth, to and from that moment in time in small increments until he has moved everybody forward in time to some point where everything is in sync again. The CC Manual includes an example of Phase-Based™ Combat.

8. Extraction
Depending on how the CC sets up your mission you may have to reach a particular point on the map before you are safe and your mission is over. Or the CC may decide that once the primary objectives of the mission have been accomplished the game is complete and no extraction is necessary. It is the prerogative of the CC.

9. Debrief
This is when you talk about what went wrong, what went right, and why. The CC will reveal to you all the information that you didn't discover during your mission and tell you what you could have done differently. At this time the CC can award you experience points if you deserve them. Sometimes just surviving can earn you points. After all that's what experience means, you didn't get dead and you learned something that can help you next time. If you died then obviously that character is dead and gets no points. Maybe in the next life.