Phase/Shift

Phase/Shift is a tactical supernatural action game of underground resistance inspired by "hero shooter" video games like Valorant and Overwatch.

Capitalism's dark apotheosis

In Earth’s near future, reality is fractured. Our dimension has been penetrated by Faults, where pieces of alternate dimensions overlap our own world. Some are populated by creatures beyond description. Worse, others are populated by people – humans – who have occupied the space for some time, hunting for resources, planning infiltrations, warping space, or who knows what else.

The power that is released by these Faults has left behind fragments of power that cause surprising adaptations in their owners. “Shifters”, they’re called. Some find their natural aptitudes enhanced, being able to lift unbelievable weights, move in the blink of an eye, see things beyond their senses. Others control energy itself, shifting fire, light, electricity.

Corporate power has itself shifted – corporations big enough to transcend or even own nations and states. Unfettered greed and extrajudicial power. Imagine what people with ludicrous amounts of money and the ability to break reality might try. 

Someone has to keep this power in check, prevent the worst excesses, and be the finger in the dam before it bursts. To help the people caught in the middle of the machinations. We call ourselves PHASE, the ones who transcend reality.

What is Phase/Shift?

This is a game where a cell of slightly post-modern, high tech, transdimensional “magic”-touched tactical operatives fix breaks in reality (called Faults) and investigate their causes. These breaks are caused by people who either don’t know or don't care  what harm they're doing. PHASE’s enemies are powers ostensibly charged with the protection and wellbeing of their people; corporations, government bodies, religious orders, and more. More often, however, this power corrupts; when a greedy CEO beholden only to “increasing shareholder value” has the tools to literally break reality, the odds of them using that power to help the needy are slim at best, and likely performative even so. The environments in play are either real-world locations corrupted or twisted by elemental or ghostly influence, or a literal mashup of the real world overlaid by extradimensional locations – the thunder dimension overlaying a huge urban park (like Central Park), for instance, or gravity anomalies around a construction site in a rich city in the desert.

“Shifters” are not exactly uncommon, but the creation of their powers is unpredictable and inconsistent. Exposure to an acid dimension may give you the power to etch materials and release toxic fumes where you point, or it might just cause your flesh to dissolve. Going looking for shift power is a good way to get maimed, your mind corrupted, or worse. But when people do find themselves with sudden dimensional power, they get “recruited” to become agents of one of the corporate powers, captured and tested (or experimented on), silenced, or ostracized by a fearful public. PHASE serves two purposes – protecting people from the fracturing of reality, and helping the ones affected by it.

Fast, dynamic infiltration and tactical battles

Derived from Shadow of Doom, Phase/Shift inherits its fast, tactical battle system, and extends its turn-based system to a large scale Area Map; players infiltrate a corporate facility on a large-scale map room by room, and when enemy contact happens, we zoom into a small-scale Tactical Map to resolve it.

Rapid card-based character creation

Your character is built on four cards:

• Role -- your job on the team, like Saboteur or Skirmisher
• Shift -- the trans-dimensional energy you channel.  Internal Shifts like Powerhouse enhance your natural abilities; Evocation Shifts like Fire or Frost give you elemental power; and the Null Shift, Polymath, gives you a second Role instead if you want to play an exceptionally talented "normal" person.
• Loadout -- pick your primary weapon and sidearms, protectives like energy shields, and gear like infiltration kits and grenades, using a quick system with a minimum of math.
• Identity -- name, pronouns, statistics, appearance, goals and off-mission jobs.

Facilitator support for Arcs and One-shots

A one-shot is a single mission -- an emergency response call comes in, the team inserts into the corporate facility, closes the Fault, and stops the corporate plot.  

In an Arc, three related missions expose a conspiracy by parts: the Opener, the Rise that reveals the plot and ends in a Revelation, which tilts them toward a Climax.

Need online character sheets?  Copy this Google Docs character keeper to your own drive to run games online!  (Please reach out to me if you need help.  Shoutouts to the 2400 Character Keeper from Jason Tocci for direct inspiration here.)

If you like this, also check out:

• This is an action game, like Feng Shui and Feng Shui 2 before it.  That game is a beautiful take on Hong Kong blood opera, a masterclass in cutting to the chase of an action experience, and the progenitor of a lot of mechanics action games in the modern era take for granted.
• "All attacks hit" comes from Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland.  
  
• One roll, "vibes-based" resolution comes from 2400 and Over the Edge: 25th Anniversary Edition.  Innate abilities that "just work" if you have them come from Joe Dever's legendary Lone Wolf series of gamebooks.
• The Sentinel Comics RPG, a slick, quick to play superhero RPG that builds its heroes from identities and powers.
• Dimensions and alternate versions of the heroes are inspired directly by the plot of Riot Games' Valorant.
• The "unstable equilibrium" of constant reinforcements comes from the video game Marvel's Midnight Suns by Firaxis.
  
• The slow, ticking threat in a facility being navigated over time comes from Klei's Invisible, Inc.
• If you want an ultra-light spy/theft/infiltration game, check out Monte Cook Games' Stealing Stores for the Devil.  Lying to reality -- how cool is that?
• Zone-based movement comes from Evil Hat's Fate and Kirin Robinson's Old School Hack.

Why now?  A note on work in progress

If it wasn’t obvious, yes, this game draws heavy inspiration from the real-world forces at play in 2020s America and the greater world beyond.  This game was well along in development but not to the state I wanted to release it.  Then, the presidential election happened, and the last two months happened, and half the game's plot came true in America while I was still writing it.  Given that I'm now living in a fascist country that's being run de facto by rich, unelected billionaires, if I don't release the game now, it's going to miss its relevance.

This game is text-complete but missing art and some layout.  It is completely playable as is.  I do plan on continuing to update this game as I can, adding art and layout updates, metastable artifacts, more details about the corporations, support for upgrades in the character cards, and more.  For right now, though, I wanted to get the game in front of eyes.

This is a game about kicking fascist ass.  I hope it brings you some joy, some hope, and some inspiration to fight how you can, with what you have, where you are.  I hope you enjoy it.