Before diving into the Fight to Survive review, I wanted to thank Radio James Games for providing us with a digital copy of the product. It is a very particular diceless RPG, totally dedicated to martial arts and street fights of the twentieth century. The focus is precisely on the fights, experienced in detail and with great involvement.
If after reading the review you want to buy it, you can find it on the DriveThruRPG website where it is available in different formats: watermarked PDF at a cost of $26, standard colour book at a cost of $42 ($55 if you prefer the hardcover), and of the packages that include the PDF + the paper version currently on discount at the same price as the paper manual only.
Fight to Survive Aesthetics Review
Let me start by saying that this manual, consisting of 334 pages, is really beautiful. It is full of original photos of the great martial artists of the 90s and 2000s, which easily accompany the mood of the setting; there are also many quotes from these artists, mostly placed in cartoons in the centre of the page.
There are not many original illustrations, but the ones present are somewhat reminiscent of the style of colour comics. They are made by Ian MacLean, Steven Wu, Sofia Lopez, Jonny Bloozit and Wouter F. Goedkoop. The layout is original; we find central paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter that anticipate its content. Then all the other contents, from images to texts, full of examples.
A World of Tough Fighting
Street life is tough. Fight to Survive is a game of tough guys who train to improve their martial arts and face daily fights in the dangerous streets of New Hope City.
In this game, mortality is very high, so much so that the same manual advises you to create different characters to use in case of premature deaths.
As we will see later in the review, the activities that can be done in Fight to Survive are different; the first of course is fighting, but also spending time with our trusted contacts or in our safe places. Fighting, of course, it often happens to get injured and in this case, the need for recovery and rest times arises. But you can also train; no one is born as strong and precise as Bruce Lee! But spending days in the gym and experimenting with new moves grows and becomes more robust, agile and fearsome.
The Contents of Fight to Survive
This manual offers so many tools. Obviously, first of all, we find the index. Then there are the rules for the narrator and the players.
Following information and descriptions of over fifty martial arts of every era, one hundred years of history are dedicated to them and connected to the ten districts of New Hope City. I found this section very useful since it allows you to fully understand the tones of the manual even if you are not an avid connoisseur of the era.
To help new players understand how to approach such an original RPG, we also find three years of pre-made adventures and five pre-generated and ready-to-use fighters.
The manual also recommends a musical theme to use in your sessions. This is another great trick to fully immerse yourself in the proposed atmosphere.
Finally, there is the character sheet, but for me, it represents a sore point. Available in both colour and black and white, it is a bit difficult to read and interpret; many elements placed too close together risk creating confusion. Now let’s focus on the peculiarities of this card.
The Fighter Card
At the top of the tab is the fighter’s basic information, such as name, district of origin, gender, and other things left to the player’s taste. The fighter’s age is not accurate; you can decide on a band and as you get older you will be a little less strong and agile. The card also offers different types of clothing, ranging from military uniforms to street clothes to more elegant clothes. Below you should indicate your body type, choosing from four options. Next comes proficiency and skill in executing different martial arts techniques, such as the punch, kick or leg movement.
In the centre is the Versus Chart, a small scheme used to facilitate fights; it includes the movements of the two or more challengers and the relative advantages. On the right is the training section, essential for every fighter; on the map, there are various points where you can train. The part of the card dedicated to life is easy to understand; each physical health descriptor is divided into three boxes, the end of which is death.
Finally, there are the Comforts and the Hardship. The first are people, places or objects that give relief to the fighter. Being in contact with these elements, the fighter will benefit and improve his mental health. The latter is called Hardship and indicates how much events and situations make him uncomfortable and create anxiety and unease.
New Hope City
The setting of this game is the city of New Hope City, a sort of American Hong Kong, “somewhere in the West”; it is vast, divided into neighbourhoods and full of points of interest. A beautiful map allows you to always have clear the possible destinations of the players.
There are pubs and leisure areas, such as O’Shay’s Pub, located in The Docks district. Obviously, there is a hospital, where it is possible to be treated in the necessary time: here there are competent doctors able to put a fighter back on track even after the toughest fights. In Chinatown, the Asian population carries out its commercial and leisure activities. Still talking about leisure areas, we also find the City Park, a city park where you can spend time in your own comfort.
Fight to Survive Mechanics Review
Fight to Survive offers mechanics with a technical approach, which especially enhances the fights. These are resolved at the best of two or three rounds, within which the moves are compared “one to one”. Without using dice they will be, just follow the indications of the Versus Chart to find out if the attack or defence prevails, until determining the winner. This simple mechanic recalls, with the necessary adjustments, expansions and updates, the timeless rock-paper-scissors. The round proceeds according to a precise ritual to pay homage to the discipline necessary to master the martial arts.
The five basic moves are available to the character from creation (Grab, Punch, Kick, Block and Footwork). Moves will then be influenced by the technique that evolves with training; for aggressive moves only, one must also take into account the strength (depending both on the character’s characteristics and on training). The moves will then be the same (but with different names) in the case of fights with white or firearms; in my opinion, however, this RPG gives its best with unarmed combat. The techniques learned (by studying or through teachers) increase the likelihood that the shot will hit.
However, the narrative component external to the fights should not be overlooked. However, the spotlight is not on the personal development of the characters; this theme is treated, but more space is given to the construction of a story that touches various aspects of the society of those years. For this purpose, the mechanics that allow you to designate a successor or a character who will replace your own when it leaves the scene, are very indicative.
Security Tools in Fight to Survive
In addition, this manual provides more than one security tool. There are those who don’t appreciate them or even consider them superfluous, but personally, I consider them fundamental. Fight to Survive is a potentially very violent game, full of bloody scenes and blood, but also of discrimination of all kinds; just think of the racism that characterized those contexts in that historical period (the references to the United States of the 90s / 2000s are strong). The game provides three security tools:
- The X-Card is a card placed in the centre of the table. When a player for any reason feels uncomfortable or wants to interrupt that scene, they place their hand on it and the game moves on, no explanation needed.
- The lines and the veils calibrate the tone of the game and establish which elements must not be touched and which ones can be treated with an eye to both the master and the players.
The Consequences of Violence
Reading the review of Fight to Survive you will have noticed that violence is very present; in a martial arts game, this is obviously unavoidable. It has a strong impact and constantly endangers the health of the protagonists.
Through blows with bare hands or with weapons (to which the manual dedicates a specific paragraph), various types of wounds can accumulate; bleeding, broken bones and intoxication from poisonous potions or noxious gases may occur. There are also permanent injuries, causing visible scarring or even the loss of a limb.
Sometimes you can try to give first aid, but in other cases the intervention of a doctor becomes essential. Specifically, each tick in one of the boxes representing health increases the duration of the operation by one hour.
Fight to Survive Review Conclusions
The game, as stated by the author James Kerr himself, was created to capture the spirit of twentieth-century martial arts cinema. Scrolling through the pages of this manual, the references to videogames and cinematographic works that have now become classics are clear.
You will feel the decadent and violent atmosphere of films such as Hard Times (1975) and Streets of Fire (1984), but it is not even difficult to imagine your character in the iconic leather jacket worn by Tyler Durden played by Brad Pitt in the film Fight Club (1999), evident inspiration for some traits of the pre-generated character Tom Dukes. Fans of genre cinema will also see the familiar faces of the artists who made martial arts cinema popular among the general public on the streets of New Hope City; some examples are Bruce Lee or Jean-Claude Van Damme, who effectively cleared it from the niche of connoisseurs.
But likewise, it will be easy to relive the merciless blows and atmospheres that have “blooded” the videogame scene since the end of the 80s with Final Fight, Street Fighter II, Tekken and Virtua Fighter.
To conclude this review, I want to point out that Fight to Survive is a thematic RPG; as clearly emerges from what has been said above, it is certainly very suitable for martial arts enthusiasts. A streamlined regulation makes it even more accessible and easy to learn.
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