FozzieBare: Blog

A new story (or more accurately, a series of vignettes, possibly maybe leading into a small story) is in the queue

Do you remember all those video games in the arcade?

You know the ones.

The ones that ate quarter after quarter in the arcade as people lined up to fight the current champion. The one with ridiculously garbed fighters doing battle in lavish locations for reasons.. well, no one was really sure of the reasons. But it was all really cool?

And then, when it came time to move to the home console market, they ended up selling you the same game five times because each time they added new fighters and a new stage? And because they couldn't advance the timeline, they just started throwing "Championship Edition" "Alpha" "Remix" "Turbo" after the title?

I do!

Welcome to "King of the Fighting Street Megamix Alpha Zero XIII"

The premise?

The problem with being a world class martial artist who can destroy boards (and bones) with your bare fist or throw ki projections the size of a medicine ball is that there's not much to do whenyou're not training your latest move that will make you totally unbeatable. Sure, a lot of fighters try to have singing careers, or fight crime, avenge lost loved ones, or take over the world. But have you ever noticed that their heart is not in it? What they really want to do is try out their latest techniques of ultrapain on other people to see how well they've learned them.

Considering most people aren't world class fighters, and can't even sit under a raging waterfall for hours at a time, this can lead to severe property damage, not to mention hospital bills and lawsuits.

This is not an acceptable situation.

So, something had to be done... and the funny thing is, someone did. Somebody has built a giant temple devoted specifically to hosting a martial arts tournament on an island. The temple covers just about the entirety of the island (except for the airport, the docks, and the vaguely ominous machines that emit sparks and some kinda shrieks all through the day and night). Nobody knows who has done it.

Some think a power-mad dictator has done it, looking for a fighter so powerful that he can steal his ki and achieve immortality. Others think that a demon has done this, looking to unleash a hidden gate to some demonic plane, although how they intend to open this by people beating each other up is a mystery.

The most popular theory is that some ultra-rich billionaire has seen way too many martial arts movies and thought it would be a good idea to gather people up and watch them fight.

So, the invite has gone out to fighters worldwide. They have all received a scroll which simply states: "Come fight, and prove you are the ultimate martial artist. Prizes beyond your wildest imagining to the winner".

Fighters have traveled from across the world to fight their rivals, make some money, arrest crime lords, recruit new minions, etc. Will you be the King of the Fighting Street?

This world came from a gaming book supplement I wrote about a decade ago for a Fighting Game RPG (The book is still available for sale on sites like DriveThruRPG). It was meant as a homage to all the fighting games where you could throw everything in a blender, hit puree, walk away for three days, and see what cultures have formed when you returned.

The idea behind this campaign setting is simply to provide an open forum that could allow any character concept in order to pit them against each other, rather than as a serious setting for extended play.

Featuring Over-the-top fighting action with bare moments of storyline in between. A campaign where a robot with Gatling blasters that wants to make more of his own kind can take on a singing idol who happens to be an angel slumming it on Earth, and people are ok with that!

So, I hope you like it, and laugh at the efforts of Eric, Fumiko, Gra'z'k'al, the Mad Genius (Alfie to his mum), his Shoot-Clones, Kami-sama, Kash Money, Professor Poundington and my personal favorite. IVAN THE TERRIBAD.

Ivan's fun to write. He's just so earnest and dedicated to his dream of making Russian Wrestling #1 and the best. Even if he has to turn himself, a rather large Texan, into the supreme Russian Wrestler in looks AND tecniques. (Don't bring up his Texan accent, it's a sore spot, and he prefers to CRUSH sore spots)

Chapter 8-10 is queued up for posting. You're getting three chapters because there's a half decent chance I will be unavailable Tuesday night into Wednesday, so I shifted one chapterforward.

More Reforged Tournament Action coming your way, plus some very difficult lines are crossed. I do want to give fair warning. There is an incident which may be considered self-harm in Chapter 10. It doesn't happen, but the mindstate of the character involved makes me feel obliged that I have to mention it.

Arc 6 is getting closer to finished.

One thing that I thought about doing, since several of you found my Kevin-posts amusing, is open up questions to the characters. If you have a question about how the world works, what a character does in their spare time, or whatever, send it to me via an email, or attach it as a comment to the current Reforged story. I will endeavor to both reply in character if you're asking Adrian, Amy, Marcus, Kevin or Elias anything, and to further explain as the author if an answer is needed.

edit: The title of Chapter 9 had a typo. Replacement going up. That's what I get for having an idea when I copied from the master document into the chapter document I uploaded.

That scares me.

But I appreciate it.

So, here's a little preview of the Kevin-related mayhem still to come.

I'm not going to explain the circumstances, because that would spoil a future chapter. Maybe even something in the next arc.

Let's just say that a certain Kevin-related incident eventually inspires Reforged to offer this T-shirt in-game:

https://imgur.com/a/O13oiMd

Some lessons are learned the hard way.

Kevin apparently prefers the spectacular way.

It's shooty robots time!

Reforged enter the Summer Tournament. This time, they'll have the benefit of playing the first few rounds on their home computers, but does that mean they'll have less distance to go cry in bed after they lose?

Because every year in these large tournaments, a team comes in, thinking they're talented enough to win on talent alone, and that's a recipe for disaster.

Not if Adrian, Amy and crew have anything to say about it.

A couple of you have asked why Kevin wasn't on the Cast of Characters page. Mostly because he IS a character, in every sense of the word, and not seeing him on a page specifically marked "Cast of Characters" was a rather jarring omission.

Well, I'm glad to report that this was entirely intentional. Kevin requested that I leave him off the list so he could sneak up on everyone, and this would allow him to...

Oi. OI! Kevin! LEGGO!

Not the duct tape!

AHHH!!!

Hey folks, Kevin Gulverson here. Sorry, Fozzie can't finish that explanation. He's a bit tied up at the moment. Or taped up. One of the two.

Basically, Fozzie's an idiot and forgot about me.

He typed up the Cast of Characters page on a whim to add to the Arc 5 debut post, mostly because he felt bad about giving you only one chapter (plus the Prologue). Apparently, when you're in a hurry, you can forget one of the most important people in your entire story.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Anyway, when he gets loose, I'll have him expand the Cast of Characters page to include yours truly, the Reactor Critical folks, Mama Bianchi (love her cooking!), and a few others.

Oh, and I wanted to show off my new Reforged T-shirt. It reads:

"I WAS LEFT OUT OF THE CAST OF CHARACTERS AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY FOURTH-WALL BREAK."

Oop! The duct tape is starting to fail. I'd better head back to Reforged HQ before he gets free.

...

Right.

Now you understand why I work so fast on these stories. My characters keep arguing with me, and occasionally they take matters into their own hands.

And trust me, you don't want to hear what Amy thinks about my plans for her in Arc 7.

(She's kinda right, though.)