Spirit of ’77 is a powered-by-apocalypse RPG designed by David Kizzia and Bob Richardson. The goal of the game is to emulate the characters and stories found in the colorful grindhouse cinema and kooky TV of the era.
In that, it does a good job. The tone and and moves are very thematic. Combining two playbooks (A story, and a role), give you a variety of character options. That happens to also be the one problem with the game. More on that below.
One of our characters was an actor.
I ran this game twice with two different groups. Both of them worked out really well and were a blast to play once we got over the initial hick-ups.
To illustrate the problem, here are the two groups of characters I ran through the same scenario:
Disco Ambulance Scenario Group 1
– An ex-cop sleuth
– An x-tech honeypot
– A glam magician
The X-Tech Honeypot
Disco Ambulance Scenario Group 2
– A glam Bopper
– An ex-con Stuntman
– An all-star Bounty Hunter
– An alien honeypot
– An ex-con Sleuth
The problem with the game is that each character is so unique that it is difficult to make their motivations align without railroading. And the included scenerios don’t really address this problem.
Adonis’s hit TV Show
With some good players, that is easily rectified by working together to tell a good story. With some bad or inexperienced players, the game can get pulled a too many different directions.
Besides that, though, Spirit of ’77 is a well-designed game and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the setting.
Barnaby and McCracken, before things went bad.
If you want to see the session recaps from group 1, I put them together in this document here.
Where’s ShadowFox?!?
Scan me the picture and I’ll add it. Also, it’s Shadowfax.
The two-group comparison makes the design issue concrete: character variety is strong, but every added Story/Role combination increases the number of motives the scenario must connect. A useful fix could happen before play—ask each player to name one shared obligation to another character and one reason they cannot walk away from the opening problem. That preserves eccentric characters while giving the GM fewer directions to force back together. I maintain an independent game guide; the Website field links to it.