Games Like Psychoballistica: PROJECT RETURN FIRE

<i>It is 198X.</i>

The United States government owns a typewriter. The typewriter is attached to a howitzer. The howitzer is attached to you.

You are a psychoballistic operator. You transcribe classified documents against a deadline. Their words become five colors of psychic MATERIAL and enter a machine you built out of pipes, tanks, valves, batteries, household junk, and whatever the Department had in the annex.

Then, fire the results at enemies of the United States of America.

This is a normal job.

THE TRANSCRIPTION

Read the subject's announced INTENT. Choose one of three documents on the wire.

Type exactly. RACK a finished line into the chamber, then decide whether to risk another line under a tighter clock or FIRE what you have.

Fast, accurate typing builds a better shot. Greed builds a larger one. Missing the hard deadline blows the chamber back into your face.

THE MACHINE

Words are classified by meaning into five Zener SYMBOLS. Their MATERIAL enters a physical rig you create between fights. FLUID rises. Streams merge inside a TANK. VALVES choose a route. GASKETS make psychoelectric CHARGE. ARTILLERY BARRELS fire. SLURRY gets everywhere.

The machine is not a passive upgrade tree. Move parts, lay pipe, create unsanctioned, UN-illegal combos of psychoballistic warfare that would get you court martialed if you didn't officially not exist. Use your knowledge of loops, stamps, and upside-down fluids to create the ULTIMATE PSYCHOGUN.

THE SUBJECT

Cryptids, devices, staff, and other departmental concerns announce who they are and what they are about to do. Their INTENTS repeat in readable cycles. Learn the file, pick the right document for the job, set your VALVES, and decide which problem you can afford to leave for the next round.

THE ASCENT

Climb a branching assignment of fights, field spoils, requisition windows, investigations, rest, and doors that lead anywhere. Build an archive of documents. Rebuild the rig between fights. Take a specialized elite assignment or route around it and live without the hardware.

Somewhere in the building there is a vending machine, a payphone, and a man who will sell you pictures of Bigfoot.

You know.

For tracking your targets.

SPEED KILLS

Typing is the only real-time skill. Everything else happens while the clock is stopped: reading the subject, choosing the document, plumbing the machine, and spending techniques. A fast operator with no plan can lose. A slower operator with good reads and an appalling machine can win.

LIVE THE DREAM

Somewhere in Nevada, they're waiting for you.

Find them. Before it's too late.

<i>Speak clearly. Be precise. Do not fabricate.</i>