FRIK review — Where everyone's a failure

My Pharmacist hunkered down next to the nuclear reactor console, hiding from the traitors' ZapL fire and desperately trying to avoid a complete meltdown. I send my Courier to charge their line on his hoverboard, only to watch in horror as he instead flips over and eats dirt. The traitors' Courier moves in to finish mine off, but my luck changes when the Courier's Kitahner slips out of his hands mid-swing and is caught by one of my Rookies. Maybe he'll be able to buy my Pharmacist enough time to turn the Admins' microwaves back on after all.

FRIK describes itself as a "failpunk" skirmish game, and it certainly fits. Designed by Ryan Christoph, FRIK matches feature 2-4 teams of borderline competent "Hawkers" taking on needlessly dangerous missions assigned to them by Admins while fending off the "traitors" (rival players), and games usually last around 45 minutes to an hour. After selecting a scenario and setting up the terrain, players customize their teams by selecting specialists and purchasing equipment. Gameplay is kept simple and streamlined, with players alternating activating a single mini at a time. Each Hawker gets two actions and a movement, in any order, and actions are typically resolved by rolling a d10 (or more, based on a few modifiers) and hoping for a 9-10. Damage to Hawkers is tracked by states—Good, Bad, and Fried (dead)—and stress, which starts at zero and causes a state change at six before resetting. Essentially two health bars, though some weapons or items can cause an entire state change rather than inflicting stress. Hawkers can even stress themselves to roll an extra die on some checks, which is crucial when failure is so much more likely than success.

The most fun of FRIK comes from the die rolls, specifically rolling a 1. See, each basic action and every single item has its own FRIK table. When you roll a 1 on any check (or a 2 while in Bad condition), you've FRIK'd it and must roll again on the relevant table. Some FRIKs are minor, FRIKing a dash action just means falling over, while others are explosive, the Soldering Cannon can Fry its user and Blind anyone nearby, and still others are just humorous, an unlucky Hawker may accidentally eat through their entire box of Zesty Humus Flakes. Regardless of what happens, the FRIK mechanic ensures each game is filled with memorable moments such as the one I described in the intro, which was based on an actual game.

The scenarios themselves are diverse enough to keep the game interesting and fresh. The nuclear reactor one was my introduction to the game and is a great example of why FRIK is enjoyable even beyond flubbing your dice. If a player is losing in this scenario, they can shoot at the reactors to expedite their meltdown and blow the whole thing up, since a draw is arguably better than just losing. Even replaying the same scenario won't be the same, as part of the setup is rolling for what random terrain feature is present this time. From jump pads to explosive barrels, sometimes even neutral monsters that all players must contend with. Creative play is rewarded, such as when a Hawker desperately needed to down several traitors, so they intentionally activated the landmines around the objective by dashing until they FRIK'd (the landmine's trigger).

Team composition varies based on player count, with fewer units per team in games with more players. In a standard two-player match, a team consists of a Captain, two Specialists, and three Rookies. The Captain can increase any two of their stats (move, thwack, zap, and think) by one point each, while Specialists can only increase one stat. However, Specialists choose a "class" that has no benefit on its own, instead allowing them to carry specialized equipment. Each team gets a budget to purchase gear with, either additional equipment or just upgrades to their base ZapL and armor. You can create some interesting combos with these purchases, such as a Courier on a Hoverboard with a Kitahner for a high-mobility melee unit. Or, my favorite creation, a Techie slathered in Invisible Paint that uses camera drones, putting traitor Hawkers in the spotlight and giving them performance anxiety. I only wish that there were blank, printable roster sheets available in the core rulebook, but at least they were included in the campaign expansion FRIK-A-FRAC.

With how simple the rules are and how easy creating a team is, new players can go from zero to playing a game with their custom team in around 15 minutes. And since the game is miniatures agnostic, it's a great excuse to put some models on the table if you aren't up for a heavier game. My brother loves the crude charm of 40k Orks, but would never play Warhammer or most other miniature games. FRIK finally gave him a way to enjoy his models, and both the mechanics and theme fit the Orks so well that he's frequently asked to play more games (he is not a board/mini gamer, so this is a huge win for me).

To me, FRIK is an absolute blast to play. But not everyone will enjoy the high failure rate in the game. It can be hard to plan strategically when hitting opponents or activating objectives successfully is statistically improbable. This game can't be taken too seriously, or you'll be incredibly disheartened when your Shield Belt starts pulling ZapL shots *towards* you. The people who will enjoy this won't be too stressed about winning, and can really embrace the thematic incompetence of their team.