Firetaker Origins, Part 1

On December 28, 2024, I decided to make a Panic Engine™ game based on Xena Warrior Princess. I wanted to use the Panic Engine because I admire the system for its precision, concision, and matter-of-fact tone. And I wanted to do a Xena homage because it’s simply the best television show of all time.

I defined the roles first: Warrior, Bard, Godling, and Goon.

Then, I jotted down some flavor text in my Notes app:

“Turmoil tears through ancient Greece. Warlords who think themselves kings level villages in pursuit of dominion. Gods trample mortals underfoot as they act out their petty rivalries. The people cry out for heroes. Will you answer the call with a battlecry of your own?”

It didn’t take long for me to realize the idea was a dead end. There was a basic tonal dissonance between the high stakes of the system and the superhero mythologizing of Xena. Yes, Roman soldiers crucify her (twice) and smash her legs with a mallet. And yes, the show ends with her beheading. But generally, the audience is conditioned to see Xena as invincible. It didn’t match a system where players track their ‘High Score,’ i.e., how many sessions they survive (the Mothership® Player’s Survival Guide notes that 4 sessions is the average).

I shelved the idea until April 5, 2025, when I was listening to Stephen Fry’s Mythos and suddenly thought what if Prometheus had help?

From there, I leaned into the Panic Engine ethos of surviving against impossible odds. If Zeus commanded an eagle to tear out Prometheus’s liver for all eternity, what would he do to mere mortals? They wouldn’t stand a chance. That fit the Panic Engine. That became Firetaker.