FIST Avalon is an interesting exercise in bending FIST systems into new shapes and possibilities. 

More than altering, Avalon extends many of the core concepts of FIST. Roles become two sided with a vice and virtue, that not only rewards role playing but challenges players to follow their knightly oaths to avoid negative effects. To go along with this change, the included mission creation rules recommend adding these virtues as constant themes.

Traits with their own advancement trees have been added, including permanent and temporary bonuses for adding new traits and swapping old ones out. This adds another layer to character growth that encourages a character trying new traits to gain power.

Avalon adds a different crunchiness to FIST that those who are seeking out more character building options will find enjoyable.

On the other hand, its ethos might run counter to those who enjoy FIST for its relative character minimalism and high lethality. By increasing both character build options and complexity, it becomes a harder pill to swallow when your character inevitably dies or if you are consistently having to make new ones.

If you are looking to add more mechanical complexity to character building or bring knighthood into the forefront of play, Avalon will give you a lot of material to run with.

FIST: Avalon is an arthurian hack of the cold war supernatural espionage rpg FIST.

The PDF is 16 pages, cleanly organized, with a slight OSR vibe. Everything is easy to read, and there's some appropriate public domain artwork.

In terms of departures from the FIST engine, the biggest mechanical changes here are the inclusion of Virtues, which require you to behave in certain ways during your adventures. Also you have a home base by default, plus a knightly order that you can progress through the ranks of.

The new Traits are nice and thematic, and the new progression system allows you to swap out Traits while keeping some of the old Trait's bonuses. This is flexible and dynamic and fits with the theme of knights changing and establishing themselves as they quest.

The game's scenarios, called quests, have a wonderful gimmick where they include both physical and moral obstacles, and this kind of guarantees that you're always thinking about what you stand for while you play. There's also a wide range of sample quests, each about three sentences long, and all of which feel easy to run off of the cuff.

Knights from FIST: Avalon can also be dropped into regular FIST games with a little bit of finessing, and don't overpower the existing game balance. They have a bit more growth potential than an average FIST agent, but are slightly more limited in their powers and technology and also by their Virtue. You could have a lot of fun just reverse Connecticut-Yankeeing a PC from this system into normal FIST.

Overall, if you like arthurian fantasy, or low-magic medieval settings, or courtly politics and heroic combat, this is a great FIST hack. It *does* require the base game to understand it, but it also fully transforms that base game in a really satisfying way. FIST: Avalon is well worth your time.

Minor Issues:

-This is a personal design philosophy thing, but I feel like recovering from being Broken or Tainted should give you two advancements to make up for the extra hassle. Arthurian knights had a tendency to kind of constantly lapse, get bested by their vices, and then try again, and providing two advancements turns the mechanic from one that the players want to avoid and the GM wants to force them to interact with into a mechanic where nobody feels the need to throw out their character if it comes up.

-Alchemist might benefit from a bomb/elixir carry capacity limit. Alternatively, "you start quests with X number of bombs and elixirs" prevents downtime bomb-farming shenanigans.

-Bastard and Foreigner thematically feel like Origin Traits.

-Patron gives -1 Creative. Should this be +1? Otherwise the Trait seems to be mostly downside.

-I would've liked to see a bit more about Castles, plus some example foes, but neither of these is strictly necessary to play or enjoy FIST: Avalon. It's a great hack, and I hope there'll be more supplements to follow it.