Ben Robbins’ chronicle of his West Marches campaign was one of the things that got me to write Freebooters on the…
Ben Robbins’ chronicle of his West Marches campaign was one of the things that got me to write Freebooters on the Frontier.
http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/705/west-marches-secrets-answers-part-1/
So we had another playtest of Freebooters this week.
So we had another playtest of Freebooters this week. Mathieu Mazzoni ran a short dungeon for 3rd level characters, and we have a few observations. Warning: braindump ahead.
Overall feeling
It’s nice to have a few more hit points and an extra move: my fighter felt more capable, but far from invincible. The magic-user did a few impressive things with his spells, and everyone felt like they contributed to the delve. It really felt like low level B/X.
On durations
Mathieu felt the duration tags weren’t really intuitive, and he kept giving estimates of how long a spell or a torch would last (in minutes). Reading the rule again myself afterwards, I think I could handle it as a Judge with a bit of practice. Thinking about duration as a resource takes some getting used to. Maybe this could be stressed in the book.
About the Cast Spell move
On a miss, choosing -1 ongoing for the duration of the spell’s effect shouldn’t be available when the spell is instantaneous. It’s probably obvious, but we had to stop and talk about it a couple of times during the game. This may warrant a mention somewhere.
In the Spellbook move
Maybe it’s just me (I played a magic-user in our first game), but listing the aspects and their costs like is a bit confusing when you’re in the middle of a battle. Layout permitting, I would suggest a table like the one I made here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nrCmm529H4gT5lwNts2hHlpYliSP4x_QVWKK-UDk6N0/edit?usp=sharing
A fleeing move?
There was a moment in the game when Tom Z’s dwarf used Not Guts, No Glory to dive at a giant spider-god emerging from a bottomless pit. The monster was clearly too powerful for us and the only reason we survived is our nice Judge. Mat decided the spider didn’t like that stingy axe. It retreated and let us live.
After the fact, Tom remarked that maybe the game needed a move to retreat or flee. Having it front of your eyes would be a good way to remind players that Freebooters shouldn’t fight to the death. Here’s a thing I drafted. We will test drive next time.
When you lead the retreat burn 1 Charisma and roll +CHA. On a 10+, choose 3 from the list below; on a 7-9, choose 2; on a 6-, burn 1 Charisma and choose 1.
– You don’t leave anyone behind
– No one is injured in the process
– You don’t lose anything precious
– The monsters give up the chase
That said, I’m really enjoying freebooting on the frontier. This game is the dream child of old school survival and DW that I always wanted.
Okay, I got lots of helpful feedback on the Fighter’s playbook, so here’s the current version of the Thief.
Okay, I got lots of helpful feedback on the Fighter’s playbook, so here’s the current version of the Thief. Let me know if you see any glaring issues and/or have any suggestions for improvement.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cgfxeos0aajjbzf/FotF_playbook_thief.pdf?dl=0
In the interest of making the Fighter and Thief as fun/interesting to play as the Cleric and Magic-User, I’m…
In the interest of making the Fighter and Thief as fun/interesting to play as the Cleric and Magic-User, I’m rethinking their moves. Here’s a new draft of the Fighter; opinions wanted.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k5uw73ixe2552mg/FotF_moves_fighter_draft2.pdf?dl=0
I just got a copy of Yoon-suin, which is a pretty amazing Asian influenced, randomly generated OSR setting book, and…
I just got a copy of Yoon-suin, which is a pretty amazing Asian influenced, randomly generated OSR setting book, and I was wondering if anyone had tried (or even thought about) using it with Freebooters? I realize both items are very new, so its probably a long shot, but I think the two books would mesh together really well.
Attempting to chronicle our current playtest campaign of Freebooters.
Attempting to chronicle our current playtest campaign of Freebooters. We’re using all of the moves and tools in The Perilous Wilds for the wilderness exploration and dungeon bits. This first post is just about the setting creation.
Ben Milton, Ben George, and Antoine Pempie, I’ve uploaded an alternate pdf of Freebooters with “don’t be a dick”…
Ben Milton, Ben George, and Antoine Pempie, I’ve uploaded an alternate pdf of Freebooters with “don’t be a dick” removed and “chaste,””lewd,” and “lustful” replaced on the Vice/Virtue tables. You can find it in the backer access folder with “kidfriendly” in its title.
These changes will be in this alternate version of the pdf only — the basic Freebooters pdf and the eventual print version will retain the original wording.
Let me know if you encounter any other problems, and I’ll do my best to address them!
FBotF mentions requiring Dungeon World to play, but it seems pretty self contained.
FBotF mentions requiring Dungeon World to play, but it seems pretty self contained. Is this like how OD&D claims you need Chainmail to play, but you don’t really. I haven’t played Dungeon World. Is there obvious stuff that won’t make sense or I’ll be missing out on if I actually try and run FBotF?
This thing is really cool, also.
Small suggestion.
Small suggestion. I would remove the more sexually-charged virtues and vice: chastity, lustful, lewd, etc. If a group is just randomizing characters, they might end up with a character that they are very uncomfortable playing. Plus, those keywords (and the Don’t be a Dick rule) make it harder to play with younger players. This might be more of a concern to me, since I mostly run games for 5th graders, but I thought I might bring it up.
Are any more classes planned for Freebooters of the Frontier?
Are any more classes planned for Freebooters of the Frontier?