Lampblack & Brimstone: Freebooters on the Frontier – Page 5

Just ran a party of Freebooters (2e) through the Tomb of the Serpent Kings.

Just ran a party of Freebooters (2e) through the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. It was a really fun session! Here are my impressions about the system:

– Everyone enjoyed it. Overall it ran smoothly and felt satisfying for the players.

– As the GM, the PbtA structure gives me freedom about the consequences of players rolling a failure. Knowing how deadly damage can be, I felt like I hesitated to deal damage, and it was difficult to make the game just dangerous enough. I felt like if I had run it with a DnD retroclone, it would have been less “arbitrary” and probably more challenging for the PCs. Next time, I’ll try to state the consequences before a player rolls: “On a 6-, you’ll take damage”. It might slow down play, but everything would be on the table in advance, so to say. I’ll see how it goes.

– There’s a Dwarf fighter with 18 Str. He is terrifying. The Stone Guardian in the module is mostly meant to be avoided by lvl1 PC or maneuvered around, but he just hacked it to pieces. Maybe this is related to my issue with setting the right difficulty.

– I felt like I was lacking a guideline for when to tick down Durations, so we mostly ignored them.

– I used the “threads” to decide about wandering monsters. The party was ambushed by goblins because they failed an unrelated roll earlier, and I knotted the “Goblins!” thread because I had no other move to make then. It worked well!

– The random spell generator <3

Not sure yet if it clicks for me well enough to become my default dungeon game, but I like it a lot!

The most recent version of rules still doesn’t have a Wilderness section, so I wrote the rules myself.

The most recent version of rules still doesn’t have a Wilderness section, so I wrote the rules myself. The main idea is that region is the same as dungeon. I generate a name for a region (with the random regions table from Perilous Wilds), a prevailing terrain type (terrain table from PW) and a size (using the dungeon size table from Plumb the Depths). Then I take a size-according number of themes from the dungeon themes table and start to fill the areas inside the region by doing a roll on the dungeon exploration table (see a slightly modified (by me) version below).

Roll Area type Contents

1-3 common area nothing unusual

4-6 common area 1 danger

7-8 common area 1 danger, 1 discovery

9-11 common area 1 danger, 2 discoveries

12 common area 1 discovery

13 unique area nothing unusual

14 unique area 1 danger

15 unique area 1 danger, 1 discovery

16 unique area 1 danger, 2 discoveries

17+ unique area 1d4 discoveries

Instead of cumulative exploration chance I add to the roll the number of areas before the nearest civilized settlement and its defense level modifying factor (see the table below).

None: +2

Militia: +1

Watch: 0

Guard: -1

Garrison: -2

Battalion: -3

Legion: -4

If the bonus turns out to be negative, I don’t count it. An area can be a hex as well as a cell in the Voronoi diagram, doesn’t matter. Either way, I count one area as one day of travel. When unique areas drop, I create them using the region’s themes as a starting point (the name can be borrowed from the random area table from PW). Danger and discovery are created using the relevant tables from PW, but with creature stats brought to accordance with FonF. After there are enough unique areas on the map, the region is done, you can start creating the next one. Additionaly, you can create a special region’s random encounters table based on the typical dangers for this region. If this is your first session, you can create all the essential things with the players, and then fill out spaces using this procedure.

As a future thought, one can create separate tables for different region types, as it was done in Plumb the Depths for different dungeon origins.

If the resulting content seems not enough, you can just add 1 danger and 1 discovery to each area.

Anybody come up with any rules for gunpowder firearms? Was thinking of running Blood in the Chocolate in Freebooters.

Jason, I know you are heavily inspired by DCC.

Jason, I know you are heavily inspired by DCC. Have you considered merging Wisdom and Charisma in FotF2, like they did? It’s called Personality in DCC but I think Presence would be a better name for such a stat.

I’ve been thinking about a simple alternative armor system.

I’ve been thinking about a simple alternative armor system. As Acritarche pointed out, a flat damage reduction is really powerful: I’d like players who wear heavy armor to feel like there’s a chance their armor won’t protect them. So here it is:

Armor has a value from 1 (thick clothes) to 5 (heavy full-plate armor). When you take damage, roll 1d6. If you roll equal or under your armor value, reduce damage by the amount you rolled. So if you have armor 3 and you roll a 2, reduce damage by 2. On a 3, reduce damage by 3. On a 4, you take the full blow without damage reduction.

Thoughts? 🙂

A question about Follower moves.

Why do Recruit and Give orders invite to mark XP on a 6- rather than mark an Ability? (that could be resp. CHA and WIS).

These look like easily won XPs to me.

Thoughts for a new rule in FotF.

Each class has a special ability linked to it (Mettle, Cunning, Favor, Power).

I would really consider being able to burn an ability point to raise it temporarily. the burnt ability being the one used to calculate it of course (resp. STR, INT, WIS and INT).

What do you think?

I’ve been solo testing Freebooters v2 for about two weeks now and filled 77 pages of Canson booklet.

My general feeling is that FotF v2 + Perilous Wilds works marvel together.

Here are some finer remarks:

• Making camp + Manage provisions is generally a quite risky endeavour even in peaceful regions. This can trigger a lot of fiction and some more moves.

• A good armour is the best investment e.v.e.r.

• Travelling requires a lot of +WIS moves (Make camp + Manage provisions + Stay sharp. This should be balanced a bit. (1)

• Find a buyer is not a fair move : 10+ hardly a win, 7-9 is a non-win scenario (2)

(1) My take on this :

• Make camp + WIS ;

• Manage provisions +INT (because careful planning and management),

• Stay sharp +CON (because the greater hardship is to stay awake after a long day trip >> resist, endure)

(2) Find a buyer

When you seek to convert valuable objects into coins, roll+size.

10+ : someone offers you 1d4+7 x 10 % of its value. Accept or Negociate.

7-9 : someone offers you 1d6+3 x 10 % of its value. Accept or reject.

6-: you draw unwanted attention on the object(s) and the Judge makes a move.

I’m having trouble with the multiclassing moves in Freebooters 2e.

I’m having trouble with the multiclassing moves in Freebooters 2e. What does “you may begin multiclassing as a Thief, and add Thief moves to this playbook” mean?

Does it mean that you immediately add all Thief basic moves to your playbook? It seems like a lot compared to other advances. Or dose it mean that you can start selecting Thief moves instead of advanced moves from your class at every odd level? If so, do you immediately gain one Thief move, or do you have to wait until the next odd level to gain a Thief move?

Something I’d like to find in Freebooter v2 is a random table for picking up ressources that might appear in…

Something I’d like to find in Freebooter v2 is a random table for picking up ressources that might appear in Regions, Areas, Sites and/or Steadings.

Here is the one I made up for my solo Freebooter test.

1-6 COMMON

1-3 Wood

4-5 Stone

6-8 Food

9-10 Common crafts (shoes, clothing, tools, etc.)

11 Common minerals (clay, sand, iron, etc.)

12 Medicinal and aromatic herbs

7-9 RARE

1-2 Precious woods, marbles, furs, etc.

3 Specialized crafts including armoury

4-6 Fine food products (wines, delicatessen, etc.)

7-8 Livestock (cattle, ovids and company)

9 Semi-precious stones

10-11 Rare ores (Sn, Pb, kaolin, white sand, etc.)

12 Slaves

10-11 VALUABLE

1-3 Precious metals (Au, Ag, Pt, etc.)

4-5 Gems and precious stones

6-7 Extraordinary livestock (Pegasus, Palomino ghost, etc.)

8-10 Arts and crafts including quality armoury, parade armoury

11 Exotic products (spices, silk, etc. – !adapt to your world!)

12 Archeomancian relics and monstrous trophies

12 ARCANE

1-4 Magic components (all types)

5-7 Talismans (gri-gri, cult sign, etc.)

8-9 Magic-binding powder or element

10-11 Magic objects

12 Magic relics

Another thing I’d like to have is a random table for deities and cults (Name, Domain, Tenets, Cult Structure, Remarquable rite). But I don’t have this one yet. 😉