Free League, Fria Ligan, Mutant Year Zero, Coriolis, Tales from the Loop, & the Forbidden Lands

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I honestly do quite like Forbidden Lands. I find the system more interesting than the setting, however. The setting has many aspects of it I quite like. It's nice to see an RPG that cleaves more closely Fantasy's Pagan roots rather than trying to have it's cake and eat it to vis-à-vis Christian influence. That said, there are some relatively minor aspects of the worldbuilding I'm not a big fan of, such as Hobbits and Goblins being the same species and each one born having a 50% chance of being a Hobbit or Goblin.

Also the rules have some aspects I'm not a big fan of: such as spells being powered by WP points. Which can mean, in practice that the party's Sorcerer could well spend a significant portion of the adventure being unable to cast spells. I highly recommend checking out the Reforged Power Supplement on DT RPG. I think it's a vastly improved version of the rules. So much so that I hope Free League incorporate these updates into a second edition.

While I've been pretty critical so far in this post I'd like to re-iterate that overall I really like Forbidden Lands. It manages to really nail the perilous, low-fantasy feel that I love from games like B/X DnD, The Witcher and Dragon Warriors. Forbidden Lands strikes a happy medium, I think, between Old School lethality and 5e's aversion to character death. Characters can go down quite quickly, but actual death is somewhat rare. Instead, hitting 0 Strength mean rolling on a permanent injury table. Magic is a real bright spot for me to as it really feels more mysterious, unknown and well mystical than typical DnD magic. Instead of going "expecto patronus!" and throwing out a fireball, the Sorcerer looks at someone and they spontaneously burst into flames.

IMHO Magic should be scary. You should be able to understand how the common man only really knows enough about Magic to be a afraid of it.

I might try running a modified version of the rules using the Lands of Legend setting from Dragon Warriors.
 
Torque2100 Torque2100 So far my issues with The Forbidden Lands are things like the hidden combat mechanics. I feel that they're not a good add on and that Free Leagues realised that and that's why they made it optional.

Problem is, they made one of the warrior paths all about it, so if you aren't using the optional hidden combat mechanics that's one less talent paths for the warrior.

My other issue was not giving monsters Wit and Empathy stats where needed or where it made sense. It made a lot of nifty talents and skills not useable versus monsters/beasts.

My current frame of mind is to actually work up Wit and Empathy stats for the monsters/beasts where appropriate. So abilities like Taunt could be used versus the intelligent monsters/beasts that understand what you're saying to them as one example.

Other than that I really am digging the mechanics over all. Charlie D Charlie D and Séadna Séadna threads really helped me grok the MYZ mechanics better plus some comment threads on Reddit and YouTube Videos.
 
Acmegamer said:
I forgot this thread existed. I should have posted the Blade Runner Rpg announcement here. Doh.

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Thinking about it, with the Alien RPG already released, this other Ridley Scott license seems inevitable.

However, as with Alien, a Blade Runner game seems a little narrow in its premise. To me, Traveller already handles the premise of an Alien-concept game; conversely, Cyberpunk (or 2300AD if you stick with Earth) generally covers Bladerunner. Will stay interested when it arrives though.
 
Trippy said:
Thinking about it, with the Alien RPG already released, this other Ridley Scott license seems inevitable.

However, as with Alien, a Blade Runner game seems a little narrow in its premise. To me, Traveller already handles the premise of an Alien-concept game; conversely, Cyberpunk (or 2300AD if you stick with Earth) generally covers Bladerunner. Will stay interested when it arrives though.
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I posted this under the Blade Runner thread, I don't feel that it's too narrow or even a little narrow. In my opinion it's the opposite, it's wide open. It allows for dark dystopian cyberpunk role-play, investigative, military, early space etc.

Basically I see The Expanse (better mechanics than Green Ronin's rpg and better supported) type of play. Outlands, Aliens etc etc. I also would rather play 2300 AD in this system with this publisher versus Mongoose. I'm far from happy with Mongoose and how they operate, the quality of their products etc. (Same goes for Catalyst, both piss me off)
 
Trippy said:
Thinking about it, with the Alien RPG already released, this other Ridley Scott license seems inevitable.

However, as with Alien, a Blade Runner game seems a little narrow in its premise. To me, Traveller already handles the premise of an Alien-concept game; conversely, Cyberpunk (or 2300AD if you stick with Earth) generally covers Bladerunner. Will stay interested when it arrives though.
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I think this combination sounds pretty amazing if Free League pulls it off:

PCs prowl the neon noir streets of Los Angeles as Blade Runners with different specialties, personalities – and memories. PCs play as either human or Replicant Blade Runners.

LA acts and reacts differently based upon your character, specialties, and agenda.

The core themes are sci-fi action, corporate intrigue, existential character drama, and moral conflict. PCs will question their orders, empathize with their enemies, and make hard calls with high stakes and long-lasting implications.

Will push the boundaries of investigative gameplay in tabletop RPG.

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@Acegamer This is why I would highly suggest the Reforged Power supplement as it provides an alternate Path of the Enemy talent list for Fighters that doesn't rely on the Hidden Combinations rule.
 
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Torque2100 said:
@Acegamer This is why I would highly suggest the Reforged Power supplement as it provides an alternate Path of the Enemy talent list for Fighters that doesn't rely on the Hidden Combinations rule.
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Is that listed on DriveThruRpg? Sight unseen, anything that replaces that path would be a good idea so I'm definitely interested. :smile:
 
Been playing a Tales from the Loop campaign, and I do have to say that the death spiral is real.

Already it feels like the odds are against the players with dice rolls. A few people are hella lucky, scoring multiple successes on a regular basis (without pushing). While others (like me) barely get a single one (even with our larger dice pools). It's WEIRD.

THEN when you get a condition.. that -1 (or god forbid a -2) really makes your character an inept failure. Things get worse and worse... it's really bad when there isn't the chance of downtime or ways to "heal".

My character has the Lead skill, which can heal others, however he's got 2 conditions now and the negative effects of rolling Lead on a failure don't make this very feasible.

It's... not very fun, I have to say. To feel that your character can no longer reliably contribute. All that I do is max out my Luck very early and then... just help others, never taking the lead.

I have to say that I'm not wholly impressed. I know that if I ever run this game I'm going to tweak the recovery rules a little bit. It's really fucking brutal. My character's had 2 conditions for 3 sessions now. And we're about to deal with the "boss". My character is going to be utterly useless.

Anyone had a similar experience?
 
Oh also LOL at the game's idea that if you fail an important roll you'll get a condition. So you "push" to get a success... which costs a condition. You just can't catch a break!!
 
Necrozius said:
Anyone had a similar experience?
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Well, I liked the Mutant Year Zero version, it was brutal and unforgiving and to succeed you had to be ready to sacrifice your gear/body/whatever.You barely succeeded and always by the skin of your teeth. It was a good fit for the setting.

Then I GMed three sessions of Coriolis... It was a shit show, all my players barely succeeding at anything (barely having one success when rolling 7 to 8 dice). The "praying to the icons" to get a re-roll felt artificial. I was promised Firefly + 1001 Nights and all we got was Red Dwarf at the Kwik-E-Mart. Nice setting though...

The latest versions of the system (Twilight 2000 and Blade Runner) seem to counter balance this as players now get to roll bigger dice (d8, d10, d12).

It's a good system but the will to use it for every Free League release is a bit tiring.

EDIT: I saw someone on a forum say that they modified the rules to get a success on a 5-6 for their Vaesen campaign and that it worked pretty well.
 
Kobayashi said:
EDIT: I saw someone on a forum say that they modified the rules to get a success on a 5-6 for their Vaesen campaign and that it worked pretty well.
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Honestly, I'm tempted to do that. IN Aliens and Vaesen it "feels" easier to recover. In the Loop it's very awkward (you have to play out a scene with your ONE anchor). It's a bit too limiting, in my opinion.

We had a scene last night in which our characters walked a long way to get to the main "dungeon". We roleplayed a great conversation about families, music, goals in life etc... It was a real "Stand by me" moment. Had I been a GM, I would have allowed characters to recover a Condition then and there but...
 
Necrozius said:
Had I been a GM, I would have allowed characters to recover a Condition then and there but...
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The problem might be between the chair and the GM screen :smile: But yeah, the system is pretty harsh so if the GM doubles down on it... That's especially strange for a Tales from the Loop campaign, I'd feel like playing The Goonies with Cthulhu Dark.
 
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Kobayashi said:
The problem might be between the chair and the GM screen :smile:
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You're right. I've looked this up on other places (eg. reddit) and this seems to be the general consensus.

Last night we had a scene where we had to walk across a dangerous area (slippery and full of toxic mold). My PC already had the "Exhausted" condition (for 3 sessions already... no time to recover, which is a problem in itself). I rolled and failed, but took another condition to roll again (and I succeeded with 2). The way the DM described this new condition was... that I failed and fell into the toxic mold. I kindly reminded them that I took a condition to avoid this very thing... and got 2 successes... so this made no narrative sense. They agreed and changed the narrative... but it felt off.

Basically I took a condition... to avoid taking a condition. WTF
 
Necrozius said:
Anyone had a similar experience?
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We definitely felt the impact of conditions during the climax. If you didn't succeed in the first couple of rounds it was often a nil sum game to keep pushing, which I thought was quick good.

In regard to over time, we didn't find it was an issue. The key was that it kept driving the players toward their Anchor and Hideout, which was good for play. When those didn't make sense, such as when the PCs went camping, we would often find substitutes for the two to allow more flexibility.
 
TftL is my favorite game I've never played ... The idea of the death spiral definitely concerns me, and I can see even from reading the rules how that would be an issue.

I wonder if there's a way to change the "damage" system so it doesn't come out of one's dice pool. Or just convert to a different system ...
 
RangerRupert said:
TftL is my favorite game I've never played ... The idea of the death spiral definitely concerns me, and I can see even from reading the rules how that would be an issue.

I wonder if there's a way to change the "damage" system so it doesn't come out of one's dice pool. Or just convert to a different system ...
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Coriolis does that IIRC.
 
TJS said:
Coriolis does that IIRC.
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As does Alien from memory; hit points are just equal to the Strength attribute equivalent (so about 2-5). Coriolis has Hit Points equal to the sun of the two physical attributes (so 4 - 9) and mind points equal to the sum of the mental attributes. I think both also have talents to boost HPs (I know Coriolis definitely does)
 
Necrozius said:
Anyone had a similar experience?
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That wasn’t exactly the experience for our group. I mean, conditions were serious, but we regularly had the kids return home and visit with their anchors. I do think that if the kids are “in the field” for a prolonged amount of time, that the GM should work something out and allow them to clear a condition.
 
zcthu3 said:
As does Alien from memory; hit points are just equal to the Strength attribute equivalent (so about 2-5). Coriolis has Hit Points equal to the sun of the two physical attributes (so 4 - 9) and mind points equal to the sum of the mental attributes. I think both also have talents to boost HPs (I know Coriolis definitely does)
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That's right, I forgot about that (I've read through Alien, but not closely).
 
hawkeyefan said:
That wasn’t exactly the experience for our group. I mean, conditions were serious, but we regularly had the kids return home and visit with their anchors. I do think that if the kids are “in the field” for a prolonged amount of time, that the GM should work something out and allow them to clear a condition.
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It does emphasize that this is a game about children. Children who don't get time to get support and feel safe are at a significant detriment. If you play TftL like a standard horror game, it will lose this flavour in the process.
 
That is weird, as its like 180 degrees from what I experienced when running MYZ. My players were badasses, they plowed through stuff at a scary rate. I double checked the rules, checked their character sheets, everything was in order. A couple of my players do like to maximize their characters, but everything was withing the rules. As the GM, it was sometimes hard to challenge them without throwing something seriously deadly at them...and even then, they'd usually kill it within a round or two lol.

All that said, the game was still seriously fun...
 
One big mistake I made was having my character's main Anchor not a family member. BIG MISTAKE.

I had made a "Jack Black record store guy" as his anchor... but the mall is always closed when we go adventuring. Figures.
 
CRKrueger said:
The idea of players having a ship they have to upgrade and keep running and have it be almost like a character with traits/abilities, etc was something I really liked from the original Cortex Firefly game (not the Cortex+).

I got the Coriolis Quickstart.
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A lot of Zero Engine games have that kind of base building aspect. I know Mutant: Year Zero, Forbidden Lands, Vaesen, Twilight 2000 and Coriolis all have it.
 
Necrozius said:
One big mistake I made was having my character's main Anchor not a family member. BIG MISTAKE.

I had made a "Jack Black record store guy" as his anchor... but the mall is always closed when we go adventuring. Figures.
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You can change your anchor if it isn't working. On saying that, have you sought him out outside of his job? Or maybe he plays in a band and your PC sneaks into his band practices.
 
Necrozius said:
One big mistake I made was having my character's main Anchor not a family member. BIG MISTAKE.

I had made a "Jack Black record store guy" as his anchor... but the mall is always closed when we go adventuring. Figures.
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Any way to change it up a bit? Maybe his shop is adjacent to the mall… in the parking lot or across the street… and he holds late hours?

I think the issue is the lack of anchor scenes, based on what you’re describing. I’d mention it to the GM, if you think that’ll help.

Some GMs have been conditioned to not allow the players to have nice things! That they’re being soft on them or whatever. But the game absolutely expects the anchors to come into play regularly.
 
To be fair, we play once every week, and only 2 to 2.5 hours at a time. It just sucks to have the "Exhausted Condition" for 3 sequential sessions.

I'm gonna ask the GM to be a bit more flexible in the future. Like, there are moments in Stand by Me, the Goonies, the Sandlot and even Stranger Things when the kids have those core memory moments of friendship. We've had a few of those and I'd argue that if roleplayed well, they have potential to heal up a Condition.

How can a 13-year old be exhausted for 4 continuous hours?
 
Necrozius said:
To be fair, we play once every week, and only 2 to 2.5 hours at a time. It just sucks to have the "Exhausted Condition" for 3 sequential sessions.

I'm gonna ask the GM to be a bit more flexible in the future. Like, there are moments in Stand by Me, the Goonies, the Sandlot and even Stranger Things when the kids have those core memory moments of friendship. We've had a few of those and I'd argue that if roleplayed well, they have potential to heal up a Condition.

How can a 13-year old be exhausted for 4 continuous hours?
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School, weddings, funerals, chores day, etc. :devil:
 
There doesn't seem to be a thread dedicated to Blade Runner and this one looks close enough.

Good news everyone! (Received via the Free League newsletter)

Releasing in 2024:
Replicant Rebellion expands the scope of the core game, allowing players to join the ranks of the Replicant underground in the Los Angeles of 2037. The characters are an independent cell loosely organized under Freysa Sadeghpour’s leadership, and undertake a variety of operations – from helping fugitive Nexus-8 Replicants elude capture to sabotaging installations of the Replicant industry. This beautifully illustrated hardback sourcebook will include:
  • An overview of the history and organization of the Replicant underground, charting its presence throughout the Blade Runner timeline.
  • Detailed guidelines on how to play a Replicant underground campaign, including several new player character archetypes.
  • Half a dozen complete Operations (i.e., complete adventures) to play for a cell in the Replicant underground.
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The Replicant Rebellion expansion will have to significantly tweak character advancement, since the core book conflict between Promotion and Humanity points seems entirely inapplicable. Looking forward to see what they do!
 
Yep, I read that in my email inbox a bit ago and thought, oh very cool. Look forward to reading through the material when it releases. Plus more adventures is a good thing as well. I tend to riff off of most published material, taking it and building it into much much more usually.

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