Let's Read "THE PRICE OF FREEDOM" from West End Games

[Dumarest]

"WOLVERINES!"
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By popular demand, our new topic is The Price of Freedom by Greg Costikyan, © 1986 by West End Games (which we used mainly as Red Dawn: The Roleplaying Game).

(My boxed set)
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This will be a blast from the past and a refresher for me as well as I haven't played the game in decades, not because I wouldn't enjoy it but because it's not one I can get anyone interested in. Red Dawn came out in 1984, so it's not exactly the zeitgeist these days, and even then I think people were more interested in Twilight: 2000 (© 1984 by Game Designers' Workshop).

I'm going to break this read-through up into bite-sized chunks for my own sake, and obviously the place to begin is Freedom File A, which is similar to the How to Play booklet found in West End Games' classic 1st edition Ghostbusters RPG, right down to using the same typeface on the interior pages.

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[Dumarest]

A gutless President has been elected.

America has signed international agreements prohibiting "Star Wars" defenses.

The Soviet Union has developed a shield against nuclear attack.

The Soviet Premier demands American surrender.

The President complies.

Soviet troops are landing in your hometown.

In this, its darkest hour, America needs heroes.

Are you willing to pay...THE PRICE OF FREEDOM?

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Read This First, comprising Freedom Files A through D, is sort of the quick-start rules pamphlet for players. It contains six pregenerated characters, a photocopiable character sheet, Universal Identification Papers, charts, a Freedom Fighter's Checklist, and Useful Russian Phrases.

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It's all very tongue-in-cheek but my impression is that a lot of folks didn't get the black humor and took it seriously as a sort of Twilight: 2000 on the home front.

What's This Game About? In brief, in The Price of Freedom your PC is an ordinary American who has chosen to resist the Communist occupation.

What's the Situation? There are a few paragraphs for the Gamemaster to read to the players, essentially outlining how the weak-kneed President appeased the Russians to the point that they now have nuclear supremacy and an impregnable defense against American nuclear retaliation. The government has capitulated and the President has called for calm and cooperation with the occupying authorities. There are, at most, a few thousand Soviet spies and moles in the U.S., and it's going to take some time for the Russians to send over any substantial number of troops. Meanwhile, patriots countrywide are shredding files and destroying databases, there's looting and price-gouging going on, people are fleeing the big cities for the countryside. And you? "You've brought together your closest, toughest friends--men and women you know you can trust with your life. You've got to figure out what to do next."

 

[tenbones]

... oooo I'm feeling it.

 

[Ghost Whistler]

how do i stat Mitch McConnell?

 

[Dumarest]

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." --Thomas Jefferson

After a brief What is Roleplaying? sidebar, Freedom File A proceeds to the Player Briefing, which boils down into nine steps how to understand your character sheet and play your character. Meanwhile, it's recommended that the GM should read the Player Book to learn the basic rules and the adventure included in the Gamemaster Book, "The PATH of Freedom," for which the set-up and pregenerated PCs are intended.

I'm going to acknowledge right now that I don't think we ever played "The PATH of Freedom" or used the pregenerated characters. Looking at them now, they're a decent cross-section of average Americans from 1986. We always played high school and college kids, though, probably under the dual influences of (1) our age at the time and (2) Red Dawn.

1. Character Sheets: "In addition to your name, picture, and background information, it contains information about your skills and equipment.

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2. Skills work like so: each skill has a number and you need to roll less than or equal to that number on a d20 to succeed when using it. The GM may apply modifiers. You can also attempt to use a skill not listed on your sheet but your chances are very poor.

3. Attributes: There are five attributes (Strength, Manual Dexterity, Agility, Alertness, and Constitution). Much like Boot Hill, how intelligent, charismatic, or wise your character may be depends entirelyon how you choose to portray her. Attributes range from 1 to 19 and are used when you try to do something governed by the innate abilities of your body rather than a learned skill. Rolls are made the same way as for skill use.

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4. Personal Information: Information to help you envision and roleplay your character. You have a Physical Tag ("large, dark eyes"), a Personality Tag ("enthusiastic, smiles a lot"), a Passion ("rock 'n' roll), and Interests ("Judaism"). To clarify: your Passion is the one thing that's most important to your character and your Interests are highly important to you but not your Passion. I would guess they were influenced by Pendragon: when threatened, your character must act to protect whatever she's passionate about. When you create your own PC, you have to divide 20 points between one to five Interests. When your Interest is threatened or involved in some way, you need to roll under the number on a d20; if you roll less than or equal to the number, the Interest dominates your behavior and you have to act accordingly. Note thay if they come into conflict, Passions override Interests.

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5. Hero Points: shades of West End Games' Star Wars Force Points, you start with one and can use it to make sure you succeed on a critical roll or an otherwise impossible task. You may earn more at the end of an adventure.

6. Equipment seems self-explanatory but has a nice aside: "Finding some weapons is a good idea."

7. Ammo Points: Just a convenient place to keep track of your ammunition when things get hot and gunplay ensues.

8. Character Background: Your past, what you did before the Occupation, why you're righting against the Commie oppressors. It's also where your Passions and Interests are more fully explained, as well as any religious or political beliefs.

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9. Beginning the Game: "After you've read over your sheet, the gamemaster will tell you what situation your characters face. The next move is up to you."

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Does it have the stats for the Mi-24 helicopter gunship??

 

[Toadmaster]

I always confuse this game with Freedom Fighters and Year of the Phoenix (both from FGU). All three came out about the same time, with an obvious connection to Red Dawn, although neither were as closely tied to it as this seems to be.

 

[Voros]

Love this game. Costiykan is one of my favourite game designers. Too bad this came out at a time when the irony was largely lost on most. Odd as Greg had designed Paranoia previously.

 

[Dumarest]

I always confuse this game with Freedom Fighters and Year of the Phoenix (both from FGU). All three came out about the same time, with an obvious connection to Red Dawn, although neither were as closely tied to it as this seems to be.

Funny coincidence: Year of the Phoenix (© 1986 by Martin Wixted, published by Fantasy Games Unlimited) also has a Read Me First pamphlet with six pregenerated characters for diving right into playing the game!

(My boxed set!)
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One major difference, though, is that PCs in Year of the Phoenix are military astronauts from 1997 who get caught in a timewarp and are stranded in the postapocalyptic future 200 years after World War III, where the "Zoviets" kept the U.S. Constitution intact (!) in what is "now" known as the "United Provinces of Eastern Russia," so it's not much like Red Dawn aside from the Russians-in-America aspect, but is more like an admixture of Twilight: 2000, Planet of the Apes, and "The Omega Glory" episode of the original Star Trek.

 

[S'mon]

I would like to run this game, likely with a strong Current Year satirical element (The Russians Are Coming!) - only I don't fancy learning a new system.

 

[Gringnr]

how do i stat Mitch McConnell?

If you want to play a turtle-man, Gamma World is that way. *points*

 

[Nobby-W]

"WOLVERINES!"
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By popular demand, our new topic is The Price of Freedom by Greg Costikyan, © 1986 by West End Games (which we used mainly as Red Dawn: The Roleplaying Game).

Ah! Red Dawn - that famous 1980s movie starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. Apparently they worked together in some other chick flick as well.
Pub quiz question: Name the blockbuster 1984 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey ...

 

[Gringnr]

Ah! Red Dawn - that famous 1980s movie starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. Apparently they worked together in some other chick flick as well.
Pub quiz question: Name the blockbuster 1984 film starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey ...

I like to pretend that Steel Dawn is the sequel to Red Dawn.

 

[Endless Flight]

Dirty Dancing is better than Red Dawn. Yeah, I said it.

 

[Gringnr]

I have never seen Dirty Dancing, despite being a child of the 80s.

 

[Nobby-W]

I like to pretend that Steel Dawn is the sequel to Red Dawn.

Sadly, I have seen both that and Roadhouse. I can't say the experience was traumatic in the way that, say The Star Wars Holiday Special was, but neither were stunning examples of the cinematographer's art.

 

[Nobby-W]

I have never seen Dirty Dancing, despite being a child of the 80s.

It's much like Red Dawn in a lot of ways - Jennifer Grey playing a much younger character and Patrick Swayze taking his shirt off a lot.

Dirty Dancing is better than Red Dawn. Yeah, I said it.

That's not exactly a high bar, although Dirty Dancing was OK.

 

[Voros]

After the initial sublimely absurd scene of Russians dropping onto a football field and shooting teachers and teens I found Red Dawn pretty boring. When it comes to Cold War paranoid fantasies I much prefer the supremely goofy and entertaining Invasion USA with Chuck Norris.

 

[Picaroon Jack]

Dirty Dancing is better than Red Dawn. Yeah, I said it.

Nobody puts the Spetsnaz in the corner!!

 

[Gringnr]

It's much like Red Dawn in a lot of ways - Jennifer Grey playing a much younger character and Patrick Swayze taking his shirt off a lot.

Hmmm, maybe I will have to watch Dirty Dancing and pretend it's the second act of the Dawn trilogy.

 

[SavAce]

Hmmm, maybe I will have to watch Dirty Dancing and pretend it's the second act of the Dawn trilogy.

You'll have the time of your life, and you'll owe it all to Nobby-W.

 

[Nobby-W]

You'll have the time of your life, and you'll owe it all to Nobby-W.

This my first nomination for the 2019 awards in the category 'Dad Jokes'. Have an upvote. xD

And, because jokes are best when explained at great length, here's what SavAce was referring to.

 

[Dumarest]

Been a busy week and my mom's birthday is tomorrow but I should be able to start the read-through of the Player Book on Saturday, though it seems unlikely Martin Sheen would be opposing the Commie occupation as the cover purports.

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[yojimbouk]

Love this game. Costiykan is one of my favourite game designers. Too bad this came out at a time when the irony was largely lost on most. Odd as Greg had designed Paranoia previously.

Yep, this was slated in British RPG magazines at the time. A combination of the pretentious humourless wannabe authors that reviewed stuff in White Dwarf and Imagine at that time and reviewing stuff without reading the product properly.

 

[Dumarest]

Between one thing and another, I totally lost track of this thread, but now:

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So here we go, let's delve into the Player Book. A nice touch is how all the chapter titles have Russian translations, along with freedom-loving quotes on almost every page. Case in point:

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The book starts with an Introduction to the already-established premise: the game takes place in here and now (U.S.A., 1986). The world is the same as hours up until the point at which it diverges: "As the game begins, Communist troops--Soviet, Cuban, Nicaraguan, Vietnamese, East German, Czechoslovakian--are landing all over the United States and Canada.* You have only hours or days before they take up positions in your city." Everything you know remains the same up to this point, but from there, as the game progresses, "life will change as Soviet control becomes firmer. If you wish to remain alive and free, you must learn how to cope with these changes."

The next chapter establishes Basic Game Concepts by way of the tried-and-true Example of Play, this one featuring Greg** as the GM and Ken, Eric, and Holly as Resistance fighters. Interestingly, none of the players is using a separate name for his or her character. The example mainly gives an idea of things your group might attempt in your campaign, such as sabotaging the airport formerly known as JFK International so the Soviets can't use it to bring in more personnel and matériel. Then comes a glossary of terms, all of which should be familiar to anyone who has played an RPG before. Finally, we get a note explaining that what separates The Price of Freedom from other RPGs is the tone (predominantly "grim patriotism"), the setting (real world), and opportunities for mayhem ("blowing up buildings, people, and things" the players know personally) without repercussions: "Blowing up the public library is a bad idea, too--unless it's the local KGB headquarters."

The underlying assumption of the example of play and this chapter-ending note is that the players are playing themselves in their own city and encountering people they know personally in a fictionalized world. We never did that in Villains and Vigilantes, and we certainly never did that with The Price of Freedom. Did you?

Next: Character Creation!

* In high school I had a friend from Afghanistan who had a very hard time buying into this premise. His personal experience with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Soviet inability even to manage that successfully, made him skeptical that the Soviets could ever manage an invasion of the U.S. Additionally, he found humorous the idea that an undersupplied, low-morale, Soviet military with inferior technology could stand a chance against U.S. military power. I kept telling him to think of it as a fantasy game but he really had a difficult time buying into such a patently impossible premise.
** Costikyan, I presume.

 

[Dumarest]

The chapter on Character Creation begins by quoting William Wordsworth and recommending that novice players start with one of the six pregenerated charaters provided in Freedom File B. But since none of us here, I presume, are novices, let's move on to How to Generate a Character. There are six steps:

1. Take a pencil and a copy of the character sheet.
2. Look over the "Background Information" section, and decide what you want your character to be like.
3. Divide 50 attribute points among your character's attributes any way you like, and note the values you choose on the character sheet in the spaces provided.
4. Choose which skills your character knows.* Divide 150 skill points among the skills you choose.
5. List what equipment your character is currently carrying in the "Equipment" space.
6. Enter weapons information in the "Combat" section.

Character sheet front


Character sheet back
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Although the last chapter seemed to imply you would play yourself as a PC, this chapter devotes a lot of space to encouraging you to play a character "very different from yourself" because that's "much of the fun of roleplaying." I can go either way on that; it tends to depend on the game and the group's style. So first they want you to think about your character's background: "What is he like? What are his interests? What's most important to him? Where did he grow up?" You'll come up with your name**, ethnic background, political persuasion, religion or lack thereof, education, occupation prior to the occupation, family connections (if any), etc.

Additionally, you're instructed to come up with a "physical tag," which is defined as "the single most striking physical characteristic of your character--the first thing people notice when they encounter him." I remember the next year's West End Star Wars RPG, also by Greg Costikyan, also had ample space for a physical description on the character sheet.

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I think more games should ask for this, as it helps me as a referee or player more easily envision the character: "he's really tall with a big nose like Pete Townshend" goes a long way. It's also useful when I, as a referee, am playing an NPC: "Hey, you! Yeah, you with the big nose! What do you think you're doing?"

You'll also need to choose a passion and divide 20 points between one to five interests, but I already covered how those work when I posted about the Read This First section.

There are four rules that restrict how many points you can spend on particular skills:

1. No skill can be higher than 14 except your automatic skill of 19 in your native language.
2. Only two skill numbers can be 13 or 14.
3. Either the 13 or 14 skill must be related to your job.
4. No more than 40 points can be spent in each category. (The skills are divided into categories on the character sheet: Combat, Communication, Crafts, Education, and Survival.)

All in all, a good way to make sure the players are creating relatively well-rounded individuals who probably never expected to become Resistance fighters. I don't see any loopholes to be exploited to make a particularly combat- or survival-savvy PC. Interestingly, there are no long, drawn-out skill descriptions, I assume because all of the skills on your character sheet are self-explanatory. Jumping ahead a bit, I know the Gamemaster Book encourages roleplaying social situations like bargaining and giving a bonus to your bargaining roll if you did well, but letting the roll count for more if the PC is supposed to be better at something than the player is.

A few skills have blanks next to them that must be filled out with a specific detail: Instrument, Language, Craft, History, and Hunting.

For your starting equipment, you're instructed to ask your GM what you can have. Some items may be off-limits.

Finally, ever PC starts with one Hero Point, which was discussed earlier under the Read This First booklet.

Next: Attributes and Skills!

* You also automatically get some skills for free, which already have a value printed on the sheet. You can spend points to add to these base scores if you want them to be higher. This reminds me of Call of Cthulhu.

** Back in the days of phonebooks, we used to just flip pages and point with one hand over our eyes and take a name at random. Real names generally tend to sound more real than made-up names, but on the other hand the San Diego phonebook used to have a listing for "Fitzgerald, F. Scott & Ella," so who knows? I once landed on "Slick, Joe," and how could I not use a name as cool as that?

 

[Stevethulhu]

This is a fascinating time capsule. But I'm not sure a game where you play domestic terrorists would fly these days.

Oh how the world has changed...

 

[Gabriel]

The underlying assumption of the example of play and this chapter-ending note is that the players are playing themselves in their own city and encountering people they know personally in a fictionalized world. We never did that in Villains and Vigilantes, and we certainly never did that with The Price of Freedom. Did you?

I've done stuff like that.

When it's been an open group or just loosely bonded "friends", it has historically been a disaster. There was always an asshole or two who had issues with one of the other players who would turn things into constant arguments over how someone else really had an IQ of negative numbers while their own character was exceptional and flawless in every way. It typically turned into an arena to poke at vendettas and get everyone pissed.

When it's been done with very close friends with the attitude that there is a bit of wish fulfillment going on with self image mattering possibly a bit more than literal reality, then it has worked fairly well.

While I've done stuff in my own town, I shy away from real associates and family members as NPCs. At best it can be awkward. At worst, some serious dysfunction can be revealed that makes things even worse. I've found that once you just ignore family members and real associates, things flow much better. It does damage the "your playing yourself in the real world" thing a little bit, but that issue usually only lasts a session or two until the reality of the scenario itself settles in and what is going on there starts taking precedence over "what happened to mom/dad/sister/brother/other?"

 

[Bashere]

Ah, the ol' "stat yourself" thing that I've never seen not be a disaster.

Last time a GM tried this the players all agreed we were all perfect individuals who were all legendary experts in everything we did. The GM eventually agreed to drop it and let us make what we really wanted to play. And much fun was had by all until the game tanked because life got in the way.

 

[Dumarest]

I've been so busy with real-life things lately I've left this thread dormant for a while, but before I get back into it I wanted to check: is anyone still interested? If not, there's no point in picking up where I left off.

 

[Voros]

I’m interested.

 

[Séadna]

Interested as well.

 

[Giganotosaurus]

Me too!

 

[Dumarest]

The idea that this was written as a clever satire is misplaced, it was a straightforward and cynical attempt to make some money off US nationalist sentiments of the time, so much so that Costikyan felt a bit embarrassed by it in hindsight. It probably didn't help that the intersection of a conservative and RPG audience didn't materialise and the game didn't do well commercially.

The tongue-in-cheek tone and all the jokes in the text say otherwise.

 

[Bilharzia]

It's what Greg himself says about it.

 

[Dumarest]

Chapter 4: Attributes and Skills is, refreshingly, only one page long. There are no write-ups of the skills on the skill list, presumably because they are fairly obvious, but if you're the kind of player who needs a paragraph to tell you what Fishing does, perhaps you can persuade the GM to let you look at the Gamemaster Book, which provides the GM with more information on how adjudicate the use of skills. I prefer it this way as the player has no need to know the mechanical details or subsystems of the skills; she just needs to say, "We're running low on food. I'm going to try fishing to see what I can catch" and the GM provides the results.

There are two differences between skills and attributes. The most important one is that skills take priority over attributes. Attribute rolls are only made when none of the skills logically apply for the attempted action. The GM decides which skill or attribute applies, "and his decision is final." The second difference is that attributes arr innate abilities that generally will never increase whereas skills are learned abilities.

How about chucking dice? Using your skills and attributes is simple. Every skill and attribute has a number that rates how good you are with it. The GM may apply modifiers to the number depending on circumstances. Roll ≤ that number and you succeed, roll > that number and you fail. Exceptions: a roll of 20 is always failure and a roll of 1 is always success no matter what modifiers applied to the roll. When do you need to roll dice? A skill number of 10 is considered competence, which means you don't need to roll for success unless you are under some kind of stress. If your skill is < 10, there is still a chance of failure but if you are not under stress you double the skill number for purposes of the roll. So even if you're not especially good at picking locks (Locksmithing 7), if you have the right tools and plenty of time to work at a lock you'll only need to roll ≤ 14 to succeed.

At the end of a game session, your GM may award you additional skill points if your character performed particularly well. The GM may tell you the points must be allocated to specific skills or he may allow you to allocate them per your preference. Even though a roll of 20 is always failure, skills can be increased above 19, which may still be useful because it will counteract negative modifiers for especially difficult tasks. You must spend the new skill points immediately and can't save them for later. I'm not sure why you would want to save them, though, as it's a one-for-one expenditure when applying them to skills and there's no benefit to having a pile of skill points lying around unused. They don't accrue interest.

Next: Combat!

 

[Dumarest]

It's what Greg himself says about it.

I've not seen an actual quote where he claims it was not humorous. Where and when did he say this?

 

[Endless Flight]

I’m not sure why the game would be considered jingoistic. I don’t think the movie Red Dawn is, and this is just that with the serial numbers filed off.

 

[Voros]

I'm not saying it lacks humour, I'm saying it wasn't written as satire, it was a genuine attempt to capture a jingoist market. I can't remember the exact source as I've read through quite a lot of game design books in the past couple of months I don't remember which one it came from, or it may be a web source.

I think you’re thinking of this piece by Juhanna Pettersson where he speaks to Costikyan but the idea that the game was written for a ‘conservative’ audience is more the author’s premise and notably is not a direct quote.

Costikyan says his idea was “I wanted to out-do Twilight 2000, in a way,” and “My political views are not those of The Price of Freedom; at the time, I considered myself a ‘left libertarian'”, he continues. “I supported free markets and the minimal state, but had a suspicion of large businesses and their frequent attempts to use the power of the state to exclude or diminish competition, and largely supported unions as a counterpoint to the power of big business. And, of course, strongly supported civil liberties.”

There is a ‘Note to Liberal Readers’ on pg. 32 of the Player’s Book that states the premise of the game is a fantasy game ‘of a right wing nightmare’ and compares it to ‘The Lord of the Rings meets William F. Buckley’ where ‘they’ll kick your dog, reduce Baskin Robbins from 31 to 3, they’ll cancel Moonlighting...The question isn’t whether or not such a terrible thing could happen, but whether or not you could enjoy pretending it has.’ If the game was intended for right wingers there’d be no reason to include this half page of explanation, in fact it is likely to annoy some of them.

So satire may not be the exact right word but the game is very much intended with a strong sense of impish irony. But irony has never been gamers’ strong suit and I think many misunderstood the game and apparently still do.

Costikyan notes the premise of the game came from Ken Rolston, I find the idea two of the main designers behind Paranoia and the designer of Violence who talks fondly of smoking dope with Greg Stafford in Berkeley suddenly decided to make a serious right-wing paranoid fantasy game without a sense of irony highly unlikely.

 

[Voros]

I’m not sure why the game would be considered jingoistic. I don’t think the movie Red Dawn is, and this is just that with the serial numbers filed off.

As a non-American I find Red Dawn a deeply silly film and did even when I saw it as a 10 year old. For me it peaks with the early absurd scene of the Russians parachuting into the high school field and shooting the teachers/principal (obviously the first priority in a land invasion!).

After that it does try to treat the goofy premise with seriousness but for me all the energy goes out of the film. I much prefer the amusing and energetic Chuck Norris Invasion USA and the sublimely bizarre and often hilarious Christian propaganda film If Footmen Tire You, What Would Horses Do?

I disagree with Pettersson’s assertion that you can’t play Price of Freedom as satire, when I play it one day this is what it is going to look like.



PS. Make sure to watch this clip to the end for the moneyshot.

On a slightly more serious note, Footmen was discovered by trash film fans in the 80s, I think the appreciation of these propaganda films (including instructional films for kids to protect them against dangers ranging from empty construction sites to child molesters) expressed a certain ironic sensibility that carried into the ‘slackers’ of the 90s and are expressed in games like Paranoia, Unknown Armies and Price of Freedom.

Price of Freedom could be seen as a case of what J.G. Ballard (another underground hero of the era) called Terminal Irony.