Is “almanac” an actual term in FotF rules-set?
Freebooters on the Frontier 2e Discussion
Yes, Chris – It was included in the latest update to Overland & Underworld. One of the ideas carried over from The Perilous Wilds.
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Ok, spent past few days putting together my West Marches campaign frame for my future go at FotF.
The high concept is a drifting city of ships has come upon a “new” unexplored continent. The party will be exploring the continent as the city of ships drifts along the shoreline, with the purported goal of the party to find trade partners, resources to exploit, and report back on risks to the city (called The Drift). The leaders of the city want to basically colonize and exploit the new continent. The folk who already live there are probably not on board with that. I’m also hoping that the PCs will also subvert or rebel against their leaders, most of the time.
Feedback desired: I’ve added the Faction element from Jason Pitre’s Spark RPG. But I’m wondering if that’s so robust that focus will turn to the faction machinations, and away from the exploratory nature of the sequential one-shot nature of West Marches play?
Also wondering if there’s possibility of PVP (thinking yes); not sure if Freebooters is the right system to handle. I’m choosing that because of the robust world building tools, I’m familiar with the system, and so are some of my players. But I’m a bit worried that I’m trying to tweak it past what it’s really good at…
Here’s the link.
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@jasonlutes we made this map as a group during the Freebooters setting prep from the rule book, then I fleshed it out using hexkit. We also made cultural notes etc. that informed the map.
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Cool! I love it when a rough sketch gets turned into a more finished map. For me, making player contributions more concrete is one of the more satisfying aspects of the game.
@chrisshorb, the Drift campaign premise is awesome! I love what you’ve written about it so far, particularly the “base camp” setup with the longboat, healer, and guards. Might there be other such Drift expeditions all along the shore? The opportunity for rivalry and competition might spice things up.
I think the game will hold up fine if it ends up skewing toward faction intrigue. I would just follow whatever interests emerge during play, with check-ins as needed to make sure everyone’s happy with the direction. I’ve found that the moves are flexible enough to accommodate a pretty broad range of play. The XP rewards in the Wrap Up and Stash moves nudge things toward exploration and treasure hunting, but you can always tweak those to suit the direction of your campaign.
As far as PvP goes, when it’s arisen in our games we just handle it by having moves trigger as normal, with the involved parties being able to Hinder each other if it makes sense in the fiction, and it’s worked out just fine. The caveat being that moves that might dictate PC behavior (such as Negotiate) are eschewed in favor of pure RP between players. I will include guidelines for PvP in the final rules.
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I like the setup for the Drift. I think you will have to really help the players craft their faction’s goals to keep the factions engaged with the exploration aspect. I think you should be even more explicit about that with the players, and/or circle back to the goals after more information about the new land and its factions becomes available.
If the PCs uncover a wealthy tyrannical society with very dark characteristics (human sacrifice, slavery) but with a nascent rebel faction… Well, that will set off shockwaves within the Drift’s factions. Probably re-aligning the goals of the factions, some may support they tyrant, others the rebels.
That example may be too over the top… You may need to come up with some faction moves and some kind of way to chart their power, plenty of PbtA, or PbtA games do this, sounds like you are aware.
Not sure if that feedback is what you want, but your game setup sounds exciting.
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FYI everyone, after surveying the options at @chrisshorb’s suggestion, I am leaning toward starting a Lampblack & Brimstone Slack and moving FotF conversations there. I’ll post here when that happens.
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Ooh, yes. That’s a really good angle. Will definitely back-pocket that.
Lots of folks giving me similar feedback, and I’m glad of it. You are right, if they players want a faction game, I’ll be happy to give it to them. May leverage some of Jex Thomas’s city stuff above. Good call out on possible tweaks to the XP rewards.
Thanks for the tip on the PVP and using Hinder and the way to look at Negotiate and maybe other moves.
BTW, I’m thinking of coming up with some tables for naming Factions. Will keep you guys posted and will share when done. Something along the lines of the d12->d100 table like the Spell Names (although I may start smaller so I don’t get overwhelmed - there are basically 500 fictemes (word I just made up meaning building block of fiction) in the Spell Name Generator).
And Double-BTW, if that goes well, I may then be further inspired to create the Monk playbook with similar Martial Arts Schools/Styles and Martial Arts Techniques tables.
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Yes, agree with this. As they explore, and learn of new societies and groups and individual power players on the new continent (I can’t wait until the players come up with a name for it!); we will need to come back and analyze the impact the factions on the Drift. I’m a bit concerned about how this will interact with the serial/episodic intent of West Marches play. Ultimately, I think we’ll have to play this out.
Over the top is good. I have found that when I try to be too subtle, it tends to go over my players’ heads, by in large. Better to be obvious as a maul to the knee; and if they tell me I’m laying it on too thick, I can back off.
I had already considered exactly the type of society you are describing - but they also have beautiful art, indoor plumbing, women are treated as exact equals to men, and a culture that is basically peaceful for the dominant culture (albeit built on top of horrific violence of slavery and sacrifice). Give the PCs some nice gristly moral quandraries… 
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I was hoping for Discord, since I don’t want to have to adopt a new platform. BUT I will follow the game conversation wherever it goes! (In all honestly, that ain’t true. Never Facebook, YMMV.)
When we have a Slack, would love to trade some of our FotF-inspired random tables. It’s one of my favorite parts of FotF and inspired me to make some of my own like a 3d25 random Prayer generator for a Black Hack game I run. Would love to see what you’ve come up with for Factions!
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I would LOVE to see what people have been up to. Adding random-tables channel now!
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I hear you, @Motive_Zine. I got off facebook a while back, I’m not fit for the twitterverse, and have managed to limit my online social stuff to just a few online fora. After trying out both Discord and Slack for a while, I found Slack much more to my liking. Apologies for the new tricks!
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Slack allows for more focused discussions, while Discord is a lot more chaotic and casual. Which is not to say that one is better than the other, it’s just that they are different. In any case I’m looking forward to join the Slack!
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So, I am sorry if this is waaaaay OT, but I have been playing around with Foundry VTT. I was wondering if anyone else has played around with the DW compendium - UI looks really slick. Foundry’s ability to handle rolling on tables had me really excited about the possibilities with FotF2e. I was pleasantly surprised about the number of systems supported other than 5e: OSE, Fate, Dungeon world, Electric Bastionland, 7th sea, Blades, Alien, etc.
Not worried about Slack really. Looking forward to having more functionality.
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Foundry looks cool, from what I can see via the free web-based demo, @Motive_Zine, what is it about the table functionality you like? I’m not sure how to find it in the free demo.
Hey @chrisshorb, you have some experience with Slack – What do you think the best way is for me to invite folks? Just post the shareable link here? Do I need to worry about security issues?
Good question.
You can deactivate someone’s account, but if you give out a public link, you don’t really have a way to prevent them from joining with another email address. But you can set the link so you will get notified if someone joins, so you can monitor joins. And so you won’t be the only person at the switch, you can assign other Admins too. I’m not sure if they get access to email notifications if someone joins.
This forum and thread are themselves sort of off in a corner of the internet, so that makes them less public. But they are visible to the public.
I can’t really think of a more feasible method. I guess you could DM everyone in this thread with a private message… Or ask them to DM you for an invite. Seems like a lot of work, with not much added security.
You could also post a public link here that only lasts 30 days, and then ask people to DM you here on this forum after 30 days is up if they want access to the Slack. But again, more work after 30 days.
I guess, after typing/thinking out loud (thanks for indulging), I’d just give out a “never expiring” link here in this thread, and be an alert admin for a bit and maybe ask a couple of other folks to help you with mod duties. And then if you get a bad actor who ALSO persists in rejoining after getting kicked - then you can think about changing up the link and where you publicize it.
My sense is anyone still actively reading this 576 post thread at this point is pretty invested in your game and if so are clearly among the most decent and ethical and intelligent and good looking folks on the planet.
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In addition to what Chris suggested, this setting is also clutch for public Slack instances https://slack.com/help/articles/228020667-Manage-email-display .
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I can’t shake the ‘work’ feel I get from Slack. It’s undoubtedly slicker, but I still prefer Discord.
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