Freebooters on the Frontier 2e Discussion

#303

Entering month six of my FotF 2E campaign and enjoying it a whole heck of a lot. I could gush about hundreds of things, but thought I’d share three aspects I keep scratching my chin about.

The first is the results table for Set Out. I haven’t been disappointed yet with the results–I take a lot of time to create interesting encounter tables–but, for whatever reason, it doesn’t feel… natural? I’m toying with the idea of deconstructing it a bit:

10+ sweet it goes well, paint the scene, keep company, and roll to see if you make a discovery too; 7-9 something comes up… roll to determine creature, hazard, mishap, or obstacle… the move you make should be soft(er); 6- you should of just stayed in bed today, friends… roll to determine the encounter and announce it with a hard move. I like this, 'cause the players will have a sense of how bad they are in for, but the Judge can make the random table rolls to keep them surprised.

Not sure if I’ll try this out yet, but I’d be curious what other folks are thinking of the move RAW.

The move I’m definitely going to hack/tinker with is Keep Company. I love the idea of it, but I want it to contribute more to character and world development. I’ve played a couple games of Escape from Dino Island and fell in love with their tell a story mechanic. The quick explanation, some moves in the game require the character to tell a story AND THEN roll to trigger the move. It’s really fun and bakes character development/exploration into the moves. I’m trying to hack this into Keep Company. Here’s my late night Egg-Nog-and-Cookies fueled attempt at a move hack:

Keep Company

When you spend time conversing with a party member, say who it is and tell a story.* After you tell your story, roll and add one for each (max +3) of the following that is true:

Your story is…

  • Meaningful to your character or highlights a trait/alignment.
  • Relates to the current location, recent event, or relevant (N)PC.
  • Is a story shared between you and the character you’re keeping company with.

On a 10+, you both lose yourself in the story. You get both items from the list below. If they build upon your story,∤ they also get both. On a 7-9, one or both of you are a bit distracted by current events and miss the true heart of the story. One of you will get to pick one of the items from the list below; you choose who; if you pick the other character, they must first build upon your story∤.

  • Refresh all marked bonds you have with them.
  • Gain a bond with the other character (max. 3)

On a 6-, the story reveals something you both didn’t want to learn. Choose one of the following:

  • Reveal an unwelcome truth about the world, current situation, or the past; both mark XP.
  • The other character learns something about your character they consider ugly. You mark XP, and they lose a bond with you; if they express their distaste, you also lose a bond with them and they mark XP.

'* A story will generally be about an event your character found meaningful from their past. However, it might also be a hope for the future. You should never tell the same story twice. A few examples:

  • Why you decided to be an adventurer
  • A time you were terrified
  • Your proudest moment
  • Your most shameful moment
  • A life lesson a mentor taught you
  • Something you’ll give up adventuring for

∤ To build upon a story, you might, accept what you just heard and:

  • If you experienced some facet of the story, add to the story with your own experiences or memories of it.
  • Ask a question to clarify a point, dig a little deeper, etc.
  • Share your interpretation of it.

Anyone else tinkering with Keep Company or have thoughts on it?

Finally, related to Bonds, I’m going to try adding an additional question to the Wrap Up move: did your relationship with another character change in a meaningful way? If positively, gain a bond. If negatively, lose a bond. I feel like Bonds are the mechanic my players need the most–err, nudging (?) about. I hope by highlighting it at end of session and discussing how we’re feeling about each other they’ll start thinking about them as more than just a way to boost someone’s roll.

How are other folks’ experiencing Bonds in play?

Apologies for the wall of text, but hope some folks find my ramblings interesting. Curious to hear others feelings on Set Out, Keep Company, and Bonds, though. Cheers!

5 Likes
#304

Good stuff, @buffalo! Your take on Keep Company is food for thought – I like the way it gets to the heart of a conversation more directly. And I like the idea of integrating bonds into the Wrap Up move.

There does seem to be a bit of redundancy, though… if two PCs gain a bond during Keep Company in a given session, they would also gain one during the Wrap Up for that session, right? If bonds are to be gained or lost during Wrap Up, I would consider dropping Keep Company altogether, and leave the “meaningful change” in relationships up to how the PCs role-played things during the session. Bonds would be incentivized similarly to everything else on the Wrap Up XP list. You could even push it further by something like:

  • Did your relationship with another character change in a meaningful way? If they agree and it changed for the better, gain 1 bond (max. 3) or refresh all bonds with them. If they agree and it changed for the worse, gain 1 XP but lose 1 bond with them.
3 Likes
#305

This is neat. I’ve played Dino Island twice and it’s a ton of fun. A lot of the pacing mechanics are super cool. As to this, I like the idea of kind of getting to the heart of things here. I might try this out, or something similar, when we finally get together again. The one thing is that even though there are guidelines for stories, I did have some difficulty with players coming up with them when I ran Dino Island. Some players aren’t as big on the improv side of things, and really struggle with these kinds of prompts.

#306

Our table really likes Keep Company and I would hate to see it cut.

#307

Don’t worry, no plans to cut it! Just interested in the ways it’s being hacked to shape interactions more directly.

1 Like
#308

I have not mentioned it here earlier, but after my initial online Freebooters campaign fell apart due to scheduling, I started up a “Funnel-to-Freebooters” game to run the funnel rules through their paces. If you’re interested in seeing what that looks like, you can find it here.

2 Likes
#309

I already loved the old Funnel World rules but the revision is even better - especially the community building part which reminded me a bit of Stonetop.

3 Likes
#310

I have run three games using the 2e rules. We are starting out as a funnel. I am running Sailors on the Starless Sea, BTW. So I had each of the four players make up three characters. Everyone enjoyed the process and have done a good job using Traits to personalize their characters. I think that is going well.

I am playing somewhat fast and loose with your ruleset. Mostly because I really like advantage-disadvantage mechanics in PbtA games, more than +/-#.

Having run several funnels with DCC, I had not sussed how much more dangerous it is in PbtA because of the 7-9 result! Fighting most often = death in the game so far. Between the low hit points, and low STR modifiers, you don’t fare well in any fight!

I prepped the players, who have not played in funnels before, but again, had not put the math together until one room chewed through 5 PCs! Ouch. Advantage/disadvantage has helped some with this, and I am also using A LOT of ability damage for poisons, suffocation and magical effects.

I don’t think this is a problem per-se, but I do think it deserves a mention in the funnel book.

Here is the Google Sheet I’m using to track characters: https://drive.google.com/open?id=12i6Rd7ZvrmwF6vr0q3qf4hcUPNJiW1eZFvThPIwVUSE

3 Likes
#311

Awesome! Thanks for the report. I would be curious to hear how exactly you apply ad/disad and how it works out in the end. It will be interesting to see if and how your villagers alter their tactics once they come to terms with that casualty rate…

#312

Have you played higher levels with adv/disadv? One of the leveling up benefits is increase in stat bonuses. Do you have a replacement?

#313

Yeah five characters deaths was enough. They cut their losses at that point! My favorite part was the evil sword that one of the PCs got - the fiend blade from the module. It was cool but it ate Cha to do its stuff and I had it conspiring with others villagers to kill its owner. After going through two PCs and facing the killer room, they chucked the sword down a bottomless pit.

“Treasure isn’t always treasure, “ became the phrase of the night…

2 Likes
#314

I was allowing advantage when the PCs did something clever. For example, one PC threw a pelt over a monsters head. I gave two PCs advantage to attack the beast man. When one of those PCs rolled a 7-9, I had the pc fall and drop the club they were using.

I also gave a pc advantage with a move based on their profession. It has come up 3-4 times in the three games.

There have been 7 deaths, so I know the players don’t think things are “easy” YMMV.

I am consciously NOT making them roll for every climb, save or ‘perception’ check called for in the module. If the players are narrating PCs looking for something, they find it, if they take precautions on the slippery steps, they pass.

1 Like
#315

I have not played beyond level 0.

2 Likes
#316

Cool. I’ll be interested to hear how it scales with the characters as they level.

#317

We played for the first time in almost three months tonight and it went … pretty well? We were all definitely a bit rusty and I had to look things up more than I might have in the past, but overall I think it was good. We did test out the “traverse the city” move and I think it needs tweaking because urban travel and overland travel don’t really line up as much as I would have hoped. There ended up being a lot of rolling without much happening–really only a couple of big “encounters” this session and I feel bad because I really didn’t present any class opportunities for the thieves in the group. But it also did feel like kind of a table setting episode, moving pieces into place for the next big thing. That even included getting the party back together because when we left off they were kind of all doing their own thing. But next time they’ll all be heading up to Roke Academy to meet with some scholars to try to get to the bottom of the blight that’s overtaken the neighboring nation of Tyras, what orcs may or may not have to do with it, and some of the other big mysteries that have been brewing for a while now. Also giving the multiclassing thief a chance to finally start to explore her newfound interest in using magic.

One big surprise was Terib, our Lawful Elven Fighter who is at least partially under the sway of a genocidal AI made by the Precursors, firing her longtime follower Mara Blackwell. It totally caught me off guard, but worked really well and it felt like this big emotional beat that really landed. Like of course that’s what happened, even though none of us–Terib’s player included–ever would have expected that to happen. Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Mara, because we all have come to like her a lot, but we’ll see what happens as Terib attempts to raise an army to go into the blightlands.

2 Likes
#318

One thing I did do as we were starting up that really worked pretty well I think was ask each of the players to discuss their character’s goals as they understand them currently, and what their goals as players might be, particularly if it differs from what their character wants. Here’s what they came up with, and I think it’s really interesting.

Terib

Elf Cleric (Lawful)

Character goals:

  • Learn more about the blight and how it may or may not be connected to the orcs
  • Longterm: carryout the wishes of the Mother and wipe the orcs from the face of the planet

Player goals:

  • Wants the party to help Terib change and learn, be freed from the grip of the Mother

Lindy

Halfling Thief (Neutral)

Character goals:

  • Understand their strange experience in the forest with the cosmic tree that drives people crazy
  • Learn about the runes of their definitely not cursed armor

Player goals:

  • Explore the forces pushing Lindy to be less kind, more jaded and resentful

Krim

Dwarf Cleric (Chaotic)

Character goals:

  • Put his energy into deeds
  • Learn about the strange ghosts crowding around the outskirts of Pealinn
  • Long-term: find his father

Player goals:

  • Explore the place between “chaotic” and “good”

Lady Goldbludgeon

Dwarf Thief/Magic-User (Evil)

Character goals:

  • Learn magic
  • Heal Kira (dog) by stopping the evil spirt that inhabits her, or harness the spirit for her own benefit
  • Longterm: Obtain power and take over Nulara Ember’s crime syndicate

Player goals:

  • Hide LG’s motives from her partymates
  • Get better at roleplaying evil
4 Likes
#319

I have yet to run a party through an overstuffed urban environment—it’s all been towns and villages so far—so I haven’t had to address the idea of travel from place to place within a city. But I’ve been thinking of a modified Set Out move along the lines of:

CROSS TOWN
When you make your way from one urban quarter to another, roll +safety: on a 10+, you reach your destination without incident; on a 7-9, roll a Settlement Event, and the Judge will spin it as background detail, opportunity, or challenge; on a 6-, roll a Settlement Event, and the Judge will say how it complicates things.

Great idea to get the players to describe their in-fiction and out-of-fiction goals. I’m in the habit of asking players at the end of each session what they plan to next so I can prep to that, but I like the idea of the kind of explicit goal-setting that you describe.

3 Likes
#320

I like this a lot, and I think tying it to settlement events makes a whole lot of sense–and not just because it would save me from having to roll up encounter tables for each of almost a dozen districts. Though I might still roll up some possible settlement events in advance. I also think that while I liked the idea of having legs (“twists and turns”) to travel through districts, it resulted in far too many rolls and a whole lot of not much happening. The other thing using my move in practice showed me is that I could probably decrease the safety of most of my districts, since 10+ results were kind of regular and it felt like something should happen. Or maybe rolling using something other than district safety?

My only minor feedback on your move is I would say “one district to another” to keep the language consistent with the rest of settlement creation. But I like it a lot and we’ll try it out in the game soon!

1 Like
#321

Anyone know why @sdonjr’s generators aren’t working?

#322

My friend and player write another generator. Its included all tables from actual rules and perilous wilds.
https://pbta.dakkaplace.com/

5 Likes