Freelancers: A Crossroads Game - How To Play

In this video, we're going to learn how to play Freelancers: A Crossroads Game! If you have any comments or questions, please do not hesitate to post them in the KZbin comments below, ensuring you abide by our Code of Conduct: watchitplayed.tv/code-of-conduct.
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00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - The Setup
06:50 - Game play Overview
07:57 - The Planning Phase
09:50 - Gaining Stress
10:22 - The Action Phase
10:59 - Increasing Skills
10:59 - Gaining Coins
10:48 - Gaining Experience
12:14 - Leveling Up
12:20 - Story Deck Cards
12:57 - Skill Checks
13:53 - Luck Tokens
14:17 - Corruption Tokens
14:40 - Asking For Help
14:58 - Resolving The Check
15:15 - Entering Values In The App
15:36 - Adjusting Influence
16:40 - Gaining Titles
17:29 - Completing An Action
17:35 - Gaining Treasure
18:07 - Trinkets
18:40 - Discard Effects
18:53 - Gaining Followers
19:40 - More On Trinkets
19:53 - Armor
20:17 - Weapons
20:37 - Weapons Check
20:58 - Augments
21:46 - Discarding Treasure
22:10 - Resolving Fights
22:30 - Current Threat
22:45 - Fights Continued
23:10 - Gaining Wounds
23:50 - Healing Wounds (HP)
24:09 - The End Of Round Phase
24:23 - Traveling On The Map
24:49 - Spending Time
25:09 - Resolving Tokens From The Bag
27:06 - Supplies
27:48 - Reducing Risk
28:11 - Travelling Continued
28:35 - Camp Actions
29:04 - Travelling Continued Again
29:20 - Trading
29:44 - Traveling Continued (Again) Again
30:23 - Ending The Game
30:47 - Ending The Game In Victory
31:39 - Pausing The Game
31:50 - Conclusion
#watchitplayed #boardgames #tutorial

[@Leron...]

This seems like an excellent way to ease someone into the concept of role playing games without the intimidating prospect of needing to use one's imagination

[@WatchItPlayed]

Yes, many of those RPG elements here (and if a few optional "performance" moments that I left as a surprise for people to discover when they play).

[@gurnblanston2848]

As someone who has always been a bit intimidated by the complexity and time commitment of most RPGs, this sounds like it would be an accessible way to enjoy a lot of what those kinds of games offer. Thank you for the great video, Rodney!

[@WatchItPlayed]

You're very welcome. think if exploring an RPG in a more contained way is of interest to you, this might be a good fit.

[@samplautz5586]

Wow, love the concept of this game! And as always, great job explaining

[@WatchItPlayed]

Thank you kindly - appreciate you checking it out!

[@theboardgamenoob]

Thanks for another amazing "How to Play"! We're going to give this a try tonight for the 1st time, at 4-players, so it was a good watch and explained much.

[@WatchItPlayed]

I hope you all have a great time playing!

[@theboardgamenoob]

@@WatchItPlayed It was so much fun, and your vid was invaluable, although the game does a pretty good teach as you play along the 1st time. Thanks again!

[@user-oo9ph8dn4h]

Excellent job, Rodney! I like how unique this game is. We enjoyed our first session even though we did not complete the first game yet.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Glad you had fun trying it out!

[@XBlackFlagX]

If this seems like your cup of tea, are impatient and you like pirates, you might want to try Forgotten Waters, which this game is a new iteration on. Lots of differences so definitely will try this one too, but FW is one of our favorite game of the last few years.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Very glad you found the video helpful!

[@hiho8084]

I was going to suggest the same thing. I have Forgotten Waters, and when this came out I saw that it had some similarities in design and mechanics, but it also is very different too.

[@henriwhitehead]

Great video! This game looks great!

[@WatchItPlayed]

Thanks for checking it out Henri!

[@teejleague3838]

Cool!!! :) Thank you for another great video!

[@WatchItPlayed]

Appreciate you checking it out!

[@boardgamemusic]

Nice game! Well explained as always! 🙂

[@WatchItPlayed]

Very kind of you to say - thanks for checking it out!

[@corican]

This game looks amazing. I hope to one day have friends to play it with!

[@donaldshults2230]

Good news! We just finalized out solo/two-player rules, haha

[@WatchItPlayed]

No friends necessary - they just released solo and two player rules as well (that said, if you DO want friends, I hope you find them :) ).

[@corican]

@@donaldshults2230 Amazing! Problem one solved! Now it's just problem two: acquiring the game in Thailand, where I live.

[@GaritoCard]

​​​@@WatchItPlayedwait, where can I find those 2players rules?

[@WatchItPlayed]

@@GaritoCardI believe it's in the app under variants (www.freelancersgame.com/)

[@Iron13Weasel]

Top-tier as always.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Thank you kindly!

[@msmilder25]

Interesting game. RPG meets board game mechanisms. I've seen other recent games use a similar action selection system in a book (very much like this one) but this ads the race-class combo stuff and cards (etc) to make it stand out as something new and different...a different approach if you will. I love it when game designers can do a new fantasy rpg style game without falling back on the classic tropes...it's nice to see character classes that aren't carbon copies of D&D (for example) or races that don't look like Lord of the Rings or other high fantasy stories or games. I like it when designers take a chance on creating new worlds and invent new ways for people to experience fantasy rpgs.

[@JerryHawthorne-tb6vg]

You are a high quality person, and I agree 1000%

[@WatchItPlayed]

Very glad you enjoyed what you saw - thanks for checking out the video!

[@CCPearce]

Thanks!

[@WatchItPlayed]

You're very welcome - glad you enjoyed and thanks for the support!

[@JasonBrown-us9yv]

Thank you

[@WatchItPlayed]

You're very welcome!

[@Astabeth]

I just want to know how many takes you have to film to catch the box right side up. Or have you done it so often that as long as you put it in the shelf the right way, it's automatic? Do you practice beforehand? Inquiring minds want to know.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Are you suggesting I don't get it the first time, EVERY TIME? *gasp*

[@leoniecramp334]

Thank you for the video. I have a question> If we defeat the end boss but their are still characters in play, do we go to the end or do all characters need to finish their turn.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Checked with the designer: "The game tells you if you win or not during the end round entry. However, some enemies can kill you before you get to that entry."

[@Spudkitty513]

Rodney, I have a question about weapons and augments. When a player adds an augment to a weapon, do they get the benefits on both cards or just the augment benefit. Also, if only one card's benefits is used, regardless of which is drawn first (the weapon or the augment), do you always place the augment on top of the weapon ... or if the augment is drawn first, and then the weapon, does the weapon go on top of the augment. I'm sure I'm making this far more complicated than it is, but I do appreciate your input when you have time. Thank you so much for a reply!

[@WatchItPlayed]

No worries, if you go back to the segment on Augments in the video (there's an index, so you can get to it quickly), the way it is shown, is exactly how the cards are used and placed, and the effects that are covered up, indicate which effects are "lost", and which are retained. What you can see, is available - what isn't, isn't. Hope that helps :)

[@splintercell201]

Hey Rodney, just had a quick question about tokens in the game. For instance, if I were to gain a luck token from the supply and there would be none left, do I use a proxy or do I ignore this effect? Thanks.

[@WatchItPlayed]

Use a suitable replacement in that case.

[@spirite666]

Nice video! I have a question. When trading, it says that cards can be freely traded. During a trader spot, the game said we could trade one treasure card for two. So the first player would do that, then give the lesser card to the next person in turn order (basically trading for nothing), and then this was repeated down the line. There isn't anything saying trading has to be a card for a card. This seems to be a big hole in the game as players can mill the treasure deck for better and better stuff. Any thoughts on this?

[@WatchItPlayed]

I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure I was following the question, so I forwarded it over to the designer, and you'll find his answer below!

[@donaldshults8957]

Thanks Rodney! Yeah, you could totally do that strategy having each player trade a treasure for 2 treasures and give their least favorite to another player to trade. Just honor your equipment slots and remember sometimes equipping that lousy card will come with corruption if it’s magical.

[@onimartinez8646]

Can it be play without the app, or is the app a MUST?

[@WatchItPlayed]

I suppose it's technically a website, not an app, but yes, you need that website open to play.

[@iain5551]

How would this go with 2 players?

[@WatchItPlayed]

I tend to avoid trying to make those assessment, because what one person might enjoy at two players, another might not. I can say my first games of it were two player, for what that's worth.

[@javieragui93]

Is there a way to play with 2 players?

[@WatchItPlayed]

I believe that is something they are developing within the app.

[@Spudkitty513]

You can play with 2 players by having each control 2 characters. It works quite well and really promotes even more player interaction.

[@WaxDrag]

They also added variant rules to the website/app so you can run 2p or solo if you wish