Intro to the Forbidden Lands RPG

A rapid introduction to the Forbidden Lands Roleplaying Game by Free League Publishing.
-- MUSIC CREDITS --
Tavern Song by Killian McCalla
linktr.ee/smal...

[@thewanderersguild]

Hi KZbin! Thanks for stopping by. This video did well for our small channel, so I'll ask you: Would you rather see more content about Forbidden Lands, or more videos like this one (rapid rundowns) about other TTRPGs?

[@Buzzregog]

Not the answer you might want, but I'd be interested in both.

[@christelesio]

Personally I'd be interested in the tales from the loop and alien ttrpgs

[@thewanderersguild]

@@christelesio I've run Alien so I could do one for that pretty easily. Thanks for the input.

[@Orang3zRPG]

Love this game! Forbidden Lands gets my vote! 🙂

[@proxy90909]

Yes

[@bocconom]

After the draconic mess Hasbro/WotC has created I stumbled across this video and now I'll seriously be looking into this game. Thanks.

[@paavohirn3728]

It's a great game and an interesting world! Oh and Free League's other games are awesome as well and extremely high production value.

[@bocconom]

@@paavohirn3728 What is the learning curve like for experienced DMs? My players group are good people but too often their thinking is 2 dimensional as opposed to three dimensional. How difficult will it be for new/less experienced players to grasp game mechanics? Thanks.

[@paavohirn3728]

@@bocconom That's a good question! I think it's quite easy to get into. The system makes sense as a cohesive whole. There's a bit of getting used to with the combat actions but not overly so I'd say. If you familiarize yourself with the system a further perk is that you will have easy time with other Free League games with the same engine. Meanwhile the other games, scifi, horror etc, have really interesting tweaks to the engine that promote the specific genres.

[@jasonlennie9281]

I got a bundle of Forbidden Lands on Humble Bundle so really keen to run it!

[@paavohirn3728]

@@jasonlennie9281 Nice! Have fun!

[@everxchosen6057]

Have played a game of this with a group of my friends and can 100% say it is fun and brutal for a D6 system. We didn't get to the Stronghold part of the game but in a 30ish session game we had ups and down (2 player deaths and a major NPC), and it was a blast in this bleak fantasy world.

[@Akeche]

Ah, these are the same guys that took over with The One Ring!

[@thewanderersguild]

Yep, I got ToR core book this week and forgot to even mention it in the video. Ah well.

[@jonashansen6391]

Dungeons and Doorknobs reference just saved a soul... my own!

[@st.cimmerian1680]

I proudly backed this Kickstarter. Incredible and beautiful game. The artwork and books are gorgeous. Free League are seriously on another level.

[@kerravon4159]

You did the "what is an RPG" question. I cant believe you did the "what is an RPG" question.

[@twiggysmalls69]

I really appreciate the conversation/casual tone you use, very unlike every other RPG youtube I've seen. Definitely a breath of fresh air. Subscribed.

[@MoragTong_]

*Unlike D&D 3.0-5.0 The Original D&D game(0e thru 2nd essentially) was very deadly and was a game of survival, not of heroism/conquest/winning.

[@frankrobinsjr.1719]

Old enough to have started with "Chainmail." I always loved that the characters and NPCs didn't have to fight to the death. And, a tactical retreat wasn't necessarily a rout. This sounds awesome and I hope that many of the content creators start using this system to stop Hasbro of the Coast from screwing anyone over.

[@donc7664]

Loved all the clever other names for Dos&Don'ts

[@ShadowdragonYamiryu]

Great intro! There's an ongoing Humble Bundle for this game, but wanted to look into it more before committing. Kinda regretting not getting a physical version, cause wow those books look good!

[@chaosexhaust7533]

The constant jabs towards D&D and WotC honestly elevates this one for me. Great video! The other Fria Ligan games are great as well.

[@ElricESR]

Short sweet and to the point. Well done, much better initial introduction to the game than an hour long video. After this one can decide whether an hour video is worth the time.

[@ASha780]

What sort of table are we supposed to use? It's this sort of ambiguity that makes the TTRPG hobby impossible to get in to.

[@thewanderersguild]

Oak tends to work well all around. Dice roll with better luck on pine but it gets dented more easily. Cherry wood is attractive but it's prone to hauntings during the satanic rituals which are required for D&D and most other non-Yahtzee dice games.

[@skiesquiggles7319]

Bone.

[@cornstarch9435]

this sounds so cool,, i've been looking for a different rpg and step off of d&d for a bit and i think this might be it

[@thewanderersguild]

D&D is great for the particular things it does. There are a lot of other awesome RPGs that feel and play different and have really awesome systems and ideas. It's always a little discouraging how few people branch out in the hobby and I'm hoping to do more of these quick rundowns to help show off some of my favorites.

[@Stefan-yz5lr]

No better time than now. WOTC/Hasbro is going to ruin D&D in the next couple years with their announced plans.

[@paavohirn3728]

Highly recommended!

[@SebastianNeubertPlus]

Ah man. Had my eyes on this for a while. Now you are going to make me buy it. Thanks a lot for this review

[@ashwinnmyburgh9364]

About the start a Forbidden Lands game, so looking into all I can learn before the game. Seems pretty cool, so I'm pretty excited!

[@BasementMinions]

Well you definitely sold me on this, adding this to list of TTRPGs to mix things up after moving on from the dragon game. Really interested to try a system dedicated to the sandbox experience, especially one that isn't as combat focused.

[@CavernadoLekkis]

I loved the way that you introduced Forbidden Lands. I need to show this video to my players. 😂

[@Skaxarrat]

Fuck, I went from "I want to know what this game is about" to "I want to play this game. NOW".

[@Blerdy_Disposition]

Well, I have another rpg to add to the ever-growing list of games I want to learn and run!

[@BX-advocate]

Thanks for giving me a quick rundown of it, I've been seeing the game come up in various places and wanted to get an overview. I do have to say in some ways it does sound like something I might like and in others it doesn't. Also I think you are just comparing it to 5E D&D but a lot of the features of this game are Old School D&D features and pretty much everything I liked about this is present in Basic/Expert D&D so I'm gonna stick with that. Still thanks for a great explanation of this game.

[@Orang3zRPG]

Great game! Such a fun (and dangerous) world/ setting to explore! 🙂

[@Heselbine]

That is a great summary! Next on my list to play.

[@hungryewok1684]

I love this game

[@Phlare]

This came together really well! Great job

[@spartandud3]

I will say that the art is bloody gorgeous. Who's the lead artist?

[@Orang3zRPG]

Nils Gulliksson. 👍

[@bjornh4664]

They choose him as the lead artist, as he has been involved with RPGs since the 1980s. To Swedish gamers, his art IS old school. The cover art is by Simon Stålenhag, known for his "Tales From the Loop" artbook and other works.

[@liberalhyena9760]

Please tell me more about this Dormice and Direwolves game! I can’t find out anything about it.

[@davewilson13]

I chucked at every devils and demogorgon reference.

[@TheMarrethiel]

I feel that full colour books are too expensive and quite frankly sometimes hard to read. I appreciate the legible black and white book.

[@Stefan-yz5lr]

Been jostling with this and a couple other systems to pair with Scarlet Heroes for solo play. Think I need to stop researching and just try this one out.

[@danroberts007]

I got Scarlet Heroes for Xmas. I'm pretty much in the same situation. ;-)

[@proxy90909]

Looks intersting but Im more of a hack and slash type of guy, regarless its cool to see more ttrpg I think it goes without saying that some of us coming from Dunes&Dormats are kinda skeptical of its future this days, options are welcome, regardless of its future. Cool ttrpgs are cool, have heard some stuff about Alien might look what that is about

[@choffman138]

You should try out Dungeon Crawl Classics. We made the switch a year ago and it's been a blast

[@proxy90909]

@@choffman138 I'll look it up, thanks

[@paavohirn3728]

Also Worlds Without Number for a DDesque game recommended! Free pdf to start with.

[@coolboy9979]

It has some magic, but how much? Is it just magical items? Or are there also spellslinging characters?

[@thewanderersguild]

There are 2 spellcasting classes, sorcerers and druids. They can use magic in a limited capacity. It tends to be high impact, uses a limited resource (willpower), and risks catastrophic consequences if you roll poorly.

[@Cirkux]

Really lethal but so much fun.

[@dedededededededede]

Great review!!!

[@ElderBard00]

After what's happened with the OGL and Hasbro/WOTC shattering all trust in their fan base. What will happen to D&D in the coming months? After decades of influence and having become synonymous with the word RPG (for me at least); will the fan base just forgive H/WOTC and move on? Will H/WOTC make a come back or dade away eventually?

[@hexchad765]

Hasbro of the Coast

[@BigBadEvilGM]

Huh i might have to check this out

[@HenrikForsberg]

"Downfall & Drama" :'D

[@ExoSquadOffical]

Great video! Thanks

[@Thomas-der-Zweite]

This was helpfull. Thank you.

[@captainnolan5062]

Good summary.

[@BunnyNiyori]

A gazillion maybe KZbin videos to maybe comment on. But no one needs necroposts to videos from 2018. If you play role games, you've seen plenty of drama from 2023 :) I LIKE D&D, but I would love to see Hasbro fail to survive 2024 as a vender of the game. That all said, I have all the editions, and most of the D&D sort of designs. Big fan of Basic Fantasy Role-playing Game. It's about as nice as it gets for price in hardcover. If you love D&D. But here it is mid Februrary of 2024, and regardless of how much energies I have invested in D&Sish efforts, I am doing what I should have done when I discovered Forbidden Lands. I have put into storage everything (all my rpgs) with the exception of my DM tools and toys and I'm going to stick with Forbidden Lands. 2 only books. Very superior hardcovers. 2 more books if you treat yourself to Raven's Purge or Bitter Reach. 4 only books. I don't see the design doing the Hasbro give us all your money splurge of as many items as is humanly possible. And Hasbro might not be able to do that as well in the future. Why pick Forbidden Lands? Are the awards not convincing enough? It's nice to have a truly fresh start for the usual races and classes in a setting that isn't tired from being used for more than 30 years. Your players will actually need to think before they act. Because all they know from D&D won't do them much good here. The elves and dwarves are not the same. The orcs are different. No that's not a gnoll it's a wolfkin. You might actually get along with that goblin. Magic only seems similar. Nope, no save the world quests, you are just trying to get by. And the best part, your players won't need to buy a pile of books.

[@francoiscolin6692]

FL is great! My only grip is about magic users. I feel like no system (as far as i know) has really succeeded in my mind to achieve an interesting balance between D&D's magic aka high fantasy magic aka i'm a living god-game-breaker and the magic sucks topos from other systems. In FL i can't see why one would play a wizzard...

[@Luscx_a]

💕💕💕💕

[@nudeoolz]

But what even is a role-playing game

[@thewanderersguild]

Nobody knows. It's a mystery.

[@bjornh4664]

"Your group of adventurers enter the inn, and as you order your beer, a hooded stranger walks up to you. 'I have a job for you if you are interested.' 'Yeah? What is it, and what's in it for us?' The stranger looks left and then right, leans forward and whispers: 'I want you to find out what a role-playing game is. If you succeed, I will pay you 50 gold pieces.' You exchange looks with each other. What do you do next?"

[@thewanderersguild]

@@bjornh4664 If it's my players? Ignore the hook and go hat shopping.

[@aimsaflames]

@@thewanderersguild we go hat shopping ONE TIME 😂

[@janiKB]

Algorithm boost

[@BalbazaktheGreat]

Bah. You had me until you got to dice pools.

[@Kyleology]

You really couldn't leave a link to the actual play in the description?

[@Caitlin_TheGreat]

I'm just now _looking into_ Forbidden Lands. I _hate_ D&D. I started out okay with it, then learned it and became increasingly disenchanted with it until ultimately just coming to hate it. For dozens of reasons. I really, really don't want to play that one particular game ever again if I can help it. And along with D&D, I have a strong dislike for games that tend to imitate it. PF is a no-go for me. I respect the company that makes PF, but that game isn't for me. The upcoming Not-D&D game Daggerheart seems very, very much like just D&D with the serial numbers filed off. I guess we'll see when it's released, but right now it's well within the "yuck" zone. But OSR-style games can often enough bypass that. They're just a different beast. They try different things and aren't as rigid with rules, typically don't push combat as hard. Forbidden Lands might not be a game I wind up playing... but it's certainly something I'm looking at. I like that it's more of a survival game, it's not about being a generic DC comic book hero with a medieval palette swap and none of the fun of playing a comic book superhero. Forbidden Lands (FL) has an innate focus on exploration and an indirect focus on roleplay -- because foregoing RP will probably get your character killed a lot sooner. And I also like that it's smaller scale for power -- as far as I've seen, you're never going to be superhuman. You don't get to a point where the things you were fighting at the start are a non-threat. But you establish yourself and can put up barriers to that threat (your stronghold, allies, etc) to give you breathing room. I also have this morbid curiosity in taking some of the D&D published adventures I have -- where I don't want to play the game they were made for -- and adapt them to another system. Mostly adapt the _gist_ of them. I don't want to copy the exact experience as, again, they tend to focus overly much on just fighting things to the death. Also, I like the challenge of adapting something meant for an entirely different kind of play. So, for instance, how would I adapt, let's say *Storm King's Thunder* to FL? Or *Tomb of Annihilation?* I'll have to bring the over-the-top power levels way down, but that's fine. I'll need to adapt the locations and primary characters to ones that better fit into the FL landscape and theme. Magic items need to be brought down in scope and made rarer and more dangerous. When I'm done with it, I'm not sure anyone would recognize the adventure unless I let them know what it was based on, and then they might start seeing the connections. Of couse, I'd prefer to run FL as intended first. It has a whole history and I love the more viking-esque settlements and people in place of the more English / Western Europe (but cartoonish) setting of D&D.

[@thewanderersguild]

I definitely get it. I still play plenty of D&D, but the thing to remember is that it (as well as PF and similar) are skirmish/strategy/war games which developed a layer of narrative, roleplaying, and worldbuilding on top. This means most D&D campaigns and scenarios assume you'll fight a series of increasingly tough battles, and use force often. It doesn't need to be played that way, but it's the pattern the rules facilitate best. Look at the amount of the character sheet, class abilities, game rules, equipment, and spells that are explicitly related to combat. Something like Forbidden Lands has its roots in a different place. It's built from the ground up to be about survival, exploration, horror, mystery, and sandboxing from a loose outline. Different game, different expectations. If you play FL and you set out to have a big cinematic, tactical, complex boss battle in interesting terrain with diverse enemies where all your players have to communicate and coordinate, you're probably going to feel like it's clunky, limiting, repetitive, or difficult to manage. Similarly, if you are playing D&D and want the players to feel terrified, fragile, resource-starved, and cautious, you're going to have to think outside the box, and then often feel disappointed when they use some spell or item to diffuse the tension you were trying to create. There are dozens of amazing RPGs that facilitate different types of stories. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't branch out from D&D as much as they probably should, since it's the default entry point to the hobby and can be engaging for a long time on its own. My advice if you decide to adapt a D&D scenario to FL is: Keep the spirit of the story, the setting, the mood, and the characters intact. Don't feel obligated to port in every fight, map, item, or ability. Draw inspiration, not mechanics.

[@deathangel85sss]

Why do you make so many negative comments on dnd? The Rpg you are describing sounds interesting but this doesn't mean that you need to persuade the audience that it is better than dnd. It's something alternative. So cut the crap and focus on what is really important. In the fun of the table top rpgs even if this is world of darkness, call of cthulu, DND or anything else.

[@Aramyle-12]

It’s funny, this game is heavily inspired from Old School D&D, which plays a lot like this game.

[@skiphoffenflaven8004]

This snark being thrown everywhere at WOTC/DnD is insane, childish, and petulant. Nothing sounds original, it all sounds like it came from somewhere. The world of derivative welcomes you…

[@Imabot602]

Oh God, now I have to write a ttrpg just so I can put a whole 🍑 section on What is an RPG? That just says, "Google it."

[@prestigemultimediagroup6436]

Humblebundle has a book bundle for the pdfs 18 bucks for all of em