REVIEW: Forbidden Lands by Free League

[@mattshaw8542]

My preferred method for situations in most games where a character should succeed logically but doesn't, like the skilled mechanic failing to repair a car with no pressure, is to say they do it but something else goes wrong, such as it takes much longer, uses up extra resources, breaks a tool, doesn't look professional, gets on the customer's bad side, causes the PC stress (if there's a system for that) and so on. It still gives the player a reason to invest in the roll and want it to succeed without resulting in a world with surgeons who lose 1/3 of their patients on a good day.

[@toddzircher6168]

Glad you talked about the dice maths. So many games have skewed results long term due to a misunderstanding of the numbers.

[@toddzircher6168]

Like the solo potential and agree that stickers on a map is horrifying. But, you can also get poster mounting kits that have a thin sheet of plastic. That might be a suitable compromise.

[@beetlejuss]

See the difficulty table on p48

[@Grogeous_Maximus]

This book made me realize that a WotC book hasn't brought me inspiration in 20 years. I bought Forbidden Lands and used it to homebrew a survival-focused 5E. I'm not done playing D&D, but I am done buying WotC products.

[@theeffete3396]

Been playing in a Forbidden Lands game for about a year now. It has a few dumb rules (like how only one person can Scout ahead at a time), but otherwise it's a simply, fun game. The thing about Pushing rolls is it is pretty much essential since thats the only way to earn Willpower Points, which are needed for activating many Talents. Pushing on simple or average tasks should be seen as an opportunity, rather than a detriment. Ability Damage is fully healed with rest, so Pushing rolls is very much a tactical decision. I'm playing a Peddler who fast-talks others in order to swindle them out of their valuables. His Pride is his perfect set of teeth, and the other players known that when Oniver flashes his pearly whites, he's about to lie or say something manipulative.

[@ajaxplunkett5115]

Very good review- Makes me curious on the lost , longer review you did. - Also I appreciate that you will often consider the price/cost of the product and weigh it against quality in your reviews.

[@natel7151]

Well... this was an instant click since I am more positive about the Year Zero engine. Definitely agree that, on the whole, the negatives are outshined by the positives here. And VAT aside, the boxed set is a thing that I think Free League has done well, although this is an older incarnation (and missing the specialty dice, as you point out). This is a value-packed boxed set with the core books in it, although also a weird boxed set in that you have to buy this box to get the core books. It's an oddity, which Free League hasn't replicated since then. They do sell the map & stickers as a set (as they intend for you & your players to make the map "your own" through play), so if you mark up your map, you can simply get another set. Having played "Legacy" board games like Pandemic Legacy, the act of vandalizing your own game materials in a permanent way is pretty neat, I think. The intentional vandalism of your own map with the stickers, the hex crawl/survival/post-apocalyptic fantasy setting, the base building... it's a good combination. Between this and Mutant YZ, I think they set a good standard for interesting hex crawly RPGing. I made perfect sense that they could resurrect Twilight 2K, and maybe the ALIEN RPG could use more of that hex crawliness (perhaps in the Colony handbook and/or the Space Truckers handbook of the future)... but in terms of the hex crawl, done in a good way, these guys seem to get it.

[@willinnewhaven3285]

That's a cool idea for older characters. At 78, I will try to remember my skills and feats Humor aside, it is an interesting idea

[@beetlejuss]

As you already know YZE indicates "every day tasks" or "routine tasks" get an automatic success. So your 33% does not apply for those cases. You are intentionally assigning a dice pool to the wrong difficulty, if you check difficulty table (p48) you will find the following modifiers: Trivial +3, Simple +2, Easy +1, Average 0, Demanding -1, Hard -2, Formidable -3. So in your example 6 dice would add 3 more dice for a total of 9 dice (81%). But I am sure you already know this as most dice pool game works the same, perhaps your issue is that the game is asking you to not roll for trivial stuff as they say it slow down the game. Or perhaps you don't like to have too many dice in your pool like many people does, (that would explain you are not adding the right modifier). For those people YZE also has the step dice alternative. For me the problem of these older Free League games is that the pushes deal damage AND penalties at the same time, and on top of that the average HP is 4pts. So pushing is way to expensive, compared to a game like Tales From the Loop, where you have Luck points that you can expend for pushes before getting damage (also in TFTL the kids can't die). Many people don't like the YZE from their experience in one or two games, But once you realize every YZE implementation is as different as the theme they simulate and the only thing in common on these games is the use of a pool of dice, the 6+ threshold, and the push mechanic for a mixed result you learn is great system because is flexible. This flexibility, the mixed results and a semi obfuscation of probabilities is for me what makes the system one of the greatest followed by Cortex Prime. These are innovative systems IMO but most people don't want innovation they want familiarity and nostalgia or a system they know how to min/max.

[@primafacie5029]

Always appreciate your reviews

[@TheOGGMsAdventures]

I love the map/stickers idea.

[@liberalhyena9760]

You didn’t say much about peddlers, such as whether they are actually pedlars. The former, at least in modern usage, tends to suggest a drug dealer rather than a travelling merchant of relatively inexpensive goods, though pedantry about the distinction between the two is unlikely to be productive. The alphabetical happenstance that brought the rider to the fore after the peddler also raised the possibility in my mind that the latter might in fact be a cyclist - another form of cavalry, at least potentially. I also don’t recall you mentioning why the lands are forbidden, or to whom.

[@PostmortemVideo]

There were war bicycles at one point :) Yeah, they're mostly travelling merchants with good interpersonal skills, complimentary to the bard. The lost longer review was a lot more in depth :( There was a mystical Bad Thing(tm) that happened, now it's stopped happening and you're settlers in what WERE forbidden lands, trying to make them less forbidden.

[@liberalhyena9760]

@@PostmortemVideo Umm…like Brexit, then? (As promised, obviously, rather than the reality). A further question has presented itself since watching the video. Unless I’m badly mistaken there are two hardcover books in the set, the main rules and the bestiary. I note, however from other reviews that showed in my feed - though I haven’t watched them - that there is a third volume, this being a GM’s guide. If so, is this not a further strike against the value of the boxed set, as it is even less complete than you pointed out? Having said this, the other Free League boxed sets seem to be introductory sets rather than complete collections (the Alien box comes with pre-generated characters for example, but no blank sheets as I recall). Forbidden Lands seems to be an exception to this, as someone pointed out, but I suppose there’s a limit to what can fit into a box.

[@PostmortemVideo]

It's the bestiary that's the third, separate volume

[@daineminton9687]

Woohoo Stickers!! Nice

[@cyberellawho876]

thanks for the review, mango max any good?

[@PostmortemVideo]

I like it a lot, but I'm a sucker for mango :)

[@penitentialarts]

Is there a print version of Ars Goetia?

[@PostmortemVideo]

Print versions of most of my material can be found at Lulu.com, try searching Ars Goetia Postmortem Studios.

[@JackFetch-eb1gr]

Big fan of Free League this has been on my shelf of unplayed games since I picked up a copy at Expo last year but I'm hoping to be running a one shot next month

[@rynowatcher]

Generally, you can adjust the math with allowing more faces to be a success; 6+5 is a 73% chance with six dice.

[@BanjoSick]

a normal starting character has 12 d6 in his core competency, which is damn near sure + you have to push dice to farm willpower.

[@ЄвгенКорякін]

I feel like "trivial rolls" in lighter games that use less rolling in general should be called "bullshit rolls", used mostly for the laughs. Like, "dude, you've eaten my last biscuit; roll to avoid bird shit hitting your head, lol", or rolling something just in case. Yeah, it should probably be explained better, instead of saying "don't roll for easy stuff!" and then having easy rolls.

[@almanacofsleep]

What's the point of playing as a Goblin/Orc if your not a bloodthirsty monster? That's the entire appeal!

[@user-jt1js5mr3f]

Unless you don’t want to do that.

[@almanacofsleep]

@@user-jt1js5mr3f Play against type then, that's what playing against an archetype fun, a goblin striving against his nature sounds like a good player character.

[@user-jt1js5mr3f]

@@almanacofsleep then what’s the problem?

[@almanacofsleep]

@@user-jt1js5mr3f If the setting removes the archetype then there would be nothing to play against, Orcs and Goblins are evil, deal with it.

[@user-jt1js5mr3f]

@@almanacofsleep I don’t have to deal with anything, my sensitive fellow. I have no issue with not treating groups of people as entirely evil, that’s a you problem. If there’s something I want to run for a game, or a certain way I want to play a character, guess what? I just do it, I don’t complain on the internet.