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Author Topic: Forbidden Lands?  (Read 2562 times)

Mercurius

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Forbidden Lands?
« on: October 02, 2020, 05:39:09 AM »
Any experience with this game? I'm probably going to buy it, both because it just sounds like a great product, and because it sounds like an excellent source of ideas for my sandboxy-campaign-in-planning.

Some great games coming out of Fria Ligan: Forbidden Lands, Coriolis, Symbaroum, etc.

Brand55

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2020, 10:53:56 AM »
I backed the Kickstarter but haven't had a chance to play it because my regular group splintered right around the time the game shipped. The mechanics certainly seem workable, and it's definitely related to other games like MY0 with some changes. You'll be looking at a dice pool of d6 with the occasional d8, d10, or d12 if you have an artifact. The physical products themselves are fantastic. I give the company full marks there. The setting is pretty good but has a few really dumb elements, IMO, that I'd definitely change if I ever ran it. YMMV.

Overall I can give it a solid recommend, especially for someone planning a sandbox game.

finarvyn

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2020, 09:34:02 PM »
I own a copy but I haven't played yet, either.  :-[

One thing that really intrigues me is the sandbox style of the setting. The boxed set comes with a hexmap with terrain but no cities and such, but also comes with a page of stickers. It appears that as you explore the map one hex at a time you might encounter a city and then you put a sticker there. Kind of neat, because that means that the DM doesn't really know what the map looks like, either.
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Hakdov

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2020, 11:10:06 PM »
I had it, skimmed it, meh, sold it.  It sounded much better than it turned out.  Seemed really shallow to me. 

MindofMinolta

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2020, 10:59:08 AM »
I had it, skimmed it, meh, sold it.  It sounded much better than it turned out.  Seemed really shallow to me.

Not to put you on the spot, as you mentioned you just skimmed it, but what part of the game play seemed shallow to you? What kind of games in that genre do you not find shallow? Asking because I have been eyeing this product for a while, but have not placed on order yet. Thanks

Hakdov

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2020, 11:41:23 PM »
I had it, skimmed it, meh, sold it.  It sounded much better than it turned out.  Seemed really shallow to me.

Not to put you on the spot, as you mentioned you just skimmed it, but what part of the game play seemed shallow to you? What kind of games in that genre do you not find shallow? Asking because I have been eyeing this product for a while, but have not placed on order yet. Thanks

iirc, a lot of the game is dependent upon rolling up random elements and encounters.  The problem is that the random tables were quite short - like a d20 each and there wasn't very many of them.  Also, there weren't very many monsters or magic items listed in the game.  That's not a lot of randomness to keep a open world, sand box campaign going for very long. You're better off just using the AD&D 1e DMG. 

MindofMinolta

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #6 on: October 04, 2020, 01:54:35 PM »
I had it, skimmed it, meh, sold it.  It sounded much better than it turned out.  Seemed really shallow to me.

Not to put you on the spot, as you mentioned you just skimmed it, but what part of the game play seemed shallow to you? What kind of games in that genre do you not find shallow? Asking because I have been eyeing this product for a while, but have not placed on order yet. Thanks

iirc, a lot of the game is dependent upon rolling up random elements and encounters.  The problem is that the random tables were quite short - like a d20 each and there wasn't very many of them.  Also, there weren't very many monsters or magic items listed in the game.  That's not a lot of randomness to keep a open world, sand box campaign going for very long. You're better off just using the AD&D 1e DMG.

Ok, gotcha. Yeah, that sounds like a significant downside for a game heavily dependent on random generation.

Slambo

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2020, 10:28:16 AM »
I got Symbaroum and Forbidden Lands for free from two seperate events. I dont really like either of them very much. Though its been several months since ive looked at either so id have to look through both to remember exactly why. one thing i rmemeber turned me off was the wolfkin race in forbidden lands and Goblins and ircs as core races but replacing elves with changeling in Synbaroum but keeping dwarves as is. Also Synbaroum has its lore before its rules which is comething else i hate. Theres more but id need to reread it.

Vidgrip

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #8 on: October 07, 2020, 07:32:27 AM »
I have not played it, but have used a couple of its sandboxy tools for creating adventures in other games.  Some random impressions:

The die roll mechanics (used by other Free League games as well) is the most interesting part of the game.  The re-roll, as a free option with potentially bad consequences, seems much cooler than using meta-currencies as other games do.  A botched re-roll can result in damaged to the character or his equipment.  That part makes a lot of sense, especially in a wilderness setting where finding a smith to repair your sword may be an adventure in itself.  Unfortunately, there are also positive bonuses for botching re-rolls.  In this game, I believe it is the only way to generate the meta currency needed for special powers like casting spells.  That encourages players to attempt re-rolls in hopes of failure.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around looking for opportunities to fail.  Maybe it works, but I had concerns.

The setting is dark, high fantasy, with lots of races (kitchen sink) and gods.  Reading all the background lore was actually a chore.  I normally enjoy that in games.  The story about what has been happening recently, though, is actually very good and that is more important than the ancient legends anyway.

The combat system was a bit too crunchy for me, but I like simple (Swords and Wizardry).  I suspect most folk would be fine with it.

The sandbox concepts: hex map with free-floating adventure sites, random tables, and an actual good reason for the existence of dangerous wilderness are all brilliant.

The materials in my boxed set from kickstarter are all of the highest quality. 
Playing: John Carter of Mars, Hyperborea
Running: Swords & Wizardry Complete

Brand55

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #9 on: October 07, 2020, 11:40:08 AM »
In this game, I believe it is the only way to generate the meta currency needed for special powers like casting spells.  That encourages players to attempt re-rolls in hopes of failure.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around looking for opportunities to fail.  Maybe it works, but I had concerns.
Attempting re-rolls is definitely the primary way characters are supposed to generate Willpower. I believe there's at least one spell that makes temporary WP, and the stronghold rules allow for everyone to get back 1 point each session if they return to their stronghold and rest there for at least a day. It'd be pretty easy to house-rule that, however, especially if the GM wanted a game where the party was always on the move and didn't have a home base they returned to frequently. I might do something like +1 WP for every extended rest in a safe place, and return WP to full if there's a significantly long downtime in civilization between adventures.

Itachi

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #10 on: October 07, 2020, 11:12:31 PM »
In this game, I believe it is the only way to generate the meta currency needed for special powers like casting spells.  That encourages players to attempt re-rolls in hopes of failure.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around looking for opportunities to fail.  Maybe it works, but I had concerns.
Attempting re-rolls is definitely the primary way characters are supposed to generate Willpower. I believe there's at least one spell that makes temporary WP, and the stronghold rules allow for everyone to get back 1 point each session if they return to their stronghold and rest there for at least a day. It'd be pretty easy to house-rule that, however, especially if the GM wanted a game where the party was always on the move and didn't have a home base they returned to frequently. I might do something like +1 WP for every extended rest in a safe place, and return WP to full if there's a significantly long downtime in civilization between adventures.
Very interesting. Thanks for the description. Forbidden Lands is the Free League game I know the least and those descriptions are totally selling me on it.

danskmacabre

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2020, 07:09:51 PM »
I got this recently on an impulse buy in my local games store.
I also got the "Labyrinth" Adventure game, (A very rules lite RPG based on the Labyrinth movie).

Anyway. I've since read both the GM and Player book cover to cover.
It looks like a lot of fun for a gritty low magic Fantasy, Hexcrawl type RPG.
It kinda reminds me of early Runequest in some ways with skills,, no increase in HPs.
Sort of a bit like Rolemaster with crit charts and fumble charts.   
A bit like the Sine Nomine games with the GM random tables.

I'm running it tonight and I think it'll be a lot of fun for a drop in and play at short notice type game, but the map and background material is quite good to keep some sort of campaign going.

The Castle rules and so on look fun too.

Oh and the Faux leather book, the map and accessories are beautiful.
Really nice it comes as a boxed set too.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2020, 07:11:24 PM by danskmacabre »

danskmacabre

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2020, 07:12:32 PM »
I ran an intro session last night for 2 players.
We started by generating characters, just using the core Character generator, not the extended one in the separate book.
Character gen was super easy and pretty quick.

They generated a Wokfkin Druid and a Dwarven Minstrel.
I made an NPC Human Fighter to help out.

Was mostly a RP session gaining entrance to the Forbidden Lands through a Mountain Pass gate.

I threw in an Ambush with some bandits waylaying newbies to the lands.
The Ambushers failed miserably (If you're familiar with the mechanics, you roll a bunch of D6s, you need a 6 to succeed.
Ambushers failed.
You can then PUSH, which means re-rolling anything that's not a 1 or 6.
They proceeded to roll 2 1s, which is bad as any rolls on the attribute or gear that provides a D6 means something bad happens.
They one of them falls out of a tree, injuring himself.
Anyway, Character feel sorry for the Bandits and help them out, for a price..

They end up in a Town that is constructed on an old Cemetery. They meet some resident Undead, who are mostly civilised.
Lots of RP in Inns and places with living residents, generally settling in.

They're set up for a Crypt raid a Ghoul resident has asked them to complete (for a reward of course).

We left off there for a session another day.

Overall, the rules are fairly straight forward at least to start with, but it can balloon out to more complicated combat if you want.
Rules are a bit all over the place, which is slightly annoying, But maybe a GM screen and a proper read of the rules will help with that.

Generally liking the game. I liked the combat has crit charts, equipment failure. You won't end up with buckets of HPs as well.
Sort of feels like a Melange of Early RQ with HPs, Skills.
Rolemaster with Crit charts.
ODnD with the overall OSR feel with initial simplicity, hex crawling etc.

Would recommend if you feel like exploring a new RPG with a very new approach to RPGs.
Some things take a bit of mental Gymnastics to get your head around and make work in the game.

For example you get Willpower power points (which power spells and abilities) through critically failing rolls, which seems odd.
However once you get a Stronghold, which you're sort of expected to work towards, you can regen Will power points when resting at your Stronghopd.


silencio789

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #13 on: November 14, 2020, 08:50:03 AM »
Just finished playing my first game.
I have already played quite a bit of Coriolis and ALIEN, also YZ0 games.
I like it a lot, it's lean, mean and has some fun mechanical choices to make.
The sandbox elements I have not explored but I am going to read the GM book and then write a review.

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danskmacabre

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Re: Forbidden Lands?
« Reply #14 on: November 14, 2020, 11:05:22 PM »
Some of the names are kinda dumb though.
Zygofer Necromancer?  Lol