I’ve just uploaded the latest version of the basic rules. Changes include:

+ Heritage moves have been reduced to one per heritage.

+ Travel & Exploration moves have been revised to incorporate Mishaps, Hazards, Obstacles, Discoveries, and creature encounters.

+ Danger, Discovery and Creature tables from The Perilous Wilds have been edited and folded in.

+ Check Reaction and Scatter Them have been added to test if classic reaction and morale checks jibe with FotF.

+ The Wrap Up move now includes an option for shifting alignment.

+ Layout & design overhaul.

I’m making my way through Beasts & Booty, settlement, and dungeon rules to bring everything together. There will be some inconsistencies between these various parts in the mean time.

Let me know what you think!

Horst Wurst


  1. I love seeing it come together Jason Lutes! It’s the little things as well, like the character “starting kits” being on the same page as the random items instead of overleaf. That annoyed me a bit when I printed a booklet for playtesting.

  2. This looks great! It feels really well organized and the added info is great. I’ll likely have more feedback once I’ve gotten a chance to really dive in.

  3. Jason Lutes I see you incorporated the higher capacities for transport–have you had a chance to experiment with those in play? It’s been working pretty well for us, but we haven’t had a chance to use much more than our handy horse. Also it looks like you copied over the tags/notes from the transport over to real estate options. Took me a minute to try to figure out why a house would be “fast.” Or have a cap of 14 for that matter.

    Also, I really like giving only one heritage move rather than the options–I have to admit I get really kind of annoyed with players constantly trying to smell for gold or getting free detect magic, particularly the former since a.) gold isn’t really a currency in this game anyway, and b.) the answer is usually boring and doesn’t move the fiction forward in any meaningful way. I am curious on the elf heritage move, though–all the others introduce a mechanical bonus, but I have a hard time seeing how the elf’s move might work in play. +1 to saving throws requiring balance or stealth, maybe? How do you see it working in terms of purely fictional positioning?

    I’ve actually considered creating a new heritage system similar to the one in Planarch Codex and Dungeon World Unlimited that allows for more variability and customization, but in the end it feels like maybe too much, and that it’s not fully in line with the spirit of the game, particularly since there’s increased mechanical complexity (introduces holds for when you can use them, etc). May still introduce it down the road, depending how long this current campaign goes and how much character death we continue to have (still just the one so far, though we’ve come very close several times with all the PCs but the fighter).

    That said, I am very curious to see what your species creation rules are going to look like, and also wondering why you chose to use the term “species” there instead of heritage. I think “heritage” feels a lot less fraught/problematic.

    Other thoughts: the new tables are fantastic, the new layout is Very Good, really appreciate the ability to swap out traits at the end of sessions as well as changing alignments being built into the rules. I look forward to incorporate all the new stuff at the table.

    Chris Shorb you’ve run Freebooters at conventions a few times, yeah? How do you find it works in that setting/for one-shots? Do you use adventurer starters or still let the PCs strike out to where ever?

  4. Jeb E, thanks for the notes! I’ll fix that real estate typo.

    “Perfect balance and a feather-light step” works in our games as allowing elf characters to do things like walk across a tightrope without making a roll, or across crusty snow (à la Legolas) without leaving a trace. When trying to sneak somewhere, they’re likely to not make a sound, but a saving throw with +DEX might be called for to avoid being seen. Pretty powerful in practice.

    I’m using “species” in the biology sense, in that humans, halflings, dwarves and elves would technically be different species. Does that seem fraught? “Heritage” isn’t going away; it describes a character’s lineage, with room to incorporate things like half-elf, etc. I’m avoiding “race” entirely.

  5. Jason Lutes I definitely think race should be done away with in every fantasy RPG ever, so no argument there. I think the sort of “biological” nature of the word “species” is part of what rubs me the wrong way; even if Halflings, Elves, Dwarves, and Humans are, technically, different species, they’re still “people,” if that makes sense? So “species” feels … de-humanizing isn’t quite the right word given the topic, but I don’t know that there’s a suitable synonym. It feels like breaking them down purely to taxonomy rather than seeing them as diverse cultures with rich traditions, their own customs, etc. And ultimately Heritage is used in a way that I think gets the right meaning across, so it seems like using both “species” and “heritage” seems to muddy the water a little.

  6. Ahh sorry I’ve got a million thoughts buzzing around (slow day at work) — but Jason Lutes since layout-wise this is looking a lot closer to a finished product, I was curious: is Freebooters going to have an Agenda and Principles like Dungeon World and other PbtA games? I know I’d personally love to see a Freebooters/OSR take on these, and in general find them useful as a GM as a way to get in the right head space before a session.

  7. Jeb E, yes, the plan is to include Agenda + Principles or something similar.

    I hear you on the “depeopleizing” aspect of the word species. I’m not sure what a good alternative would be. I am writing guidelines for culture development/generation, which will put emphasis on diversity and depth, so maybe that will mitigate the issue.

  8. I loved the word heritage when I first read Freebooters. Made me think of a world where all the peoples where intermixed, a sort of post-Tolkien world. This might fly in the face of the OD&D roots, but you could even remove the names of the heritages, and instead assign them categories. So elf heritage might be renamed “Lithe” and encompass elves, catfolk, seanomads, woodgrue and all cultures that prize acrobatics and elegance.

  9. Asbjørn H Flø have you read Planarch Codex: Dark Heart of the Dreamer? It’s a Dungeon World supplement that has a really, really cool take on Heritage and designing them from the ground up, including Heritage moves. I don’t know if it’s right for Freebooters as written–it introduces a little more mechanical complexity and is meant to be very deliberate rather than random–but it’s still something that’s worth a look and something I might try to incorporate in the future.

    Jason Lutes I guess I’m not sure why “heritage” isn’t a sufficient word to describe what you mean, however I might be missing a piece of what you’re hoping to do with the species design rules.

  10. Jeb E I have! Love it, but I think the Heritage moves are a little to complex to use in Freebooters. I feel it’s more suited in the city of Dis, where multi-ethnicity/-“monstrosity” is a larger part of what makes the city unique.

  11. Asbjørn H Flø that makes sense and I think I agree. I really like the idea of being able to spend hold to “use” your heritage to do something that could affect another move, as is the case in Dungeon World Unlimited (which borrows heavily from Dark Heart). I think that could possibly work in Freebooters, but it still has a level of mechanical complexity that feels a little incongruous with the rest of the game.

  12. Great talk on heritage guys! But Jason Lutes, I have a durp moment question…

    In the new rules, does a Wizard have to spend power when they cast a spell? How does one recover power if that’s the case?

    We have always played that power is an expression of the Wizards potential when they cast a spell, not a resource to be spent and presumably refreshed.

  13. Jeb E I have run this once at a convention. We had a 4 hour slot. There were 3 players. We got through char-gen and world building, and had enough time for 2.5 encounters (one of which was the obligatory “you meet in a tavern” scene). This week, I think I’ll start in media res. I’ll just ask them which world location they want to go first; and depending on the location, drop them into the middle of the action.

    Note, one player had played many RPGs in the past, but none recently. He had been in a DW game of mine previously. The other player had played D&D in high school, and she had played in 1 D&D game of mine in the past. The final player had never played an RPG. So… some data points about where the players were. Not sure if/how any of that impacted our timing.

    I think you have to do the CharGen and World Building. It’s just so awesome in FotF. If you don’t do it; you miss out on what makes the world so special and compelling. The players have SO much buy-in to the world.

    TBH, I think FotF would sing as a Long-Con. 3 x 4-hour sessions? That’s CharGen, World Building, and probably 8-9 encounters, maybe 10. Enough for an amazing short campaign with a narrative beginning middle and end. I may try that sometime soon.

    (Maybe once I’ve made my Monk playbook 😉 )

  14. Jason Lutes Regarding Heritages and Favored Abilities changes. I’m assuming that non-human heritages can only raise a “Favored Ability” by 2. If they want to change other abilities, they can only do it by 1. In other words:


    Can change Int +1, Str +1


    Con +2

    But not:

    Cha +2

    Is that right?

  15. Sorry Jason Lutes, I’m preparing for my con game next weekend, and reading through the new docs.

    I mourn the loss of the Wizard’s Headgear table. In a pbp game I was playing in, my Wizard had a pointy hat, and it was a point of pride with the character… I would rather add a Headgear/”Cool clothing item” for the other classes.

    Removing the shortbow from the thief – I think I get it, as maybe it was OP? Or more likely, the blackjack/sap is more in theme…

    Minor question – for the Cleric, why change the order of “staff or knife” from the last rules to “knife or staff” (same with dagger/club)?

    Random thought – I wonder if it’s worth adding 1 more melee weapon so you have 20 (random table time!). Same with Armor, add one more type so you have 6 (and 2 shields). Studded Leather? Cost 45, Wt 2, 2 armor, awkward.

    Question on the Random Item table – why include the values, but not the weight?

    Like Jeb, I think some layout choices you have made are really good. In particular, I appreciate the gear, items, and Marketplace all being together.

    I didn’t go through Marketplace to see what had changed. Besides the Transport values, anything else that may have changed?

    I like the change in the See the Frontier section. I’m looking forward to running through this.

    Run out of time to review the rest of the moves sections. I’ll let you know if anything wonky comes up when we play this weekend.

  16. Man, I am almost done here. I think this is my last question – you mention a book called “Civilization and Savagery” in the settlement creation. Is that book out? For now, is that the Settlement Events and NPC’s tables? But for creating a settlement, I assume use the rules in Perilous Wilds pp 46-47? I can’t remember what I did when I ran at the last con. I think I used the DW steading rules because I had that book with me.

  17. Chris Shorb thanks for the report–and having been in that pbp with you, your pointy hat was bound to be a thing of legend!

    (fyi i use the steading rules from PW–C&S is one of the several books that will be released as part of Freebooters 2E iirc)

  18. Chris Shorb:

    Non-humans can only raise favored abilities, by 1 or 2 points. I’ve rewritten that step to make it more clear.

    Your experience with pointy hats is all I needed to add the headgear table back in, but only the magic-user will get extra sartorial options — space its at a premium on that page.

    My feeling with the thief losing shortbow in favor of blackjack/sap is that yes, it’s more in-theme.

    Re: knife/staff, dagger/club, I’m not sure!

  19. Whoops, missed a few questions:

    Re: Marketplace changes, I upped the capacity of water vessels as well as pack animals, and I gave the bedroll the ability to heal 1 additional HP/ability point when you Pass the Night.

    As Jeb E notes, Civilization & Savagery is one of the 6 booklets that will comprise Freebooters 2e. I am rewriting the settlement generation stuff from TPW, but until that’s done those TPW tables should work fine. C&S will have culture generation, settlement generation, settlement location tables, settlement event tables, and all of the tables for generating NPCs.

    I’ve updated the random item table to include weights.

  20. Uploaded the first draft of Civilization & Savagery, which I will likely rename since “savagery” is not playing a big part.

    This doc includes culture, settlement and NPC generation. A fair amount of the tables need to be reworked, but for now this should serve your world-building needs.

  21. Jason Lutes whoa, super excited to take a look at Civilization & Savagery! I’ve been waiting to take a peek at that one as it’s maybe my favorite part of being a GM.

    Re the name, what about Civilization & Citizenry? Maybe too clunky …

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