[Thanks to the Compose Dreams Games RPG Marketplace for providing TheRatHole.ca with a review copy of this book.]
Free Spacer is an Open World RPG in which you and your fellow Players take on the roles of a Ships Crew in the distant future shortly after a long-term war has been settled. As with most traditional RPGs one of the Players takes on the Role of the Gamemaster (GM) and represents
the Galaxy itself from the lowliest Non-Player Character (NPC) to the Universe altering events of the Sector in which the Players find themselves. Created by Cristoph Sapinsky, Freespacer differs from the traditional crunchy style that tends to plague many Future Setting RPGs by introducing a clever dice mechanic that is able to represent almost all interactions within the game effectively without coming across as simplistic.
Where Freespacer really does a phenomenal job of drawing in the Players is with the Creation Rules Sections. As with most RPGs, you design your Character and they represent your presence within the game, however, Frespacer also involves the Players in the Creation of the Sector of Space they will play out their saga in. Collaborative World Building does far more to invest a group of Players into a Setting than any lengthy Sourcebook or monologue-esque exposition on behalf of a Game Master ever could. Once you have finished the Creation of both your Sector and your Character it is time for quite likely my favourite part of any Crew-Based Future Tech Game System and that is Ship Creation.
What Freespacer does for Ship Building is a note that many current Games in this Genre could stand to consider. Rather than a pre-designed Hull Configuration that you must then shoehorn all your desired Components into, Freespacer turns it into a flowsheet of Sorts and lets the Players imagine what their vessel might look like themselves. As you begin in a ‘Contingency Type’ Corvette that is all that is laid out for you aside from its assigned Tonnage of 3000 Tonnes in total. There are limitations as to what you can do right out of the gate of course but the
cosmetics of what your ship looks like are in no way influenced by anything save the imagination of the Players. This is a stylistic design choice which makes Freespacer extremely versatile and becomes even more apparent as you play.
From a GM standpoint, there are very few pre-existing things that need to be tweaked, house-ruled or just plain omitted when running Freespacer. Any item in the Universe can look any way you would like it to because the mechanical function of the Universe is defined by your Dice Pool and Resources. You will never have to worry that your Players know exactly what an Item, Creature or Ship can do because it is handled by the Dice instead of a complicated Stat Block which also leaves the Freespacer book the room to give the Players and GM what they most need: The Universe to play in.
That is not to say that there are no Stat Blocks in Freespacer, they are simply much less intrusive than games in this genre tend to skew towards. From a Gameplay standpoint, this is truly a boon as you will seldom have to dig through anything to find necessary details of your Character or Ship. Freespacer also does away with the standard grid mechanics common to games of this ilk. Much of it is handled in Theatre of the Mind style moments to allow for a more cinematic experience and avoid adding bulk to the Rules.
Collaborative Roleplay and Resource Management are at the heart of any Freespacer game. Character Creation is both effective and simple with three Primary categories to choose from and a series of 15 subordinate Skills to follow that add depth to your choices. Fortunately, there
is enough variety in each of the three Primary categories that every Player will find themselves engaged in the gameplay as the Game also requires each Character be Assigned to two Duty Stations on the Ship. Your Engineer does not have to remain in Engineering at all times in order
to be a valuable Character for example. Everything that your Characters and Ship do while you are on Missions earns you Resources such as Complex Material. You might ask yourself, “What is Complex Material?” and the answer to that is simply, “Whatever it needs to be in order to
advance the story.” In one Mission your Complex Material could be crates of Advanced Engineering materials or Hybrid Nanochip interfaces. These are the true valuables that you accumulate on your Missions and have a variety of uses from advancing your Ship to Barter material at other Stations. It can be as detailed or as vague as you wish but it can all be used to add dice to your Pool in the right situation. Is your Ship out of Supplies (another In-Game Resource) and low on Assets (also a Resource) that allow for day-to-day repairs and Ship functions? Perhaps it is time to take a Mission to remedy that before you get into a battle that
might not go in your favour with limited Resources.
It is this sort of ephemeral use of Storytelling elements that really drives Freespacer out in front of many other Systems. You do not ever get bogged down by the finicky details that often plague other Systems that many like to refer to as ‘crunch’. Everything your Characters do is a give and take between yourself and the GM who assigns Hazards to your attempts based on what it is you plan to do. Simple tasks that demand little of your Characters are never allowed to get in the way of telling an entertaining Story while more complicated things like chasing around
a Spacedock trying to find the Parts to repair your Ships Driveplant as Security attempts to chase you down and prevent your escape can often turn into a series of Rolls which are referred to as a Project within the Freespacer rules.
With an ever-evolving Dice Pool mechanical system working with you in the background, you rarely make the same Roll twice which keeps the game fresh as your Characters explore the Sector. Rolling Dice in Freespacer is called a Salvo. As a Player, you generate your Task Dice
Pool while your Gamemaster represents the situation with Threat Dice. Adding up the Total of your own Dice based on Skills, Advantages, Tools, Assistance from other Players etc you roll them against the Threat Dice which can be Creatures, Enemy Ships, Other Freespacers even the environment itself. After all Rolls have been made you compare your Successes (5+ on a d10 where a 10 counts as two) vs Threat Dice Successes (1 to 3 on D6) if you exceed the Threat Dice Successes then you win the Roll. Of course, the more you exceed the Threat Dice
the greater your victory and the GM will narrate the outcome of the Task.
All of these Situations can be modified with what are called Tags in Freespacer. If you have the Multitasking Tag, for example, you will have disadvantage on your Roll. If your environment is acidic you may have an additional D6 in your Threat Pool. No two Task Rolls are ever the same
in Freespacer which makes almost everything you attempt a treat as a Roleplayer. As there is no Experience track in Freespacer even Gaining Skills or ‘levelling up’ is something that happens dynamically within the Game and is not merely a downtime activity. During an Advancement Scene, the Players may spend Complex Materials in order to Advance their Character, their Ship or their Gear in some way shape or form.
Having discussed the very basic aspects of Dice Mechanics it is important to note that Dice Rolling, while vital to the Game, is not a constant affair. Your Freespacer Crew may be new to one another but they are in no way amateurs, this is handled by the Task Difficulty System which is adjudicated by the GM. It is highly encouraged that the GM not ask the Players to make Rolls which fall within their chosen Skill Sets unless there is some outside Challenge which would necessitate it.
Coming in at 338 this single book represents everything you need to get started playing Freespacer and the book is filled from cover to cover with the fuel for your imagination that makes a Universe come to life. Its form factor is compact without being sparse, and while it does ask for a fair bit of creative leg work from an aspiring GM it does an excellent job getting out of the way and allowing for raw creativity on the part of said GM. It can have as much or as little crunch as you like, it is quite literally up to you as the GM to make that decision.
As a Single Book Core System, Freespacer spends its latter 230 pages giving the Gamemaster a host of tools in which to bring the Sector to life for their Players. Of particular note is the Influences Page which notes an array of valuable sources of World Building for an aspiring GM or also they can be used to try and explain to aspiring Players what sort of ‘World’ the GM is attempting to help them bring to life. Adding to that resource are an impressive array of Tools and downloadable assets to make your Gameplay easier ranging from Character Sheets for the Players to full design sheets for the GM to use in creating the Sector in which the adventure will take place. One of the Goals in the Kickstarter for this game was a Sector Archive which is a ready-made Sector that a GM can use to get up and running quickly. Of special note here is that
there is also a Player facing version of it that can be freely handed out to the Players to use for recording their own information about their Ship, Sector and Characters. Alongside VTT Assets for Roll20 there are a host of Actual Play examples on the website should an aspiring Player or GM wish to see how the game itself can be brought to its full potential.
Freespacer is definitely worthy of inclusion in your Gaming Library if you enjoy Future Tech and Sci-fi, and is a terrific example of what a Game can do when it focuses on the Story, Universe and Players all coming together to tell an intricate and entertaining original story.
You can find Freespacer online at www.freespacer.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/freespacer.
[Thanks to the Compose Dreams Games RPG Marketplace for providing TheRatHole.ca with a review copy of this book.]
“Geek of the North”
Jason is an old timey Geek, Nerd, and Gamer from the days of yore. Or the Early 80s if you prefer. With interests ranging from Video to Tabletop to Online Gaming he has been around long enough to have seen the Industry become what it is today. In recent years he has been one of the Founding Members on Victory Condition Gamings “The Chaotic Good Cast” and has also worked as a Freelancer at Conventions through VCG and on behalf of Free League Publishing.
Lately Jason has been a Cast Member for any number of ‘Actual Plays’ hosted by Victory Condition Gaming on YouTube which helps to showcase up and coming Tabletop Games with a focus on the more ‘Indy’ side of the scene. If it is out there as a Game, Jason has likely checked it out or plans to check it out as his schedule allows.
Jason lives in the Northern regions of Alberta, hence his status as Geek of the North, with his Wife and their dog, Moya. On Twitter he is @Hexeter , in fact in most online spaces if you look for Hexeter it is likely you will find it to be him.
