Pegasus Digital
Umschauen
bis €











Zurück
pixel_trans.gif
Free From the Yoke €11,55
Durchschnittliche Bewertung:4.8 / 5
Bewertungen Rezension Summe
14 1
2 1
0 0
0 0
0 0
Free From the Yoke
Klicke hier, um zu vergrößern
Du musst angemeldet sein um zu Bewerten
pixel_trans.gif
Free From the Yoke
Verlag: UFO Press
von Anna P. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 11/08/2020 18:07:26

As of writing this review, I have gmed 2 actual game sessions and 2 world/character building sessions of Free From the Yoke.

Currently I give it 4 stars because it's not my ideal perfect 'exists only in my brain' rpg system for political intrigue and country rebuilding, and there's still some stuff that confuse me a little or that I wish was different, but I still had a lot of fun playing it, and I'm excited to continue my campagin.

I really enjoy the game's setting and tone. It's not completely set in stone. You have a lot of wiggle room on whether you want it to very much be fantasy Kievan Rus or draw inspiration from other sources as well, and on whether you want to play heroic revolutionaries or opportunistic bastards (or find a middle ground). Ultimately though I really like the story of rebuilding a country, making a better future and perhaps grabbing a bit of extra power for your house. Sometimes I pick up games with interesting mechanics, but ultimately I'm not interested in the setting and tone of the game, so I never end up gming. This game made me inspired and excited.

The worldbuilding/house creation section is phenomenal. I went into this game with 0 things planned in advance and found creating a whole country daunting. In session 1, my players filled out their house playbooks, adding detail about how their house's history and drawing landmarks on the map. After that, filling out the rest of the map was easy for me because it wasn't a blank slate, now it had a coastline, some mountains and a trade route. I wasn't scared to begin anymore since someone else had drawn the first brushstroke. I found it fun and satisfying to zoom in on certain regions and add a lot of details while I had the inspiration and leaving other places blank since they didn't interest me at the moment and weren't yet game relevant.

I really like both the house playbooks and the character playbooks. Reading through them makes me wish I was a player and not the GM. I didn't get quite as excited about the Arbiter playbooks (playbook for the GM that determines what form the government/arbiter takes and gives the GM some moves) but I ended up really liking the form my Arbiter took (a people's army with a bunch of different leaders with their own ideas of what's the best path for the country to take).

For the first actual game session, a lot of time was consumed by holding court (a move) and figuring out what everything meant, and then prepare and provision (also move), but when we zoomed in and played focusing on their characters going on a mission, things became easier and more fun.

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with powered by the apocalypse games. On one hand, I really enjoy the freedom as a GM. On the other, I find it difficult to call for rolls, not knowing if something is enough of a challenge/if failure is interesting or what to do if there isn't really a move that fits. I think some of it is a matter of getting used to the system and being unafraid to make it own.

I think it's a good game for improvizing as you go along. In one situation, my players were meeting an ambassador, but she was late. One player absolutely didn't want to meet the ambassador and wanted to avoid the meeting place. Originally I had planned for the ambassador to just show up at the meeting place, but I couldn't help myself and created a little trouble, letting the ambassador run into the player who was avoiding her.

I've done very little prep work and research for my sessions that wasn't my own curiosity popping up and making me google medieval salt mines. I think it's interesting how this is a game that wants the players and not the GM to decide the course of the story. I haven't come up with any particular overarching plots or storylines that I want to draw my players into. I haven't had the chance to do zoomed out faction play yet, but I am curious to see how it works, and happy to hand the reins to my players.

Hope this helps you decide whether to buy or not, maybe I'll come back and redo my review after having played more.



Wertung:
[4 von 5 Sternen!]
pixel_trans.gif
Free From the Yoke
Verlag: UFO Press
von Björn L. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 04/15/2020 14:08:50

Rebuilding a country with mighty houses - a Mephisto review

Free from the yoke

Free from the yoke is an expansion for Legacy that offers another alternative scenario for roleplaying. The focus of Free from the yoke is not the rebuilding of civilization after a great catastrophe in the future. This time the background is a medieval world. The setting is a country that has just shed the shackles of a vast, foreign empire and is trying to rebuild after the struggle for freedom. On the organizational level, there are several large houses with a lot of power both during the occupation by the empire and after its fall. For example, there are the Brethren of the Sea Serpent, a strong naval power, the Glorious Merchant Republic, a mixture of guild and trading house, or the Church of the Forgotten Land, a foreign faith that has taken root. Besides the houses, which have their usual playbooks, there is also the character level again, which is occupied by fighters, vagabonds, and scholars.

As with Legacy, it's all about how the houses want to build a new society after the fall. It is important to know that although the empire was defeated here, it still exists. As is usual for Legacy, a map of the land is created during play, and already during character creation, the houses can set certain landmarks, which change during the game, since a large time frame is also used here. Also, as with Legacy, there are the resources, which are measured for the houses in surplus or need. These resources are, for example, necessary to advance projects and, thus, further development. A unique feature of the game is the so-called Arbiter. He is the one who fought back the empire and is, therefore, at the center of the new order. The great houses work together with him (or against him) and also vie for his favor. The influence of the Arbiter is measured with two statistics. They show how strong his control of the country and how great the unrest is. Unusual for Legacy is that there are also three playbooks for the Arbiter, each of which gives the game its own character. The Arbiter also has its so-called agents at the character level.

Free from the yoke takes its inspiration from Russian history and legends according to its own statements. At some points, I felt a little bit reminded of the power struggles in Game of Thrones. The houses and their champions offer a broad range and always also the possibility to create them very individually beyond the basics. The setting of a fantasy realm, which also includes mysterious magic, gives Legacy a unique setting of its own and makes it more accessible to players who don't like the more futuristic scenarios. The idea that the Arbiter is a central game master figure is also an exciting addition.

I think that Free from the yoke is an exciting alternative setting for Legacy, which appeals especially to those players who sometimes want to control the destiny of a medieval country through a large house - and sometimes want to work together for bigger goals and sometimes want to betray the others for their personal advantage. For those who have rebuilt enough civilizations in the future (or who are not quite so familiar with the future), Free from the yoke is the ideal setting for Legacy.

(Björn Lippold)



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
pixel_trans.gif
Rezension 1 bis 2 (von 2 Rezensionen) werden angezeigt Suchergebnisse:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Zurück pixel_trans.gif
0 Einträge
Powered by OneBookShelf