The deepest assumption of any player approaching a game is that they are doing it for fun. And of course you’re playing Freemarket to have fun. Freemarket does not disabuse you of this notion. But there is more to life than happiness, and there are more to games than fun.
Friend of the Donut and indie game designer, Jason Morningstar (Fiasco, Shab Al-Hiri Roach, Gray Ranks), had some very nice things to say about FreeMarket.
FreeMarket is sort of amazing. Here are a few reasons why:
• Genuinely transhuman and post-scarcity in outlook, aggressively and cheerfully so.
• Handily subverts pretty much everything RPGs are usually predicated on. Sociopathic violence is not really a good option at any point. Radical kindness is always effective. Any activity the players engage with can be rewarding and compelling. Cooperation and friendship are mandatory.
• Seamless integration of player and character terminology, so elegant you won’t even notice you are using the same words to describe IC and OOC situations. I cannot emphasize enough how innovative and cool this simple thing is.
• Brilliant implementation of a card-based resolution system that encourages cheating. Card-counting, anyway.
• Game mechanics effortlessly reinforce the game’s social hierarchy and structure. Ask the guy who adds an immigrant to his MRCZ what I’m talking about
• Packaging, components, marketing.
People will look back on Freemarket and say, “Huh, so that’s where this came from.”
50 Games in 50 Weeks: FreeMarket:
“The system and the setting fit together like a glove, and I love what I saw…”
FreeMarket won the 2010 Indie RPG Award for Best Production at GenCon.
The committee of the Diana Jones Award is happy to announce the shortlist for its 2011 award. Boiled down from a longlist of 22 nominees, this year the list contains five candidates that in the opinion of the committee exemplify the very best that hobby-gaming has produced in the last twelve months. In alphabetical order, they are:
The winner of the 2011 Award will be announced on Wednesday 3rd August, at the annual Diana Jones Award and Freelancer Party in Indianapolis, the unofficial start of the Gen Con Indy convention.
Last August, Luke Crane (of Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard fame) and Jared Sorensen (creator of Action Castle and its siblings) launched Freemarket, a Science Fiction roleplaying game.
I had the privilege to play a 4 hour demo game with Luke (thanks to Gnome Stew‘s DNAPhil who invited me) and the game blew my mind away. I was dumbstruck by the originality of the game and its sheer scale as an engine for trans-human Sci-Fi stories… Even though the action is entirely confined within a lone space station.
I finally got a chance to play it with my friends about 3 weeks ago and I’ve been wracking my brain to find a way to convey my impressions of the game without falling all over the details of the game.
Prologue: Read Chatty’s write-up of user creation and see what’s going down on the Donut!
Part I: Chatty kicks the game into high gear with Episode I: The Steam Stallion
Part II: Chatty wraps things up with a little GhostN’Breakin’
A transhumanist RPG that puts players onto a crowded space station, Freemarket runs on a unique reputation-based system that puts an emphasis on character interaction. The preconceived notions players develop from playing traditional RPGs can actually get in the way, but for the open-minded gamer, Freemarket is a treat. Couple that with a beautifully-designed boxed set stocked with cards and counters, and you’ve got one of the best RPGs of 2010. – MTV Geek
FreeMarket makes the 2010 Gift Guide over at OgreCave.com.
“It’s colorful, hilarious, difficult and – let’s use the word once more before the decade is out – awesome.”
FreeMarket shipping is free within the US and international customers can shave off $10 on shipping costs!
