FreeMarket is probably the flagship of this year. An impeccable presentation, a simple, innovative and exciting atmosphere at the hands of two of the most important authors of the scene. What more could you want?

¡Olé!

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.”

“The system and the setting fit together like a glove, and I love what I saw…”

Three RPGs and two board games vie for hobby gaming’s most exclusive trophy

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:

• Catacombs, a board game from Sands of Time Games, by Ryan Amos, Marc Kelsy, and Aron West
• The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game from Evil Hat Productions, by Leonard Balsera, Jim Butcher, Genevieve Cogman, Rob Donaghue, Fred Hicks, Kenneth Hite, Ryan Macklin, Chad Underkoffler, and Clark Valentine
• Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space, a board game from Santa Ragione and Cranio Creations, by Mario Porpora, Pietro Righi Riva, Luca Francesco Rossi, and Nicolò Tedeschi
• Fiasco, a roleplaying game from Bully Pulpit Games, by Jason Morningstar
• Freemarket, a roleplaying game from Sorencrane MRCZ, by Luke Crane and Jared Sorensen

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.

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.”

His summation, which is pretty good, is:

• You want to play a light-hearted science-fiction game
• You want to explore the concept of virtual immortality—that’s one of the themes in the game: “You have forever. What are you going to do with it?”
• You want to play with a (so far) unique conflict resolution system
• You want to have an impact on your surroundings
• You want to make new and interesting friends
• You want to make new and interesting enemies
• You have the money, and appreciate craftsmanship

As for the rest of the solar system, well I’m sure there are plenty of other games to be developed in the future about the future. FreeMarket is just one of them!