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<blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 4357362" data-attributes="member: 172"><p>Alright, did a bit of a refresher read:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, there's D20, of course, and I did pull Freeport into my river of worlds game.</p><p></p><p>Pirates of the Carribean 2 & 3 got me thinking about a "mystical pirates" game, in which pirates tap the power of gods. The feel of 4e rituals usable by any class with the proper feat is IMO wrong for D&D, but good for Lovecraft-ish fantasy that Freeport represents. That said, I think the heavily encounter-centric design of 4e is wrong for freeport, so I'd have to do a mash up of some sort.</p><p></p><p>I had also considered using FATE/Spirit of the Century for such a game. Though (as I mention in my prior post) the book doesn't provide easily extractable statistics, FATE's aspect mechanic makes it easy to extract game statistics from flavor text.</p><p></p><p>The other major system I would consider running it with is Crafty Games' forthcoming <em><a href="http://www.crafty-games.com/node/348" target="_blank">Fantasy Craft</a></em>. It has better handling of non-combat tasks and conflicts than 3e/d20 or 4e, and the moment it's published, you'll be able to plug in the <em><a href="http://www.crafty-games.com/node/422" target="_blank">Fragile Minds</a></em> supplement for that Lovecraftian Horror feel.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>What did you like about the setting and lack of mechanics?</strong></p><p></p><p>Well, obviously, the thing I like about it is it makes me feel more free to experiment with other systems, which can produce a different feel than D20 does.</p><p></p><p><strong>What did you dislike, or find hard to implement?</strong></p><p></p><p>As mentioned previously, lacking even "pseudo stats" like the old City Books had makes it harder to pull out stats without deep consideration of what the character should have.</p><p></p><p><strong>What do you think were the main design goals the author had in mind?</strong></p><p></p><p>To put it plainly, the design goal was to survive a 4e transition. Chris Pramas saw the writing on the wall, and got stung bad by 3.5. He wanted his baby to survive 4e without having to sacrifice a print run.</p><p></p><p>More specifically, the goal of the generic book is to re-sell the Freeport concept to non-D&D 3.x players.</p><p></p><p><strong>Was he/she able to reach their goals or fall short?</strong></p><p></p><p>Well, I have seen Patrick O'Duffy rant about Freeport being discussed in the D20 forum rather than the general forum over at RPGnet. So it seems he's got a bit of a challenge. The fact of the matter is that the existing audience for freeport is probably the core of the new audience, but those members that have moved on the games like C&C and Savage Worlds can take the setting with them.</p><p></p><p>I'll repeat that pseudo-statistics would help gamers actually use this as a gaming product.</p><p></p><p>Freeport when from being marketed to gamers who already have a setting (assuming d20 system) to players who have their own system but not necessarily setting. As such, fleshing out the main continent a bit might have been a good choice to reach those players, but it might not be too much use for existing players using d20 or their own setting.</p><p></p><p>Deities are a curious exception to this further fleshed out setting. The gods are still nameless, even deities which were named in earlier Freeport books.</p><p></p><p><strong>Would this be the kind of game you would play?</strong></p><p></p><p>Absolutely. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /></p><p></p><p><strong>One more thought</strong></p><p></p><p>After reading through this book and comparing it with other recent city/setting offerings, I think that Green Ronin needs to follow suit after Malhavoc (with Ptolus) and Paizo and make a player's guide. There is a lot of info about Freeport that natives of the setting would know, but this book is riddled with secret info and thus probably not best to be handing to all the players.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Psion, post: 4357362, member: 172"] Alright, did a bit of a refresher read: Well, there's D20, of course, and I did pull Freeport into my river of worlds game. Pirates of the Carribean 2 & 3 got me thinking about a "mystical pirates" game, in which pirates tap the power of gods. The feel of 4e rituals usable by any class with the proper feat is IMO wrong for D&D, but good for Lovecraft-ish fantasy that Freeport represents. That said, I think the heavily encounter-centric design of 4e is wrong for freeport, so I'd have to do a mash up of some sort. I had also considered using FATE/Spirit of the Century for such a game. Though (as I mention in my prior post) the book doesn't provide easily extractable statistics, FATE's aspect mechanic makes it easy to extract game statistics from flavor text. The other major system I would consider running it with is Crafty Games' forthcoming [I][url=http://www.crafty-games.com/node/348]Fantasy Craft[/url][/I]. It has better handling of non-combat tasks and conflicts than 3e/d20 or 4e, and the moment it's published, you'll be able to plug in the [i][url=http://www.crafty-games.com/node/422]Fragile Minds[/url][/i] supplement for that Lovecraftian Horror feel. [B]What did you like about the setting and lack of mechanics?[/B] Well, obviously, the thing I like about it is it makes me feel more free to experiment with other systems, which can produce a different feel than D20 does. [b]What did you dislike, or find hard to implement?[/b] As mentioned previously, lacking even "pseudo stats" like the old City Books had makes it harder to pull out stats without deep consideration of what the character should have. [b]What do you think were the main design goals the author had in mind?[/b] To put it plainly, the design goal was to survive a 4e transition. Chris Pramas saw the writing on the wall, and got stung bad by 3.5. He wanted his baby to survive 4e without having to sacrifice a print run. More specifically, the goal of the generic book is to re-sell the Freeport concept to non-D&D 3.x players. [b]Was he/she able to reach their goals or fall short?[/b] Well, I have seen Patrick O'Duffy rant about Freeport being discussed in the D20 forum rather than the general forum over at RPGnet. So it seems he's got a bit of a challenge. The fact of the matter is that the existing audience for freeport is probably the core of the new audience, but those members that have moved on the games like C&C and Savage Worlds can take the setting with them. I'll repeat that pseudo-statistics would help gamers actually use this as a gaming product. Freeport when from being marketed to gamers who already have a setting (assuming d20 system) to players who have their own system but not necessarily setting. As such, fleshing out the main continent a bit might have been a good choice to reach those players, but it might not be too much use for existing players using d20 or their own setting. Deities are a curious exception to this further fleshed out setting. The gods are still nameless, even deities which were named in earlier Freeport books. [b]Would this be the kind of game you would play?[/b] Absolutely. :D [b]One more thought[/b] After reading through this book and comparing it with other recent city/setting offerings, I think that Green Ronin needs to follow suit after Malhavoc (with Ptolus) and Paizo and make a player's guide. There is a lot of info about Freeport that natives of the setting would know, but this book is riddled with secret info and thus probably not best to be handing to all the players. [/QUOTE]
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