Nathan Russel of indie studio Peril Planet has released the second edition of the beta Freeform Universal RPG.
You can download the beta rules from Peril Planet.com.
Although this is a second edition, the project is very much a works in progress; missing sections, art and still under review.
However, I think they make a lot of sense, are nicely formatted and strongly suggest the final product is going to be a good one. Importantly, you can run a game with these rules.
Given that 10 years of playtesting has gone into Freeform Universal, the fact that the rules work well is hardly surprising. Nathan recommends reading the design notes (page 136) before anything else.
FU looks to use descriptive words, not numbers to define characters, and that means conditions not hit points.
In the game, only the players roll, and checks are based around questions. These questions can be “closed”, answered with a yes or a no, such as “Do I stab the orc?” or can be “loaded”. Loaded questions assume a degree of success but also put consequences into play such as “Can I find the clue before the police turn up?”
Peril Planet’s other games include the cyberpunk RPG Neon City Overdrive, the anime mecha battle game GunFrame, and dark fantasy The Beast of Limfjord.
In the meantime, the second edition to Freeform Universal can be found here.
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