General News - Flames of Freedom TRPG Review @ Polygon

[Redglyph]

Polygon reviews Flames of Freedom Grim & Perilous, a tabletop RPG published by Andrews McMeel Publishing and based on the Zweihander RPG. The setting is the American Revolutionary War of 1776, and the game is categorized as an "American Gothic horror tabletop role-playing game".

Flames of Freedom tabletop RPG mixes Hamilton with Stranger Things

FlamesFlames of Freedom Grim & Perilous RPG, the latest from Andrews McMeel Publishing, begins with a bold assertion. It instructs players, firmly and directly, to scrap the conventionally taught history of the American Revolution in favor of a new set of rules. Players should throw absolutely all of the exploitative, colonialist violence into a period appropriate dumpster and set it on fire. What remains is exactly what it says on the tin -- a grim and perilous world filled with mystery, horror, and adventure -- and the chance to rewrite the American Revolution.

Flames of Freedom is a supernatural setting that feels like a mix of Hamilton and Stranger Things. While your neighbors are marching off to fight the Red Coats, you'll be lurking in the shadows battling against arcane powers that have existed on the continent for thousands of years. In this tabletop RPG, the process of play becomes instead a story of creation, an open and absorbing alternate history of the troubled founding of our troubled nation where everyone -- and I mean everyone -- gets a hand on the ball.

[...]

Flames of Freedom Grim & Perilous RPG is one of the best new TRPGs released this year, but it is not for the faint of heart. You can get a taste with a free quickstart version, which includes a short adventure and a selection of pre-generated characters. But, even if you never roll a die in anger, it's nonetheless a treasure trove of thoughtful historical information. The book officially goes up for sale on Oct. 12. Expect a community-made campaign to be available online around the same time.

More information.

 

[FurtiveNyctophile]

Interesting! I actually just recently picked up the Zweihander RPG core book (beautiful book, by the way) - it's an interesting roleplaying game with roots in Warhammer Fantasy, I'd say. Lots of crunch in the 600+ page book, lots of tables to roll on, lots of randomness. My wife rolled up a sample character the other day and ended up with a hunchbacked gnome servant. It's "dark fantasy" and not high fantasy etc.

This actually looks like a FANTASTIC supplement and a really cool period of history to do an RPG in, especially with the supernatural twists added. The game has been out since 2017 and since I discovered it I keep noticing it everywhere, like a new word you learn or something...

 

[SveNitoR]

Interesting! I actually just recently picked up the Zweihander RPG core book (beautiful book, by the way) - it's an interesting roleplaying game with roots in Warhammer Fantasy, I'd say. Lots of crunch in the 600+ page book, lots of tables to roll on, lots of randomness. My wife rolled up a sample character the other day and ended up with a hunchbacked gnome servant. It's "dark fantasy" and not high fantasy etc.

This actually looks like a FANTASTIC supplement and a really cool period of history to do an RPG in, especially with the supernatural twists added. The game has been out since 2017 and since I discovered it I keep noticing it everywhere, like a new word you learn or something...

Never having tried it, it seems really interesting. And I love having random tables, even if I don't necessarily use them all the time. The type of character you describe your wife got is not the usual character, but evokes a lot of thoughts and chances for fun role playing.

Personally, I'm not a fan of the average d20/DnD rules, so this seems like a fun alternative I'd never heard about before.

 

[Redglyph]

This TRPG and the one it's based on seem to come with a lot of reading, it must be quite immersive. For Flames of Freedom, I wonder if that's easy for the reader to separate history from fiction, it could be very confusing unless you know your America history well enough. Maybe on purpose, but awkward if you talk with an historian later as if they were facts.

I suppose that when the author of the review mentions it has both critical success and failure, he compares to D&D 5E, or AD&D? 3.5E and Pathfinder have critical failure.

 

[FurtiveNyctophile]

This TRPG and the one it's based on seem to come with a lot of reading, it must be quite immersive. For Flames of Freedom, I wonder if that's easy for the reader to separate history from fiction, it could be very confusing unless you know your America history well enough. Maybe on purpose, but awkward if you talk with an historian later as if they were facts.

I suppose that when the author of the review mentions it has both critical success and failure, he compares to D&D 5E, or AD&D? 3.5E and Pathfinder have critical failure.

So much to unpack in here. I own the game (not this book yet, it's not out) so I'll try to give some explanation:

Zweihander or "Grim & Perilous" roleplaying is a tabletop system made for the Zweihander RPG, which is tabletop like 5E D&D but the similarities stop there.

My wife rolled a sample character the other day - chargen is literally all rolling from tables. The choice you get is in how you play what you rolled up, not in actually choosing. This will be appealing for some and utterly disgust others, depending on what you want from a game. We've been tabletop gaming for 30 some years now, we we enjoy these twists to well known systems.

So she rolled up a gnome, servant-class hunchback that was universally hated and reviled by others due to general racism against gnomes and the fact that gnomes in this world are ugly and mean-spirited. Yay, gnome servant; get ready for your perilous adventure.

SO - moving on to Flames of Freedom - everything you need to know about the "History" is contained in the 600 page book, but this ISN'T the American Revolution you're thinking of. First off, they do away with "problematic" content like slavery - the game designers simply decided to not have that part of history feature in the game because, well, it's 2021 and it probably would have gone over like a lead balloon if they did. There's not really the themes of racism and sexism that there was in the original era; more it's a "lurking supernatural dangers" vs. all of the colonists and inhabitants land of the - French, British, native-born etc etc.

A certain type of player will look at this and go "Boo, social justice garbage they changed history boo" and another type of player will look at it and go "American revolution with magic and werewolves and no sexism or racism? That sounds awesome, sign me up."

Main complaints I've seen from some (very loud) people on the internet are that it isn't "historically accurate" but... I donno, the addition of werewolves, nature spirits and blood drinking monstrosities kinda clued me into the fact that it's a game not a historical reenactment.

 

[Redglyph]

A certain type of player will look at this and go "Boo, social justice garbage they changed history boo" and another type of player will look at it and go "American revolution with magic and werewolves and no sexism or racism? That sounds awesome, sign me up."

Main complaints I've seen from some (very loud) people on the internet are that it isn't "historically accurate" but… I donno, the addition of werewolves, nature spirits and blood drinking monstrosities kinda clued me into the fact that it's a game not a historical reenactment.

They took the appealing flavour and left the gory historic details out. At the same time, it's less confusing if it's less accurate, so that's probably for the best.

When I watch a historical movie, I'm always a little worried because of the liberties they take regarding facts. For example in Darkest Hour, Churchill decides on a critical day to take the tube and talk with people, ask their opinion. This gives him the tools to win others to his cause before giving an important speech. Is it real or not? Was he so lost and unsure about his people's opinion? Was he suddenly at a loss for arguments? Has the outcome of WWII hinged on something so thin?

On the other hand, if there's a werewolf in the tube, there's little doubt we've crossed the border between fact and fiction.

 

[FurtiveNyctophile]

Exactly. I wouldn't use this game to teach history, rather, I think it would be a fun "alternate history" to play with adults that already have at least a cursory knowledge of the real time period and also an understanding of why they're *not* doing that with this game.

When it comes to things that claim historical accuracy, I'm a stickler for accuracy. I love the study of history. This, this is just a cool sounding game.