Forbidden Lands

I love the Lore of this world it is amazing. It's a shame the core mechanics are so restricting. Dragonbane is in the same world. Maybe try mixing them somehow? Still Forbidden Lands has Great Worldbuilding and the Stickers on the map you can add as you randomly explore hexes is amazing! The game system though. Not so great!

+Nadopaný svět a lore +Tolkien vibe -Drsný survival -Příběhy někdy odkazují na předchozí lokace ale nikde nepíši co dělat když se tam postavy vrátí

I had a good time playing this game. There was a sense of isolation that made the adventure feel like it was the party versus the world. The story that unfolded was compelling and kept everyone interested. The mechanics were easy to learn as well.

Forbidden Lands is a weird one for me. It's from Free League (and I am a big fan of Free League), using they Year Zero System, which is a great system. It's easy, intuitive, and has a great flow. In this particular game, the few modifications to the system are meant to evoke not only the danger of the setting, but also to help players immerse into the survival feel. You don't just go from dungeon to dungeon killing monster, you actually have to get there first, and the rules do a very good job in making survival (make camp, hunt, forage, fish, etc...) a very important part of the game, while keeping it quick and easy. Combat is fast and deadly, magic actually means something, and in general it's a pleasure to run and play. On the other side I find two very big drawbacks: 1- The setting is interesting, very dark and grim, but it presents a lot of problematic concepts. While with certain groups talking about abuse, slavery, racism, and similar topic might be ok, with others it could become problematic very quickly. And while having a conversation about it during session 0 would certainly help, some parts of the setting are hard to modify to account for different sensibilities. 2- The adventures for it are... lackluster. They have good stories, interesting ideas, but then the GMs are basically left on their own. Their style of "location based adventure" leaves a lot of work to the GM, since the locations themselves (or at least most of them) are not really fleshed out that much. All in all, I think Forbidden Lands is a good game, with some problems that make it harder to run, but definitely fun to play for players looking to that old school, survival feel, while still using modern, slick mechanics.

What Forbidden Lands does, it does really well. It offers an old school exploration-based experience with a very modern, sleek, design. The main innovation, for me, is that the system has a built in way to "reward" failure that incentivises players to make bold and risky choices. The world of Forbidden Lands is filled with unique twists on fantasy tropes, and the way they are gradually revealed to the players through play is absolutely delightful. The fresh new take on goblin lore, in particular, is both ridiculous and terrifying. As a GM, what I enjoyed the most is that the system is capable of keeping /me/ as surprised and engaged as the players. It's also a relatively low prep system, as long as you feel comfortable with that.

This game is one of a kind. A pure old-school fantasy setting, with a rich lore and geography. But a game system that tailors the unfolding of that lore and world in a very smooth and progressive way; no lore-dump but exploration and step by step discovery due to built-in mechanics centered around survival, travel and encounters. The Year Zero Engine adapted for this game works perfectly well, no crunch but enough dynamism to make it interactive. The tone and pace of the game is dark but entertaining at the same time. Great fro all generations of gamers, there is something quite universal and rooted about that game.