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Old 05-22-2020, 05:48 PM
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StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
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I haven't seen anything to that effect but the basics are things that we already know: -
Free League is not really changing the world background that much from what we've seen in 2nd/2.2
it will use a variant of the Year Zero rules
Sweden will be a campaign starting region like Poland was in the earlier editions (like their Tales from the Loop RPG there will be two possible starting locations, in this case, Poland and Sweden)
the artwork will be pretty damned good

What I found interesting was that some of the live audience for the Twitch stream were happy to see that playing civilians would be an option - something that has been in the game since at least 2nd Edition. So it seems to me that some of the audience is actually quite ignorant of the earlier editions which may possibly be an indicator that Free League is attracting a new group of people to the game?

The other things of interest to me were how much the Year Zero rules are slanted towards fast play and also the systems reliance on gimmick dice. They're modifying aspects of the Year Zero system to account for T2k's survival theme and to give some differentiation between items of gear (e.g. small arms), but it is still intrinsically a Year Zero rules set.
While many aspects of the gimmick dice probably won't make it into their version of T2k, they still exist as a possibility. The guy that was interviewed said that the rules are not set just yet as they are only now going into play-testing. Therefore there is still the possibility that changes will be made.

This also means that the skill system we're used to from earlier editions is going to be much reduced and it seems that they won't even be called skills but "talents" and while these talents will be combined with Year Zero's much smaller Attribute list to see if you pass a skill test (like we see in the 2.2 d20 system), multiple types of die will be needed depending on how "talented" the PC is (subject to the play-test). At the moment they are using a two-dice system, it seems the core die is a d6 while the second die reflects how "talented" the PC is.
Low talents start with a d6 but as your PC increases ranks in that talent, the second die becomes a d8, then a d10, then a d12.

While I can see that that sort of mechanic can be really useful for fast paced or cinematic games, it's exactly the opposite of how I view most of a T2k game. It seems to me that the Year Zero system suits lots of dice rolling where you don't have to think too much about the mechanics behind the system or even how rules mechanics can shape/inform the game world. While that can certainly be an asset for some game genres, I'm not convinced it's a good fit for any sort of gritty survival game. It appears to suit their Mutant Year Zero game but that is as much fantasy as the Fallout computer games so definitely not what I would class as gritty or survival themed.
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