WELCOME TO FREEBLADES!
Freeblades is a fantasy skirmish game set in the exciting and dangerous World of Faelon.
A freeblade is a fortune hunter who operates under a warrant from one of Faelon’s many factions. A freeblade warrant allows the holder to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission, so long as it is beyond the faction’s borders. Freeblades gather together into freebands to accomplish the tasks their patrons set out for them. In return, the freeband receives a share of any plunder or profit and can expect protection once back inside the faction’s borders. If they make it there…
Find the Freeblades Living Rulebook here: https://dgsgames.com/freeblades-living-rulebook/
Freeblades is a fantasy game because its setting is one of swords and magic, of dire creatures and perilous landscapes, of selfless valor and vile treachery. Freeblades is set in the World of Faelon, which provides the perfect backdrop for exciting adventures. The World of Faelon is described in a number of linked articles on the World Anvil platform. See the World of Faelon tab on our website for more information on how to gain access to this treasure trove of information: https://dgsgames.com/world-of-faelon/
Freeblades is a skirmish game because each player commands a freeband of six to eighteen individual models representing the members of the freeband. These models are masterfully sculpted 32mm miniatures. Freeblades is also played using any convenient surface as a battleground and tape measures and dice for determining success or failure.
Gather your freeband and set off to recover the lost treasure, rescue the prisoner, explore the ruined city, or attempt any one of many exciting tasks. Track your freeblades as they gather experience and gain new skills, talents and gear. The Freeblades Living Rulebook has many dangerous quests and more will be added to the mix all the time.
So, strap on your greatsword, string that longbow and commit that one last spell to memory. Adventure awaits!
Ways to Play
The Freeblades rules permit a variety of ways to play the game. You can play one on one using one of our many scenarios included in the Living Rulebook. Most of these scenarios will also permit multiplayer play and we provide you notes on how to make our scenarios work when more than two players want to get in on the action.
You can choose to play Freeblades as part of a Freeblades Campaign. In a campaign, you track your freeband’s progress through a series of adventures against other opponents in the campaign. Some of its members will gain experience, some will lose their lives. New recruits will be added and old veterans retired as your freeband gains fame – or infamy. A campaign provides a whole different set of challenges than one off scenario gaming. First, there is no guarantee from game to game that the opposing freeband will be the same value as yours, and you may be playing with an overall advantage or disadvantage. If you are at a disadvantage, you can make use of the handicap system to help you close the gap and set your freeband up for future success. Second, win or lose, your freeblades increase their attributes, talents and skills as they gain experience and become more powerful with every game they play – and survive. This makes every campaign freeband unique and provides the player with new and exciting tactical possibilities.
You can also choose to play Freeblades Encounters, where you and your fellow players ARE the freeband, controlling one or two models each and battling against villains played by a gamemaster (GM).
The Tiered Dice System
The Tiered Dice System provides you a unique way to play your fantasy games. No, it’s not the first game system to explode a die or use more than one die type. What is special about Tiered Dice is how it helps you tell the story of what happens in your games. The combination of spikes – exploding dice – increasing die sizes due to talents and game effects, exciting new die types (d14, d16, d18, d24, etc.) and the rules for talents, skills and attributes combine to give you the feel something special is happening and plenty of epic results to fill your tales of accomplishment and woe during and after the game.
Living Rulebook
It is our job to get these rules right for you and not make it your problem when we get them wrong. We at DGS recognize that there are no perfect rulebooks and even fewer perfect game designers. Although we will endeavor mightily to get everything right the first time, we will make mistakes. But when we do, we will fix them and provide you those fixes quickly, and for free.
But our Living Rulebooks (LRB) are not just designed to get you errata. Each time we introduce major elements into the game system, we publish a new LRB and make it available to you free of charge. No need to collect and sift through multiple products.
The World of Faelon
The World of Faelon is a deep and broad background providing endless gaming and storytelling possibilities. It is deep, with histories and relationships, cultures and languages, flora and fauna all describing a place you want to explore, live and die in and battle over. It is broad, with dozens of factions and nearly limitless locales and personalities. There’s room for everyone in Faelon. There’s a faction here for you. Quite possibly more than one!
Support
Game companies are a hard business. To be truly successful, you need people who know how to run a business and keep it in the black and growing. But that is not enough. We don’t want to be a company where profit is the only bottom line. We are gamers and we are very familiar with what makes a gamer happy. And we intend to give it to you.
We’re going to give you great customer service. If you find there’s a problem with one of our products, we will do our best to fix it. If there’s something you don’t like, we’re going to listen. We might not choose to act on every suggestion, especially in those tough situations where some customers want things one way and some want it the opposite way. We’ll make the hard call. What we won’t do is ignore you. We’re going to answer your questions. Every game leaves some gamer somewhere with a question. Our social media platforms are the places to ask it. We will answer, and we will answer in a timely manner.
Involvement
You get to be involved. We want you to be part of the making of our games and the growth of our background.
You can be a DGS playtester, getting an early look at what is next and helping us find problems and suggesting fixes so that our games become the ones you want to play.
You can be a patreon of the World of Faelon. It’s a big place, and we are always looking for people to help tell its story.
Speaking of the story of the World of Faelon, we at DGS have a vision for how that story will play out. But we have not filled in every blank or chosen every path. Some of our fans will be chosen to help set that direction. The more involved in our games you are, the more likely you’ll get a chance to put yourself right into the story and help chart its course!