If you do nothing else with FreeMarket, you should read this thread about the Excramax MRCZ.
Jared and I had nothing to do with this. We had not met or communicated with this group at all. The AP just appeared out of the electron mists.
Enjoy.
Chuffed that Excramax is still getting props, years later. Any reason you were reminded of it, Luke?
We have talked about returning to Freemarket but I don’t know that it would be as good as that campaign was because the GM has since moved to greener pastures (literally - he’s in New Zealand).
We’ve recently revived our Burning Wheel campaign; tonight is session 29. Our AP is way behind but is posted at BW.org.
If anyone’s in Melbourne and interested in hitting us up for a game you can visit us at www.shieldmonkey.com.
I wanted it documented here. It’s the best AP of any of my games.
I’m rereading it now and there’s so much brilliance in it.
What character did you play?
I played WilbertTM who appeared midway through. My most successful prints were Conscience (robo-cricket) and There-Theramin.
I joined the group via RPG.net based on that thread - still playing with them now.
So jealous!
It reads like Screen Monkey has the sharpest mind of any GM ever. What was he like in those moment to moment decisions? Especially when unexpected stuff came up, like a failed challenge.
Bear in mind he wrote the AP, history is written by the victor etc…
Kidding. It was a long time ago but I remember it flowing pretty seamlessly. He said at the time he put very little prep into the sessions and that the game was really easy to GM on the fly. I have let him know about your comments so he might be along to lend a bit more insight.
I love to improvise, and Freemarket is fantastic for that. We were lucky to be a really creative, imaginative group, and it was fun for me to riff against those ideas. I guess I was always thing, “sure, well, then what could go wrong with that situation?”.
The Excramax thread was so important to us. It immediately quashed the claims of naysayers that pulled the old, “Sure, the game works if Luke or Jared are there.” argument. It’s also the best AP I’ve ever read ever, ever.
Thanks! I love Freemarket and wish it had a wider following. I’d love to read other FM AP’s.
One thing that may have worked in Freemarket’s favour: with shuffling, dealing and playing cards the length of challenges is long enough to allow a GM time to think up consequences on the fly. Same with Burning Wheel. I’m also a mostly improvisational GM and I had a really hard time with both Lacuna and Dungeon World where tests are over in an instant (there’s not even any haggling over obs, FoRKs, helping dice to draw things out) and I was left scrambling every time for an interesting result.
Interesting angle.
Shuffling and dealing?
You used up so many cards that shuffling in the middle of session was frequent?
They decide the first thing they need is a mobbing chair. Mamasan 2.0 prints a mobbing chair, but unfortunately it doesn’t work as well as hoped.
Mobbing Chair (1, Mobbing, Dentist Chair, Fatal)
That is just one of the greatest things ever written.