[FreeMarket] Questions

[DeckardPL]

Hello!

I want to ask about a few things that aren't clear after the first FreeMarket session I played with my team.

We had some problems in self-targeted challenges, because the rules didn't answer our doubts well.

1. As Superuser in self-targeted challenges, can I use geneline and experience exclusively? Or maybe technology and interface are allowed too?
2. Can Superuser burn player character's abilities, technology or interface during self-targeted challenges?
3. How many times can the Recalibration action be used in a single challenge?

I also have a question about targeted-class and agregate-class challenges: can I bring in geneline as a Support action after I Burned it to zero previously in the same challenge?

I'll be very grateful for answers.

Regards
Łukasz

[Filip Luszczyk]

Some additional things:

1. First, there's only three of us in the playtest, two players + the GM. However, the game doesn't seem to work in such a small group. It seems very difficult to earn any Flow through group challenges, and it seems we nearly always lose more than we earn. Should we continue this playtest at all without finding some additional players first? (This might be very problematic, given that gathering four players who'd be into such an extremely niche game seems rather... abstract.)

I guess the game could scale well, if there were some additional starting skill points per character and increased flow rebates in a small group. However, I don't see anything like that in the current version of the rules.

2. Are archaic common English words like Google or 4chan legal 1st Gen names? Seems like a few generations into the future those shouldn't sound more weird than Forest, Star or Ocean.

3. The "no cat people" limitation isn't very clear. What are the exact limits on hybridization? Some illustrations in the Genelines chapter suggest a certain degree of furriness is possible, but I'm not very sure how far that goes. I considered the Kat geneline for my character, but the lack of geneline descriptions was problematic. Also, can interface be used for furry features? In the end, to be on the safe side, I created my catgirl via tech, giving her parasitic cat ears and tail, but the "no cat people" rule is way too ambiguous as it stands.

4. I like the formulas for creating tech and memories. They elicit descriptors based on concrete stuff that is easy to derive once you know what you want fiction-wise. The geneline formula is tricky and unintuitive, though. Rather than deriving tags from some specific facets of the character concept you already have, it requires you to think up the character's parents, essentially creating two additional character concepts just to produce those three tags. Interface, on the other hand, suffers from the lack of a tagging formula - I found it somewhat troublesome to tag my interface, and wound up choosing from the list of examples.

5. There's too much page flipping between skill descriptions and effects in the Challenges chapter and their respective Flow costs in the Flow chapter. I suggest merging these sections. Better yet, have a separate Experiences chapter that gathers everything pertaining to skills in one place.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Hello!

I want to ask about a few things that aren't clear after the first FreeMarket session I played with my team.

We had some problems in self-targeted challenges, because the rules didn't answer our doubts well.

1. As Superuser in self-targeted challenges, can I use geneline and experience exclusively? Or maybe technology and interface are allowed too?
2. Can Superuser burn player character's abilities, technology or interface during self-targeted challenges?
3. How many times can the Recalibration action be used in a single challenge?

I also have a question about targeted-class and agregate-class challenges: can I bring in geneline as a Support action after I Burned it to zero previously in the same challenge?

A1: Nope, just geneline and experience.
A2: No, that would be madness
A3: Once per rating point left on the interface

If you burn geneline to zero, yer dead. So, no. There are no zombies on FreeMarket.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

1. First, there's only three of us in the playtest, two players + the GM. However, the game doesn't seem to work in such a small group. It seems very difficult to earn any Flow through group challenges, and it seems we nearly always lose more than we earn.

2. Are archaic common English words like Google or 4chan legal 1st Gen names? Seems like a few generations into the future those shouldn't sound more weird than Forest, Star or Ocean.

3. The "no cat people" limitation isn't very clear. What are the exact limits on hybridization? Some illustrations in the Genelines chapter suggest a certain degree of furriness is possible, but I'm not very sure how far that goes. I considered the Kat geneline for my character, but the lack of geneline descriptions was problematic. Also, can interface be used for furry features? In the end, to be on the safe side, I created my catgirl via tech, giving her parasitic cat ears and tail, but the "no cat people" rule is way too ambiguous as it stands.

4. I like the formulas for creating tech and memories. They elicit descriptors based on concrete stuff that is easy to derive once you know what you want fiction-wise. The geneline formula is tricky and unintuitive, though. Rather than deriving tags from some specific facets of the character concept you already have, it requires you to think up the character's parents, essentially creating two additional character concepts just to produce those three tags. Interface, on the other hand, suffers from the lack of a tagging formula - I found it somewhat troublesome to tag my interface, and wound up choosing from the list of examples.

5. There's too much page flipping between skill descriptions and effects in the Challenges chapter and their respective Flow costs in the Flow chapter. I suggest merging these sections. Better yet, have a separate Experiences chapter that gathers everything pertaining to skills in one place.

1. Have your users tried... being better? It is hard to get back flow from challenges, especially in small groups. How to fix this? You have to gift items. You have to friend users. You have to enter into trades and contracts. You have to play the game. Group challenges earn flow at random intervals. But the other methods are 100% reliable. I'm guessing your users have all their tech still, don't they?
2. Sure, go nuts. It's your future.
3. The "no cat people" rule is extremely unambiguous. If I glue cat ears onto my head, I'm not a cat-man. If I get surgery to make myself have fangs and pointed ears and whiskers, I'm not a cat man. If my parents have me undergo genetic engineering to give my geneline night vision, agility and a stuck-up attitude, I am not a cat man. What we're talking about are anthropomorphic animals. They sicken and disgust me.
4. Geneline requires you to think of your parents. That is intentional. Characters in most RPGs seem to exist in a vacuum of interpersonal relationships. The squint-eyed moody loner/orphan. Your parents help mold you as much as anything else. As for interface, it uses the same tagging procedure as tech. I'm chalking that one to user error. But trust me: it gets easier.
5. We'll examine that. More likely we'll have a handy cheat-sheet for superusers to consult.

[Filip Luszczyk]

1. Have your users tried... being better?

Well, that's a question for Łukasz, I'm just playing the thing.

And no, we didn't try better. There wasn't enough time for that between challenges. Besides, by the time I managed to reach the printer and print some cookies, I didn't have enough flow to win a social challenge in order to actually give it away.

By the way, if I engage my tech during a conflict by giving the opposition a cookie, does that count as gifting for an immediate Flow gain as well? Can I make the NPC eat my cookie in the first place through an action in a challenge, assuming my goal is something else?

3. The "no cat people" rule is extremely unambiguous. If I glue cat ears onto my head, I'm not a cat-man. If I get surgery to make myself have fangs and pointed ears and whiskers, I'm not a cat man. If my parents have me undergo genetic engineering to give my geneline night vision, agility and a stuck-up attitude, I am not a cat man. What we're talking about are anthropomorphic animals. They sicken and disgust me.

Well, put that explanation into the book and it won't be ambiguous. Only, define "anthropomorphic animal" for the purposes of the rule in an unambiguous way first. This, this or this? As it stands, it's very ambiguous for us furry afficionados Especially that the pictures in the geneline chapter suggest a certain degree of furry aesthetic is perfectly fine, muddling the problem.

Either way, if you want to get rid of furriness from your game, I recommend taking more decisive steps. The "no cat people" rule didn't stop me from effectively creating a catgirl via tech, and I guess I could go much deeper into furriness with the tools the game provides, without even touching the geneline, if I wanted to.

As for interface, it uses the same tagging procedure as tech. I'm chalking that one to user error. But trust me: it gets easier.

Not really. For tech it's experience + form + function. Creating tech was fun. For interface (pg 93) it's experience + what it does or how it's used + what it does or how it's used. Which is much more open. Though now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't have an issue with that, if it was strictly experience + what it does + how it's used.

5. We'll examine that. More likely we'll have a handy cheat-sheet for superusers to consult.

Screw the GM, I've been at a loss regarding my options as a player. D&D 3.0+, provides a similar sort of menu with concrete options for the players, and it's all in one place in PHB. Mouse Guard does something similar and it keeps everything relevant to a skill in that skill's section. Here, the document is disorganized.

[Luke]

Thanks for your feedback, guys.

As for point 1. It is not required that you engage in a social challenge to gift something. If people aren't accepting your gifts outright, perhaps you should reconsider your methods.