Dice are unlocked and free for backers at $75+
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 08:33:12 PM

Hello friends,

You’ve done it!!! The $50K Stretch Goal has been unlocked. Activating custom dice sets - congratulations!

Now how do you feel about magnetic dice trays for your dice? Those come with our next Stretch Goal, so be sure to share this Kickstarter with your friends: http://flames.zweihander.game

Cheers,

-d.fx

International shipping updates!
over 3 years ago – Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 11:36:11 AM

Hello friends,

Thanks to everyone who has been asking about international shipping rates. We've pulled together a pricing matrix that includes shipping + VAT/GST/Tax + paperwork filing charges for a Book Only option, or a Book + Stretch Goals option. These are the best available rates as of October 2020.

While we don't anticipate these rates changing, they are subject to change country-by-country (factors we have no control over). We aren't using blended rates, so you're going to get the most economical/least expensive option available in your region:

Is your country not listed? Drop me an inbox message and we'll get it sent to you.

As always, thanks for your support!

Best,

-d.fx

Week 3, New Actual Plays, Add On Updates + More!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Oct 19, 2020 at 10:56:24 PM

Happy Monday friends,

Hope you had a wonderful weekend with lots of opportunities to play!

Since we announced our new Add-on Items for backers last week, a bunch of you have jumped on the chance to get (or complete) your Zweihander RPG library at a special discount. Thank you for your support! Seeing the reactions to this offer has been so fun. Should you have missed it, or know someone else who still needs the collection, here is all of the info again:

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There’s a new Actual Play lined up for tonight, so join the fun at 7pm CDT over on Twitch:

And if you missed Defender of Kobold’s session on Friday, you can now watch it here:

Cheers,

-d.fx

ps - International backers, thanks for posting comments regarding shipping + VAT! We've done our homework, and will have another update for later today to address firmer shipping rates and estimates around VAT. 

Friday Actual Play & interview with Sean Van Damme
over 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 03:55:32 PM

Hello friends,

Our FLAMES OF FREEDOM Kickstarter is nearing the end of Week 2! We can’t say enough how thankful we are for your support, and how excited we are to get your actual books out to you soon and see you dive into this world. Do share our campaign with your friends for more fun and to unlock more Stretch Goals: http://flames.zweihander.game

Did you catch our two Actual Plays this week? If not, no worries – they are now available on YouTube:

First Look

Actual Play

Actual Play Schedule

We've also got some new, exciting Actual Plays coming up with Defenders of Kobold tonight and next Monday with Devil's Luck Gaming. On the 26th, famed Dungeons & Dragons (and now FLAMES OF FREEDOM & Zweihander RPG designer) James Introcaso and a number of luminaries across the D&D-o-sphere:

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Now, please meet this esteemed member of the FLAMES OF FREEDOM development team:

Sean Van Damme is an Emmy award-winning video editor. His titles include The Concordance of Freedom campaign for Zweihänder Grim and Perilous RPG, The Friend Folios for Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Sean also wrote and produced his own rule system for a game set in the Wild West called Ballad of the Pistolero, which launched last year after a successful Kickstarter campaign. He has also written a series of Fantasy and Hard-boiled detective novels. When not writing RPGs, or helping to bring the news to his home city of Richmond VA, Sean and his wife work with their local animal shelter to foster sick kittens so that they get the TLC they need before finding their forever homes.

Q: Flames of Freedom involves a number of new and experienced designers on the project. Can you tell us about your role on the team and where you felt your contributions and writing made the most difference?

Sean Van Damme: The largest amount of work I did for the book was in the Legends and Threats chapter, creating the stat blocks for the over 100 foes that are in the book. I also worked up the advance blocks for each profession and did the first major pass of converting Boston Besieged from the old Colonial Gothic rule set to Flames of Freedom. I know that my ability to push through lots of that grunt work was invaluable to getting the system up and running. Flames is a large project, and you need a person who understands the system to just sit and do the fleshout work. When it comes to the adventure, I’m big on format and process, and crafting a story where there is always something for the player to be doing. Within the framework of Boston I was able to reshape the story lightly bringing elements forward, and keeping my eye on that was, I think, the best contribution.

Outside of the main book, I was key on getting the Quickstart that is out now up and running. I went through the sections on how to play and combat whittling them down to only what was needed to play Sin Eater. Like Boston,this was another adventure we were converting. For this one I took a more drastic rewrite so that it slotted in better as a prequel and brought its antagonist more into play.

As a testament to how much this is a team effort, I think both those adventures are now twice as strong as they were because of the work that came after my first drafts, as they really polished them into gems that 100% reflect the values and ideals of Flames of Freedom.

Most tabletop RPGs focus on the combat aspect of the game, whereas Flames of Freedom treats overland journeys, social interactions, and chase scenes with equal focus. What is your favorite subsystem in Flames of Freedom, and why?

I’m a fan of the Overland travel system that we have. At its core it is the same system as Zweihänder, but refined in a way that I think makes it far more dynamic, and combined with the tables of things that you can encounter upon the road I think it is going to have groups looking forward to those trips between point A and point B and hoping that the Historian doesn’t just breeze over them. The history and mythology of America have a strong bedrock of stories about travel and the things that happen on the road. This system, I think, makes the road, that very American thing, exciting again.

One hallmark of games Powered by Zweihänder is to present a myriad of choices of character professions and classes to play. Flames of Freedom has at least 84. Which are your favorite and why?

I’m a fan of the more martial professions because I usually play those types of characters, but there really is something for everybody here – if you want to do it, Flames of Freedom will have options for it. I know that sounds like a really marketing forward kind of answer, but as I was building the advance table to each profession, I could see myself playing most of them in interesting unique ways, which is always exciting.

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Be sure to join our newly-partnered Discord community to share your experiences with the FLAMES OF FREEDOM Quickstart https://discord.gg/Zweihander

Cheers,

-d.fx

Custom dice are almost unlocked, an interview with Kate Bullock + First Look with Encounter Roleplay!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Oct 16, 2020 at 01:19:40 PM

Hello friends,

Just one week in, and incredibly, you all are closing in on the $50K Stretch Goal – a set of six Kickstarter-only FLAMES OF FREEDOM custom dice. So if you’ve been on the fence about sharing this campaign with a friend, this may be the perfect time to do it… simply use this short link: http://flames.zweihander.game

Now without further ado, please meet Kate Bullock!

Kate Bullock is a community and convention organizer with a passion for creating safer and more inclusive spaces within the TTRPG community. She’s one of the main organizers of Breakout Gaming Convention, community manager for Magpie Games, and the president of the Indie Game Developer Network. You can find her blog, Bluestocking’s Organic Gaming, filled with in-depth analyses of the gaming community and what we can do to make it better. Kate is a consultant for safety and inclusion in the RPG world, as well as a content editor for RPGs to ensure they meet industry standards around inclusion and safety. You can find her games Crossroads Carnival, Savior, Remember Me, and more on DriveThruRPG, or see her work in Atlas Animalia, Dust, Fog, and the Glowing Ember, and After the War.

Q: Flames of Freedom involves a number of new and experienced designers on the project. Can you tell us about your role on the team and where you felt your contributions and writing made the most difference?

Kate Bullock: Besides being a freelance writer and game designer, my primary role on the project was as a safety and dev editor. It was my job to ensure the game didn’t deliberately hurt people and provided a framework for engaging with high-impact or especially horrific content. Beyond this, I also added feminine perspectives to the writing and helped address some historical aspects that were problematic.

Generally, I think I made the most difference when it came to talking about trauma and how bodies and minds handle traumatic experiences. The creators and I had nuanced and important conversations about trauma, how characters become traumatized, and how players can engage with that meaningfully instead of comedically. I’m excited to see how people engage with that part of the game.

Listening to those with lived experiences and the act of inclusivity are principles we center in all tabletop RPGs we design. Can you tell us about how your identity and experiences helped inform your writing on Flames of Freedom?

Each of our experiences, identities, and intersections created a really diverse and exciting team to build a game with. We were never in a spot where we had to wonder “am I stepping on toes here?” because there were team members who would engage those parts of writing. Many, if not all, of my intersections came into play during sensitivity edits, and with the content I added which helped frame parts of the fiction to include femme perspectives or queer perspectives. As a traumatized person who’s a trauma-focused coach, it deeply informed how I handled the inherent horror of the game and the results of that horror.

Most tabletop RPGs focus on the combat aspect of the game, whereas Flames of Freedom treats overland journeys, social interactions and chase scenes with equal focus. What is your favorite subsystem in Flames of Freedom, and why?

I’m obviously biased because I’ve worked so closely with it, but I think Stress, Fear, and Terror, and the subsequent Trauma System are my favourite. The game pushes the conversation on engaging with trauma in a meaningful way, and it does so thoughtfully and based on actual data, not fictional positioning that undercuts or downplays the impacts of suffering. Gaming historically treats trauma, especially in horror games that involve terrible things pushing people to the brink, a very problematic and ableist view of trauma. While I’m certain we didn’t do it perfectly because each person’s experience of trauma and its manifestation is unique, it certainly speaks to my education in the field, and deeply speaks to my experience as a traumatized person. So I’m hoping it resonates with others.

“Race” has always been contentious ground for tabletop RPGs. In Flames of Freedom, the game seeks to examine cultures as individuals and in relation to others. Do you feel your culture is represented in Flames of Freedom, and why is it important for you?

My ancestry is Scottish and English, and the English, especially as a colonial force, are featured quite readily in the book. I think the game pushes the conversation to be about ancestry and that culture in a way white folks, like myself, don't often think about because we consider ourselves cultureless or that we don’t see that we live in a white dominant culture, or that white itself isn't a culture. It’s exciting to me that the game removes that option and names each specific culture, inviting a healthier perspective on the nature of ancestry.

One hallmark of games Powered by Zweihänder is to present a myriad of choices of character professions and classes to play. Flames of Freedom has at least 84. Which are your favorite and why?

Easily my favourite is the midwife. I’ve been a doula for the last seven years and helped families bring their children into the world. Seeing that profession as an option, as someone who could be a hero, is exciting because so often in historical pieces professions that women occupied are ignored or pushed aside. We worked hard in this game to add feminine occupations and ensure that those professions, like midwife or bawd, weren’t treated as inferior or outright ignored. I also have a soft spot for the bawd, especially as a woman who has worked in sex work. We so often aren't sex positive in games, and sex workers are generally treated as inhuman. It was wonderful to see the team go in the opposite direction and instead embrace a sex positive attitude.

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And of course, don’t forget Encounter Roleplay’s First Look tonight, where Anna Goldberg will discuss accessibility and Mitch will cruise through the Quickstart. We hope to see you there!

Cheers,

-d.fx