Forbidden Lands Player's Handbook

Svärdets sång/Forbidden Lands

by Tomas Härenstam (Lead Designer), Erik Granström (Designer), Nils Gulliksson (Main Illustrator)

Forbidden Lands RPG

Raiders & Rogues in a Cursed World

In the sandbox survival roleplaying game Forbidden Lands, you and your friends will be playing raiders and rogues bent on making your own mark on a cursed world. Discover lost tombs, fight horrifying monsters, wander the wilderness and build your own stronghold to defend.

Forbidden Lands is a legacy game, in which your actions will permanently change the game map, turning it into a living chronicle of your adventures. The unique rules for exploration, survival, base building and campaign in the game play can easily be ported to any other game world.

The tabletop RPG Forbidden Lands was named one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2018 by EN World. The crowdfunding campaign raised over a quarter of a million dollars and was the third most successful RPG Kickstarter in the world 2017.

With art by the internationally acclaimed artists Simon Stålenhag and Nils Gulliksson, lore by fantasy author Erik Granström, scenarios by esteemed game writers Patrick Stuart, Ben Milton and Chris McDowall and game design by Free League that created the award-winning RPGs Mutant: Year Zero, Coriolis: The Third Horizon, Symbaroum and Tales from the Loop.

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Games, Gaming, High Fantasy, Adventure

208 pages, ebook

First published December 6, 2018

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hex-crawl system, so it is a good choice for those who want to emphasize exploration in their roleplaying. The exploration is heightened by the lore. A mist that once covered the world and limited travel has mysteriously lifted, and now the world is open to exploration by the pockets of surviving towns. Brave adventurers venture out to explore the great unknown.

One element of this game that I really like is that it also includes stronghold building. When a group of adventurers clear out a dungeon or a castle, they can opt to turn it into their stronghold, which they improve, maintain, and defend from attacks. Building a stronghold can be quite motivating for players.

[Jonathan Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Forbidden Lands is a new take on classic fantasy roleplaying. In this sandbox survival roleplaying game, you’re not heroes sent on missions dictated by others – instead, you are raiders and rogues bent on making your own mark on a cursed world. You will discover lost tombs, fight terrible monsters, wander the wild lands, and if you live long enough, build your own stronghold to defend.’

I like games that have their own personal style, their own charm and their own unique atmosphere. Games such as these have a special place on my shelf and get to spend time on my table.

Forbidden Lands is that charming it could wear a top hat and a monocle, hold the door open to a restaurant to allow you to enter first and hold a pleasant inoffensive conversation over a lunch that it paid for. It’s that charming.

With a heady mix of old-school charm and modern, story-driven rules this game is one of the best fantasy roleplaying games to hit the market in many a year. That’s quite a claim, but it sets out to do a job; to bring the old-school rogues and adventurers back to the fore. You’re not out there for the glory or the fame; you’re out there for the treasure and the rewards, and if it brings glory and fame, well, that’s a bonus.

In the sturdy box you will get two hardcover faux-leather books, a Player’s Guide for the players to create their characters and get a handle on their role in the game, and a Gamemaster’s Guide to help the GM fill out the world; A booklet called Legends and Adventurers which helps with fleshing out characters; and a full colour map and a sheet of stickers so that the group can track their progress across the world and add the stickers to mark where they’ve been and what they’ve done.

It’s incredibly well presented. The books are incredibly satisfying to crack open for the first time and the thick pages, excellent black-and-white interior art and 1980s-like layout is really, really nice. It might not be for everyone; I first got into RPGs in the 1980s so this is all familiar, even comfortable, territory for me but the simple layout may not be the tastes of those used to glossy, full-colour interiors. Personally, I think this adds to the atmosphere.

The lore of the game is well thought out and gives the players impetus to get out there and explore. With a world of danger mixed with a little bit of darkness, the setting is something that players who like a bit of grim in their games will enjoy, while not being so dark it borders on the nihilistic. There’s plenty of scope for adventure. I’ll let Free League explain;

‘The core game setting of Forbidden Lands is a vast and remote valley once known as Ravenland, conquered by the spellbinder Zygofer over three centuries ago. When faced by the savage orcs, he opened dark gates to seek the help of demons. That was his undoing. Zygofer was lost to the darkness and he placed himself on the throne of the Ravenland, his daughter Therania by his side.

To keep their vile corruption from spreading, the king in the south built a great wall across the mountain pass and forbade all to ever speak of what had happened. Since that day, the spellbinder’s domain is known as the Forbidden Lands. Zygofer's henchmen, the feared Rust Brothers, still haunt the land, but the spellbinder himself has not been seen for many years. Fearful whispers say he has transformed into a demonic creature called Zytera.

Today, the Forbidden Lands it is a lawless place where demons and dark creatures roam the countryside, while common folk barricade themselves in small villages. Only the brave and the foolish, the raiders and the rogues, dare venture out to seek treasure and glory in the ruins of old.

Written by acclaimed fantasy author Erik Granström, the Forbidden Lands setting is rich and detailed, on the surface based on classic fantasy but with many surprising twists and secrets to discover during play.’

Sounds like a great time, right? Well, it really is. The setting is solid enough to draw you into a huge meta-plot you can get plenty of inspiration from while at the same time giving you enough leeway to explore the world in your own way. The system, inspired as it is by the flexibility of older games, can easily be used for a GM’s own campaign setting. The setting you get with the game is great, but there’s nothing stopping you from using your own - or even an established – setting.

Players can use seven races; Human, Half-Elves, Dwarf, Halfling, Wolfkin, Orcs, and Goblins. They can then choose from eight professions; Druid, Fighter, Hunter, Minstrel, Peddler, Rider, Rogue, and Sorcerer.

They have four attributes; Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. With sixteen skills to choose from it may seem the characters are a little thin on detail, but there is plenty of material such as Talents, which give a character advantages during play, and choices to make sure the PC is fleshed out enough to be unique and fun to play.

The rules are straightforward and players of Free Leagues other games will be in familiar territory; roll a number of D6s, and any die resulting in a 6 is a success with a 1 being detrimental to the roll. The rules are simple and straight forward and easy to get into, even for players new to the system. It was easier for me and my group as we had experience with other games such as ‘Coriolis’ and ‘Tales from the Loop’.

But my reviews of games are never about the rules or how well they work as that is always subjective. The real question is, how did we get on with the game?

The characters were easy to set up – my group’s experiences in the golden age fantasy roleplaying games helped and it was fun to see this game’s take on classic races and careers – and within an hour we were set up and ready to go. We had the advantage of having played ‘Coriolis’ and ‘Tales from the Loop’, so the system was nothing new to use and all we had to do was get used to the tweaks and new approaches to the game engine.

Straight away the players were invested in the game setting. The struggle against a dangerous foe in power, the idea of exploring a land lost to them and being able to play in a game where they could basically look out for themselves and not get too hung up about an overbearing world meta-plot gave them plenty of drive to get out there and explore, delve and fight. I created a simple dungeon and a local legend for the players to get embroiled in and sent them on their way.

In fact, this game seemed to be more action-orientated than the two previous titles we’d played, and even though the game system handled the combat in the game well it was quite dangerous, and sadly the Half-Elf Hunter dies a rather ignoble death in the first hour of the game. Within fifteen minutes the unfortunate player had created a new character and rejoined the fray. The combat system certainly gave my players a reason to pause, and every possible encounter was met with a degree of uncertainty; there are some games where the players can be heroes and throw themselves into the fight with gusto but this game did not feel like one of those games. It was frustrating as the group tried to cover every angle to give themselves the best chance of survival, but it added drama and tension which is something the setting cries out for.

The system was agile and fun and quite easy to use, with very little bookkeeping or page-flipping, and with the players knowing what to do and when to do it - without having to read tables or rely on charts - encounters were easy and a lot of fun.

In fact, it was so much fun we made plans to integrate it into a future ‘Tales from the Loop’ game. We’d joked about what the child characters in the kid-driven sci-fi game would play, and this is it. If we ever sit down to play Tales from the Loop and there are any scenes in which the kids play an RPG, we’ll crack open the Forbidden Lands books and run a quick encounter in the vein of over-excited teenagers. It promises to be a lot of fun.

The game was a joy to play as most of my group are old-school gamers with fond memories of a particular age of gaming. The old-school feel was pleasant but the setting and the new story-driven way to get involved in a game felt very new, and it’s this coming together of the old and the new that gives Forbidden Lands it’s charm. There’s something in here for players young and old.

But let’s not get hung up on the charm the game offers; a system or a setting cannot survive on nostalgia alone, and to rely on that nostalgia to please old gamers does not do much for newer gamers wanting a new experience. Is the system and the world of Forbidden Lands enough to attract and retain players? It’s hard to say. For me it’s yes, because I enjoy the system and I love the setting and for other, newer players there’s a whole new world to explore. But what’s here that will bring new experiences to the table for everyone? That remains to be seen, but new material that Free League has available and in the pipeline promises much.

All in all, Forbidden Lands is an excellent game, setting and overall product. It’s productions values live up to what we expect from Free League, the box is sturdy and the contents are a lot of fun and, even though the books may be laid out in an old-school style, it’s a really attractive package.

The setting is dark and forbidding, but there’s enough room to create your own take and the system is flexible enough to create your own worlds.

The nostalgia is heavy for us older gamers and the story-driven world is attractive to newer players, but the game cannot exist on nostalgia alone so it remains to be seen how the game is supported by following material.

There’s something in here for almost every type of player. Enjoy your dungeon bashes? Love your exploration? Like to get involved in deep narratives? Forbidden Lands has you covered on pretty much every approach.

Forbidden Lands is a heady mix of old-school adventure and grim, dangerous journeys. Players can create three-dimensional characters with plenty of choices to make them unique, and the GM has plenty of room to inject their own material into the mix. There really is something in here for everyone, and gaming groups old and new will get a lot of satisfying gaming out of it.

[Dom Mooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Forbidden Lands RPG* (Fria Ligan)
The *Forbidden Lands RPG* comprises two hardbound leather-effect books; the *Player’s Handbook* (character generation, the game engine, combat, spells, journeys, strongholds) and the *Gamesmaster’s Guide* (principles of the game, history, gods, kin, a bestiary, artefacts, encounters, creating adventure sites and three sample locations). There’s also a large map of the Raven Lands and stickers to go with it, plus a more detailed handout guide to give characters a deeper background.

The game uses the Year Zero engine, as seen in *Coriolis* and *Tales from the Loop*. Like both those games, it has been tweaked to fit the setting. In this case, it has become significantly more lethal and dangerous. Characters are fragile, like those in early D&D. The dice pool rolls generate negative outcomes which can seriously mess your character up, making them ‘broken’ and vulnerable to critical. The game engine also moves away from just D6s. Although these are the standard dice, you can sometimes roll a D8, D10 or even D12, all of which can bring much more successes than the D6. You’ll need to be clever and alert to avoid injury.

The game engine also generates willpower points, which are a limited currency. They fuel spells and talents and can only be obtained by failing a roll in certain circumstances. If you don’t fail, you don’t refill your points pool.

There is a big focus on the exploration side of the game, and it is definitely influenced by *The One Ring*. Players take different roles, and you need to ensure enough food and - especially - water or treks across the wilderness can go horribly wrong. The map doesn’t assume the location of any of the adventure sites in much detail from those presented in the book or in *Raven’s Purge*. The GM can position them, and use the stickers to mark up the map. If you clear an old ruin or watchtower, you can turn it into a stronghold, creating a mini-game not unlike high level D&D or *Pendragon*. Of course, setting up a stronghold is only the start of the story; holding on to it is the challenge.

The rules have random tables for the creation of adventure sites, using a D66 in many cases, and wearing the OSR movement inspiration on its sleeve. The usage dice concept from *The Black Hack* is also adopted for consumables. The principles section would not seem out of place in a *Powered by the Apocalypse Game*

All in all, the game is a thoroughly modern take on a wilderness D&D style game, with hints of *Stormbringer*. It reminds me very much of many of the early *Fighting Fantasy* games, especially with the gorgeous B&W art (which is in a similar style to that which I grew up on). I would like to run this, and I hope to play in one of my fellow GM's game that kicked off last week.

[Olov Redmalm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Äntligen ett rollspelssystem som är enkelt att greppa, uppmuntrar improvisation och är ändå inte för simpelt!

[Liam || Books 'n Beards]

Not bad - I'm interested to run a game of this, as I've been looking for a decent modern hexcrawl for a long time. Interested to see what the campaign book is like once it's all released.

[Petr · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly interesting RPG system. I did not expect to find such an interesting system in something that looked like a totally classical fantasy RPG but the hexcrawling awesomeness of Forbidden Lands hyped me up for a game!

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting game based around classic hex crawling.

The biggest problem is that the game's makers are constantly trying to sell you stuff in the rulebook. I thought Fantasy Flight had cornered the market with extra crap you need to buy to play their rpgs, but Free League has them beat. Special dice, more maps, initiative cards, combat cards...it just went on and on. It seemed like every chapter they were shoving something extra to buy on you.

Despite that, the rules are light but solid, and there is a lot of fun to be had here.

[Haakon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gritty fantasy take on the Mutant Year Zero rules, using the same dice pool mechanics and some story game ideas bolted on old D&D-like roleplaying in an original setting.

The books themselves are very good looking, distinct black and white (very oldschool) art style, text has air and avoids big blocks. Finding stuff in them can be tricky however, the combat and weapons section drowns out important stuff in text and no easy references to be had.

All the material feels like a mix of OSR-stuff with minimal information and having an open ended situation going on, with some modern big production bits like explaining situations and npcs a lot more than most OSR material does. It makes the books more fun to read for the GM than OSR books for me, but it's also less easy to navigate and find stuff you need. Could maybe use less words some sections ideally for me, but I think for what they tried for it worked very well. I actually enjoyed reading the books from cover to cover, so that's a huge bonus for an rpg.

The YZE rules are my current favorite rules system when it comes to rpgs, so the baseline mechanics of the game I have a hard time finding faults with. Some of the players I've had don't like it feeling so dicey, especially when it comes to magic, however. "Everything is fine until you miscast a 1 PP spell and die." Or push an attack roll, and end up broken both of body and the weapon (happened multiple times during campaigns). But it's fast, people tend to want to do stuff to avoid rolling dice or at least get bonuses in the narrative, find use in spending gold on random general equipment and all the stuff you'd want out of an OSR-like game. The XP rules work as a big "this is what the game is all about" section, and makes the players remember to rethink their characters after every session I find instead of just being the same character the entire campaign.

There are some duds here though, like the "advanced combat rules" that I tried once and gave up on, and everyone else I've talked about the game with gave up on. The travel and stronghold rules tends to cause grief if going into detail all the time so usually do some shortcuts to not kill the pacing of the game.

My biggest issue with the game is not the game itself, but dealing with "who is this game for?" part of any RPG. D&D players tends to scoff at the magic rules and failing so much by just rolling dice, while it's too clunky and verbose for OSR players. It has ended up being a permanent side game to my main campaigns ever since it came out - FL having Dragonbane and Symbaroum and tOR and whatnot split the ones that wanted to play Forbidden Lands even more it felt like.

I heartily recommend this game to anyone liking a more gritty fantasy game than D&D, but with more meat on the bone than OSE, and with books that don't read like a collection of laws.

[Taddow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled onto Forbidden Lands because I heard several good reviews about it and I was looking for a system that would work well as a solo RPG experience (an idea that I've been thinking about trying out for the past year). Having read the Player's Handbook for the game, I can say that so far I'm pleased with what I've seen. It kind of reminds me of the old days of D&D where exploration was a main theme- doing hex crawls through maps scattered with locations of interest, random encounters and a feeling that the trip was just as important as the destination, even the artwork in the book reminded me of old-school black and white fantasy art.

I'm not going to go through the game mechanics (which you can find numerous videos and website write-ups on with a simple search) but suffice to say that I found them simple, yet good for resolving game play. I especially thought they addressed an adequate non-overthought out way of dealing with equipment damage and how to repair it. Many RPGs don't even deal with this aspect and the few that do (I'm thinking of Talsorian Games' Witcher RPG) go a bit overboard. I also liked the traveling rules and might borrow these for some of the group fantasy-themed RPG games I run.

The one concern I have (which perhaps will be addressed in the Gamemaster's Guide) is acquiring Willpower Points. It's a commodity that is important for all Player Characters (some more than others, such as magic-users, since it fuels their spells), but the book warns (rightfully so in my opinion) that players shouldn't "push" every roll (which is how characters gain Willpower points) and only push rolls that are dramatic or important moments. This attempts to hinder characters from just banking Willpower points (which cap out at 10) but I can see there being some subjectivity of what fits this criteria and I wonder what would be considered fair for character playability with the rates of acquiring Willpower points where some professions and character talents would be more dependent on them (and thus effect character effectiveness) than others. I think I'll have to give the game system a go to get a better understanding.

Overall I'm pleased with Forbidden Lands thus far. And as far as a solo experience, I think a lot of the rules as written (maybe with the addition of a gaming oracle supplement) would pretty much be all you need to run this type of game as well.

[Benjamin]

How? I heard good things, someone was selling a bundle cheap(ish), and I'm trying to read all the Free League I have.

What? A strange artifact of reading these books like this, in this order, but: This reminds me of Twilight: 2000. In both games, the world is slightly destroyed and/or coming back from a terrible disaster; in Twilight: 2000, it's nuclear war, and here, it's a sorcerous war that left behind a dangerous Bloodmist that is only now lifting.

If there's any real difference -- I mean, any real difference besides one taking place in the aftermath of WWIII and the other taking place in a fantasy land with elves, etc. -- it's the goal of the PCs. In Twilight: 2000, you run into random encounters and random adventure sites all while looking for the tools you need to survive. In Forbidden Lands, the explicit subtitle is about rogues and raiders -- you are just the classic fantasy murder hobo, looking for gold. But motive aside, you still run into random encounters and adventure sites (here broken down into castle, settlement, and dungeon types).

(One obvious negative here: though it comes in a box, the Forbidden Lands core set does not give cards for the encounters.)

Besides the core, I also read -- well, skimmed three additional campaign books: Raven's Purge (which is a big campaign that potentially sees the old big demon dispatched and a new big demon in its place), Bitter Reach (which is a nearby arctic land, and includes arctic rules), and Bloodmarch (the horseclan plains that were ruled by fire demons until recently).

Yeah, so? The core game here is very solid and the idea of a sandbox where you stumble upon things is a lot of fun. And the adventure sites in all the books also look very solid -- but I'm a little confused by the production of these campaigns for a game that is meant to be a sandbox. I would much prefer something like "here is how we used all the random tables in the book to create an adventure site." (They do have some other books that are just unrelated anthologies of adventure sites, which sounds more in keeping with the idea in some ways.)

[Pádraic]

Obviously reserving full judgement until I get through the game master's guide as well, but on a first read-through I'm pretty impressed with this. Very solid low fantasy, high stakes game, with a great focus on exploration. Plenty of systems that make sense without being too complicated, including for travelling, crafting, and base-building, though most of them are modular enough that if your players weren't interested in one of them, they could be removed with probably not much work.

Really every little piece of the mechanics here builds on the theme; I reckon all of these moment-by-moment game decisions would really make you feel like you're travellers in a harsh wilderness, where death might come from a bandit's axe, or just as easily from the cold seeping into your bones too many days in a row. Might be a long time before I have the opportunity to get this to the table, but it's already got me bubbling with ideas.

[Chad Hoblitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting set of rules. I like quite a bit of what I read and wondering how I can use for a new game. I like that you could almost write stories about each adventure group and their exploits.

[Kenneth Krammager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Rules...

[Aimée]

interestingly easy
read for work

[Adam Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent, well thought out system where the setting is well matched with the rules system. There is a very osr feel to the game's style while using modern day systems.

[Clint]

MY0 rules adapted for Old-School style of play.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

OSR with neat elements of hex exploration, crafting, camping, stronghold management.

[Cintain 昆遊龍 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The system is solid, streamlined, and easy to grasp. I love the abstractions employed to integrate resource management, the environment and travel into the game in a way that requires players to pay attention. The game focuses on what’s important to make for a fluid, smooth, and realistic narrative.
Doing away with hit points is a novel concept for me; I will have to run/play the game to see how it actually plays out.
Excellent production value: text layouts and paper quality are a clear cut above the rest. The art and aesthetic of the game are consistent throughout.
The rules for strongholds seem a bit abstract, but I believe that is on purpose. I’ve never played or run that type of game, so I’ll have to try it out and see.
Overall very impressed with this. Can’t wait to play it!

[Olly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable old-school system. It offers really interesting exploration and survival mechanics. The combat is pretty decent as well. The handbook itself is super average, I understand that they were going for that nostalgic vibe but it just ends up feeling tired and dated.
The biggest (and for me fatal) flaw is character creation; most talents feel painfully vanilla and the classes bland. Casting mechanics are solid but the spells themselves also feel forgettable. There was very little joy in spending those hard-earned XPs and that's a severe problem for an RPG.

I ended up enjoying my time with Forbidden Lands and can recommend it to anyone who wants to play a solid hex-crawl experience... but it leaves a lot to be desired.

[Isaias McAllus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manual leído por completo. Reconozco que había tiempo que un juego de rol no me enganchaba de esta manera y me convencía para ser la siguiente gran campaña a comenzar y tener esperanzas de que, efectivamente, de para campaña larga.