Imitation is the highest form of flattery ?

[Kaine]

Saw this on http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/

Apparently Freebooters mini's are producing a similar game, seems very very similar to me ;(

Something i'll be avoiding myself, not a big fan of people copying ideas.

We’d like to draw your kind attention to our spiffing new game, Freebooter’s Fate. It is set on and around the lovely tropical island of Leonera, where the Empire’s hold is crumbling, pirates are on the rise, goblins are becoming more and more troublesome and some sort of mysterious organisation is assassinating people with no readily apparent pattern.

From the rulebook:

“Freebooter’s Fate is a fast-paced tabletop game for 30 mm scale miniatures, featuring the exciting combination of pirates and some fantasy elements. Two or more players control a crew of around 8 to 12 miniatures each, pitting their wits against each other using a combat resolution system which features basic psychological elements and focuses more on skill than on luck. Play is conducted in rounds but alternates between miniatures and not entire crews.

You’ll need a copy of the rulebook, a set of Freebooter’s Fate playing cards as well as some miniatures. So go on, get the game, grab a mate, have a go.You’ll love it. How could you not? It’s got everything. Rapacious pirates. Grog-swilling goblins. Mysterious assassins. Steadfast Imperials. Merciless mercenaries. Parrots. A cast of knaves, villains, heroes, ladies, wenches and assorted humanoids. With a thousand peg legs. Oh, and no dice….

[WEiRD sKeTCH]

I've always liked Werner's sculpts. (See Lilith & the tots...)

But the prices on these figures have always been a little off putting for me, personally.

[tenabrae]

Alternate activation is nothing new to wargames, and if you look up the old tabletop RPG Castle Falkenstein you might find a fairly familiar card mechanic.

Pirates + Fantasy sounds like win.

[Amarel]

Well there are many Skirmish games out there that use 30mm figures, and while Wyrd's use of cards is really very good, they're not the first to try it (although possibly the first to succeed with them).

I wouldn't damn a game purely because it sounds like it might be similar to something else, I'd at least want to see it in action first .

[Kaine]

True, they have one of their cards on the website and looking at it, it does look pretty different,

I guess it will be interesting to see if they have a red joker/black joker

I agree with Weird though, the price point on some of those mini's is a little steep, its higher than gw charge for some of them

[Murphy'sLawyer]

Interesting. Let the competition begin.

Any good game that has other gaming companies trying to mimic them should see it as a compliment and as a sign that they have a good product. Now if Wyrd is smart they wouldn't let their competition get ahead by ignoring their fan base. They need to continue supporting the game with (ahem) new books and models while updating and enhancing the current rules to promote balanced game play.

I doubt Wryd is going to follow GW and be ushered up by another (and better) gaming companys. But that is in their own hands.

[Amarel]

Now if Wyrd is smart they wouldn't let their competition get ahead by ignoring their fan base. They need to continue supporting the game with (ahem) new books and models while updating and enhancing the current rules to promote balanced game play.

I don't think I've ever know a company in this industry be as hands-on as Wyrd - rarely does a day goes past without a key member of the team or one of the management commenting on a thread, or creating a new one. It's nothing short of amazing, frankly.

Oh and new models every month, new book in August and regular errata updates (as well as comments pointing out what will be in the new errata if a question comes up regarding a particular point). So looking all good for you on that front, too .

[Harliquine]

The best way for a player base to support their favorite game when this type of thing pops up is to talk up your favorite game not bad mouth other games. Not saying it's stepped there yet. Just saying that it's a winning strategy and so much more polite for games to compete based upon their own characteristics instead of a game of political back stabbing.

However I am a Georgia resident and that does make me favor Wyrd just a little bit

[DangerousBeans]

Damn! Just when I thought I had enough games to play! I've always admired the freebooter minis but never had a reason to buy them..... bugger.

[N0rdicNinja]

I actually own quite a few Freebooter minis already, I've used them as proxies in my Warhammer Fantasy force. I've always loved there style so I'll definitely be keeping a watchful eye on them, I doubt I would stop playing Malifaux though even if I did pick it up, hell I still player Warhammer AND Warmachine in addition to Malifaux. I'm a Wargamer through and through. =P

[Prophaniti]

I'll give it a try at Salute this weekend, but I'm not stopping Malifaux or commiting to buying Werner's game.

Besides, there are several fantasy games that seem to do OK and use dice...

[WEiRD sKeTCH]

I wish I had a contact going to Salute so I could have a ninja shopper get me a copy... I want to see what it's like.

[Zethal]

I don't think I've ever know a company in this industry be as hands-on as Wyrd - rarely does a day goes past without a key member of the team or one of the management commenting on a thread, or creating a new one. It's nothing short of amazing, frankly.

Certainly not trying to take anything away from Wyrd, their involvement with the community is significantly greater than Privateer Press and especially GW, but AEG's Legend of the Five Rings team is something every gaming company should be trying to emulate. Granted the company has been around for a while.

[nerdelemental]

Certainly not trying to take anything away from Wyrd, their involvement with the community is significantly greater than Privateer Press and especially GW, but AEG's Legend of the Five Rings team is something every gaming company should be trying to emulate. Granted the company has been around for a while.

For those of us that have not looked at the AEG LOTFR team, care to elaborate upon what they do that we could emulate to do better?

[ork56]

Ill be at Salute and looking to see what its like. Like Wyrd, Freebooter were a minis company that I unfortunately could see no use for (not being skilful enough just to buy for painting+display)

Now we have Malifaux, Im very happy, not sure if I would do the same with Freebooter, but you never know.

btw anyone at Salute come and see us on the Mali demo table by the SMG stand - its just to your right on the way in.

TJ04 and GJ03

edit; turns out Freebooter are 2 stands along - competition indeed!

Edited April 20, 2010 by ork56

[tenabrae]

Certainly not trying to take anything away from Wyrd, their involvement with the community is significantly greater than Privateer Press and especially GW, but AEG's Legend of the Five Rings team is something every gaming company should be trying to emulate. Granted the company has been around for a while.

I don't really agree that PP don't participate on the same level, you've got to put it in scale, PP have a number of games and a much larger core product than Wyrd do. They have a number of community dudes, awesome prize support, participation from the game developers. If anything i'd say so far Wyrd are following PPs model, and that's a good thing because it's an excellent model.

[N0rdicNinja]

I don't really agree that PP don't participate on the same level, you've got to put it in scale, PP have a number of games and a much larger core product than Wyrd do. They have a number of community dudes, awesome prize support, participation from the game developers. If anything i'd say so far Wyrd are following PPs model, and that's a good thing because it's an excellent model.

[Subötai]

Well, considering I talked with Werner about a game for his minis 4 years ago, and using resolution other than dice 3 years ago, this is not something that they are just whipping up out of the blue.

Now, I would be a little disappointed if they were too similar.

[Flikfutch87]

*shrugs* Still sounds like a cool game, actually.

[DangerousBeans]

From what I can gather it sounds as though the card mechanic is going to be more "poker-y". Talks of bluffing and double bluffing. Could be fun, although I have the worst poker face ever!

I've got a ninja picking me up the book and I was sssssssoooooooooo tempted to order some models last night, the time witch is gorgeous, but I'd better hold off. Don't want to spend £9 a model and no one ends up playing it.

[RitualNet]

Any idea of what figures you'd use? The steampunk stuff are beautiful... any excuse to own those figures!

[Zethal]

For those of us that have not looked at the AEG LOTFR team, care to elaborate upon what they do that we could emulate to do better?

Honestly, no. I'm kind of past the point of doing such things for free. Although for one thing I'd be worried about Weird; you should at least get him to stop failing to read, or maybe it is a failing to understand questions that are being proposed (or maybe he simply doesn't know how to properly handle these situations). His general tone relating to answering questions is poor and a new company that is interested in creating a good image of its self should not create frustration or irritation for customers; especially when they come to the community to ask questions.

Here are just a some of his poor posts, most within the last couple days (humor is great as long as it does not come with a emotional cost to a questioner.)

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129497&postcount=19

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129619&postcount=25

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129193&postcount=2

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129238&postcount=5

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129525&postcount=21

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129427&postcount=11

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129405&postcount=8

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=129426&postcount=10

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=127769&postcount=2

http://wyrd-games.net/forum/showpost.php?p=127948&postcount=3

[Grim]

From what I can gather it sounds as though the card mechanic is going to be more "poker-y". Talks of bluffing and double bluffing. Could be fun, although I have the worst poker face ever!

ohhh Pirates playing Poker?! Sign me up! hehe

[Keltheos]

Honestly, no. I'm kind of past the point of doing such things for free. Although for one thing I'd be worried about Weird; you should at least get him to stop failing to read, or maybe it is a failing to understand questions that are being proposed (or maybe he simply doesn't know how to properly handle these situations). His general tone relating to answering questions is poor and a new company that is interested in creating a good image of its self should not create frustration or irritation for customers; especially when they come to the community to ask questions.

Here are just a some of his poor posts, most within the last couple days (humor is great as long as it does not come with a emotional cost to a questioner.)

People who post online often fail to remember that they put their own interpretations on a post's tone without the benefit of in-person feedback (verbal or non-verbal) and usually misinterpret it without the filtering an in-person encounter would provide.

I find it is so much easier and prevents so many misunderstandings when reading posts to simply remove the imagined tone from the post and read it for content. Having read through those examples you cited I fail to see where just about any of them come across as 'poor posts' in their tone.

Working directly with Weird and knowing how much time and effort he puts into answering questions and making sure they're correct (and answered in a timely manner) pretty much on a volunteer basis it's always rough to see his dedication misinterpreted as "failing to understand the question/poor tone".

I'm definitely not putting any accusations forward here, but sometimes people don't know the question to ask (work in education and you'll learn that very fast). I see Weird trying to ferret out the actual question that needs answering, not just answering what the poster(s) think is the question needing an answer.

Edited April 23, 2010 by Keltheos

[HandsomeDan]

I've never understood why Werner Klocke seems to be held in such high regard. I think he's definitely created some beautiful sculpts, but those really seem to be the exception. The frequently bad proportions, off poses, and overly stylized heads have always put me off. I do think the assassins and some of the goblins from the freebooter page are top notch. Skarre: Pirate Queen may be favorite piece by him. But I tend to feel that most of the more frequent Wyrd contributors create better pieces. I'd put Steve Saunders' and Paul Muller's resurrectionists over most of Werner's pieces any day.