We’ve all been there: You are in your local friendly fantasy games shop and cannot tear your gaze away from that one box of miniatures. They are so gorgeous! They must be yours! But then you end up not buying them because you don’t know the rules for the game they’re for and there’s nobody around to explain them to you. And we all know how pirates hate to jump into the deep end. Because: sharks and stuff.

The game

A game of Freebooter’s Fate sees two or more players with a crew of 4-12 characters each compete against each other in scenario-based tabletop skirmishes. Each crew has a leader and a varying number of specialists – experienced, highly talented, or unique individuals – and a bunch of deckhands as well.

An average game lasts around 2 hours and is played over a course of several rounds in which the players take turns activating their characters.

No dice

In contrast to most other tabletop games, Freebooter’s Fate does not use dice. Not ever. Instead, fights and similar are conducted using hit location cards and so-called fate cards.

In a fight, the attacker chooses a certain number of cards from the six hit locations of head, torso, left arm, right arm, abdomen, and legs. This is done in secret, the defender has to guess the attacker’s choices with their own selection of cards. Various strategies make this much more than a mere game of chance, psychological effects and a knowledge of your opponent make skill more important than luck for this.

Keeping it interesting

Freebooter’s Fate is much more than a “meet in the middle and clobber each other” type of game. A continuously growing collection of scenarios makes our game more than just an indiscriminate free for all. Hunting treasure, rats, and/or dodos, conducting or preventing mystic rituals, supplying a pub with rum, and, of course, stopping the zombie octopuses from invading the island are just a few of the scenarios which make Freebooter’s Fate special by presenting ever-new challenges.