Flames of Freedom Team Q&A

Q&As with the Flames of Freedom Team

Scroll gallery at bottom for all Q&As

KATE BULLOCK

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.

ELIJAH FORBES

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?

Elijah Forbes: Sure thing! My role on the team is lead Indigenous editor. It's my job to scout out sensitivity readers for applicable sections of the game, and rework sections with edits made by the Indigenous sensitivity reading team as well as myself. I feel like my biggest contribution has been the overhaul of pretty big parts of the manuscript that needed an Indigenous perspective.

I'm a transgender Two-Spirit Odawa man, so I definitely have a different lived experience than some of the more "mainstream" folks on the team. My creative background tends to be all over the place, from comics to zines to murals, so my approach to writing tends to emphasize what we mean when we write certain things, and who gets to tell history.

I think the social interaction system has to be my favorite. It's a fun take on how characters may or may not react to the character you're playing positively, but with really fun roleplay opportunities if you do manage to make that roll. Maybe John Pierre the Rebel really is just that attractive that the Loyalist guard let him off with a wink, you know?

I believe so. It's important to note that there's never going to be a perfect representation of Odawa culture, both because each person is so multifaceted, and that there are elements of my culture that I would never feel comfortable sharing with a larger audience. My main goal with the project has always been to make characters of Indigenous backgrounds feel like people instead of tropes. If I've done that, I've done my job.

I think my personal favorite has to be the midwife! It's exciting to see the role of a vital community worker into a tabletop game system which gets more attention as a "big men with big swords simulator." I'm hoping that the tabletop games industry keeps pushing more unconventional narratives and roles, there's so many stories that need telling.

ANNA GOLDBERG

Anna Goldberg: Sure! I’m a development editor, writer, and sensitivity reader on this project, so I wear many different hats. I actually joined the team after I’d been playtesting Flames of Freedom and reached out to Daniel, who then onboarded me to the team. My background is in Early American Literature and how they viewed gender and sexuality--basically, I did a graduate fellowship that allowed me to read a lot of Puritan smut and talk about how 17th century people had a much more sophisticated view of human sexuality than we give them credit for. So it was amazing to work on a project like this that combines my love of gaming with my expertise in this area.

I came to this project because I offered to do some sensitivity reading around disability and accessibility--disabled people make up nearly one fifth of the U.S. population, yet we are among the least represented in media, and we’re often left out of representation in games particularly. I wanted Flames of Freedom to reflect the lived reality of disabled people in history, and a lot of that has to do with creating game mechanics that treat disability not as a punishment or obstacle to overcome, but as something that is a part of life.

In both this time period and in a grim & perilous game, people are both born disabled and acquire disabilities through illness or injury. I wanted to help make a game that reflected the real-life creativity and resilience of disabled people like myself, and also make sure that we worked with consultants to make the game accessible to as many gamers as possible. Something I’m really proud of is that we’ll be releasing a PDF of the game that is compatible with screen reader technology, which means that blind and visually impaired gamers will have access to the game. This needs to be the norm in tabletop rpg’s, and while we still have a long way to go, I think we have a great opportunity here to lead by example.

I’m a big fan of the way overland travel works in this game! Most ttrpg’s I’ve played kind of gloss over travel altogether, unless it’s to include a random combat encounter or something that advances the plot, but in Flames of Freedom, travel is hard! It’s dangerous and not to be taken lightly, much like in real life during this period. I think the way that we’ve divided up the roles the different characters will take during a journey is going to add some interesting narrative moments to the game, as well as give players an idea of just how arduous travel could be during this period. We take it for granted because we have cars, trains, and planes, but in Flames of Freedom, the journeys your characters take are anything but trivial.

I do, but I am also white, and I often find people who look like me in text and artwork of ttrpg’s. We have an incredible team of people from a wide array of cultural backgrounds working on Flames of Freedom, and I want to pass the mic to them to talk about what it means to them. I also want to challenge more ttrpg companies to hire diversely and pay their cultural consultants well! Not only will this make the games themselves better, but also it’s an important part of anti-racist work within the industry.

Argh, just one?! I think I have to go with the Weaver--I love the idea that someone who works with fiber and cloth has insight into the supernatural because they can see the literal threads of fate. I tend to play characters with some sort of magickal knack in Zweihander, and I think that when I actually get to play Flames of Freedom, I’m going to start out as a Weaver.

GABE HICKS

Gabe Hicks: So I work as a designer and primarily a consultant on the African American and Black representation. The 1700s was not a great time for people of color in the colonial world. I feel like that hits right on the head where my job comes into play the most. There's a difference between historical accuracy and historical reference, and oftentimes we feel like we have to talk about some of the harsher things in history, but there are some stories that other people do not need to tell. There are some instances that people should not recreate, and slavery alone is a big one. Some games try to reference slavery in plenty of different ways when in my opinion, often the best choice would be to try to integrate it as much as possible altogether. This game has become an altered telling of history with fantasy aspects mixed in, and there are plenty of pieces of history that we could have done better and we didn't get a chance to. Here's a chance to do that in a game form.

It has been nice being heard. My mother was a woman born in the South during the peak time of segregation, and some of the stories that she told me were terrifying. The stories my grandmother had before her as well, and we've improved more and more, but it's stuff that has stayed with us because when we consider the idea of 1776, that was merely a few generations ago, this stuff is still relatively recent. This has given me the chance to really explicitly talk about how there is a difference between acknowledgment and understanding and sometimes it might only be one of the two that you can get. There has been a lot of both, though, that when it comes to the harsher treatment of especially Black people, a large amount of the team might acknowledge it but they don't understand it, and when it comes to showing what points of that in the game should be highlighted versus creating the game in a sense of what would have been equal treatment of people regardless of color in that time, it's been good to be able to focus on proper modern representation rather than historical disappointments.

It really is the chase scenes. It's a really unique feature and it gives an exciting pace to it while still keeping the encounter flexible. It could be combat-related, it could be that you're just trying to get away as fast as possible. It could be related to vehicles (which, having a type of event built in for vehicles as if you're navigating on horseback and running through the night while trying to avoid your pursuers, that's my jam). I love that stuff.

I do feel represented! Race is a very complicated thing in games, and I personally don't think it always has to be. I'd really argue that the reason it is is because it was built on an archaic foundation by people who were not diverse. I feel represented because even if it's not the way people would imagine it, the way this game comes across is: This is how diversity could and should have been different people of different races living together and normalcy, because that's the way that we strive and survive. The Black person isn't a slave, the Black person doesn't have to have any relation to slavery from this point, the Black person is just another person in the colonies doing what they need to do to survive. It makes them characters and not caricatures for people to play.

I think the one that really sticks out for me is the barber. This game puts an emphasis on the fact that these are sometimes just people who become involved in this world. The people that were fighting in the war were barbers, bakers, butchers – oddly, a lot of B’s were my first choices. The idea that a barber becomes involved in this fight after potentially doing the hair of someone else days before, and then this fight comes to them. They become involved in this different world, this game. The war has come to the area where they are, but along with that war there is a mythical background of things happening.

RICHARD IORIO

Q: You created Colonial Gothic many years ago, and American tabletop RPGs are uncommon in the industry. What are you most excited about with Flames of Freedom, and what narrative direction can you see the game going after release?

Richard Iorio: The original game I wrote (Colonial Gothic) has always had a dedicated fan base. Whether they are educators, students of history, gamers, or those who are curious about the period, all came to this game because it is different.

What really excites me is that a wider audience is finally going to discover why this game has endured. They will discover a plot and background so tightly woven into every facet of this game it will inspire them to play in this sandbox.

As for the direction, that is an interesting question and it is one I can answer in numerous ways. One direction I see is that Flames of Freedom provides the tools to help create your own stories centered on your own ideas. There is so much information in the game that serves as a guidebook to the period you have what you need to create.

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?

For this project, I am the lead designer. My role involved not just writing the original manuscript but taking all of what was written before and creating the direction the game follows. The other role, one I feel is one of the most important, is serving as the tour guide. From historical questions, background questions, and more importantly, plot questions, I was there explaining and providing guidance where there was confusion around intent.

My company Rogue Games is an indie publisher, and it was through it I published the original Colonial Gothic (as well as other games). Due to this, I often did not have the ability to bring more voices to the game. Without the team, this game would not have been possible.

There are many books I had planned, but I never worked on them due to not having the experience to work on them. Case in point, I always wanted to publish one centered on Indigenous characters. No matter how much research I did, I never felt confident or capable to do the topic justice. I do not have the cultural experiences necessary to write the book.

Though this is just a role-playing game, the first rule I made for myself was simple: "Get The History Right." I take this rule seriously – so seriously, in fact, I have it on the wall in my office. It is always there in front of me.

With Flames of Freedom, we finally have the voices I not only wanted but needed to make the game sound and read true. I cannot state it enough: Without the team, this game would not have been possible.

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 how your identity and experiences helped inform your writing on Flames of Freedom?

Adventures are easy to create and write. Adventures set during a specific historical point in time? Challenging. In order to pull this off, I needed to have a solid grounding in that event. Once I feel I have this grounding, only then do I write the adventure.

The original game was released in 2007, and since then, things have changed both culturally and socially. There is no denying that. That being said, the vision of the game never changed. Everything that was written always showed both the good and bad of this historical opinion. I never glossed over, nor did I make excuses. Facts are facts, and ignoring those facts ignored the history of those whose voices are important. Ignoring, or forgiving, the experiences of others is wrong. Period.

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?

Though combat during this period is prevalent, other challenges existed. One is travel. There were no cars, trains or airplanes. Riding to Boston from South Carolina took time due to poor roads or, as often the case, no roads. Also, certain means of transportation were cost prohibitive for most. You needed to have the means to afford and maintain a horse. You needed money to afford passage on a ship. Wagons were in use, but that too had a fee. So for most, the cost of transportation was a pair of boots and a long walk. I like that we captured this.

My favorite system in the game is allegiance. The most obvious example of allegiance is Patriot and Loyalist which we have in the game. However, allegiance comes into play in other ways. You might be a member of the Oneida and have Loyalist leanings while others have leanings to the Patriot cause. The rules present ways to take this into account. I feel it is the concept of allegiances that is going to be one of the standouts for the game.

"Race" has always been a 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?

I am white, so yes, I am represented. I know that comes across as flippant, but it is true. The good and the bad that was done by the colonists is known and is handled fairly in the game.

When it comes to other cultures and races, they are handled in the same way. How? By having those with the experiences and background bring their voices and history. I never felt comfortable, or even capable, of writing about the experiences of others who did not share my culture. Yes, I can present the historical facts. Yes, I can take a clinical approach and leave it up to the players to make their own choices, but that is it.

I am unable to honestly write about the impact this period had on the experiences of slavery. I am unable to write about how the various indigenous people were treated and lied too. I am unable to write about the experiences women had during this period. Hell, I am unable to write about the deep divisions between people of the various religions. All I can do is present the facts.

I am proud of the different voices represented by this team. I am proud that their voices are given equal treatment. More importantly, I am very proud of how all voices are represented in art.

One of the things I am very happy about is the three iconic characters found throughout this book. Verity Trowbridge, Azar Willington and Mendom are front and center on the cover, and these are characters I had in mind since day one.

Easy: the Dilettante and an Initiate of the Rosicrucian. The Dilettante, because of how I created it, is someone who allows you to dabble in numerous things and provides a template to play a character who has no direction on life other than their whims. How do I react with the drums of war pounding? How do I react when I fight my first ghoul? That is why it will be fun.

As for the Initiate of the Rosicrucian: That would be telling...

TK JOHNSON

TK Johnson: I primarily designed flash fiction for Legends and Threats in this book, but I also helped guide the lens for some of the Black-specific sections in the Preamble. I think it's just as important to outline what people should not expect from this book – such as slavery mechanics – as it is to list the amazing things that you CAN do.

My parents are an interracial couple, so I'm a member of the Black community. That said, I took a backseat to Tanya and Gabe, as my experiences will not always inform me in the same capacity. Luckily, this team had a good handle on issues that I've had in other teams, and they were always open to my input. As for writing, I'm from rural Kentucky, so the flash fiction that I brought in all has a decidedly Southern Gothic twang to it, which slots nicely in a more "Colonial Gothic" setting.

Oh, I LOVE a good chase scene. There is so much room for improvisation, and the higher stakes necessitate quick thinking. Anything to get the blood rushing!

I do think I'm well-represented in the book – however, I think that it's more important that multiple sensitivity readers and cultural consultants were members of the development and writing team: We could shape our own representation and form a racially inclusive narrative.

I love the Sin Eater, in the Mage Archetype list. It's so completely my aesthetic that I will probably choose it every time. Apothecary is a close second.

SEAN VAN DAMME

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.

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.

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.