Free League interview at ESSEN Spiel

In the October of 2023 I attended the ESSEN Spiel. There, I had the opportunity to make an interview Martin Takaichi from Free League. The interview was earlier published in Hungarian, and as looking back to old year, I am posting this interview now in English.

Free League is a Swedish TTRPG and board game publisher. They games includes Symbaroum, Tales from the Loop, Mörk Borg and this year's publication, Dragonbane. 

The English name of the company is the direct translation of the Swedish Fria Ligan. All of there Swedish TTRPG, which are currently sells, are existing and can can be buy in English, too. However, they have two game in the Swedish section on theirs web page, which are out of stock and doesn't exist in English,

These are Oktoberland, which Free League didn't make, they just published. The game is a unique blend of urban fantasy, steampunk and the Russian Revolution. And Svavelvinter, a fantasy game set in a renaissance world, published in 2012, with some supporting material (character sheets, maps) available for download from their site. There is also a starter kit in English.

At this years Essen SPIEL, a board game event in Germany, Essen, I had the possibility to talk with Martin Takaichi, who was the project lead for the Free League boardgames, for the The One Ring TTRPG and currently the project lead for theirs VTT games.

On arriving at the meeting, I first notice a neighboring stand next to the Free League, a German shop that also has Free League publications, but I'm not looking for them (Zu den vier Winden). The stand of the Swedish publisher itself is easy to find in Hall 1, because a large logo hangs from the ceiling above it. A good number of the larger stands advertise themselves at the fair in this way, providing good orientation points.

Beside the tables laden with books and board games, we sit down in the noise of the fair with Martin. The desk, where we set is for the Dragonbane demo games. At first I ask him about the Essen fair, and the presence of the company here. The SPIEL is a board game fair, so, for me it's not trivial, why an TTRPG publisher is coming to here. Actually, that's a good question, as he started his answer. They were here at first in 2019. The year, when they released Crusader Kings, theirs first, actual boardgame (Martin was one of the designers of that game). It was a test to see, that does it worth to bring RPGs to Essen? They were surprised, because the selling went very-very well.

They come back in next year, with a slightly bigger stand, and basically they sold out. And that happened every year, so they came again. Martin told me, that of course in Essen the main point is boardgames, but there is still place for others. There are some board gamer, how come to their stand, and asks, specially about the starter sets (“What's this?”).

And as it turns out, there is a lot of RPG fun is here. So, as he sad “It works out very well for us”. Actually, he was a little bit surprised, that there isn't more RPG company here.

He talked shortly about game mechanic, when the game design topic was touched in the interview. He has an approach for game design, let it be boardgame, or an RPG. He like, when the rules create the themes, instead of long descriptions in a boardgame. In many games the theme is replaceable. He has no problem with that, but it's not his method. Talking about the The Tales from the Loop boardgame, he explains “the mechanic should do the talking”.

I asked him about The One Ring TTRPG, for which the second edition was created and released by Free League (The first edition was published by Cublicle 7).

As he explained, Essen was the kind of genesis for that game. In 2019 he, and some college bumped into Francesco Nepitello, one of the creators of the first edition of the game. Francesco told them, that he loves Forbidden Lands, one of Free Leagues game's, and the Free League guys told him, they like the Lord of the Rings! Later the company got the license for the TTRPG. It was fun to work with Francesco and the design team on the second edition, as told me.

The earlier design talks was just about, how should the book look like? How should it be designed? They didn't wanted a modern, kind of glittering TTRPG book. They wanted something, that felt almost from the setting of Middle-earth. That's why they used the style, how Tolkien draw his pictures like, with red ink. Another decision was, that the book has only limited color images.

He also talked about the starter set for the second edition, which introduces the Shire and the hobbits. They wanted to give back the feeling, that four or five hobbits going on adventures in the Shire. “It's very low stakes adventures.” “It's just so much fun, going around, discussing, where to have the next meal, or who eat my sausage?“

Talking about their present, he mentioned the upcoming Moria book. “Next thing is Moria, which is the next big thing” (The game had a successful Kickstarter campaing, shipping is planned for 2024 May ).

When asking about their future plans, he replied diplomatically, “there will be more areas to discover. We will see where we go next.” And, expressing his own thoughts, he sad, that it would be kind of interesting to follow the way of the Fellowship. “The next thing is Moria, the next one could be Lórien, and maybe Gondor, things like that.”

Gondor would be interesting, the first edition never got to Gondor, it wasn't explored. Hovewer, it might be almost like a different game in a way, sad, as he thought on that idea. Because in Eriador, where the Core Rules is placed, there is no real ruling, or government, just small pockets of civilization. Kind of wild west. And, opposed to that, Gondor is more structured, a different setting, that's require different rules. Like maybe rules for court intrigue. It would be kind of strange, to play the same kind of adventures in Gondor, which are set in Eriador, as he adds. We will see, how it turns out, finished his own thoughts

We finishing the interview in the crowd of the fair, and I let Martin to talk with the inquiries at the stand.