THAUMASIS
Finding My Tribe ...
My TTRPG shelf has evolved a fair bit over the years. For various reasons, that don’t need to be discussed here, I don’t have many possessions remaining from my childhood or early adulthood. I basically started my current collection from scratch about 12 years ago so, even though I am an old grognard, my shelf only contains what I would describe as modern games.
In that dozen years or so some books have come and gone and some have simply sat there looking relatively cool but entirely inert. There is a section, however, that has grown consistently over recent years from which not a day goes by that I don’t take one off the shelf for some reason or another ... all featuring this particular logo:
Tis the logo of Fria Ligan (Free League Publishing) based in Sweden. I first discovered Fria Ligan when I was preparing to run games of Candela Obscura and a fellow GM told me that one of the main influences on that game’s design was something called Vaesen. I checked out a quickstart guide to Fria Ligan’s Vaesen online ... and fell in love. For the first time in four decades I felt like a kid discovering something truly magical.
I soon bought hard copies of the core book and the Mythic Britain & Ireland supplement and those feelings were immediately amplified. At a time when the art and content in D&D 5e books was becoming farcical I suddenly held in my hands tomes that felt like precious artefacts. Beautiful smelling (yes, that’s right) matt pages with sumptuous artwork, gothic fonts and ribbon bookmarks. The pages revealed mysterious, mischievous beings, dour and dapper character archetypes, and foreboding architecture and landscapes.
Once I had dipped my toe in the cold, Nordic stream of Fria Ligan I was compelled to dive right in ... as if lured by a brook horse to my watery grave. My twelve year-old self who would pore over fantasy novels and game books in 1980s bookshops was born again. Before long I had discovered Dragonbane ... a game that feels like D&D from a parallel universe where somebody kept all the excitement, danger and simplicity, then quietly removed forty years of unnecessary baggage. Scandinavians, it seems, simply have a knack for doing things properly. Other Intellectual Properties that I was already in love with, such as Blade Runner and Alien soon appeared as Fria Ligan products ... not to mention a game where you literally play as an 80s kid (Tales From The Loop).
To quote Fiddler On The Roof, if I were a rich man I would buy everything on their website. These games speak to me like no other. It’s hard to whittle my experience down to a few key elements but I’ll try.
Fria Ligan games feature:
rules that fade into the background and mechanics that reinforce mood,
atmosphere over optimisation, consequences over balance,
grounded characters and a progression system that makes narrative sense,
emergent and immersive storytelling,
simple old-fashioned adventuring with modern streamlining and design,
elegant, economical and intuitive content layouts,
amazing artwork.
These games also encourage players to become cautious and curious again. Travel, darkness and equipment matter. People listen more carefully because the games invite them to inhabit the world rather than dominate it ... answers are found in creative investment, not on character sheets. Characters feel vulnerable and victories feel earned. Strange creatures have regained their mystery. For the first time in years I find myself leaning forward as a Game Master rather than merely managing systems.
Perhaps that is what Fria Ligan truly sells ... not rules systems or settings, but rediscovery. A reminder of what many of us felt when we first opened a fantasy book or rolled strange dice on a bedroom floor decades ago. Wonder. Mystery. Danger. Atmosphere. The feeling that somewhere beyond the lantern light there might still be something extraordinary waiting to be found.