Free PDF Friday is an ongoing series of reviews designed to encourage us to have a look at and discuss all those free pdf roleplaying games we downloaded and then forget about.  Let's take a look at them, and maybe even play them! That's what they were written for.


Forgotten Futures is "the scientific romance roleplaying game". It is of course free, but the authour encourages you to buy the CD version with all the different rpgs, the public domain novels they're based on, and much besides - proceeds go to charity. Marcus Rowland may be known to some of you as the authour of Space: 1889, which was well-recieved and successful. So we immediately know that Forgotten Futures is not free because it's no good! Rowland was involved with several Cthulhu adventure books, and Judge Dredd rpg - but we won't hold that against him.

The pdf itself is 2.30Mb and 109pp. It has a single colum of text, laid-out in portrait format, and illustrated mostly by nineteenth century etchings. Overall it is clear and easy to read, even on screen. The font and illustrations help set the mood for the game. The text is full of examples to explain the rules, and these are clear and well-written. The whole thing has a very "British" feel to it.

The setting is the science fiction of Jules Verne, HG Wells and others. In this respect it's actually several settings. It was originally published as online shareware in 1993, and there have been several versions since. After the introduction, the text begins with an example of play, a transcription of the players speaking with a few comments by the authour. This is something few rpgs have these days, but is good, as it helps people new to roleplaying to get an idea of it, and also helps you answer the question, "but what do you do in this game?" The answer from the play example is, "fly Zeppelins!"

The system is a relatively simple one. There are three or four attributes - Body, Mind, Soul and if the setting has it, Magic - all rated from 1 to 6. There are 25 skills, which are very general, as the book puts it, "for example, Scientist covers everything from Archaeology to Zoology, Pilot covers everything from Autogyros to Zeppelins." Thus none are "hydra" skills like many games have, eg Craft (Choose Specialty), or Scholar (Choose Specialty). There's just those 25 skills, and that's it. Everyone begins with Brawing and Stealth - hey, we're adventurers! Skills are added to attributes, or a mixture of attributes, to get their final rating. Basically there are few or no Dis/Advantages. This leads to a pretty short character sheet, you could fit it on an index card easily.

Task resolution is an opposed system, using a chart. One attribute or skill is set against another, check the chart, and roll 2d6 trying to get under that number; a 2 almost always succeds, and a 12 always fails. Optionally you can spend xp to boost your rolls. Sometimes the task will be unopposed, and the GM sets a difficulty.

Wounds are dealt with by a wound level system, with no hit locations, though there is an optional rule for them. Healing is slow, a real-world pace. Combat is settled like other tasks are resolved, except of course that if you succeed you inflict a wound. Here we have another chart, basically it's that if you succeed by a lot in your hit you do more damage. Armour subtracts from damage.

The system thus takes up the first 30 or so of the 109 pages. Another dozen are taken up by equipment and creature lists, then on p40 are some roleplaying guidelines. I think the titles say it all: "I know my place", "Get up and go", "You're a toff, guv", "A woman's place is in the home", "I say, he's a bally foreigner", "Under a gooseberry bush my dear", and "Arr, we talks loike this". Then there's a section on running adventures, with another player talk transcript and the authour's commentary on it. Overall the GMing advice is very good. Often in rich and detailed settings there still comes up the old question, "but what do the PCs do?" Again, Rowland answers this for us, and gives us a good idea of what a Forgotten Futures game session will look like.
   "Most people get up in the morning with a fair idea of likely events during the day ahead, and very rarely run into invading Martians, marauding dinosaurs, or deranged serial killers. It seems unlikely that anyone reading this has fought a gun battle on the wings of a biplane, or unravelled a sinister web of deceit to unmask the machinations of an ancient cult and a nameless evil from beyond the stars.

"Life is different in a role playing game..."

The authour helpfully lists the other books for the game. This gives you an idea of the sorts of adventures you could have.
   "FF I: The A.B.C. Files - A complete role playing game set in Kipling's 21st century airship utopia.
FF V: Goodbye Piccadilly -A collection of game worlds based on the destruction or transformation of London as described by various authors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Includes maps, period fiction, articles, and illustrations, and all the usual game material.
FF VII: Tsar Wars - A complete future history spanning 130 years, based on two epic novels by George Griffith. The birth of a Socialist Utopia in blood and war, the destruction of the Russian Empire, and its eventual resurgance form the tragic background to a story of future war and catastrophe, and the annihilation of most of the human race. Includes several adventures and adventure outlines, rules for Æronef flying machines, and much more."
There's a good section on the real world, giving equipment and prices of the day. Then follows one on playing children or dogs! Dogs get their own skill list. We get a wonderful appendix on "Adding Melodrama", for people who want to play amnesiacs, doomed lovers, swaped with another child at birth, and the like. And then of course playing "Anti-Heroes". "They commit crimes but do it in the style of a Hero."

There's an Appendix on magic, but magic bores me so I skipped over it. If you're curious, go download it and have a look! Much more important and interesting was the Appendix on  Gadgets. Of course there are Zeppelins, but there are also spacegoing yachts, spacesuits, a "psychic idealiser", the Carnacki Electric Pentacle (WTF? Awesome!), Radium Healing Rays, and so on.


In the end it is a very well-written and interesting roleplaying game, somewhat old-school with its simple system and charts, and absolutely worth the download time. Download it, take a look!

At least check out his site. I mean, you can download a spreadsheet for making airships

What do you lot reckon?

I've seen this before. I think the same thing. I dont know how hot I am on the system.:raise:  But its a giant gold nugget to be mined for setting and stuff.

That dice mechanic is a lot like the GURPS  dice mechanic - except using 2 dice instead of 3. I'll have to think about that one.

- Ed C.

I have the book, from a few years back.  Yes, this is good stuff and worth having.