Forbidden Lands

Hex Crawl Adventure in a Cursed World
Forbidden Lands designers describe it as an old school hex crawl using modern mechanics. Free League (Fria Ligan) is a Swedish company with Mutant: Year Zero, Coriolis and Tales From The Loop among their publishing credits and recently released Forbidden Lands following a successful Kickstarter. The old school feel moniker caught my attention and I am glad it did. Rarely am I this excited about a game not directly based on White Box, but Forbidden Lands is set in an engaging, gritty world and uses mechanics that are intuitive and seem easily modified (if that is to your taste in gaming). The subtitle, "Rogues & Raiders in a Cursed World", rather sums up the appeal.
The Forbidden Lands (FL) setting draws me in. The races, referred to as "Kin" are traditional elves, dwarves, etc, but with a few twists. Orcs and goblins (along with wolf-people) can be player characters - the PCs are rogues and raiders, not "heroes"! The eight character classes (called "Professions") are also traditional, including two magic using types, druids and sorcerers. Looking at the well executed B&W "old school" illustrations, both seem familiar at first, but upon close reading the Forbidden Lands reveals it's darker nature. All the Kin seem to hate each other and each have their darker side. For example in sampling a passage describing FL halflings I read that,

"Everyone is happy and tubby in your family. They sing humorous songs in the inns, and drink and smoke, but when darkness falls they vomit in the flowerbeds and go home to beat their children. Your crazy aunt is locked up, and no one wants to acknowledge your even more twisted relatives even though everybody knows they are out there in the woods."

Those "twisted relatives", well it seems they are FL goblins. Character creation involves picking a "Dark Secret" and a "Pride", two character aspects that influence play and set FL apart from most other old school games.
Forbidden Lands is not a d20 system. It uses a roll and sort d6 dice pool for skills and combat and a slightly modified version of the same mechanic for magic. The dice pool is comprised of three different colored sets of d6s. The four ability scores (Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy) each contribute one color of dice for rolls connected to their area of expertise. Skills contribute dice of a second color and gear gives you dice of a third. The dice are rolled and sixes are counted as "success". A one rolled on the d6 is called a bane and if you "push the roll" can result in injury to the ability in play or damage to your gear. Consumables, like food and arrows use a die chain and rolling a result of one or two indicates a drop in supply (d10 goes to d8, etc.). Rolling a one or two on the d6 means you have used your last arrow!
Did I mention Forbidden Lands is a hex crawl? The rules for journeying mean players need to roll for watching for danger, finding their way, picking a good camp site, hunting and foraging for food, etc. while the referee is rolling for encounters. Exploration and survival are central themes in FL, but the mechanics seem simple and fast enough to avoid becoming a chore. This is old school, so dungeons mean treasure...and monsters.
Establishing a stronghold is covered in its own chapter and FL encourages the players to have their characters find a place to safely rest up, heal and stash their hard won wealth. The stronghold needs manned, so it is wise to hire reliable people and pay them regularly and well.
The core FL box comes with two nice leatherette bound volumes, one each labeled for Gamemaster and Players, a softcover chargen booklet, a nice hexmap of the Ravenland where the campaign takes place, and a set of stickers to place on the map to mark discoveries and the final resting places of lost characters. There is also a free 153 page "Quickstart" version available for download (that sold me on the Forbidden Lands), custom dice, cards and The Raven's Purge campaign book available separately.
The Ravenland (aka Forbidden Land) is an isolated valley that is emerging from a dark age of isolation caused by a demonic "Blood Mist" that until recently covered the land and killed anyone caught out-of-village after dark. The deadly mist has lifted and the raiders and rogues are starting to leave the confines of their villages to see what mischief and plunder can be gained in the "in between" wilderness areas.