Alright, it finally happened today. Two of my friends came by and I sprung FREAKS! on them. They said sure, I switch around systems a lot anyway. They both made up some characters and it worked pretty well. Here's their character sheets. Here's what my first guy said.
Helios, Fire Elemental
Monstrous Qualities
When I see something flammable, I must burn it.
When I'm dancing in the flames, I'm in my own world.
Redeeming Qualities
All beings feel pain as I do.
Body
Save vs Plagues of the Body- Decent
Generate Fire- Expert
Might- Proficient
Absorb Sunlight- Proficient
Mind
Save vs Mind Control- Decent
Forgetful- Weakness
Good Bearings- Decent
Coordination
Save vs Surprises- Decent
Smoke Form- Proficient
Fly (must be in smoke form)- Decent
Self
Save vs Deception- Proficient
Easy to talk to- Decent
Intimidating- Decent
Posessions-
Amulet of Strength-Expert
Contacts-
Dontess, a travelling merchant- Decent
Andromeda, his best friend- Proficient
Wealth-
Fire rubies-Decent
Fire rubies-Decent
Inherited Amulets-Proficient
I liked Helios, we decided that any time he want's to absorb sunlight for energy, he'd have a certain difficulty setting for what time it is. However high he got on the roll was a bonus for the next time he used his generate fire skill. Also, his amulet is inside his chest, it poweres him. When a fire monster dies, he gives away his amulet to another. Fun stuff. Here's the next guy.
Jonas, Skeletal Trickster
Monstrous Qualities:
A sucker is born every minute and I aim to take advantage of that.
I like money. A lot.
Redeeming Qualities:
I don't like killing, that isn't too clever.
Body
Save vs plagues of the body- Decent
No Muscles- Weakness
Hard to Pierce- Decent
Mind
Save vs mind control- Decent
Craft traps- Proficient
Anatomy- Proficient
Coordination
Save vs Surprises- Proficient
Knife Fighting- Decent
Disassemble self- Proficient
Self
Save vs deception- Decent
Make a deal- Proficient
Deception- Expert
Scare- Proficient
Posessions
Knife- Proficient
Bear Trap- Decent
Bear Trap- Decent
Bear Trap- Decent
50 Feet of Rope- Expert
Pocket Watch
Contacts
Ghost kid- Proficient
Wealth
Lots of neat stuff about this guy. First off, the dead kid who he's friends with was a kid who got killed from a scheme he pulled when he was alive. See, he told the kid to pelt a guy with a rock as Jonas took his wallet. The kid clocked the guy in the head, killed him, and the boy was killed. The kid's since forgiven him. He's still nameless.
Also, I decided that hitpoints would be the collective bonuses in your body trait times 2. It didn't work, because a player who made body their minor trait got two hitpoints. I'm thinking of making it like 5 hit points plus your body bonuses times 2. That way, there's not that whole "die at first level" thing.
So the adventure starts with Jonas wandering through the alleys of his city, when the kid passes through a wall and tells him that some ruckus is going down at the town square. Jonas passes through an alleyway and looks out of the shadows to see what's going on. He sees a fire monster, Helios, in an iron cage. Helios was caught setting fire to a large slum area and was being sentenced to death. The people in this city are big on public executions, it seems.
Jonas tried to sneak closer, and marginally failed. The mob, who know about the undead trickster who haunts the alleyways, all take off after him so they can get rid of two monsters at once. I got two extra facts, which I saved for later. Jonas threw down one of his bear traps and got two sucesses vs the mob's save vs surprises, which is pretty much the dodge roll in the game. He gets two facts, which he used to state that first a guy gets caught in the trap, and that three more guys go off to get him to a temple. Jonas then runs out of the city and try to lose them in the forest not too far away from the city. We'd covered there was a forest near the town beforehand, so it worked. He suceeded with one fact, which he used to say he lost the villagers. He was awarded two virtue points for saving Helios from execution, albeit by accident, since it corresponded with his credo.
Meanwhile, Helios decided he was going to get out of the cage. He rolled to melt the bars, which I made a challenge on "stuff of legends" level because melting metal should be hard. He did manage to get through it, though with one fact. He said he melted the lock, so he just pushed the door open and walked out. As he got out, the captain of the city guard told him to halt. He had ten guards with him, crossbows readied. He said that he would turn a blind eye to the whole burning thing if he did something for him. He needed someone to go to an orcish settlement that had been set up beyond the forest from the city. They'd been hearing drums, and thought the orcs might be bringing in a raiding party. If Helios could do something about it, they would let him go. Helios accepted, and off he went.
Jonas decided he'd leave town for a while and started to walk through the forest away from the town. Meanwhile, as Helios was walking through the forest I decided I'd be a bastard and test out how the Judge controlled roll works. I said that as Helios walked amongst all the trees, his hands started to get twitchy and I made him roll to see if he could resist the urge to burn the trees. He failed the roll, but I let him narrate the burning. He got one fact, which he used to say that he burned one oak tree down. I said fine, but the trees were so close together it started to spread. Wanting to do something to help, he said he'd use his generate fire ability to make a flare so the villagers would come to him. He suceeded, and the villagers came. Being my bastart self though, they saw him in the middle of the forest fire and pretty much damned him from ever coming into the town again. Helios runs, and the villagers are left to fight the fire. He got a monstrous point.
Helios was running, Jonas was running, they run into each other. I let them talk, Jonas agrees to help out Helios, they go off to the orc settlement. Just beyond the forest was plainsland, and the orcs had set up a circle of tents with a large smoking fire in the middle. Now Helios's player had gotten four facts with the forest burning, which he saved for later. He uses those later on.
They get to the encampment, try to go in, and two orc guards bar the way. They say leave, or they kill our heroes. Jonas tries to get them to see things their way, but they just get angry. They left, then decided they'd try to take out two of the guards quickly and slip through.
Jonas used his rope attached to his pocket watch to distract a guard while Helios snuck up on him and tried to take him out quickly. The distraction didn't work and I got two facts. I said first that the distraction didn't work, and that the orcs heard Helios behind them. Helios's player used one of his saved facts to say "yes, but they don't turn around." Helios got the first action though, and he used it to send a ball of fire towards the two guys. The way that dodging works is that you can't save facts from it, you just succeed if you get over the attacker's roll. The two orcs dodge, then I used one of my saved facts to state that the fireball went for Jonas. He managed to dodge it. There were some other good parts in it, but most of it was pretty much like that. We also figured out how you could knock someone out. It's basically a hard roll, but with the enemy's save vs plagues of the body put on top. Anyway, because of his thing about not killing people, Jonas knocked one of the orcs out.
I decided to do something else with those saved facts. They could be used to actually help yourself or your teamates along with impeding enemies. For instance, Helios's player spent one fact while in smoke form to get in the orc's eyes when he was trying to attack sickly skeletal jonas. Jonas's player stabbed an orc in the foot to give him a -1 when dodging Helios's amulet powered fist.
All in all, some things require more definition, I'm going to have to figure out how to systemize facts. They're really fun to use, and we were throwing them around. However, I think any facts saved to the end of a session go away at the next session. A really fun playtest all in all. I'll keep posting these as they come.