Hey folks! I’m Michael Whelan, though most know me as Wheels, and I’m the designer of Osprey Games’ newest tabletop miniatures game, FREAKZ! Today we’re going to be giving an overview of the game itself, talking about the design intent behind the game, and giving a preview of what you can expect from FREAKZ! When it launches on 24th October!
So What is FREAKZ!?
FREAKZ! is a tabletop wargame that sees up to 8 models per player duking it out in close quarters on a terrain-filled board. Your figures represent the titular FREAKZ, those brave (or stupid) enough to delve into the bomb-torn ruins of the great cities of old, devastated by a now-ancient nuclear war. They’re searching for the power of the Artefactz – strange, otherworldly objects that fuse with human flesh to unleash new, fantastical powers from within your mortal frame. Giant skull-piercing claws, huge bellows of toxic gas, or even the ability to bend time and space itself.
The Artefactz are the ultimate prize for your FREAKZ, and the name of the game. Whenever you collect one from the battlefield you’ll permanently alter the genetic make-up of one of your units, bestowing a new active or passive game ability onto them for the rest of their miserable little life. Unlock new ways to attack your enemies, improved stats, or tactical abilities that can alter the state of the battlefield.
How does it play?
FREAKZ! was designed as a rules-light, fast-paced system in an effort to speed up your average miniature gaming night. I’m sure we’ve all had sessions that have gone long into the wee hours due to constant rule checking, arguments over half inches, and turns that never seem to end. FREAKZ! is lightweight, low to the ground, and an easily memorable system that gets your eyes out of the rulebook and onto the battlefield using tricks like measureless movement, standardised weapons, and units that all share the same base stats.
“But hold on Wheels, if all the models on the table have the same basic statistics and guns then where’s the variance?” you might ask. Well that’s where the Artefactz come in. FREAKZ! contains 52 unique powers your units can acquire on their various battles throughout the Atomic Wastez, one for every card in a standard deck of playing cards.
Your average unit can hold up to 3 Artefactz at a time (and leaders can hold 5!). According to my calculations (and definitely not some online tool that did it for me) that means fully equipped units could be equipped with any one of over 22,000 different Artefact combinations!
Not to mention that Artefactz aren’t static. The life expectancy of a FREAK is pretty pitiful, and sometimes the best way to acquire a bit of eldritch, atomic power is to rip it out of the corpse of your enemies. Whenever one unit kills another in FREAKZ!, players make what’s known as a Temptation Roll for the killer. No matter where you are on the battlefield, the Artefactz embedded in your quarry’s corpse will want a new host and they’re more than capable of making their way to your FREAK. Our temptation roll tests whether or not your unit is brave (or stupid) enough to allow the Artefact into their system, and it’ll get harder to succeed on the more Artefactz they pick up.
Artefactz & CRONENBERGS
A unit can only hold so many of these strange Artefactz in their system before they hit their limit. So what happens when you go over your limit? Well it would be simple enough to just set a hard cap and not allow you to go any further, but that doesn’t sound very slapstick, post-apocalyptic, chaos game does it?
No in fact, once a FREAK overloads on Artefactz a horrible transformation takes place. The power of the Artefactz overwhelms their humanity and a disastrous monstrosity bursts from their very flesh, towering above their former squadmates. The CRONENBERG is a force to be reckoned with, becoming more and more powerful as it gobbles up FREAKZ (even their former allies!) and consumes their Artefactz.
Be careful out there! Temptation rolls are mandatory, and the more loaded up with special powers your units become, the closer they get to turning into one of the most terrifying forces you could possibly find out in the Wastez, right in the middle of your own ranks. Even if you avoid the transformation, the most powerful Artefactz your units hold are always up for grabs by your opponent provided they can take your FREAK down.
The Artefactz are the disgusting, beating heart of the game and as they’re found on battlefield, swapped between units, and overload units into horrible monsters, they’ll guarantee that no two games of FREAKZ! ever plays the same. That’s not all they can be used for though…
The Atomic Godz & Campaign Play
You might be wondering where these strange Artefactz have come from, and for that we can look to the secret and powerful force behind everything that happens in the deadly ruins of the world of FREAKZ!, the Atomic Godz. Four otherworldly, eldritch deities formed from the white hot atomic heat of a million nuclear bombs detonating on earth all at once. Each with their own schemes and designs for earth, the Atomic Godz want to breach the walls between their reality and ours, and in return for your help they offer you their blessings.
When playing a campaign of FREAKZ! you’ll quickly find yourself with FREAKZ filled to the brim with Artefactz, ready to pop at any moment. By offering a unit whose Artefactz capacity is full as a human sacrifice to the Atomic Godz, they’ll be able to breach our reality just that little bit more and permanently alter the state of the world.
Each campaign gives players a chance to rewrite the rules of the very game itself by choosing from the rule altering Dictatez of the Godz, in exchange for the life of a fully upgraded unit in your squad. Each Dictate focusses on a different aspect of FREAKZ! that you can change for the rest of the campaign to benefit your playstyle (or hinder that of your opponents’). Give a game-wide buff to one of the default weapon choices, add new deployment options for the start of the game, or give bonus movement ability to units on the field. Customise the game to how you like to play, and be prepared to adapt to the changes your opponent(s) make in turn.
Each Dictate has four different options presented by each of the Atomic Godz. For example, the bestial YOWWUL favours brutal fights up close and personal, whereas the tricksy POURT-KALLIS will offer up ways to provide more chaos and unknowability to the battlefield. Once one of the four options is selected, the others are locked out for the rest of the campaign and subsequent sacrifices will have to be for other Dictatez. By the end of your campaign, your game might play completely differently to the one played by your friends.
Freakz! is out 24th October in the UK & 1st November in the US.
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