Industry | Role-playing game and Book publisher |
---|---|
Founded | 2011 |
Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
Number of employees | 20 |
Website | freeleaguepublishing |
Free League Publishing (Swedish: Fria Ligan) is a game studio and publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden, formed in 2011. The company designs and publishes tabletop role-playing games, board games, and books based on licensed properties and independent works. Their games include Alien: The Roleplaying Game, Vaesen, and Mörk Borg. [1] [2]
After the Swedish publisher Järnringen folded in 2011, Järnringen got in touch with some role-playing game enthusiasts to ask if they wanted to take over development of the role-playing game Svavelvinter, which led to the formation of Free League Publishing. [3]
The publisher has had a series of successful crowdfunding campaigns. [4] Between 2015 and 2022, their Kickstarter campaigns brought in 100 million SEK (10 million USD). [2]
In addition to winning ENNIE Awards for multiple games, Free League Publishing won the Publisher of the Year award in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024. [1]
Free League has also published the art books Tales from the Loop,Things from the Flood, and The Electric State by Simon Stålenhag, as well as the illustrated edition of the Lovecraft story The Call of Cthulhu by French artist François Baranger.
The ENNIE Awards are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World in partnership with Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D Third Edition News. The ceremony has been hosted at Gen Con in Indianapolis since 2002. Since 2018, EN World is no longer associated with the awards.
The One Ring Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, set at the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Designed by Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, the game was initially published by Cubicle 7 in 2011 under the title The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild. Cubicle 7 continued to publish the first edition of the game until 2019. Nepitello and Maggi developed the second edition, which is published by Free League Publishing under the same title, The One Ring Roleplaying Game.
Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later adapted for hundreds of other RPGs.
Blades in the Dark is a tabletop fantasy role-playing game by John Harper, set in a fictional city of Doskvol, inspired by Victorian London and Gothic fiction. The game was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2015 and published at the start of 2017.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game produced by Magpie Games. It is set in the world of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and takes place in five different time periods. Players take the roles of martial artists, technological experts, or benders – people who can manipulate one of the four classical elements – who fight for balance in the world while also working towards their own goals and struggling with inner balance, represented by opposing ideals held by a character.
The following are the winners of the 20th annual ENnie Awards, held in 2020:
Magpie Games is an American tabletop role-playing games publishing company. Their 2021 crowdfunding campaign to fund the publication of Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game raised over five million dollars, breaking the record for Kickstarter's highest earning tabletop role-playing game. Other notable publications include Bluebeard's Bride and a role-playing game adaptation of the board game Root. The publisher has won IndieCade, ENNIE Awards, and Indie Game Developer Network awards.
Visigoths vs. Mall Goths is an urban fantasy tabletop role-playing game with LGBTQ dating sim elements by Lucian Kahn, with art by Robin Eisenberg. The ancient Visigoths have time traveled to 1990s Los Angeles and are battling mall goths for control of the mall. The game's tone is silly and the setting has many puns. The game was inspired by 1990s movies The Craft, Empire Records, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Clueless.
The X-Card is a technique for moderating content while playing tabletop role-playing games, also known as a safety tool. Gameplay pauses when a player touches a card marked with an X, enabling the group to remove any uncomfortable material from the narrative and/or address players' mental and emotional wellbeing.
Mörk Borg is a tabletop role-playing game inspired by heavy metal music, created by Swedish game designers Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr and published by Free League Publishing in February 2020. The game features dark themes, frequent character death, and a doom metal playlist. The title means "dark fort" in Swedish.
Kids on Bikes is a tabletop role-playing game system, and a series of games that use that system. It has won multiple ENNIE Awards.
Brindlewood Bay is a murder mystery tabletop role-playing game about elderly women amateur detectives, inspired by Murder, She Wrote and H. P. Lovecraft. It was designed by Jason Cordova and was published by Gauntlet Publishing after a 2022 Kickstarter campaign raised $477,518 from 7,748 backers.
The Gauntlet is a publisher/producer of tabletop role-playing games and podcasts. Their publications include Trophy RPG and Brindlewood Bay. In addition to game books, they publish a monthly game zine called Codex to encourage experimentation in indie role-playing games and OSR. Their games and podcasts have won multiple ENNIE Awards. As of September 2024, The Gauntlet has raised over $720,000 USD on Kickstarter.
Grant Howitt is a tabletop role-playing game designer, publisher, and journalist. He won six ENNIE Awards for his game Heart: The City Beneath. His game Honey Heist, which inspired an online trend of self-published games with one-page rulesets, has been featured on Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Friends at the Table. Through his publishing company Rowan, Rook and Decard, Howitt is a co-designer on Kieron Gillen's DIE: The Roleplaying Game.
Vaesen is a horror mystery tabletop role-playing game published by Free League Publishing in 2020, with illustrations by Johan Egerkrans. It draws from mythology and folklore and focuses on monster-hunting. The game has won multiple ENNIE Awards.
Fabula Ultima is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game inspired by Japanese role-playing video games such as the Final Fantasy series. It was designed by Emanuele Galletto, illustrated by Catthy Trinh and Moryo, and published by Need Games in 2023. The game won 2023 ENNIE Awards for Best Game and Product of the Year.
The Cosmere Roleplaying Game is an upcoming tabletop role-playing game based on the Cosmere fictional universe created by American author Brandon Sanderson. Manufactured by Brotherwise Games, the game was first announced in November 2023 by Sanderson's publisher Dragonsteel Entertainment. A crowdfunding campaign was then launched on Kickstarter on 6 August 2024, raising a total of $14.7 million and becoming the most-funded tabletop game on the platform.
Outgunned is a heroic action tabletop role-playing game by Riccardo Sirignano and Simone Formicola. It was inspired by the action movies John Wick and Die Hard. It was published in 2024 after raising €286,323 on Kickstarter. Outgunned won two 2024 Silver ENNIE Awards for "Best Game" and "Product of the Year."
Trophy RPG is a psychological horror tabletop role-playing game by Jesse Ross about doomed treasure hunters in the woods. There are two versions of the game: Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold. Trophy Dark is designed for single session play, while Trophy Gold is designed for longer campaigns. Both versions were published by Gauntlet Publishing in 2022 after a successful Kickstarter campaign raised $210,141. Trophy RPG won the silver medal for "Best Game" at the 2023 ENNIE Awards.
Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game is a science fiction tabletop role-playing game based on the Blade Runner film franchise. It was published by Free League Publishing in 2023. The game is set in Los Angeles in the year 2039 and focuses on complex stories with themes of fragile humanity and moral ambiguity. Players typically play blade runners employed by the Los Angeles Police Department. Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game won two ENNIE Awards in 2023: "Best Layout and Design" and "Best Cartography."