*I've read the rules but not had a chance to play yet, so I can't honestly consider this a full review. BUT information about this game was very scarce when I was trying to find about it, so I'm going to do you all a favor:

...Every now and then, someone will bust into some forum, raving about this awesome sci-fi RPG Freemarket, how original the game mechanics, how innovative...

Took me some time to find out that it was an "indie" RPG, created in one batch in 2010, and then the company dissolved and the website was sold to some blogger... though it's still available through Burning Wheel another "indie" RPG company. Not knowing how much longer this thing will be available at all, I just went for it!

Anyway, I just did an unboxing with pictures!

First thing you'll notice is it's got strong theming, stronger theming than any RPG I've seen before! The box doesn't say it was "Printed in China", no, it was "Cultivated in China" "using 21st century industrial printing methods". The rulebook is statted as if an in-game item and so on. The jargon is laid on fast and thick, but once you learn the lingo, it's not that complicated, and gives it a lot of flavor. All the skills (excuse me, "experiences") have unusual names, but only one of them - "flooding" is a genuine terra incognita, we would call it "memory hacking" and looks like it could lead to fun mayhem if the players did it properly in-character...

The Setting:

At some point in the future, we may become so advanced we can print anything we need, even replacement bodies in the event of death. On the surface of it, it's utopia, but it leads to new challenges. How does one make a living in such a changed world? Enter "flow" the currency of FreeMarket's reputation-based economy. You earn flow by doing things for people, restauranteurs will give you food because your acceptance of the small "gift" earns them a flow bonus, "mobbers" will install "interface" - cybernetic implants - to get their bonus, and so on. Here, getting "defriended" or a "frownie" from some user actually hurts the bottom line.

Oh... I neglected to mention this all takes place on FreeMarket Station, a space habitat orbiting Saturn, far, far away from not-so-utopian Earth and Mars? Which was originally designed to be an idyllic paradise but as with all such social experiments, the generations born there had their own ideas, and it's gotten crazy crowded now that they no longer need sprawling farmland and can just print their food. One big city, really...

The Mechanics:

Ahhh! For once in my life, an RPG has a logically-organized, concise set of rules! This just might be the one game you can sit down with all your friends and get right through the chaos of everybody being a n00b and asking questions all at once. Information is in little "bite-size" chunks that could be looked up (and hopefully remembered) quickly.

Everything about your character must fit on the space provided on the sheet... because that's how much information can be saved to make your backup copy. That seems to be intended to be part of the game, forcing everyone to figure out what they really need, and cut down on "shopping" for skills and gear.

Players are free to just role-play back and forth until a challenge is initiated, then the decks come out It works like this: draw two cards at a time, per character involved (yup, someone can get ganged up on!) scoring a point if you have the relevant experience, genetic trait, technology... and beware hazards... this goes on until someone "calls", cementing victory or cutting their losses. (And the challenge can be in any skill, from combat to negotiation to growing a pumpkin (this is a big deal in a society that normally just prints food and has a shortage of living space!)

What's Different?

You're *supposed to card count.*

Each player has their own Challenge Deck and it's not reshuffled until completely exhausted. The number of each type of card is printed right there on the box This could lead to times when you know the remaining cards are all good... or all hazards. From other's reviews, apparently this can be paralyzing, players become terrified because their next action, whatever it is, will fail! And if you're also low on flow at the same time, it's a real problem because...

You "die" by going bankrupt.

A character with no flow in their financial account can get Voted Off the Station. (Yes, as in "voted off the island" in Survivor, this game is chock-full of pop culture and sci-fi memes!). Remember, space is at a premium, so anyone and anything who is taking it up and offering nothing in return - out! This is how you actually lose. It doesn't really matter what happens to your character, if you die, a new copy is reprinted, remember? So, if you think it over...

Your character is an expendable commodity.

Players can "burn" experience, geneline, interface (implants) and technology right off their character sheet, up to the point of killing themselves, if they want to accomplish some goal. They'll just come back fresh because the version of them that was saved still has all their skills (though they might be short a few memories...) You're supposed to use up your character to preserve your flow and technology, not the other way around.

...I can see how this would mess-up and impress veteran RPG players. In every other game, keeping your character alive is all-important, players will "burn" all their equipment and money to stay alive... in FreeMarket, this is how you lose! If you've used up all your equipment and flow, and then have only hazards left in your deck... I can see how this would paralyze people.

It's up to the Players to decide what they want FreeMarket to be.

This is not a setting fleshed out in heavy detail. Sure. FreeMarket is a strange setting, but it's just framework, but there are no maps, no statted NPCs (at least to start with). FreeMarket asks the question - what would you do, if you were immortal? It's up to you to try to find a good answer...

All RPGs are dependant on the players to make them fun, but FreeMarket makes it painfully obvious.

The SuperUser (gamemaster's) section recommends taking the traits and memories players have put on their sheets, remixing them, and throwing them back at the players. To create challenges, competition and problems along the direction the players are trying to take the game, let them decide what the theme will be. No detailed dungeon maps or putting the game on rails, it's set-up to grow organically between the players and superuser.

This means FreeMarket doesn't have to be standard RPG fare at all, as the example character in the rules demonstrates... yes, a space farmer! (...apparently, food-based games of FreeMarket are surprisingly common, or so I hear...) ...and the running comments of her sample game (played by its designers) are pretty funny...

(Ok, now I just need some people to try this game out with...)