© Myrrys 2026
MIT / CC-BY
Introduction — FREE//FALL

FREE//FALL 2048

Public Playtest release 0.7.x

1. THE PITCH

The climate changed, the Mediterranean died, and Europe walled itself off.

It is 2048. Humanity is caught between the suffocating heat of the Gravity Well and the freezing vacuum of the Void.

You are a deniable asset. A mercenary operator working the shadows of a fractured solar system. From the vertical slums of the dam-city Al Presa to the rusting orbital platforms of the Belt, you take the jobs too dirty, too dangerous, and too illegal for corporate militaries.

You are not defined by a character level or a hero’s journey. You are defined by your Gear, your Augmentations, and your willingness to bleed.

In FREE//FALL, capability is bought, spliced, or installed. But power is never free. Every piece of chrome, every high-grade weapon, and every jagged line of code you carry extracts a toll on your body and mind.

The question isn’t just can you survive the job.
It’s what will be left of you when the job is done.

2. THE WORLD

A BRUTAL DUALITY

The Gravity Well

Heat, humidity, biological decay, repurposed trash (Bricolage), scarcity, and the desperate hustle of millions trying not to fall.

Earth is a testament to survival amidst collapse. The equator is an uninhabitable kill-zone, pushing humanity into fortified mega-cities in the extreme northern and southern latitudes. From the vertical slums of the Al Presa dam-city and the toxic sands of the Black Sahara, to the hyper-industrialized arcologies of the Pan-Asian Coalition and the militarized borders of the Corporate States of America. Every remaining nation and corporate state clings to what they can salvage, fighting the relentless heat.

The Void

Cold, vacuum, radiation, hard recycled air, blinding neon, corporate sterility vs. industrial rust, and the terrifying silence of the black.

Break orbit, and the struggle shifts. Space is the domain of the Megacorps and the Block Nations. Orbital stations rotate under corporate flags, housing sterilized labs and overworked indentured contractors.

3. HOW TO PLAY

THE CORE SYSTEMS

FREE//FALL v7 is a cinematic, highly tactical RPG built on resource management, simultaneous action, and brutal consequences.

The Golden Rules

To survive the sprawl, remember the three principles of play:

  1. Optionality: The rules are in place to support play. Say yes, or… roll the dice.
  2. Equality: In a draw, the players decide the order of resolution.
  3. Specificity: Specific rules (gear, augmentations, scenario effects) always beat general rules.

Tactical Action Resolution

When chaos erupts, you roll an Action Pool of 2 to 5 twenty-sided dice (d20).

Divide and Conquer: You can split these dice across multiple goals or vectors. Need to sprint to cover (2 dice) while simultaneously hacking a corporate drone (3 dice)? You can try.

Simultaneous Resolution: Actions are declared in order (NPCs, then Characters, then Bosses). Once declared, everything happens at once. In contested actions, the highest individual die rolled happens first.

Target Numbers: You are looking for dice that equal or beat the GM’s Target Number (TN). A Normal task requires no roll. Challenging is 11+, Hard is 16+, and Near Impossible is 21+. A natural 20 is always a success.

Power Has a Cost

Your core Attributes measure your social, physical and mental bandwidth. You spend them on:

Bind Gear Powerful armor or cybernetics must be Bound. Wearing heavy plating might bind your physical attributes; running military-grade ice-breakers might bind your mental capacity. This locks down your maximum capacity.

Push the Limits:** Don’t have the required Skill to hotwire a rover? You can still try, but it will cost you a point of a relevant Attribute—or require you to take immediate Harm to brute-force it.

Survival: The Sacrifice

You have 3 Harm Slots. Every time a slot is filled, you lose one die from your Action Pool. The more hurt you are, the less capable you become.

When you take a hit—whether it’s a bullet, a neural spike, or blackmail—you don’t just lose HP. You face a choice on how to resolve the incoming damage:

  1. Take the Hit (Transient Harm): Fill an empty Harm slot. You lose a die, but the injury is temporary and can be recovered during downtime.
  2. Bear the Scar (Permanent Harm): Replace an existing Transient Harm with a Permanent one. You take a lasting narrative consequence to keep a slot open and stay in the fight.
  3. Break the Gear: Mark a bound asset as Broken. Let the armor shatter so your ribs don’t have to. Let the cyber-eye burn out to save your brain.

If you suffer Harm and cannot make one of these three sacrifices, you are ousted from the game.

4. THE THREAT

THESEUS

Looming behind the corporate wars is the THESEUS Foundation. Born from the ashes of the Copenhagen Incident (2037)—a catastrophic failure of AI containment—Theseus is the terrifying, bureaucratic shield against the “Post-Human Threat.”

They are the boogeymen. They are the cleaners. And sometimes, if you’re unlucky, they are your employers.

5. MISSION BRIEF

CODENAME: NORTHERN LIGHTS.

Incoming Encrypted Transmission...

SOURCE: $$REDACTED$$ // PROTOCOL: BLACK 

TARGET: Transport Vessel Njord's Whisper, 
drifting near the Jovian Trojan belts.

OBJECTIVE: Board the vessel.
- Extract hard-line data logs regarding the 
  "QNA" (Quantum Neural Array).
- Purge the QNA unit. Total neutralization.

ADVISORY:** Vessel appears dark. Thermal 
signatures suggest automated defenses are active. 
Crew considered compromised by Class-3 
contaminants (AI/Logic Virus).

RoE: No witnesses. The Copenhagen Protocol is 
in effect. If it thinks, kill it. If it moves,
break it.


Welcome to the Edge. Check your seals. Load your software. Bind your armor. Try not to bleed out.