Freedom in the Galaxy

Freedom in the Galaxy was designed by Howard Barasch and John Butterfield, and released by SPI in 1979. It has a completely realized science fictional world, very much in the Star Wars oeuvre, complete with heroes and villains, strange worlds and vicious monsters. It's also a blast to play! Freedom in the Galaxy came out in an Avalon Hill version in 1981. I have both, but I haven't done a close check to see if there are any differences, but I don't think there are too many, besides the fact that the small bit of errata from the SPI version has been incorporated into the rules and charts of the AH version (but not the card errata!), and a separate play aid containing various tracks and legends (and, of course, a mounted map board). Freedom in the Galaxy looks to be one of those games lost in the vortex that was the sinking of Avalon Hill when Hasborg acquired it, um, I mean, Hasbro.

Variants

One thing Freedom in the Galaxy has seemed to create is a dedicated group of modifiers! I have the privilege of hosting a couple really nice looking variants that take this game in two very different directions. Charles Duke uses the FitG world and components as a leaping off point for practically a whole new game. Uwe A. Reuter takes on the job of developer and solves some perceived problems with game play with rule modifications and events. Check them both out!

The Duke Variant : Advanced Freedom in the Galaxy

Here is Charles Duke's amazing labor of love - a complete makeover for this venerable game, and I'm happy to make it available. You can send Charles email at 'duke at terra.com.gt' (I've spelled it out to minimize spam harvesting). If anyone has any contact with whoever the current rights holder is (most probably the designers), please let us know so we can contact them about getting the "official" rights.

Here's what Charles has to say about it:

Advanced FREEDOM IN THE GALAXY

I've been playing FITG for twenty years and it still is my favorite. However, as anyone playing the game knows, it has several flaws that detract from its greatness. One of the major problems is that the Rebel has a lot of fun, but always loses. Throughout the years I've been tinkering with the rules, but what I always really wanted was to change many fundamental aspects, while keeping the basic flavor of the game. Advanced FITG is the result of this effort.

Read the rules carefully, as virtually every rule has been revised, tweaked, and polished. If you can't find some game procedure that you remember, it probably isn't there anymore!

Here are the major changes:

New mapboard: Those circles were dizzying to say the least, and not very functional during play. I hope you like it, it represents hours of work pixel-by-pixel. If you want to print it (my permission for personal use is granted) I recommend a professional printer to tweak color tones and edit rough areas. That's what I did and it came out pretty cool. (Note: The rules are written assuming that you will use the original mapboard. A readme file included with the new mapboards explains the differences when using them).

Military units: I always hated the double function of units, I felt that they were all predominantly space or predominantly environs, and that their non-predominant half usually went to waste. Also, combat tends to be stagnant. Now there are separate starships and ground units (the overall attack strength of starships is roughly the sum of the space combat ratings of units in the original game, while that of ground units is roughly the sum of the environs combat ratings). The combat system is entirely different and to me at least it's a lot of fun. I mean, you sweat every battle. Also, results are open. Theoretically at least, a corvette could destroy a dreadnought... If you ever see that happen, drop me a line!

Dice rolls resolve missions, and the action events are not tied to the letter results (this avoids some infamous associations like the "Enemy spy aborts" with the "D" in wild environs).

The way planets change political states has been refined.

Some planet secrets have been modified.

The background story has been rewritten, both to address inconsistencies and (inevitably) to reflect my own prejudices in science fiction. And I don't mean only the appendix, but also anything that is part of the "saga", like character motives and planet secrets, has been integrated.

There are many other details that can't be summarized here.

I claim copyright over all these materials. Permission is granted to print them for your personal, non-profit use.

This is still a work in progress. Any questions, comments, criticisms, ideas, etc. are welcome at duke at terra.com.gt.
Charles Duke

Here are the original zip files from Charles. They are mostly Microsoft Word files, along with a couple of pictures. My next project is to HTML-ize them and post the results here.

Mapboards.zip (Updated Aug. 24, 2002)
PlayerAids.zip (Updated Aug. 24, 2002)
Rules.zip (Updated Aug. 24, 2002)

The Reuter Variant : Freedom in the Galaxy 2.0

This is Uwe A. Reuter variant of Freedom in the Galaxy. It isn't quite as polished as Charles' effort, but is also a little less work to use. He's gone over all parts of the game and worked out the kinks that he's seen in the framework, while leaving the basics alone, making for an easy transition. Here's Uwe's introduction:

FREEDOM IN THE GALAXY 2.0
Except playing the game for only maybe 15 years and working on my variant for just three years, my first paragraph would not read a lot different from Charles' initial assessment. The game is great, it has some flaws, the Rebels always lose, I wanted to do an overhaul, and so here I am.
But that is where the similarities end.
I came to hear about Charles' variant roughly a year after I published mine on http://www.grognard.com and was very pleased to see that it was radically different from mine. Chances are that whoever liked to have FITG to be redone, but is not satisfied with one of our versions may find what he is looking for in the other one.
Charles has a head start on me when it comes to how far his work has progressed. He has already merged his amendments with the original rules, made a new map, galactic guide and counters. All I have yet finished are my amendments to the rules.
Nevertheless, my variant is ready to be played. In contrast to Charles, I did not want to change fundamental aspects of the game and was content with just fixing bugs. My variant uses the same counter-mix as the original game (give or take a counter or two), there are new Mission chits and Event cards, but all provided in an appendix and the only thing inconvenient is that my amendments still refer back to the original rules. Currently I am in the process of merging these with the original rules to present one unified code of rules for my version too, but this will take some time.
So what are now the major changes of my rules:

Of course a fix for why the Rebels virtually never could get a Planet into Rebel Control. Actually Nick Palmer’s fix.

A fix to the Russian Roulette Syndrome. No more will a game suddenly go ugly midway through the game for the Rebel Player just because the dice rolled badly during his turn and he lost 10%+ of his characters in one funny set of rolls. All this is done by strict application of Cinematic Logics.

Caps on all random events, which could swing the game one way or the other just because Lady Luck smiled that way (or the other again). No Civil War messes up your crucial Start Rebellion right now, neither Hyperstate Dimension in a State Flux paralyzing the Empire or the IPOC ending up on Kelta again. All done without removing any of these features.

A reworked set of Mission Chits, by not grouping Mission Letters and Events in a way that makes you swear all time. No more D + Enemy Agent aborts mission, and no loss of your entire 12 bonus draws for that A mission just because some card says so. Again and again and again!

Ways for the Rebel Player to slowly gather a guerrilla army, dodging the Strategic Assignment by means of a Rebel Supply Network. The Imperial Juggernaut may still wipe out your local Rebels and you may not be in position to reveal your base yet. But nevertheless you can harass the Empire on an increasing scale.

A couple of new Imperial gadgets plus ways to get around the Strategic Assignment to trouble Rebel Characters. Of course, it is limited (the S.A. is still the most important boon to the Rebel Player), but at least your bad guys get a chance to occasionally meet a Rebel in person.

Reworked missions, especially Gather Information, adding an entire world of intrigue and deceit. Finally, Imperials get their chance to actually find the Rebel Base if they really go for it and the Rebel Player does not counter in kind.

Completely reworked Galactic Events: Major, Minor, Historic and even Secret Events that can be played from your hand to surprise your opponent. Nothing drastic happens just randomly any more, but those cards will turn up sooner or later (Historic and Secret Events) and have a great impact on the game.

A new set of victory conditions will keep things in balance no matter what. They are a bit unusual, but the basic idea was actually borrowed from World in Flames.

Fixes of all minor glitches I could find.

No more flood this Environ with characters and make the Imperials run tactic

Extensive designer notes, telling you why the rules were changed and the effect desired.

My version is not for the faint of heart. I play things like Advanced Squad Leader, World in Flames and yes, even Freedom in the Galaxy, and if I had to write a couple of pages more to make sure all the checks and balances were in place, it never bothered me much. If you only had a very rough grasp on the original game, you might want to take a look at some tactical hints for beginners I once wrote to help you along.
Also, I claim copyright over all my materials. Permission is granted to print them for your personal, non-profit use. This is still a work in progress (I swear, I am on that merger right now) so please bear with me if it is still nothing more than amendments. Any questions, comments, criticisms, ideas, etc. are welcome at uweareuter at hotmail dot com or at consimworld’s discussion board for FITG (link provided by Jonathan below).
12/12/2002: The promised merger of Uwe’s version is - though not near as I was told - at least on its way. To get a brief impression, I was able to catch a glimpse of the drawing board. It is all far from a finished draft, but take a look to get an impression how Uwe thinks movement and transport in FITG should be presented to the Players.

And here is Uwe's version:
Freedom in the Galaxy 2.0 Sneak Preview - updated Tuesday, July 1 2003
Freedom in the Galaxy Reuter variant

New Imperial Character: Ekim Lam by Uwe A. Reuter, December 2003

Ekim Lam is arguably one of the best information brokers of the Yester race if not the entire galaxy. His seemingly endless stock of information as well as his considerable investigative skills are in high demand by rich mercantile houses, Imperial services and almost all of the galaxy’s underworld alike. In his past Lam has worked as a private investigator, procurator, information broker, thief, journalist, free-lance writer and even as a mercenary and bounty hunter on two occasions for almost every major corporation or institution of the galaxy. It is not that Ekim Lam opposes the Rebels or particularly dislikes them. Actually, who knows - he might one day also work for them … once they can afford his services that is. Till then he prefers to work for those who can meet his outrageous price and for the moment, it is the Empire. Imperial officials on their part are very well aware of the shifty nature of the cunning Yester. Ekim Lam has been decried as a security risk by conservative circles on several occasions time and again, but the protecting hand of a certain even more shifty Imperial Saurian and his stern backing by Redjac have saved Lam from any serious repercussions till now. But it will only last like that for as long as he is useful to the Empire. Unsurprisingly, Ekim Lam of cause is very well aware of that fact on his part.

Read here the story behind the story of Ekim Lam: REAL story of Ekim Lam