One of the most common questions I get about FREAKS is “Why did you make X work this way?” Today I thought I’d share some of the key design decisions that shape how the game plays and why we made those choices.
The 1980s Setting: More Than Just Nostalgia
Setting FREAKS in the late 1980s wasn’t just about tapping into nostalgia (though let’s be honest, that’s part of it). The period offers something crucial for superhero gaming: plausible secrecy. In 1989, there’s no internet, no social media, no smartphones with cameras. Government conspiracies feel believable because information really was controlled by those in power. A teenager with superpowers could actually keep it secret, and that tension between hiding and wanting to use your abilities drives great stories.
The Cold War backdrop also provides natural antagonists and moral complexity. Are the government agents trying to recruit you the good guys protecting democracy, or are they just another form of control? When your setting includes both the CIA and the KGB actively recruiting parahumans, players never quite know who to trust.
Building on Tricube Tales: Fast and Narrative
We chose Richard Woolcock’s Tricube Tales system because it gets out of the way of the story. After nearly thirty years of gaming, I’ve learned that the best superhero moments happen when you’re not counting movement rates or calculating damage modifiers. Tricube Tales keeps the focus on “what happens next” rather than “what’s my bonus.”
The success-counting mechanic works perfectly for superpowers too. When you roll three dice for using your telekinesis, you’re not just succeeding or failing—you’re determining how spectacular or subtle your success is. One success might quietly move an object, while three successes could dramatically reshape the entire scene.
The Six-Year Window: Background That Shapes the World
The cosmic cycle that creates parahumans—Earth passing through an unknown energy field every fifty years for six years at a time—serves multiple purposes as a setting element. First, it explains why there aren’t millions of superpowered people running around. The abilities only manifest during these transit periods, creating distinct generations of parahumans separated by decades.
This limitation also grounds the fantastic elements in consequence. Governments can’t just breed superhuman armies because the abilities don’t pass to children—the cosmic energy required for stable parahuman genetics simply isn’t present outside the transit windows. The rarity of parahumans makes each character special without making them the center of the universe.
Most importantly, this background detail gives the setting its structure and helps explain the secret history that shapes the world characters inhabit, even if they never learn about the cosmic cycle themselves.
Teenage Focus: Powers Plus Problems
FREAKS deliberately focuses on teenage characters because that’s when the intersection of power and responsibility becomes most interesting. Teenagers are already dealing with identity, belonging, and figuring out their place in the world. Adding superpowers amplifies all of those challenges rather than solving them.
The game works because it acknowledges that having amazing abilities doesn’t make you mature enough to handle them perfectly. Some of the best FREAKS moments come from characters making well-intentioned mistakes with world-changing consequences—which is exactly what real teenagers do, just usually with less property damage.
These design choices work together to create stories that feel both epic and personal, fantastic and grounded. That’s the sweet spot we were aiming for, and based on the play sessions we’ve run, I think we hit it.
What design choices in your favorite games make them work? Let me know in the comments!