FU: Freeform Universal RPG

FU: the Freeform Universal RPG is a lightweight, super-flexible, super-fun roleplaying game that puts your characters at the centre of the action. It is a roleplaying game of action, adventure and fun! FU lets you quickly create characters, settings and situations with a minimum of fuss, or even preparation.

The core of FU comes down to this:

• Characters are described with evocative descriptors – no “stats” or other numbers!

• Only players roll dice, letting the Game Master focus on guiding an awesome story

• Conflicts and obstacles are approached with closed questions – “Can I leap the chasm?” “Do I disarm my opponent?”

• The dice answer your question with some combination of YES / NO / AND / BUT which you use to drive the story forward

A community of players and creators

Downloaded more than 10,000 times since 2010, FU has gathered an enthusiastic community of players, “hackers” and publishers who have embraced the streamlined system that puts the focus on story, action and entertainment.

The classic FU rules are released under a creative commons attribution license. This is a very flexible license that allows you to copy, remix, edit and create awesome stuff based on FU

Articles & Advice

What’s in a Name? (Or Why It’s Called FU)

So, this comes up a lot. It was never my intention to be provocative, contentious, or just damn rude. In fact I always have and always will call my little game “foo”. It never entered my mind that “F – U” might mean something else until after I had shared it. I guess...

Dice and System Matters

I have been giving some thought to the dice mechanism in FU lately. A lot of thought. In fact, I have been chasing myself in circles thinking about how actions are resolved, what is important and why. I decided I would write this post so that; I could clarify for...

Weapons & Armour & Hit Points (Oh my!)

This is a set of optional, untested, experimental rules to introduce a more traditional damage system to FU. This is quite a departure from the standard FU rules, as it is more prescriptive in how things work, and has a list of tags that should be used in...
Image of a pencil, scissors and coffee cup on blue background

Setting Stakes in FU

I had a great conversation with Christoffer over on the FU Facebook page about setting stakes in your games of FU. At the core of the discussion was how do we ensure that our games don’t grind to a halt when a player rolls a “no” results.Up until now the process I...
FU beta cover

2nd Edition Beta Rules

Click the image to download a copy of the FU 2nd Edition Beta rules. These are quite rough and the game will probably look very different when finished, but try them out and send me feedback!