Forbidden Lands: dice & strategy guide

Forbidden Lands, by Free League, is a “raiders and rogues in a cursed world” sandbox — a hex-crawling game of exploration, survival and reclaiming ruined places. It runs on the Year Zero Engine, a dice-pool system shared with Free League’s Alien, Mutant and Coriolis games, and tuned here for grit and consequence.

The dice and the core mechanic

Everything uses six-sided dice. When you attempt something risky, you build a pool from three coloured sources:

• Base dice (attribute) — your raw capability, from the relevant attribute: Strength, Agility, Wits or Empathy.
• Skill dice — extra dice equal to your rank in the skill you are using.
• Gear dice — extra dice for the quality of the weapon, tool or item helping you.

You roll them all together and look for one thing: every 6 is a success. A single 6 usually means you succeed; extra 6s make the success better (more damage, more range, a cleaner result). The other faces do nothing on their own — until you decide to push.

How a roll resolves

Roll the whole pool. Count the sixes: one or more and you succeed, none and you fail. Then you face the engine’s signature choice.

Pushing a roll. If you don’t get the result you want, you may push the roll: re-roll every die that isn’t already a 6 (and isn’t a 1 you want to keep), giving yourself a fresh shot at more sixes. The cost is harsh and immediate — after a push, each 1 showing on a base die inflicts damage to the matching attribute, and each 1 on a gear die degrades that gear. You generally push a given roll only once. It is a genuine risk-reward lever: a second chance bought with your own resilience and kit.

Attributes as health. Because damage lands on your four attributes, pushing doesn’t just cost an abstract point — it lowers the very dice you roll next time and can leave you broken in body, agility, wits or spirit. Rest, food and safety restore them, tying the dice directly to the survival loop.

Effective strategy

Build the biggest honest pool you can. Skill rank and good gear add dice that carry no push cost. Investing in your core skills and maintaining quality equipment raises your success odds without ever risking the 1s, so you push less often.

Push when it counts — and know the tax. Pushing roughly doubles your shot at a success, but every 1 that lands hurts. Push freely on low-stakes rolls where a little attribute damage is survivable; think twice when your attributes are already low or your gear is precious and hard to replace.

Mind your gear like a lifeline. Gear dice both help you and, on a push, wear down. Carry spares, repair when you can, and don’t push your only sword to breaking point far from a smith.

Play the survival game. Forbidden Lands is about the journey: rations, water, cold, light and rest are real mechanics. A party that manages its resources keeps its attributes high, which keeps its dice pools fat — the exploration and the maths reinforce each other.

Because a test is just a fistful of d6 read for sixes, you can roll a pool of d6 in your browser and count the successes at a glance.

Beginner tips & common mistakes

• Only sixes matter. You are counting 6s for success, not adding the dice together.
• Pushing is a real gamble. The re-roll is powerful, but every 1 on a base or gear die after a push costs you attribute damage or broken kit.
• Skill and gear dice are “free” successes. They add to the pool without adding push risk — build them up.
• Attributes are your health. Push too often and you break; manage rest, food and recovery.
• Track your gear’s condition. Worn gear rolls fewer dice; a broken weapon in the wild is a crisis, so repair and carry backups.

Prefer a d20 take on Free League’s pushed rolls? Read our Dragonbane dice & strategy guide.