Editing Forgotten Futures (section)

==Game system==
[[Image:ffutures.jpg|150px|right|thumb|Image by [[Stanley L. Wood]] often used in ''Forgotten Futures'' advertising]]
The base system uses three characteristics (Body, Mind, and Soul) and a range of skills; points are used to purchase characteristics and skills based on one or more of the characteristics. Skills and characteristics are used by opposing them to a target (such as a difficulty number, an opponent's skill or characteristics, etc.) using a 2D6 dice roll. Subsequent revisions to the rules add options including a Magic characteristic, melodramatic character traits, and other complications, but the core system remains unchanged.

Rowland is believed to have pioneered the concept of [[shareware]] tabletop role-playing games with this system,{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} although there were earlier shareware computer games with role-playing elements. Users can download the rules from his web site, buy a subscription that entitles them to Forgotten Futures CDs, or buy a copy of the published version of this game. The CDs are also good sources for science fiction books and other period material whose copyright has expired. A proportion of his income from the game is donated to cancer research charities.

Currently several versions of the rules are on line (complete and summary versions in HTML and PDF, and a German translation in PDF), along with a sample adventure set in a Victorian [[Channel Tunnel]], plus eleven game collections (source material plus background [[worldbook]], [[adventures]], etc.), with an expanding collection of additional resources on line and on the CD-ROM. The rules and sample adventure have twice been published in print; in brief form as a booklet given away with ''[[Arcane Magazine]]'' in 1997, and at full length by [[Heliograph Inc.]] in 1999.

In May 2016 Rowland announced that due to delays in the next release and changes in European tax law he would end shareware distribution of the game. Instead he intends to put all of the existing material on line, including the full contents of the CD, with a tip jar for voluntary contributions, and hopes to add more material. Users with current shareware registrations were offered a partial refund or the option to donate it to Cancer Research UK.<ref name="Forgotten Futures Shareware Registration Ending">{{cite web|last1=Rowland|first1=Marcus|title=Forgotten Futures Shareware Registration Ending|url=http://ffutures-news.insanejournal.com/2016/05/09/|website=Forgotten Futures News|access-date=13 May 2016}}</ref>